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Category: 1970’s recipes

25
Jun
2023

The Italian Cuisine I Love Redux

categories: 1970's recipes, Anchovies, Bread, Italy, Pasta

Buongiorno Amici! Today we are taking another look at The Italian Cuisine I Love by Jules J Bond. We last looked at this book all the way back in 2012 where I developed quite a crush on the author…Bond…Jules J Bond. And who wouldn’t crush on this bon vivant and possible spy! I spent quite a while with Jules J last time and his tuna stuffed tomatoes are still a favourite summer lunch for me! Today, however, will be a flying visit, albeit a delizioso one!

The introduction to The Italian Cuisine I Love says

Italy is a country where the joy of eating is one of the many joys of life”

And today, wherever in the world we find ourselves, we will be trying to capture some of la dolce vita with some fried anchovy bread and Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce. Sorry carb phobes, this one is not for you!

Fried Anchovy Bread

Bear with me for uno momento haters of anchovies……just take a moment to look at this…

Yes, I thought that might change your mind. But if you really, really hate anchovies, leave them out. Add some salami or prosciutto or olives just have it with the cheese! If you also don’t like cheese, then I have nothing for you.

Now that’s the Italian Cuisine I Love!

Fried Anchovy Bread – The Recipe

As delicious as the anchovy bread was, it was just the begining!

Spaghetti In Garlic Sauce

As the fried anchovy bread was quite rich, I thought I would keep the second course quite light. I wanted to have pasta because last time I didn’t make any of the pasta dishes. I chose a Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce. This is a version of a Spaghetti Aglio e Olio and was super yummy!

Spaghetti In Garlic Sauce Recipe

It was so nice to step back into the worldof The Italian Cuisine I Love. I now own a few more in the Cuisines I Love series so hopefully it will not be another eleven years before we step back into the world of Jules J Bond!

31
May
2023

Food For Lovers Redux

categories: Devilled Eggs, Food For Lovers, Prunes, Rice, Salad, Soup

Hello friends, and welcome to a special series I will be running over the next 12 months. A while ago, I realised I had totally missed the 10th birthday of this blog. In fact, I was thinking about how to celebrate this and wanted to check the exact date of the first post which I thought was in 2013. Nope. It was 17 May 2012! There didn’t seem much point in celebrating eleven years but twelve sounds impressive. So in the 12 months leading up to my 12th birthday I will be featuring one of the old books I blogged about in the early years. Those old posts are mostly dire but the books are quirky and fun or just plain good. Sometimes all three. To get this party started I am revisiting one of the most bonkers books I own – Kelly Brodsky’s Food for Lovers from 1971.

Food For Lovers – The Book

Food for Lovers is broken into 15 chapters, each of which is devoted to a particular type of man and the food that their beloved should cook to keep them interested. As the old adage goes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach! This may make it sound like this is a very conservative, conventional cookbook – the type of book you might have seen in the 1950’s on how to please your husband. But this my friends was not the conservative 50s, this was the 1970s and the birth of women’s liberation so the tone is definitely tongue in cheek. At least I hope it is because each of the men mentioned sounds awful (although also somewhat recognisable). To introduce you to the book and its characters I thought it might be fun to do a little speed dating with the gents of Food for Lovers!

Bachelor #1 Come on down!

Freddy Finikin

“Freddys who dislike food are an asexual lot who seem to get a perverse kick from driving the women in their lives to a frenzy in search of something to tempt their appetite…the woman who falls for such a man is either unaware of his finickiness, or trapped, or mad, or maybe she prefers to read in bed”

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Should you find either the picture of Freddy or his blurb attractive, or you are mad, trapped, or prefer to read in bed here is a recipe to keep your Freddy happy!

Zakusi

You’ll notice I have changed the recipe so that rather than filling the egg whites “liberally” with caviar, I have made a more traditional and certainly more economically viable devilled egg. These were AMAZING. So tasty!!!!

Let’s move on to Bachelor #2

If fussy eaters aren’t your style, maybe this likely lad is more your speed!

Joe De Go

A man with the Midas touch, Joe usually has his fingers in many pies. Often in the guise of pop star, P.R, ad-man, disc jockey, TV star or such, he wizzes from one assignment, luncheon or deal to another with a slick show of competence that belies his lingering adolescence. Bright and on the ball he mostly shoes away from anything that smacks of more than superficial know-how, for he hates to be caught out of his depth

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Intrigued by the sound of Joe? Why not tempt his palate with some

Creamed Leek and Potato Soup

This soup was delicious!

Still not found your ideal man? Let’s take a look at Bachelor #3

Champers Chas

With the carefully cultivated air of an educated debauchee and a fascinating, if largely fabricated family history to back it, Champers provides an inexhaustible supply of gossip. Whether on or off the boards, he delights in titillating his ever present audience with spicy, often malicious anecdotes and ribaldry

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Fancy chatting with Chas? Tempt his tastebuds with some

Pistachio Nut Pilau

This was really nice, the rice was light and fluffy and went perfectly with last week’s Chilli Crab!

Still not found the love of your life? Maybe you like your men a little more sleazy and possibly criminal? Bachelor #4 may be more your style!

