RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER – mid-season speculative recap ⁓

Jessie (Kylie Fisher), comes home for dinner and stumbles into two new family situations. Her mother Charlene (Khadija Heeger) has a new acquaintance named Craig (Raffaele Sabatini), and her sister Bronwyn (Kelly Damon) is involved to some unspecified degree with Sarah (Donnay Arendse). Bromwyn and Sarah cooked dinner for the family before Jessie got home from work, and calls Craig ‘Uncle’. Sarah might be what Brownwyn wanted to talk to her sister about in Episode 2.2, when Jessie was too busy to listen.

The Snyman brothers, Regardt (Arno Greeff) and Jayco (Wynand Ferreira) are having trouble getting along. Jayco has a conversation with Jessie that shows that they knew each other well before Jayco left town, and before her romantic involvement with his brother. Jayco works part-time for Ricus (Gérard Rudolf), who deals a little weed on the side and doesn’t want that part of his business to go public.

Jayco arranges for two of his friends to rob Ricus at gunpoint but the robbery goes wrong because Tannie Maria (Maria Doyle Kennedy) is unexpectedly cooking dinner with Ricus at his place because Aileen (Robyn Scott) has commandeered Maria’s kitchen to get Maria out of her house so she can search for Maria’s mother’s will. Aileen’s husband has told her that the exact date on that document is very important. Aileen finds the will and photographs it. Jayco pretends to apprehend his friends the armed robbers, and Maria must now keep yet another secret: Ricus’ weed-growing sideline. The robbery interrupts what would certainly have been Ricus and Maria’s first kiss.

The reason Maria needed to cook dinner that night was another anonymous letter, this one from Lucille (Loren Loubser). “My fiance, or rather my ex, left me when i told hm I was pregnant. I think he’s gone to work in Joburg,” Lucille wrote. “My friends don’t call so much since I stopped going out for a jol. And the looks I get at church? But my pastor…really listens to everyone’s problems, not just mine. He’s respected by many. Even religious and elders from other churches get his advice. I think I could handle the loneliness if it weren’t for the weird cravings. Normally, when life is hard I eat my feelings.but now I find I want to eat crayons or soap or candles.”

It is clearly the local Catholic priest of whom she speaks and one wonders if she is telling Tannie Maria everything, because we also learn that Georgie (Kazi Khuboni), wife of the recently deceased Frank was also seeking comfort from Father Cedric (Beer Adriaanse), and visited him on the day of the fire that killed her husband, who was an Adventist church leader, and might have gone to Father Cedric for advice.

Determined to rob someone, Jayco climbs into the local mortuary, which is run by Jackie (Hlubi Mboya). He cuts his arm on the window frame while entering, and this might become important later. Jackie pulls a firearm from her purse, and almost surprises Jayco, but he leaves without being seen.

Describing herself as a ‘recovering Protestant’, Tannie Maria visits Father Cedric to verify Georgie’s whereabouts at the time Frank died, and the priest confirms Georgie’s alibi. Maria stays at the church to read a letter from her father that she found among her old papers. “Muffin,” he writes, “I feel dreadful for shipping you and Mum off to the old country, away from your home, but with me on the road trying to write this beautiful, volatile country away from the abyss, while the government does their best to silence me, I thought sunny old Scotland would be a safer place for you two.” He invites her to visit him in Capetown, and continues “Ask your mother to phone me after she gives you this letter.” It might be that Maria’s mother never showed her that letter.

One of the three mayoral candidates, Marius Rabie (Grant Swanby), who is also the lawyer for Aileen and Gordon in their quest to establish half-ownership of Tannie Maria’s property, is blindsided by the dramatic revelation that his gardener Thando (Khojane Morai) was caught on film carrying cans of gasoline near where the fires started shortly before they began. Jessie, who is responsible for the reveal, also notes that two of the destroyed properties belonged to Mr Rabie, and that he was prevented from redeveloping them because they were designated historical sites. Later, Rabie gets very drunk. As he staggers toward his car, Tannie Elna (Martelize Kolver) tries to intervene and offers to drive him home. He rejects her help, and drives off alone.

Piet (Elton Landrew) phones Khaya (Tony Kgoroge) and tells him: “Boss, you remember that app? I was looking to see if Georgie had a profile. She didn’t, but someone else did. You will wanna see this.” When Khaya gets to his truck, he finds the tires slashed.

To satisfy Lucille’s cravings, Tannie Maria prepares Five Flavour Salad. Maria also prepares Grilled Snoek with Apricot Basting, her father’s favourite dish. (Snoek rhymes with poke, and has a mild, sweet and nutty taste.)

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RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER can be streamed on Acorn TV, and is also available on DVD.

Sally Andrew has published her first cookbook, RECIPES TO DIE LIVE FOR, which features recipes from each of the Tannie Maria Mysteries.