World Cooking Archives - Page 19 of 30 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: World Cooking

13
Jan
2019

This could get meze: Hummus and Tabbouleh

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Dip, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Lebanon, Middle Eastern, Salad, Vegan, World Cooking

I LOVE Middle Eastern food. One of my favourite cookbooks is Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour and I also love all the Ottolenghi books. Maha in Melbourne is one of my favourite restaurants – their 12-hour slow cooked lamb is to die for! I also used to live in an area of Melbourne that is full of middle eastern restaurants and ate at one of them at least once a week. So I was very excited to see that the next chapter in Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972) was for food from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. I was even more excited to see that there were recipes for two absolute classics of the region – hummus and tabbouleh. Both of which were in the Lebanese section.

Apart from the deliciousness, one of the other reasons I love Middle Eastern food is the amazing names for example, The Imam Fainted, and The Dervish’s Rosary. No other culture that I can think of has such poetic names for their food. My original plan had been to feature both of these recipes however, I recently discovered that I have an allergy to eggplant (aubergine), an ingredient that features heavily in both of these dishes.

Have you ever wondered if what you see and call “green” is the same as what other people see when they see green? Yes, it’s the colour of grass and leaves and apples but is the green I see the same as the green you see?

I wonder about things like that all the time.

I’m super fun at parties…

Well, my experience with eggplant was a little like finding out that what I call green is what everyone else calls pink. I was talking to a friend of mine about eggplants (as you do) and happened to mention “I like the way they make your mouth go all tingly”.

My friend was like “No…no it doesn’t….” with this face:

Long story short, it turns out that not everyone’s mouth tingles when they eat eggplant and that tingle is actually an allergic reaction. Turns out I am mildly allergic to nightshades, particularly eggplant and capsicums.

So an eggplant heavy menu was off the menu. So, no great names today, just some damn nice food. Starting with…

Hummus

Luckily I have no allergy problems with hummus which is wonderful because I eat it by the truckload. And yet, I have never made it before. And I may never make it again. I’d read that for really smooth hummus you need to peel the chickpeas. This is not only utterly boring (even using the hacks that abound on the interwebs) but also oddly repulsive. The chickpea peels kept sticking to my fingers and pulling them off felt weirdly like removing my own skin. It even looked a bit like it too…

The hummus was lovely though. This was a very classic recipe but, you could jazz it up by adding herbs or other flavourings to it.

Here are twenty or so variations from my Appetizers spreadsheet:

You say Tabbouleh, I say Tabouli

For the love of Mike can we settle on one spelling and stick to it? I’ve seen this spelt so many different ways – Tabbouleh, Tabouleh, Tabouli, Tabbouli…..in the end, even Good Housekeeping gave up. They list this in the index as Mint and Parsley Salad!

Unlike hummus, which I buy pretty much every week, I never buy tabbouleh. Because store-bought tabbouleh is generally disgusting – soggy and bland.

Homemade? Delish!

Like the hummus, the tabbouleh recipe in World Cookery is fairly plain. But this will allow you to jazz it up as you wish. Next time, I will add a little sumac into the dressing to ramp up the zing factor. I am also very taken with the Ottolenghi idea of topping tabbouleh with pomegranate arils.

That variation and a number of others can be found here.

The Recipes

I used tinned chickpeas for my recipe. I also assumed that when they said sesame oil in the recipe for hummus that they meant tahini (given it is in the recipe title) and not the sesame oil you use in Asian dishes.

Also, I did not garnish with parsley as per the suggestion because I needed all my parsley for the tabbouleh. I used a sprinkle of paprika.

The tabbouleh recipe suggests that you eat your tabbouleh using lettuce, vine or cabbage leaves as scoops. I prefer pita as the scoop, and if that piece of pita happens to have a smear of hummus on it, so much the better!

You could add some other delicious Middle Eastern titbits (for inspiration see here) and make up a lovely meze platter with these. Or, you could do what I did and just have them, along with the pita bread for lunch.

