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Tag: 1970’s recipes

04
May
2015

After School Snacks – Date Crunchies

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Dates, Snacks

Part Two of A in The A-Z of Cooking concerns itself with one of the best meals of the day, the after school snack.

I chose to make the Date Crunchies purely on the basis that I had every single ingredient already in my pantry.

That never happens!

But first, two intros to After School Snacks. The original from The A-Z of Cooking

“Welcome home your hungry young scholars with something nourishing to tide them over until suppertime”

May have pleased mothers but set children all over the world weeping. They didn’t want something nourishing, they wanted something chockful of sugar with maybe a bit of artificial colouring thrown in.

Not so my After School Snacks Haiku:

Hungry After School?

Dates and Oats Make Good Crunchies

Yummy for your tum.

Did I miss a career in marketing or what?

And…we’re done with the poetry. Trust me. There will be no sonnets to breakfast food, no odes to the buffet. Unless you really like them. In which case get ready for a whole heap of limericks and haikus because that’s about my limit.

Date Crunchies – The Good

These are kinda sorta almost healthy with the sweetness coming from dates and honey instead of sugar, and the use of oats and wholemeal flour.
Dates, honey and cinnamon are a combination that works amazingly well together. And the little bit of lemon made the it even better!
I think I probably like them more now than I would have as a child when I would have wanted something sweeter.
Apparently they worked well with a glass of milk. This is on hearsay only. I have never liked milk and even the thought of drinking a full glass of it makes me want to gag.
Working the dough was the best arm workout I have had in a long time. I’m pretty sure I’ve staved off bingo wings for at least another year just by that alone.

Date Crunchies – The Bad

The the quantities in the recipe seemed wrong. I needed a lot more water to soften the dates and a pinch of cinnamon is no good to anyone. You need at least 1/4 teaspoon.
More than this though that pasty was way too short. I was lovely and light but you just had to look at it the wrong way and it crumbled. It needed an egg or something else to bind it together a bit more.

Date Crunchies – The Ugly

Let’s also address the other elephant in the room when in comes to this recipe. In some places in Australia, “date” is a colloquial expression for one’s…well…anus. So a date crunchie is probably not something that should be even remotely appetizing. As for these? They were better than that. ~~Just not by much~~.

In all honesty, they were perfectly acceptable. They were average. There was nothing fundamentally hideous about them. Truth be told, it’s taken me ages to write this post simply because I find it really hard to describe food that’s just….meh….

WouId I have wanted these as an afternoon snack when I was a child?

Hell no.

But I was a weird only child with a working mother. She didn’t have time to bake and I had an idea that anything homemade was bound to be inferior to something that could be bought from a shop. I was far happier with a perfectly formed store-bought Tim Tam than anything homemade and vaguely hippyish.

Now? That date filling was rather nice…but you know what? I think I’d still prefer a TimTam. I may make the Date Crunchie dough again just so I never have to do another tricep dip in my life.

Date Crunchies – not an epic fail, not even a fail, just not much of a pass… And with that, we’re done with the A’s.

Next time we venture into The A-Z of Cooking we’re heading to Canada for B..B..Breakfast.

Have a great week! Signature 1

06
Apr
2015

Frosted Tomato Cocktail

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Starters, Tequila, Tomatoes, Vegan

The frosted tomato cocktail was my pick from the Adventurous Appetizers section of The A-Z of Cooking.

But first, each section of The A-Z of Cooking comes with a sentence or two to introduce it vis a vis:

A is for… ADVENTUROUS APPETIZERS: start a dinner party or special family supper with a new and exciting idea.

Booooooring.

How much more fun if they’d done them all in verse:

There was a young girl called Eliza

Who wanted to make appetizers

She tried the tomat-er

As an exciting new starter

And the result did really surprise her.

Yeah, I know that was hardly “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” but the A-Z of Cooking is hardly The Larousse Gastronomique either.

You know what they say, water finds its level.

I nearly chose a recipe called Sweetcorn Scallops but the only thing scallopy about them was that they were served in scalloped shaped dishes or shells, neither of which I own.

