Vegetables Archives - Page 14 of 19 - Retro Food For Modern Times

10
Aug
2014

Molten Umami Meatball Sandwiches

categories: Comfort Food, Italy, Mushrooms, Sandwiches

Hello, hello it’s good to be back!

Umami Meatball Sandwich — Molten Meatball Sandwich

Did you miss me? I’ve been on holidays – three weeks out of the grey Melbourne cold and into the warmth of sunny Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. The holiday was amazing and I will fill you in on the details over the next few weeks, most particularly about the amazing food.

Here is (literally) a taster….

You know how in most supermarkets you get tasting plates? For example, earlier today in my local supermarket I got to sample 3 kinds of dumplings (prawn, scallop and mushroom), 5 flavours of kombucha tea and some chia pudding…(yeah, my local supermarket is awesome!) Well, in Cambodia, the taster plates consist of Bamboo Worms…and only $2 a kilo!

And these are deep fried crickets….an even better bargain at half the price of the worms…

This is me about to taste one of the bamboo worms:

But before we go there, I wanted to talk to you about meatballs. As much as we love Asian food, after three weeks of it we were craving something that wasn’t. Funnily enough, we both had cravings for pretty much the same thing.

He wanted spaghetti bolognese. I wanted spaghetti and meatballs. I was doing the cooking so spaghetti and meatballs it was! As I was cooking these, I realised why this is such awesome comfort food (it’s not like either of us has Italian heritage). My meatballs are crammed full of umami flavours – parmesan, mushrooms, tomatoes, red wine….Hmmm…is red wine umami? Well it’s pretty damn good even if it isn’t. Also, the original recipe for this called for an anchovy fillet. I didn’t happen to have any so I added saltiness with a dash of fish sauce…guess what? More umami!

The spaghetti and meatballs were delicious and everything I wanted – something to warm our bones in the winter cold, something that was quick and easy to cook after a day of travelling and something familiar – comfort food at it’s best!!!

They also require very little in terms of fresh ingredients so you can keep shopping to a minimum. And, if you were super organised, you could make a batch and pop them in the freezer before you left. (Massive sigh). I would love to be that organised!!!!

So, it was spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and then, (this mixture makes a lot of meatballs) I made a molten meatball mountain (i.e, a meatball sandwich ) for my lunch the next day. The meatballs were great with the spaghetti but for my mind, even better in the sandwich the next day. And Oscar was on hand for any leftovers.

Of which there were none!

Remember these?

They tasted like this:

I wouldn’t say this was the worst thing I have ever eaten…but it sure wasn’t good. The outside was kind of crunchy and not so bad. It was the inside that was gross. It didn’t taste so much of anything, it just had an unpleasant texture – mushy and slightly gritty. Not to mention the thought that was impossible to dispel. “That thing in your mouth? That’s worm guts…you’re eating worm guts…that thing you just bit into, that was probably work heart….”

Not good.

Thank goodness I found much better things to eat in Phnom Pehn. Which I will tell you about next time…

Have a fabulous week!

PS – Is anyone doing the kombucha thing? I kind of want to grow my own….if you are please let me know!

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22
Jun
2014

A Savage Fennel and Lemon Salad

categories: 1970's food, Fennel, Lemon, Salad, Salad Dressing

Many years ago, my mum used to work in a local solicitor’s firm – and let me tell you right now – forget every glamorous tv legal drama you’ve ever seen. Sadly, this old chestnut, unfunny though it is, was far more the reality:

Each and every one of them was bonkers. Nicely bonkers, even sweetly bonkers. But bonkers all the same.

Downstairs was the domain of a married couple, both lawyers. They had a super cute boxer dog called Brigeeta who they used to bring to work with them every day. Nothing nuts about that. I wish I could take my dogs to work everyday.

What was kooky was that Brigeeta used to have a different outfit every day. And I mean EVERY DAY. My mum worked with them for maybe five years. The dog never wore the same clothes twice.

