REPOST – Eggs With Spinach and Fashion Tips From Dinah Shore

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Spinach, Supper

Eggs and Spinach are a classic combo. Think Eggs Florentine, Spinach Quiche or Spinach Soufflé. Well today we are using eggs and spinach to create a twist on the dish The A -Z of Cooking calls Eggs With Spinach. Uh huh. What it lacks in imagination, it makes up for in precision. But it’s also from a chapter called Watching Your Weight and, to be honest, the original recipe was a little meh….So, whilst staying in the spirit of Eggs with Spinach here’s my version. What it lacks in weight watching, it makes up for in flavour.

Given that choice, always make flavour the winner. Just go for a run the next day!

My eggs and spinach recipe contains spinach lightly sauteed in garlic, mixed with a little cream, sprinkled with nutmeg, topped with cheese and baked with an egg until the white is set and the yolk is runny perfection!

Did anyone say brunch? These eggs with spinach scale up really well for a group at brunch or make a great quick and easy supper for one!

I used fresh baby spinach in my Eggs with Spinach, however you could use frozen. Below is a great vintage ad for frozen spinach. Note the awesome striped t-shirt being worn by Dinah Shore and the perfectly coordinated polka dot apron. She’s rocking my favourite patterns and showing that the rule of “blue and green should never be seen” is as dumb AF. Go Dinah. OMG, I only just noticed her gorgeous green shoes with the bows. I want that entire outfit! I wonder if back in the day women everywhere were also exclaiming “Glory be….fuck the spinach, get me that t-shirt and those shoes…”

Does anyone say “Glory be” anymore?

Did anyone ever?

Before we travel down that etymological rabbit hole here’s the recipe:

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Eggs with Spinach

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A delicious quick and easy dish for brunch, lunch or supper!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

500g baby spinach
1 garlic clove, crushed
25g butter
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp cream
4 tbsp grated cheddar cheese

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced.
Lightly grease four 3/4 cup-capacity ovenproof dishes.
Wash the baby spinach.
Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat and add the garlic.
Saute for a minute or two until the garlic softens but does not change colour.
Add the spinach and stir until just wilted, about 2 minutes.
Take off the heat and stir in the cream and nutmeg.
Divide the spinach into two and place in two ramekin dishes.
Make an indent in the middle and break and egg into each.
Sprinkle the cheese over the top.
Season with salt and pepper.
Bake for around 15 minutes or until the egg white is just set but yolk is still runny.
Remove from oven. Stand for 2 minutes.
Serve with toast.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 2

If you would also like to rock Dinah’s look here is my take on it:

That was awesome fun! Now I gotta go do it in real life. Have a good one!

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05
Sep
2017

Tiny Waldorf Salads

categories: Apples, Celery, Grapes, Salad, United States of America, Walnuts

Is there a salad both more famous (and more mangled) than the Waldorf Salad? I doubt it. And because, pretty much since it’s inception, people have been mucking around with it, I thought I would put my stamp on it. As I have a predilection for little food, I shrank my Waldorf Salad into individual serving sizes.

Waldorf Salad – History

The Waldorf Salad was first made at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896 and was, a huge success. The original recipe only contained apples, celery and mayonnaise The grapes and walnuts came later but are now considered integral ingredients.

The Waldorf precedes the other classic “American” salad, the Caesar, by 28 years.

The Waldorf Salad was also immortalised in an episode of Fawlty Towers. I wonder if this is the only salad to ever have a sit com episode named after it. If you have not seen this you must. It is hilarious. But here’s a taste!

So, celery, apples, walnuts grapes…in a mayonnaise sauce. Which is pretty much what mine consisted of.

So how did they manage to get it so wrong in the ’60’s?

Well, the top three reasons of what went wrong in the 60’s in general are:

Charlie Manson
Massive amounts of drug taking
Gelatine

Now,Manson may be all kinds of crazy but I don’t think we can blame him for this:

Retro Waldorf via Bon Appetit Or this (even though this is kind of pretty)

Or, Good Lord, even this:

Nope, the blame for that lies squarely with 3). Possibly with a large dose of 2) thrown in

After those horrors i totally understand why the poor old Waldorf Salad is not nearly as popular today as the Caesar salad. The graphs below show internet interest in the words as search terms.

Kind of makes me wonder why I am bothering to post on Waldorf when it’s so unpopular. Next week – Caesar Salad! And hit city!

The thing is, Caesar salad is often awful and the Waldorf salad tasted good. It’s crunchy and crisp and sweet and nutty. Nothing wrong there. The buttermilk dressing I used adds a little tang without being too cloying. It’s delicious. And easy to make. And healthy. And it’s fun to wrap up the main ingredients in a lettuce leaf like a salady sang choy bau.

What more do you need?

Go and make one now. You already know how….it’s celery, apples, walnuts grapes…in a mayonnaise sauce.

Pop it all into a lettuce leaf, wrap it up and enjoy!

[yumprint-recipe id=’98’] Have a wonderful week!