Professor Repressor

If the name doesn’t say it all, here’s Kelly’s description

Repressor exudes the coldness of a tree frog, his sang-froid masking some Lucifer-like leanings. One kinky chink in his armour is his obsession with the Lolita-type nubiles on his campus – who usually run for their sweet lives when they see the kind of red-hot light they inspire in his eyes. Inevitably, he is forced to turn his attentions to any neglected wives of his colleagues

Kelly Brodsky – Food for Lovers

Ok. We might need a palate cleanser after that so how about some

Watercress and Orange Salad

This was great and just the refreshing hit I needed after writing about the pervy professor! Let’s swiftly move to Bachelor #5!

Gad About Guy

Gad about Guys come in all shapes and sizes with ages and egos to match. They usually hover round fellow Gads with a few of the uninitiated thrown in as audience. “Remember that night in Singapore when we strolled along Bugis Street – and those fantastic little roadside stalls with the delicious Satay? ….”Lord, yes! And will you ever forget that Lamb Solanka in Moscow last winter.”…And on and on it goes, the name dropping, the reminiscences and regurgitations of past splendours”

Kelly Brodsky – Food For Lovers

If the well-travelled man is your bag, why not whip up a lovely breakfast for him with some

Wine and Song Prunes

I LOVED these. I feel so bad that prunes have such a bad rap! This was so delicious. And what a fabulous name! I served mine with a little bit of labneh, some orange zest and some pistachios left over from the pilaf and it made a heavenly breakfast!

And because all good things must come to an end, we come to our lucky last Bachelor…who out there fancies

Jack Snack

He’s strictly a non-event up to his neck in dreary day to day existence, blissfully unaware of anything outside his tight little domain…his every move as predictable as the plainness of his sitting-room with it’s enormous brick veneered fireplace above which some gypsy flamencoes wildy within a heavy gilt frame

Kelly Brodsky – Food For Lovers

I laughed out loud when I read this because growing up, we had possibly that very same flamenco dancer painting on our wall at home! I thought it was incredibly beautiful and have always wanted to learn to flamenco as a result of it!

Now, I have also not made Jack’s Snack, mostly because I quite like my life and don’t fancy being taken down by a premature heart attack any time soon. But should you wish to share your life with this homebody and are not afraid of death by overindulgence, here is the recipe for a Veal Scallopine Sandwich that will melt Jack’s heart whilst simultaneously clogging his arteries!

Okay, food lovers, I hope you have enjoyed my second journey into Food For Lovers…I LOVED revisiting this book!!! And there are so many more delicious-sounding recipes and terrible men in it that we may have to take a third look somewhere down the track!

I have searched online for other books by Kelly Brodsky and Kelly Brodsky herself and have drawn a big flat blank! At the moment there also appear to be no other copies of Food for Lovers for sale so, sadly you cannot share my delight in this book. Kelly, if you are out there, and I hope you are, I hope you read this and know that fifty-two years after the publishing of your book, you have a number one fan in me!

Have a wonderful week friends and please let me know if you make that Veal Scallopini Sandwich! Or any of the other recipes!

02
May
2023

Moors and Christians

categories: 1970's recipes, Cuba, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Great Name, Rice, The Caribbean, World Cooking

I love food that has an evocative/unusual name so as soon as I saw a recipe for something called Moors and Christians in the Caribbean chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972), I knew it was something I wanted to cook.

This dish which is a mix of black beans and rice comes from Cuba and looks back to the time of conflict between the Moors and Christians in Spain. It represents the end of this conflict and how two different cultures can live side by side in harmony. Which is a heartwarming story for a lovely spot of comfort food!

Moors and Christians was a great side dish to a very non-Cuban lamb and potato curry we were having that night for dinner. I could also see myself just eating it with a little pico de gallo-style salad. Or mixed some pulled beef or chicken as a burrito filling!

Moors and Christians – The Recipe

This looks to be a very simple version of Moors and Christians. There are some more elaborate versions on the internet if you want something more fancy!0

I was also fascinated to see that my dish which I cooked without a picture reference was a lot paler than most of the other dishes. I think this might be because I cheated a little bit and used canned black beans.

Travel Aspirations

I am fairly sure that Moors and Christians is the first Cuban-inspired food I have eaten. And reflecting on it reawakened a long-held desire of mine to travel there. I first got the urge after watching The Beuna Vista Social Club many years ago. The music, the dancing, the culture really spoke to me! Now that we can travel again, I guess I better start saving!

Havana here I come!

Have a great week!

26
Feb
2023

Estofado

categories: 1970's recipes, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Meat, North and South America

Hola Amigos! Today I am presenting an Argentinian dish from Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972). Estofado is a stew made with beef, Spanish sausage, wine, and vegetables. And it is soo good! Absolutely delicious. We loved it!

The only drawback with the Estofado was that it takes over 3 hours to cook so it would not usually be an after-work dish. I was prepared though and left the office an hour early the night I planned to make it. The good point about the Estofado is that once you have browned the meat, the sausages, and the onions, you add all the other ingredients and then leave it alone for a couple of hours so you can get on with your work (or your life)! Just don’t stay too close to the kitchen because the aroma of the slow-cooked meat and the wine and herbs is quite distracting!