I feel they were already drawing a slightly long bow in naming it. If I’d made it in a normal dish you guys would have left wondering if I’d lost my mind…

I can hear it now “Errmmmm, that’s bacon, honey, not scallops”

Anyhow, I really liked the picture of the Frosted Tomato Cocktail from The A-Z of Cooking which is why I chose this one to make. I love that glass. And just so you don’t think it’s me, they love a long skinny photo in The A-Z of Cooking.

Frosted Tomato Cocktail - Picture — Frosted Tomato Cocktail – Picture

Here is the original recipe:

Frosted Tomato Cocktail - Recipe — Frosted Tomato Cocktail – Recipe

This was really nice. So refreshing. It would be a gorgeous starter for a hot day in mid summer when tomatoes are at their very best. Or even as a palate cleanser between courses.

However, I felt it was missing something. Because you know what? As far as I’m concerned if you’re going to call something a cocktail, it better damn well have some booze in it. Also, you really needed to ramp up the flavourings in the original. .

My fennelly take on the Frosted Tomato Cocktail was inspired by this Serious Eats recipe. You could put the fennel salt around the rim of the glass as they suggest or just include it in the mix like I did. Celery salt would also be great here, in which case, I would garnish with a celery stalk instead of the mint.

I wanted mine to be vegan so I also omitted the Worcestershire and replaced it with tabasco. It may also be the most delicious thing I have ever made that is zero fat.

We’ll be sticking with the letter A for the next sortie into The A-Z of Cooking where we will be looking at the world of after school snacks. And I might try a haiku.

Have a great week!

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Frosted Tomato Cocktail

Print Recipe

A lovely refreshing start to a meal with a slight kick of heat!

Author: Taryn Fryer
Yield: 4 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 kilo tomatoes, skinned and chopped
125 mls tequla
4 tbsp water
2 tsp sugar
juice of 1 lime
dash of Tabasco Sauce
1 tbsp sea salt, I used Maldon
1 tsp fennel seeds
Mint Leaves to garnish
Pepper

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Toast the fennel seeds in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Place the salt and toasted fennel seeds in a mortar and grind until they are well combined and the seeds have broken down. Pass through a very fine sieve and set aside.
Place the tomatoes, tequila, lime juice, and sugar into a blender and puree until smooth. Add the fennel salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce to taste.
Pour mixture into large ice cube trays and freeze. Just before serving remove from freezer, take the frozen cubes out of ice tray and place them back in the blender.
Puree until smooth but still frozen.
Spoon into chilled glasses, garnish with mint and serve immediately.

30
Mar
2015

New (Old) Book – The A-Z of Cooking (1976)

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Bad Retro Food

As much as I have loved Salad’s For All Seasons and there are many, many recipes still to cook from there I felt I was due for a change. There are only so many salads a girl can take.

A little dig through my pile of vintage cook books revealed this gem – The A-Z of Cooking from Octopus Books, 1976.

Just the cover sent my retro food antenna twitching that this was going to be gold. Because right from the get-go, there were some mad quirks. It’s called the A-Z of cooking. And yet….only Appetizers to Wine are listed. What, no zucchini, zabaglione or…wait for it, my new favourite food name….zuurkoolstamppot. ( I don’t care what’s in Z…trust me, we’re eating zuurkoolstampot that week!).

The inside cover of The A-Z of cooking tells me:

This is the compulsive “look up and learn’ book, where every cook, because of the original approach of the book, will find something new. More helpful than a standard cookery book, more enjoyable than a cookery encyclopedia, the book is packed with 190 recipes which have been specially grouped to give the ideas and situations when you are needing them”

Does anyone else think English may not have been that writer’s first language?

I’m not going to go into the special groupings yet. We’ll get to them in due course.

I did however just want to spend this post pointing out a few of the maddest bits of The A-Z of Cooking right from the get go.

Let’s start with page 13. I have never actually screamed with fright when viewing a retro food photo before.

Until this.

Welcome To My Nightmare

Oh. My. God. This thing looks like it wants to kill you. Don’t be fooled by its supposedly fun little parsley toupé. This nasty little fucker has got a backbone of prawns and it wants you, and your family, dead. In the most painful way possible.

Mango Mousse…Or Is It?

Moving very swiftly away from the psycho-killer trout, we come to page 30 of The A-Z of cooking and a Mango Mousse.

Maybe.

Anyone care to address the elephant in the room?