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24
Apr
2017

Bombay Potato Snacks

categories: India, Potato, Snacks, Vegetarian

Let’s talk about what makes the best snacks the best. They are crunchy, salty, crispy, fried, spicy, sweet, creamy, fresh or sour right? So, what if you could combine all of those tastes and textures into the one dish? Wouldn’t that make it THE. BEST. SNACK.EVER? Yes. It would. And the only thing that stops me from claiming this for these Bombay Potato Snacks is that there is a little bit of work involved in making them which is kind of contrary to the idea of the snack….however, persevere with me. They’re worth the effort! And also very pretty!

I probably should have cropped this photo a lot more. However, I really liked the shadows of the plants on my kitchen windowsill. And you have to take your little pleasures where you find them right? And for you pernickety people, there’s a cropped version down below.

So, Bombay Potato Snacks. First time I made this, I totally forgot to strew the Bombay mix (or Sev as it is called in Sri Lanka over the top). Doh! It was actually still pretty tasty but you know…really just a potato snack which is totally not enough for all of you delightful and snack hungry RFFMT readers. Cos you all deserve the bomb! Eh?

Okay. Even by my standard of bad puns, that last one was just a little bit too shit. So, let’s quickly forget it ever happened and talk potatoes. In this case oven roasted with a bit o’ salt and cayenne pepper but you could totally pan or deep fry them should you so desire. Once baked or fried, arrange them on a place. I chose to place mine in a circle. Then, add a dollop of Greek Yoghurt, and top that with a dollop of Indian Chutney. I chose to use a home-made Mango Salsa Chutney from Kylee Newton’s wonderful book The Modern Preserver but you could use your favourite bought chutney.

We’re then going to sprinkle a little bit of tomato salsa over the top of all of this – tomato, red onion, chilli, coriander, mint, lemon juice to add some freshness and zing and pow!

And then, if this is not already tasty enough, we’re going to top this off by just throwing a handful of Bombay Mix all over the top! That is five layers of awesome on your plate. This is not just a Yeah! dish. This is a HELL YEAH! dish!

And totes vegetarian for those who care about those things. You could also very easily make it vegan by swapping out the dairy yogurt for a soy or coconut yogurt. Actually, vegans please make this. And give it to your non-vegan friends and defy them to say that this vegan dish is not as tasty AF.

Serve this on a platter and let your guests dig in. Or…eat it all by yourself. I won’t judge you. I promise. I may have even done that myself.

We’re doing Indian in Tasty Reads in April and May…and also there was an awesome Indian inspired Shepherd’s pie made on My Kitchen Rules this week, which I am totally going to adapt to my own tastes so stay tuned for more Indian inspired dishes in future.

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Bombay Potato Snacks

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Ingredients

Scale

5 large potatoes cut into 1cm slices
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
100 ml Indian Chutney of your choice – I used a home made mango chutney
125ml Greek yoghurt

Salsa:

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp mint leaves, chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
1 red chilli, chopped, seeds removed (less or more depending on your love of heat)

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 200C.
Place the potato slices, the salt, cayenne pepper and oil in a large plastic bag and toss to coat.
Place the slices in a single layer on a baking tray and roast for 30 minutes, flipping them over half way through.
Remove from tray to a wire rack and allow to cool.

For The Salsa:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

To Serve

Spread the potato slices around the platter.
Add a dollop of Yoghurt into the middle, top this with a dollop of chutney.
Sprinkle the salsa over the top.
Top with the Bombay mix.
Eat. Enoy!

Next up though, we’re slipping and sliding, stepping and stomping into the letter S from The A-Z of Cooking. And for once, the heading is not completely random. Leave a comment if you’d like to have a guess at what it might be!

It’s your week…make it fab!

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29
Nov
2016

REPOST – Potato Almond Balls

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Potato, Recipe Fail, Starters

When a chapter called Nuts about Nourishment contains a recipe for Deep Fried Mashed Potato Balls, you know it has to be 1977. And that we are about to delve into The A-Z of Cooking. Potato Almond Balls. I was so excited about these, I ate salad for a week to pre-compensate for the delicious calorific overload.

And then they didn’t work.

The problem was that the egg and almond crust split in many places…and when it did, the mashed potato kind of disintegrated. So in a lot of instances I ended up with the almond crust and not much else. Where they remained whole, they were totally delicious sprinkled with a bit of smoked paprika and dipped in some of my favorite green sauce.

I’m putting the failure of the balls down to the wrong temperatures. Either the balls were too cold or too warm or the oil was. Is it significant that The A-Z of Cooking has no pictures of this dish? It is possible that their Potato Almond Balls also broke into bits?

Here’s the recipe for anyone who wants it, I hope you have better luck than me!

To counteract the effect of deep fried potato balls (and because I had no other photos) I thought I would give you all an update on my attempts at the C25K running program. Today I started week 7 of the program and ran for 25 minutes which was not only the longest time but also the furthest distance I have done so yay me!