I quite like to hum a tune while I cook. And during the cooking of the Estofado, I found I was singing “Estofado…” to the tune of “Desperado”. I don’t really know the words to Desperado though so my version went:

“Estofado, why don’t you come to my tummy,

You’re smelling so good I know you’re going to be yummy”

I always remember my blogger pal Jenny’s advice on photographing brown food so I served my Estofado with some butter-roasted cabbage and a Parmesan crisp to try to relieve the browness of it all. I’ll be the first to say that my Estofado was not a pretty dish, this is hearty, warming tasty comfort food! And delicious. I will be making this all through winter!

Also, as with most slow-cooked, braised-type dishes, the Estofado tasted even better the following day.

Estofado Recipe

My short trip to Adelaide was amazing. As well as getting through a lot of work stuff I was also able to fit in a quick visit here, I had a delicious lunch here and had an amazing dinner at Two Pot Screamer! On my second and final day we popped across to the Adelaide market for lunch and a Portuguese tart that was to die for! Whenever I go to Adelaide I am always very impressed by what a great food and wine city it is. I can’t wait to get back there!

Have a great week everyone!

28
Jan
2023

Croquetas de Carne with Peruvian Salsa

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Meat, North and South America, Starters

Hola Amigos! Today we are taking a trip to South America via Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972) for some croquetas de carne from Argentina. And to accompany them we are staying on the same continent but jumping forward in time to 1990 for some Peruvian Salsa. OMG, these were good! I mean not good for you – these are a treat for once-in-a-while. But…for those times when you get a craving for meaty cheesy fried balls with a spicy salsa…these will become your go-to. And once you have tried these croquetas de carne, believe me, those cravings will come far more regularly than before!

Croquetas de Carne

I have made croquettes once before with a ham and egg filling and the method was quite different. In that recipe, you made a fairly thick bechamel and then combined the ham and hard-boiled eggs and some herbs into the bechamel. With this one, you make your meat filling and then the roux/bechamel-type sauce in the same pan as the meat. It was kind of nifty as it meant you only used one pan. And less washing up is something that always makes me happy! 🤗

The croquetas de carne reminded me of our Sri Lankan short eat of Frikkadels which are also crumbed fried meatballs.

Croquetas de Carne – The Recipe

As good as these croquetas are, they did lack a little something-something. The croquetas are very rich; there is meat and cheese and a fried crumb! I felt something was needed to cut through the heaviness of the croquetas. Now, it just so happened that I made the croquetas on the same day that I wrote the post on my Moscow Potatoes. It was incredibly serendipitous that as I was begining to think about what I might serve with the croquetas that I happened to have the magazine page that contained the recipe for the Moscow Potatoes and Peruvian Salsa open right in front of me! Even better, I had all the ingredients for Peruvian Salsa in the house!

The chilli and lime in the salsa cut through the richness of the croqueta’s perfectly!

A match made in heaven! Or South America as the case may be.

Peruvian Salsa – The Recipe

A Return to The Compton-Batts

It wasn’t until just now that I had probably a tenth look at the menu put forward by the Compton-Batts that I realised how…well the magazine article calls their menu eclectic. I would probably go with batshit (erm Battshit anyone???) crazy. Here it is:

Moscow Potatoes
Pickled Fish
Blackened Tuna Sashimi
Chilli Stir Fried Lamb
Peruvian Salsa
Vegetables Cooked in Virgin Olive Oil
Asparagus with Parmesan
Berry Pudding with Armagnac Chantilly

First that is a LOT of food.

Second, it is a lot of food that does not really go together.

The Moscow Potatoes are, if not exactly Russian, inspired by Russia.

We then move across to…I don’t know where for the pickled fish. I initially would have thought this might be an escabeche so Spain, but there is ginger in the recipe which I don’t think is traditional in an escabeche. There is coriander in the garnish and coriander and ginger to me says Asia. I will say though that the recipe sounds delicious and I may well end up making it! Also, the recipe says to use white fish but the picture of the pickled fish looks like salmon to me. So the pickled fish is an enigma all round. Here’s a picture of it

The sashimi is obvs Japanese. But why would you have pickled fish and sashimi?

Then we have Chilli Stir Fried Lamb which uses a Chinese cooking method combined with Indian-style spices such as cumin and cardamom.

And the Chinese / Indian main is accompanied by a salsa from Peru. Which it doesn’t really need given it already has chlllies and lemon in it.

Also accompanying our stir fry we have some vegetables roasted in olive oil and some asparagus with Parmesan which for simplicity I am going to say is Italian-influenced. Here’s a pic of the asparagus which is drowning in olive oil. So again, two sides both drenched in olive oil and neither works particularly cohesive with the main dish!

Then for dessert there is a berry pudding (not a pudding but some berries soaked in port and Cabernet Sauvignon) served with an Armagnac Chantilly. So French inspired.

That is one wild menu I thought as I reached for another croqueta de carne dipped in some Peruvian Salsa. I’m glad I’m keeping it simple!

Have a great week!