Who knew that back in 1976 mangoes and passionfruit were actually the same thing?

Little known fact* for you all. It was only in 1977, as his first piece of business as newly elected President, that Jimmy Carter deemed that henceforth they would be distinct pieces of tropical fruit.

*I swear on a stack of wikipedias that this so-called fact is not something I just made up.

Good Health…Good Grief!!!

Who remembers the great cucumber shortage of 1976? No, me either but it is surely the only explanation for this picture of Burghul Salad on p 31. Even worse when you read the recipe and it says it feeds 8. I’m sure everyone enjoyed their half a piece of cucumber. I just hope that fisticuffs didn’t break out over which half of the family got a black olive.

And also….I hate to bring things down to the level of the toilet. But are little black ovoid shapes really the best garnish for a salad that already looks like kitty litter?

Expecting The Unexpected

I’ll leave you with possibly the worse recipe in the book. Filed under U for “Unexpected Guest” this Chilled Ten Minute Potato Soup sounds utterly revolting. Although, maybe there is a method to this madness. Maybe it’s actually a warning. Do not turn up unexpected to the anonymous writer’s house and want a meal. Because you’ll be given some disgusting concoction made from instant mash and dehydrated onions. And it will be cold to boot.

Kind of makes the kitty litter salad seem not so bad.

I think the A-Z of Cooking is going to be a hoot! Coming soon…Adventurous Appetizers!

Have a great week!

Signature 1 Related articles

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02
Mar
2015

Jane Grigson’s Watercress and Orange Salad

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Cookbook Guru, Feta, Olives, Orange, Salad, Walnuts, Watercress

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter,
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here

Ok, so not exactly true for Melbourne, although it has been a fairly shitty summer. But certainly for my friends in the States, it must feel like that. But hopefully, this Watercress and Orange Salad will bring you some virtual sunshine.

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

This is a very cool salad from Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book.. I think it looks like a big, beautiful sunflower. And not only is it pretty; it is super tasty too. How could it not be – peppery watercress, tangy sweet orange, earthy toasted walnuts and salty olives. And it looks so 70’s. I think it’s the combination of green and orange….

Here is the original recipe from Jane Grigson:

And here is the original version:

Jane Grigson's Watercress Salad — Jane Grigson’s Watercress Salad

This is very simple to put together. Line your plate with watercress and start piling in your ingredients. The worst bit if you do it in the circle is stripping all those watercress leaves.

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel…

Never ending or begining on an ever spinning wheel….

I found the best way to get the orange slices as thin as possible was to cut them with the skin still on, then cut the peel and pith away with a pair of kitchen scissors.

Then just add your walnuts and / or olives.

Before serving, a grind of pepper and a splash of vinaigrette made with some sherry vinegar and voila!!! Or should I say “Velado!” because this really has a Spanish feel to it.

I had this with some grilled salmon the first time I made it and it was delicious!!! The second time I had it with some prawns and it was, again super. I would love to try it with duck as per Jane’s suggestion.

And I made it a third time but this time tweaked the recipe a bit – I added some feta cheese and a teeny bit of red onion. This time, I had it with a lovely sourdough baguette for a light lunch and it was perfection!!! And yes, I made this three times in about ten days. It’s that good.

So far, Jane Grigson’s recipes are turning out to be amazing. I am a little disappointed that it is now March and we have another book to focus on at The Cookbook Guru. But wow!!! What a book!!! I am super excited about stepping across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco for my next venture with The Cookbook Guru!!!

And, if you are struggling through a long cold and lonely winter either physically or mentally, here is a little anecdote that may help.

Back in 1969, there was not much joy camp Beatle – there were personality clashes, legal battles, business disputes….things were going to hell in a handbasket. But in the midst of all the problems, all the trouble and strife, George Harrison (by far my favourite Beatle) walked into Eric Clapton’s garden with an acoustic guitar and wrote, to my mind anyway, one of the most beautiful, hopeful songs ever written. In the midst of adversity and all that…

And just to tie it all in together, here is George singing that song with some Spanish subtitles.

All together now

Sol, sol, sol
Ahí viene

Have a great week. I hope all your clouds have silver linings.