And you know, I’m not averse to dogs wearing clothes…Oscar has a pair of pyjamas he wears in winter…

But there is a a difference between ONE pair of totally necessary pyjamas and 1500 separate outfits!!!

Remember that old song “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you?” Well that could have been written about….well, let’s just call him Mr Magoo…(remember, these people are lawyers, they are familiar with litigation). Mr Magoo was badly in need of glasses but thought that getting them would spoil his handsome boy modelling school good looks. Which incidentally were fairly spare on the ground. Glasses were not the issue.

One morning the lady downstairs cornered him and started showing him photos of the party they had gone to the day before, many of which featured Brigeeta in her latest couture which was a Little Red Riding Hood outfit.

Later he asked Mum if she’d seen the photos. She said she had.

He said “Did you see that kid in the red? Man, that was the ugliest child I’ve ever seen”

Captain of this particular Titanic was a lovely, elderly Italian solicitor. Now he wasn’t crazy as such he just sometimes had a bit of trouble with English. So, for instance, once Mum asked him what he did on the weekend and he replied “We went hunting the savage fennels”.

Have you ever heard anything more adorable in your life?

I LOVE that…

“Hunting the Savage Fennels” sounds like a Maurice Sendak book. Maybe the lesser known prequel to “Where the Wild Things Are”.

The savage fennels grow in abundance in this neck o’ the woods; they spring up on every vacant lot and the hills are literally alive with them!

This salad I have adapted from “Salads For All Seasons” is a perfect simple and gorgeous way to feature the savage fennels. Or the more mild mannered fennel you might find in your local supermarket or green grocer. I kept mine pretty minimalist but some black olives would be a great addition.

I was a little worried about mixing cream and lemon juice in the dressing…because surely that would curdle? It didn’t.

Final tip on the salad – fennel is quite robust so it is perfectly fine to dress the salad and leave it for hours. I added the dressing in the morning and took this to work and it was still crunchy four or five hours later.

This is a perfect accompaniment to fish but would also be fabulous with a grilled steak!

Have a fabulous week! And beware the savage fennels!

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24
Apr
2014

Retro Easter Part 3: The Eggs-travaganza

categories: Avocado, Bacon, Breakfast, Brunch, Chocolate, Easter, Eggs, Peanut Butter, Potato, Vintage Cookbooks, Vintage Recipes

I solemnly promise that will be my only egg pun for this whole post.

But really, what is Easter about if it’s not about eggs?

What?

Well, yeah, ok sure it’s about Jesus….but eggs are important too.

This year I made my own chocolate eggs.

And ok, so Adriano Zumbo is not shaking in his shoes just yet but I get some points for trying right? Can’t this be like Little League and I get a medal just for turning up?

For those of you who don’t know Adriano Zumbo, he is a mad-scientist genius baker (kind of like an Australian Heston Blumenthal but with more macaroons and fewer snails). He makes things like this gorgeous V8 cake.

Think it looks simple?

Think again.

Because when you cut this baby open you get this:

Yeah…uh huh and OMG wow!!!

Maybe I’ll try to make that ~~next Easter~~ never.

For anyone brave enough to try, you can get the recipe by clicking the link below:

Zumbo’s V8 Cake

And send me photos. And a piece.

However, ’nuff about Zumbo, back to my eggs. They weren’t just any plain old chocolate eggs. Uh uh. No way.

They also had a peanut butter fudge filling:

And in true retro style the peanut butter fudge mix has a secret ingredient.

Mashed potato.

Yes, I did just say mashed potato.

And it works surprisingly well. You can’t taste it but it gives the peanut butter a firmer texture. Actually the texture is very similar to that of my one of my all time favourite decadent little treats – a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. And when I say “a” Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, I of course mean a ~~four~~ twin pack.