For those who care about such things, this meal is vegan.

Have a wonderful week! But before we go, tell me, what is your favourite cuisine?

21
Nov
2018

Sour Cherry Stuffed Monkey

categories: 1970's recipes, Desserts, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Israel, World Cooking

Disclaimer: No monkeys, stuffed or otherwise, were hurt, or even involved in the making of this week’s recipe. Stuffed Monkey is actually a Jewish pastry. With a totally kooky, and kind of revolting, name. Which is, of course, why I had to make it!

And I’m so glad I did because Stuffed Monkey is delicious! The pastry is like a cinnamony shortbread and the filling is slightly fudgy, a bit like a brownie. It’s so good!

Now, the original recipe for Stuffed Monkey, direct from the pages of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery, had candied orange peel as the fruit in the filling. I’m not a big fan of candied peel at the best of times and, certainly not in the quantities required to make this. So I subbed in some dried sour cherries and some dried apricots for my version. I did add some orange zest as well so there was a hint of orange in my recipe as a small nod and a wink to the original.

So, why the odd and not appetising at all name? I found a couple of theories on the old interwebs…the first is that “monkey” is a corruption of the Arabic word “makhshi” which means stuffed. So this would then become a Stuffed Stuffed? The other theory I found is that these were first popularised by a family called the Monnickendams.

I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced by either of these but what do I know?

Here’s the recipe direct from Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery:

And here is my version with the cherries and apricots.

Stuffed Monkey

Print Recipe

A delicious baked dessert

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

For The Pastry

170g butter
227g plain flour
170g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten

For The Filling

80g dried sour cherries, chopped
80g dried apricots, chopped
60g slivered almonds
zest of an orange
227g ground almonds
85g butter
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
1 egg white

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For The Pastry

Rub the butter into the flour.
Add the sugar, cinnamon and salt.
Add the egg. Combine until the mixture becomes a smooth dough.
Divide in two equal pieces.
Roll the first piece out and use it to line a pie dish.

For The Filling

Beat the butter, ground almonds and egg yolks together.
Add the dried fruit, nuts and vanilla and salt.
Stir to combine.
Spread the filling over the dough in the pie dish.
Roll out the second piece of pastry and cover the filling with it.
Press the edges to seal them.
Brush with the egg white to glaze.
Heat the oven to 180C.
Place the pie pan in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

This is great on its own but is fabulous with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

There is a downside to making a dessert called a Stuffed Monkey.

Which is that no one wants to eat it. The minute you mention the name, they get a funny look on their faces. Then they ask you to repeat what you said. Then they say “It’s okay, I think I might just have coffee”.

So just tell your friends it’s called Sour Cherry Tart or something. They’ll be shovelling it down like nobody’s business and asking for seconds in no time at all!

Or tell them the name and keep it all for yourself. It’s that good!

Have a great week!

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31
Oct
2018

Potato Maraska

categories: 1970's recipes, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Israel, Middle Eastern

Today, as we continue our globetrotting trek through 1972 we are saying goodbye to the Balkans and heading to…well, here’s the clue given on page 273 of Good Housekeeping World Cookery….

If the baking dishes of non-descript food didn’t immediately alert you to our destination, then maybe the shisha, the toy camels and the fact that the dishes are placed on SAND may indicate that

a) We are off to the Middle East, and

b)Subtlety was not strong back in the day!

That picture is the worst!

Specifically, our first stop on the trip is Israel.

I really wonder, why, when the line drawings in this book are so pretty, they even bothered with the cliched photography. It was hardly to make the food look attractive!

The Potato Maraska was not my first choice of recipe for this post. I originally wanted to make a Butter Kuchen. I even bought all the ingredients for it. Well, I bought sour cream. I had everything else.

Then I read the recipe…

Hmm….and after you let the dough rise overnight? Then what?

Well, if you’re Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery you move swiftly on to a recipe for Chremzlach and the Butter Kuchen is never mentioned again.