Signature 1

19
Feb
2015

Locket’s Savoury & Pimped Up Locket’s Savoury (GF)

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Blue Cheese, Bread, Cookbook Guru, Gluten Free, Pears, Watercress

One of the best things about 2014 was connecting with other cooks and bloggers and cooking from the same books. I love doing it in person at the Tasty Reads bookclub but it was also so much fun doing the Joan Crawford inspired dinner for Jenny’s book launch.

So, I was super excited to find this blog:

https://thecookbookguru.wordpress.com/what-is-the-cookbook-guru/

Which is pretty much all cook-a-longs. They choose a new book every two months and anyone can cook from the book and post on their own site. Then, Leah shares what everyone posts on The Cookbook Guru. What a great idea!!!

The book for January and February is Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book. First published in 1978, this has become a classic. And very auspicious that I get to start with a book full of retro recipes.

I was even more excited that there were a whole heap of artichoke recipes because the local continental deli had been having a sale and I bought about a ton of artichokes because they were something insane like 50 cents a can.

Then I read Jane’s advice on

How to choose canned artichokes.

“Don’t”

Huh….Jane apparently doesn’t mince words. I like her already. But anyway I hightailed it out of artichokes and landed at the very other end of the book at watercress and found this lovely recipe for a very fancy grilled cheese called Locket’s Savoury.

I did have a little giggle when I read the name of this dish. Back in the day, we used to have a footballer by the name of Lockett nicknamed Plugger because….I have no idea why and have sufficient lack of interest in football to be arsed to Google it. Anyway, some time before the Grand Final one year (the equiv of the Super Bowl or the FA Cup Final), Plugger hurt his groin. And I swear for an inordinately long amount of time, it seemed like if you picked up a newspaper, turned on the radio or the tv, all you heard about, all people seemed to care about was Plugger’s Groin. Strangers would approach you on the street and say “So, do you think it will be good for the Granny?”

“What?”

“Plugger’s groin.”

Not since David Beckham made those underwear ads has an entire nation been so obsessed by the state of a football player’s nether regions. And yes, by the way…we do nickname our Super Bowl/FA Cup etc The Granny. As in a little old lady. That’s Australia for you.

So, all that was Lockett’s Unsavoury, let’s turn to the matter at hand – Locket’s Savoury

So simple. So delicious, and just 4 ingredients.

Bread

The original recipe called for white bread. I used this beautiful seeded ciabatta. Jane’s recipe called for the crusts to be cut off. I left mine on because I love the taste of the toasted seeds!

Watercress

One of my favourite greens. I love the peppery taste of it!

Pears

Are probably my least favourite fruit. Will this recipe redeem them in my mind?

Locket's Savoury - Pear — Locket’s Savoury – Pear

Stilton.

Mmmmmm…blue cheese. Happy days….

Stilton is apparently the king of cheeses. Who knew cheese had a royalty. Who’s the queen? And more importantly who is the red headed reprobate prince flashing it’s arse and donning a swastika for high jinks?

I’m betting it’s goats cheese.

This was awesome. It actually made me like pears. And that’s saying something!
There’s a few more totally awesome watercress recipes in this same book and I have a ton of it left so you may get a few more o’ these before the month is through. There is definitely one more I have to do.

Here is Jane Grigson’s recipe:

This was really good. Super tasty, super easy and I wouldn’t change a thing in Jane’s recipe.

Or would I?

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed very unfair that my gluten-free friends missed out on this delight.

So without further ado, meet the pimped up, gluten-free Locket’s Savoury

Basically, scrap the bread, use a slice of pear as the base. Add your watercress and Stilton. Throw in some chopped walnuts. Once done, sprinkle with some chives.

In some ways this was almost better. Those pears got all caramelised and…dare I say it, delicious!!!

I’m so looking forward to doing the Cookbook Guru Cook-a-longs. And you know what would be even better? If you all did it too…

If you did want to, you already know the book for the rest of Feb. March and April is The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert. My local library has a copy of this. Yours probably does too. I also got the Jane Grigson book from the library.

But PS..The Locket’s Savoury is the gift that keeps on giving. Those little bits of blue cheese that slide off as you grill the cheese and go kind of crunchy. So good to eat later!!!

Have a fabulous week!

And I would love to know your royal family of cheese!!!

[yumprint-recipe id=’24’]

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