I even had to check that there wasn’t mashed potato in a Reese’s PBC. There isn’t but there are two things that don’t actually have names, just initials. And you have to love a list that contains non-fat milk and milk fat right next to each other. So, that would be milk right?

You can check the full list out here.

I’m not going to come over all Michael Pollan about this (guess who finally finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma?) but you know what? I’m really not sure about eating the stuff that is just initials. However, whilst we’re on the subject of Mr Pollan, here is what he has to say about TBHQ, one of the ingredients in my possibly formerly beloved peanut butter cups:

But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to “help preserve freshness.” According to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse.” Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.

Hmm…compared to lighter fluid, the mashed potato suddenly seems a bit more attractive does it not? And yes ok, you would probably have to eat your own weight in them to get that gram of TBHQ but it was enough to make me walk away from the rack of peanut butter cups today. Damn you Pollan.

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Peanut Butter Fudge Easter Eggs

Print Recipe

Easter Eggs with a “secret” ingredient

Prep Time: 5
Cook Time: 120
Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

Ingredients

Scale

1 small potato, peeled and cubed
1 cup peanut butter – I used super crunchy.
1/2 cup condensed milk
1 cup icing (confectioner’s) sugar
180 gram block of dark chocolate

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Melt 2/3 of the chocolate in a bowl over hot water and coat the moulds with the melted chocolate. You may need to do this more than once to get the desired thickness of chocolate shell.
Place the chopped potato into a saucepan and cover with water. Boil until tender.
Drain and mash.
Add your condensed milk, just as you would add regular milk to normal mashed potatoes.
Allow this mixture to cool.
Mix in your peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar. It should form a fairly thick paste.
Add more condensed milk or confectioner’s sugar if required.
Spoon this mixture into the chocolate lined moulds.
Melt the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate. Use this to seal the mixture into the moulds.
Chill until the chocolate hardens then press your eggs out of the moulds.

Notes

You will also need Easter Egg Moulds. I bought mine from a craft shop for around $4.

Ox Eye Eggs

In my last post I assumed that everyone would know what Egg in a Hole was. I then further confused the issue by using the name we call these things in my family which is an Ox-Eye egg.

I actually managed to trace back the source of why we call it that. It comes from this book which I inherited from my…hmmm…I’m not sure of our exact relationship…maybe my second cousin? A great cousin? My nana’s sister’s daughter.

This was possibly my first cook book and the ox-eye eggs have become a family favourite. I will return to this book in due course because the illustrations are awesome but here is the recipe for the original ox-eye eggs:

I prefer to do mine in a frying pan than in the oven as I think it gives you a little more control over your preferred degree of yolk runniness but the choice is yours!

And look at this for an amazing breakfast – seriously, if I’d thrown some cheese on this plate all my five favourite food groups would have been covered – eggs, bacon, avocado, and bread!

Loading up that toasted circle with a piece of bacon, some guac and some semi-runny yolk? Probably about as close to heaven as I’m going to get!!!

And that’s Easter 2014 done!

Next time, a double whammy, a retro treat from Salads from All Seasons and a Daring Kitchen Challenge. I’m 3 months behind on my Daring Kitchen stuff and I’m really nervous about all of them – for very different reasons – again which we will get to in due course.

February’s challenge was Salad Dressing – and if you’re thinking that should be fairly impossible to fuck up, well, you haven’t seen the recipe I’m planning on using.

Hint – it too has a secret ingredient, which incidentally has been mentioned in this post. And it’s not mashed potato. If only.

I’m loving my extended Easter break. Hope your week is fabulous whatever you are doing!

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22
Apr
2014

Retro Easter Part 2: Easter Lily Sandwiches

categories: Asparagus, Cream Cheese, Lunch, Sandwiches

Let’s start with a caveat.

I am perfectly aware that these sandwiches do not resemble Easter Lilies and would, based on their look, be far more appropriately called Calla Lily Sandwiches. But it’s Easter ok?

And take a look at them. How pretty are they? Perfect for an afternoon tea with the girls….