Mind you, this is probably a very apt description of both my pace and my style:

Personally, given my new obsession with the ‘My Favorite Murder Podcast,, this might well become my mantra:

And this is probably closer to the truth:;

Next time in The A-Z we are moving onto O for some “Old Fashioned Favourites”. I was hoping to be done with it by the end of the year but given it is nearly December (how the hell did that happen?) it seems unlikely. I’m now aiming for end of summer.

Have a fabulous week everyone!

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02
Nov
2016

Turning Japanese – 1989 Japanese Snack Plate

categories: Chicken & Poultry, Japan, Prawns, Radish, Snacks

Konichiwa dear people o’ the Internet.

Today we are exploring the first part of a two-part series taken from the pages of Vogue Entertaining October / November 1989 with a gorgeous Japanese snack plate.

On the plate today we have Japanese Fried Chicken, Prawn Canapé’s, Radish Canapés, edamame beans, wasabi and mayo! This is so pretty, perfect for a Spring brunch!

The magazine comes from a time when ingenious recipes and inventive ideas may have involved giving your guests a bowl of roses to munch on. Yummy!

Roses aside, we are putting some Spring flavours in full bloom on today’s Japanese snack plate. Just as an aside though, guess which day the J key on my laptop decided to break, meaning it had to be hit about four times harder than all the other keys. The sound track for the writing of this post was tap, tap, tap THUMP tap, tap, tap THUMP.

Minor typing difficulties aside, lets turn our attention to some hors d’œuvres for our Japanese snack plate.

Japanese Stuffed Radishes

Could not be simpler and the crunchy peppery radish is delicious with the salty punch of the caviar. Simply slice your radish down the middle of the stem, then scoop out a small hollow in your radish and fill with caviar. I think nowadays if you were making this you would use tobiko instead of normal caviar but maybe that was readily available in 1989. Come to think of it, I have no idea if it is readily available now!

Stuffed Prawns

Pardon me for having two things stuffed with caviar in this post but seeing as I had to buy it specially, I wanted to get some bang for my buck. Also, if it was good enough for Vogue Entertaining in 1989 its good enough for me!

This is also very tasty with this time a contrast between the sweet prawn meat and the salty caviar. Add a dob of pungent wasabi and some creamy mayo and you have perfection! The original recipe had the prawn heads left on. I took mine off. I just think it is easier to eat with head and shells gone.

It is important to skewer the prawns so they stay straight.

To make these you will need:

12 medium green king prawns
2 tsp salt
25g black caviar

Place a satay stick through the body of each prawn to keep it straight. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drop the prawns in and cook for 3-5 minutes. Remove from the water and leave to cool.

Remove the satay sticks and remove the heads and shells, leaving the tail. Split the prawns down the back with a sharp knife and remove the digestive tracts. Fill the tract cavity with a little caviar. Repeat.

Soy and Ginger Edamame (loosely adapted from A Moveable Feast by Katy Holder)

These are not from Vogue Entertaining Oct /November 1989 but make a tasty and colourful addition to the snack plate.

200g edamame in pods
1/2 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp light olive oil
1/2 tbsp mirin
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
pinch of sugar

Cook the edamame in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water. Pop the beans from their pods. Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Pour over the edamame and sit for at least an hour to let the flavours absorb. Strain and add to the plate.

Japanese Fried Chicken

I did not make this for the snack plate. We had it for dinner the night before but I made extra so we could have it on the plate. This is so good. Huh…it’s fried chicken, like it was ever going to be bad! This was great hot from the fryer in the evening and also super eaten cold the next day – it was not too greasy like a lot of fried chicken as leftovers and still quite crispy, although it is not a thick southern style coating.

Here’s the recipe!

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Japanese Fried Chicken

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A delicious Japanese take on fried chicken

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

500g chicken breast meat, skin on
3 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 spring onion chopped finely
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp Japanese soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp wasabi paste
1 small dried chilli, chopped
pinch of black pepper
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2/3 cup cornflour
vegetable oil for deep frying
Mayonnaise, wasabi to serve

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Instructions

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Make a marinade of the ginger, garlic, spring onion, sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin, pepper and chilli.
Marinate the chicken for at least 1 1/2 hours.
Mix eggwhite and cornflour well.
Add the chicken and marinate.
Heat the oil.
Deep-fry spoonfuls of the chicken mixture until golden brown.
Drain onto crushed kitchen paper and keep hot whilst the rest of the mixture is cooked.
To serve, spread on platter with dobs of mayo and wasabi

That’s it from me, have a great week!

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Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Vegetables

REPOST – Eggs With Spinach and Fashion Tips From Dinah Shore

Eggs with Spinach

Ingredients

Instructions

Nutrition

Tiny Waldorf Salads

Waldorf Salad – History

Bombay Potato Snacks

Bombay Potato Snacks

Ingredients

Salsa:

Instructions

For The Salsa:

To Serve

REPOST – Potato Almond Balls

Turning Japanese – 1989 Japanese Snack Plate

Japanese Stuffed Radishes

Stuffed Prawns

Soy and Ginger Edamame (loosely adapted from A Moveable Feast by Katy Holder)

Japanese Fried Chicken

Japanese Fried Chicken

Ingredients

Instructions