Never mind, I thought, there is a recipe right above the recipe for Butter Kuchen for Kuchen Dough. I’ll just get the rest of the recipe from that…

Or…..not….

I would love to know what Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery has against finishing a recipe for Kuchen. But given the absence of how to cook the risen dough, I decided that mine was going to be a kuchen free kitchen!

I had been going to make a fish pie that night and, in the absence of kuchen I decided that I would use the recipe for Potato Maraska as the topping instead of regular mashed potato.

The Potato Maraska was…..okay. Not as nice as normal mashed potato but if you and didn’t have milk and butter or you wanted to cut down on some calories, the egg adds a richness to the plain potato.

And at least it was a full recipe!

That’s it for me!

Have a great week!

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PS – If anyone knows how to make a butter kuchen, please send me a full recipe!

15
Oct
2018

Chicken Cacciatore

categories: Chicken, Italy

Happy Chicken Cacciatore Day Everyone!!!!

You might now know it but there is a debate raging on the backstory of Chicken Cacciatore!

Commonly received wisdom will have you believing that Chicken Cacciatore or Hunter’s Chicken originated in Renaissance Italy.

The big problem with this theory is that there were no tomatoes in Renaissance Italy – they only came to Italy post the discovery of the New World!

Ah, but the…let’s call them the Old Worlders will tell you, “It was made without tomatoes back in the day”.

Possible. But tomatoes seem to be fairly integral to the idea of Chicken Cacciatore. Even this old recipe for it which doesn’t contain mushrooms or olives or any of the additions we see in modern Cacciatore contains tomatoes. Two types!

By the way, how adorable is this recipe? The whole book is like this! And where else have you read a recipe that mentions “wretched” little chicken wing or tells you to stir something with enthusiasm!

But, I’ve only told you one side of the debate. The second theory of Chicken Cacciatore comes from Nikki Sengit from her amazing book, The Flavour Thesaurus. Her contention is that Chicken Cacciatore is about as Italian as Chicken Tikka Masala is Indian!

“Hunter’s Stew – which is not, sadly, the invention of pockmarked Sicilian peasants, returning home with a brace of feral chickens slung over their waistcoats, but an English recipe from the 1950’s taught to nice girls by their mothers in the hope they’d bag the sort of chap who’d neither be too unadventurous nor too suspiciously cosmopolitan to object to a lightly herbed slop of chicken in tomato sauce”

Oh Nikki, so harsh!

Chicken Cacciatore is delicious!!! At least this recipe, which is the one I used is! I only took one photo so here it is again!

So, tell me which side of the debate do you land on? Renaissance or 1950’s. Either way, buon appetito and have a great week!!!!

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12
Aug
2018

Macdedonian Grilled Cheese (Przeni Lepcinja)

categories: Bread, French Toast, Grilled Cheese, Macedonia, World Cooking

Grilled cheese is one of life’s little pleasures. Warm toasty bread, oozy melty grilled cheese…it doesn’t get better than this. Except in Macedonia where they top their grilled cheese with…wait for it….more cheese!!!

Today we’re continuing our visit to the Balkan States with a little look at Przeni Lepcinja – Macedonian grilled cheese.

Macedonian Grilled Cheese is essentially a cheesy French toast, topped with cheese. It’s delicious and so quick and easy to make!

The blend of creamy melted mozzarella and the salty feta cheese is great and perfect with the crisp french toast style bread!

I found the recipe for Macedonian Grilled Cheese here I’ve also copied it below. I served mine with a little tomato and red onion salsa that was very similar to the Sopska Salata featured here. Although given the double cheese abundance in the toast, I left the cheese out of the salad!

If you feel like something a bit more substantial, this is also great if you serve with a poached or fried egg on top…this I think also has a nice symmetry – cheesy eggy bread, topped with cheese and egg.

And now, just because I can, here’s a cheesy joke for you:

What’s cheese’s favourite music?

R ‘n’ Brie.

🤗

Cheesy and cheesy if you know what I mean.

Just like a Przeni Lepcinja!

Have a great week!

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