Easter Lily Sandwiches2 — Easter Lily sandwiches

And they taste pretty damn good too!!!

There are a few recipes for these lily sandwiches floating about the interwebs. However, most of them use green onions for the stem. I actually made it that way the first time but was disappointed in the taste.

Chomping on that big stalk made the sandwich way too oniony – I’m pretty sure no one else wants to bite into a huge chunk of onion like that either. Or suffer the onion breath afterwards. But to use them as decoration only and take them out when it came to eating the sandwich seemed like a waste. My first thought was to replace the onions with beans but when I went to buy the beans, I was waylaid by some gorgeous baby asparagus spears.

And my version of the Lily Sandwich was born.

If you can only get thicker asparagus you could cut the spears in half down their length. If asparagus is not available, use beans or celery matchsticks – all of which I think would be preferable to the onion!

Oh and a tip for the frugal. When you cut the circles out of the bread, don’t throw the rest of the bread out. Save them to use for what my family call Ox-Eye eggs but is, I believe more commonly called, Egg in A Hole the next morning! Any asparagus left over can also be dipped into a runny yolk for a breakfast made in heaven!!!

Leftovers

Oh and if you don’t happen to have a rolling-pin handy, a bottle of your favourite sauv blanc works equally as well.

And would also be the perfect accompaniment to these sandwiches at your Easter afternoon tea!

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Easter Lily Sandwiches

Print Recipe

Pretty asparagus sandwiches, perfect for a Spring afternoon tea!

Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 5
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

Scale

1 bunch of asparagus
Slices of white bread, as many as you have asparagus spears
1 tub of cream cheese or a herb and garlic flavoured cream cheese like a Boursin
2 tbsp fresh chopped chives (omit if using a flavoured cheese)
1 clove of garlic, crushed (omit if using a flavoured cheese)
1/2 cup pistachios finely chopped
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Carrots cut into matchsticks, the same number of matchsticks as asparagus spears
Salt & Pepper to Taste
Instructions

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Tail the asparagus and steam until just tender.
Mix the cream cheese, paprika, nuts, salt and pepper and herbs in a bowl until smooth and creamy.
Using a cookie cutter, cutter cut out rounds from bread.
Then with a rolling pin, roll each round so it’s about 1/8 inch thick.
Spread about a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture over each bread circle.
Place the carrot stick so it peeps out of the top, and the asparagus spear so it pokes out of the bottom. Fold the bread over to seal.
Voila! You have a lily sandwich.

One more Easter Treat to go…stay tuned!

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07
Apr
2014

Raising The Salad Bar Part 2 – Melon Surprise x 2

categories: 1970's food, Apples, Celery, Grapes, Jello, Jelly, Rockmelon, Salad, Tuna

Shortly after you start reading vintage recipe books, you start becoming attuned to certain words as being signifiers of something truly awful.

Any recipe with the word “Surprise” in it usually falls slam bang into this description. Believe me, nine times out of ten, the surprise isn’t one of the happy, happy, joy, joy variety.

For instance, my mum used to make something we used to call tuna surprise. I found this recipe for something very similar in an old magazine.

It is sans the potato chip topping which was always the best bit of mum’s tuna surprise but I guess I can forgive that when the Shaun referred to was none other than my main man Shaun Micallef.

What?

I’ve been doing this a couple of years now and I’ve never spoken about my huge girly love crush on this man? For those of you who do haven’t had the pleasure, imagine the wit of John Stewart combined with the silver foxiness of George Clooney and you’re in the ball park…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoz6kZsjc3s

Anyway, enough about my obsessions…ok, no, just one more. It’s my blog, I guess I can do what I want….

Ok, so before this turns into the gushy, girly Shaun Micallef hour…lets talk about Melon Surprise.

But before we go there can we just stop for a moment and look at my ever so cute pins? Bought at Daiso…how adorable are they?

