When I’m not reading for work, I’m usually juggling a couple of spy novels for fun. Have you read Alma Katsu’s “Fervor”? It's diabolically good!  

So this Foodie Fiction comes from a thriller writer who was also such an accomplished cook that he published clever how-to recipes of his favorite dishes. 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to guess the writer and the recipe. Here it goes.

I discovered this writer after I read everything that John LeCarre had written and I found that this spymaster could go toe to toe with the genius of LeCarre.  

This writer held a rather dark view of the intelligence agencies and his spies often felt caught between their own moral compasses and orders from their masters. 

This writer learned to do some of the daring things his characters do, including piloting a helicopter and learning deep sea diving. He thought his readers demanded that kind of authenticity.

And this writer loved food. He would slip cooking scenes into his novels. He got tired of messing up his cookbooks, so he drew out illustrated recipes of his favorite dishes.  Here’s one of them:

To conjure up the seasoned sauce for one version of this spicy and tender meat dish, grind cumin, coriander, paprika and oil. Rub the mixture over the meat and while it cooks, blend salt, yogurt, lemon juice and mint together for a delicious cooling dipping sauce.

The other version of this meat dish requires a bed of rosemary leaves and large curved hunks of onion. Once you’ve settled the meat for cooking, slice delicate pockets into the side of the meat and slip garlic cloves into those slices. Cook for three hours.

Okay, can you guess who this bon vivant thriller writer is? And can you guess the dish he loved so much that he illustrated the recipe?

When you know, Tweet me at KerriMPR . Or find the answer in next week’s Thread newsletter.

— Kerri Miller | MPR News