No Time To Diet: the menu for the Daniel Craig Bond movie marathon

Bond food expert Edward Biddulph has created the mouthwatering menu for this year’s fundraising marathon. There’s a dish representing every one of the Daniel Craig Bond films. Here are the five recipes…

In the last two years, the Licence to Queer community has over £5,000 for charity. This year we’re raising money to support the vital work of a charity whose mission is close to our hearts: PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide.

The centrepiece of the year-long fundraiser is an epic watchalong, on Sunday 26 May 2024, of all five Daniel Craig Bond films, back to back with only short breaks for drinks, costume changes and bites to eat. You can find out everything you need to know at our dedicated website.

To accompany each film, Edward Biddulph has created a menu with a course for each of the five films. The full recipes are below.

CASINO ROYALE

‘Skewered’

The train ride to Montenegro provides an opportunity for James Bond and Vesper Lynd to get the measure of each other. A woman whose insecurities about her looks and brains make her seem prickly among her female colleagues and arrogant among her male colleagues, is Bond’s assessment. A charming, but maladjusted SAS-type, with an easy smile and a love-and-leave-them approach to women, is Lynd’s. Both have had a grilling, and so, it seems, has Bond’s meal. ‘How was your lamb?’ Lynd asks. ‘Skewered,’ Bond replies.

Makes 3-4 kebabs

001.                 600g diced lamb

002.                 1 large red pepper, deseeded and diced

003.                 1 onion, peeled and halved, then chopped into quarters

004.                 1 tsp finely chopped marjoram

005.                 2 tbsp white wine vinegar

006.                 2 tbsp lemon juice

007.                 2 tbsp olive oil

008.                 Generous pinch of black pepper

009.                 Pinch salt

Place the lamb, red pepper, onion (separating each layer), marjoram, vinegar, lemon juice, oil, black pepper and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix the ingredients well. Cover the bowl or put the mixture into a large food bag and refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight.

To make the kebabs, thread skewers alternately with lamb, red pepper and onion pieces. Place the kebabs under a hot grill or on a barbecue for approximately 15 minutes, turning occasionally.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE

‘That’s why I eat the peppers’

Photo copyright Licence to Queer

While James Bond may not often have time to sit down to a meal in the film series, food does crop up with surprising frequency. Take Quantum of Solace. Following his exposure of Quantum members during the performance of Tosca, Bond crashes through the opera house’s busy kitchen, causing food to fly. And, outside the Bolivian bar where Bond meets Felix Leiter, there’s a list of items painted on the wall. Three are shown: arvejas (peas), porotos (cranberry or borlotti beans) and lentejas (lentils).

Here is a dish using one of the items, porotos. I’ve prepared a sort of tapas dish, inspired by Bolivian recipes, that would go well with some rice or crusty bread and a bottle of cold Cervecita-like beer.

Serves 2

001.                 1 tbsp olive oil

002.                 1 medium (c. 100g) red onion, peeled and chopped

003.                 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

004.                 1 large tomato, deseeded and chopped

005.                 1 (400g) tin borlotti beans (c. 235g drained)

006.                 1 tbsp finely chopped oregano (ideally fresh)

007.                 ½ tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)

008.                 ½ ground cumin

009.                 Pinch salt

0010.               100ml water or vegetable stock

0011.               Chilli flakes to garnish

In a saucepan, deep frying pan or flame-proof casserole, heat the oil, add the onion and vinegar and cook the onion over a medium heat for approx. 5 minutes or until the onion has softened. Spoon the onion into a bowl, then add the tomato to the pan. Cook for about a minute, stirring frequently, then cover the pan and, over a low heat, allow the tomato to continue cooking for another 5 minutes, by which time the tomato should have reduced to a paste.

Return the onion to the pan and add the oregano, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt. Mix well, then add the beans and stir. Pour in the water or stock, stir again, then cover the pan. Allow the mixture to cook gently for approx. 10 minutes (if necessary, turning up the heat slightly to ensure that the mixture is bubbling). At the end of the cooking time, the liquid should have been absorbed and mixture have become thick and gooey.

Transfer the mixture to individual tapas-style dishes and sprinkle the chilli flakes over the top.

SKYFALL

‘So, what’s the toast?’

