Welcome our guest, author Maya Corrigan!

Maya (Mary Ann) Corrigan lives in Virginia, an easy drive from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the setting for her Five-Ingredient Mysteries: By Cook or by Crook, Scam Chowder, Final Fondue, and the upcoming mystery, The Tell-Tale Tarte. The series features café manager Val Deniston, who solves murders with her live-wire grandfather in a historic Chesapeake Bay town. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad's five-ingredient recipes. Visit Maya’s website, mayacorrigan.com, for trivia and quizzes about classic mysteries. She loves hearing from readers.

Take it away, Maya...Mary Ann!

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Thank you, Daryl, for hosting me again on Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen, my favorite site for great recipes and news about mysteries in which food plays a role. I’m excited to tell your readers about the latest book in my Five-Ingredient Mystery series, The Tell-Tale Tarte, coming out on June 27th.

The book’s title derives from a story about a murder, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” written by the father of the detective story, Edgar Allan Poe. As a Poe fan, I thoroughly enjoyed incorporating his life and writing into the plot of a current-day mystery. The victim and suspects in my mystery include people whose lives Poe has influenced: an actor, a scholar, and a writer. My sleuth Val fears for her grandfather’s life when an actor famed for his Poe one-man show is murdered while dressed like Granddad. She soon learns the actor isn’t the only one doing an impersonation. The search for his murderer takes Val to the home of a Poe-inspired author, Rick Usher. When she and Granddad are stranded at the "House of Usher" by an ice storm, they uncover clues to the murder, but will they live to tell the tale? 

A crucial turning point in the story occurs when Val serves a French dessert, tarte Tatin, during a book club dinner party. Mystery Lovers Kitchen already has recipes for that dessert and similar apple tarts, so instead of a dessert recipe, I’m sharing a main dish recipe, a variation on Granddad’s Scrumptious Shrimp, which appeared in Final Fondue. At the Malice Domestic convention this year, a reader told me she and her husband loved that quick recipe. Though it calls for fresh shrimp, she used frozen shrimp and said it turned out great.  

Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

1 pound of large shrimp, shelled and with veins removed

2 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup white wine [optional]

2 large cloves of garlic, chopped fine

1 14.5-ounce can of diced tomatoes

3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled into small pieces

Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until it is hot, but not smoking. Add the shrimp and garlic to the pan. Cook until the shrimp are opaque (about a minute), stirring them in the pan. Remove the shrimp from the pan. Deglaze it with the wine if you are using it.

Add the tomatoes with juices. If you haven’t deglazed the pan with wine, stir to loosen any bits in the bottom. Cook at medium high until the liquid is reduced by a third. Add the shrimp and feta, turn the heat to low, and simmer until the shrimp are cooked through (around 3 minutes, longer for jumbo shrimp).

Serve the shrimp with crusty bread to sop up the sauce.

Serves 3-4 as a main course.

GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of The Tell-Tale Tart. A U.S. winner will receive a signed paperback. An international winner will get an e-book for a Kindle or Nook. To enter, comment below about your favorite tart or pie and include your email address for notification if you win. Good luck!

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