So the melon had pins in it because…surprise….this ain’t no normal melon!!!!

Because when you cut it open….look what’s inside!

Grapes in Jello folks, grapes in jello!

Hands up who was expecting something really disgusting? Wait a few minutes….it’s coming.

But in a real surprise, the Melon Surprise turned out to be pretty damn super. To my taste, more of a dessert than a salad but still pretty damn good all the same.

Ok…so by the way, both of these recipes come from the “Elegant First Courses” section of Salads For All Seasons in which Rosemary Mayne-Wilson tells us that

“The recipes in this section are designed to excite the eye, delight the palate and stimulate the appetite”

And sure, the Melon Surprise does all of these things. As you can see I tool some liberties with the flavour of jelly and the colour of the grapes.

Time did not permit me to peel the grapes. There is not enough time in the universe to induce me to do that.

Next up, we have Surfer’s Paradise Melon.

Let’s take the ingredients for this individually shall we?

Rockmelons – sure.

Celery – why not?

Grapes…worked in the Melon Surprise.

Apples – I’m getting a bit excited, this is looking Waldorfy…

Mayo…yep, its a Waldorf with Melons. That sounds great!

But wait…there’s more?

Oh yeah, Walnuts right? Waldorf with Melons. Awesome.

What? What do you mean the final ingredient isn’t walnuts? How can we have Waldorf with Melons without Walnuts?

Oh, I see the quirky bit, the RMW spin is that it’s not walnuts. So what is it? Almonds? Cashews? Pistachios?

It’s what?

Yeah…that’s what I thought you said…..

Ok…look, I just want to doublecheck.

You said tuna right?

Like in the fish?

Oh for the love of God….why?

Incidentally, the tuna and fruit combo must be vibing in some retro space because recently the lovely Erica from Retro Recipe Attempts was guesting on Mid Century Menu and made some Tuna Apple Sandwiches.

In the blurb for this salad RMW says:

“When Australians are overseas, few requests are made for them to contribute to food stalls and fairs…it is assumed that our cuisine is either too dull to be considered or just an offshoot of English cooking…However, if there is a request for an Australian dish, one friend always serves this grand melon appetizer”

I suspect she’s confusing cause and effect…

If anyone turned up to my food stall or fair with a mix of canned tuna and rockmelon, I’d probably ban their whole nation too.

However, here it is….

Surfer's Paradise Melon Salad — Surfer’s Paradise Melon Salad

It looks pretty good doesn’t it?

And truth be told, it was not disgusting. It had a nice crunch and it was…palatable. I might have actually liked it without the rockmelon…

Surfer's Paradise Melon Salad2 — Surfer’s Paradise Melon Salad2

One thing? If you ever plan on making this, when you mix the rockmelon and tuna together, it looks huge. There is a mountain of Surfer’s Paradise Melon Salad such that you think you’ll never be able to eat it all.

I had for lunch at around 12:30. And, believe me, by 5:00pm I was ready to gnaw the leg off my chair. Because when you think about it, this is what it is:

Thanks company I am not going to name (but hint, their name is pretty clearly displayed in the photo) for only putting half a can of tuna into a can of tuna. I guess that’s why it’s called light….And the rest of it is just fruit and celery so I guess you know, from a weight loss perspective this is win-win. You won’t want to eat it but when you do, it probably has all of about 3 calories.

And just so I’m not deterring tourism to our lovely Gold Coast, I can almost guarantee that no one in Surfer’s Paradise is eating this…do not let this dissuade you from coming.

By the way, I just signed up for 100 Happy Days and will be regularly tweeting my happy snaps. You can follow my progress on Twitter or join up. To find out more, click the link:

http://100happydays.com/

I”m going to spending my week finding things that make me happy. Make yours fabulous whatever you do!

Category: Vegetables

Peanut Butter Fudge Easter Eggs

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Ox Eye Eggs

Easter Lily Sandwiches

Ingredients

Instructions