Camembert favoured with whisky and topped with sticky nuts. This dish honours James Bond’s Scottish heritage, his fondness for cheese, and, well, you can make up the rest. In Skyfall, Raoul Silva identifies fifty-year-old Macallan as a particular favourite of Bond’s. As revealed in the novel of Live and Let Die, the literary Bond was keen on Camembert, and was pleasantly surprised by the domestic variety he was served in New York. Bond’s opinion about nuts is unrecorded, but I can’t see him not approving of the recipe below, which provides a quick fondue and is wonderfully moreish. 

Serves 2-4

001.                 1 camembert (250g)

002.                 3 tsp whisky

003.                 3 tsp finely crushed or ground mixed nuts

004.                 1 tsp herbes de Provence

005.                 Freshly ground black pepper

006.                 Drizzle of golden syrup

Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan-assisted). Either keeping it in its container or transferring it to an oven-proof dish, score a lattice pattern across the top of the camembert. Sprinkle the whisky over the top, then cover the surface with the nuts. Grind some black pepper over the cheese, then the herbes de Provence. Finally, drizzle some golden syrup across the top. Place the cheese on a baking tray and bake it in the oven for 25 minutes. While it’s cooking, cut some toast or crusty bread into chunks ready for dipping.

SPECTRE

‘Cut out the middleman’

James Bond’s not impressed by the prolytic digestive enzyme shake that the barman serves him at the Hoffler Klinik in Spectre. “Do me a favour, will you?” he asks the barman. “Throw that down the toilet and cut out the middleman.” Having had such delights as potassium broth and dandelion tea at Shrublands health farm, Bond’s evidently learnt his lesson.

Still, while its muddy green colour doesn’t entirely appeal, the shake’s no doubt full of good, healthy stuff, and worth a try. The recipe includes spinach and kiwis, which are apparently rich in digestive enzymes and would explain the colour of Bond’s drink. The result isn’t exactly a taste sensation, but one feels it’s at least doing one some good.

Serves 2-3

001.                 3 kiwis

002.                 1 stick celery

003.                 Handful baby spinach leaves

004.                 Juice from ½ lemon

005.                 400ml water

Peel and chop the kiwis and finely chop the celery stick. Put both in a blender. Add the spinach leaves, lemon juice and water. Blend the ingredients to create a thick, smooth, liquid. Pour into glasses and serve.

NO TIME TO DIE

‘Not bad’ pancakes

No Time To Die shows James Bond doing something we haven’t seen him do since 1985’s A View To A Kill: cook some food, in this case French-style pancakes or crêpes. Well, we don’t actually see Bond cook the pancakes, but from an open packet of butter on the breakfast table and a brief exchange about the food between him and Madeleine Swann’s daughter, Mathilde, at Swann’s lakeside house in Norway (“pas mal” is Mathilde’s verdict on the pancakes), the implication is clear. That’s not the end of Bond culinary talents either: we also see him peel an apple.

To make crêpes yourself, you can’t go far wrong with the basic batter recipe below, adapted from classic French recipes.

Serves 2

001.                 60g plain flour

002.                 Pinch salt

003.                 1 egg

004.                 1 egg yolk

005.                 140ml milk

006.                 1 tbsp melted butter

007.                 Butter for cooking

008.                 Lemon and icing sugar (optional)

Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and salt and mix until the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour in some of the milk and mix well. Add the melted butter and some more milk and continue to mix. Pour in the rest of the milk and whisk until you have a smooth batter. Allow the batter to rest for about two hours in the refrigerator.

To cook the pancakes, melt a tiny piece of butter in a small frying pan over a medium heat. Use a brush to coat the cooking surface with the butter. Ladle enough batter into the pan to cover the cooking surface very thinly, swirling the pan around to ensure an even spread. Allow the bottom of the pancake to cook for 30 seconds or so. When the top of the pancake looks dry and bubbles have started to form, flip the pancake over with a spatula or palette knife (or toss if you wish). Allow the other side to cook for another 20-30 seconds. If necessary, lift the edge of the pancake with a knife to check that the side is cooked. Slide the pancake onto a serving plate and cover with foil to keep it warm.

Repeat the process until all the batter has been used up. There should be enough batter for four or five pancakes, depending on the size of your frying pan. As the pan continues to heat up, the cooking time reduces; the last couple of pancakes will cook very rapidly.

Flavour the pancakes in any way you wish, but I like to go with the tried and tested, sprinkling the pancakes with lemon juice and icing sugar.

Find out more about Edward and his work at his website.

All recipes and photos, unless otherwise stated, his copyright.