recipes

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Emergency Dumplings | Pandemic Pantry Series | Recipe No. 2

I tried the emergency dumpling recipe from the FREE Pandemic Pantry Community Cookbook. Thank you to Sara Thompson from the United States for submitting it.

The nice thing is that the recipe really uses whatever you have. We’ve used leftover instant ramen seasoning packets. We’ve made broth with ginger, garlic, and other seasonings. To me, it’s the perfect recipe for emergencies. I originally got this recipe from the www.townsends.us cooking channel. They are a great small company that does a lot of work preserving history..

Sara Thompson

Because the dumplings are made of just plain flour and vegetable broth with no fat or no raising agent such as baking powder (or you could use self-raising flour) the little dumplings were quite dense but this recipe undoubtedly shows that even if you just have a bit of flour you can add energy to your soup or stew and fill a tummy, cheaply and quickly. I added my dumplings to some soup (for breakfast can you believe!)

I made medium sized dumplings and they took around 15 minutes to simmer and cook. The beauty of this emergency recipe is that it is quick, cheap and with the 1 cup of flour I used I was able to make 10 dumplings and all in one cooking pot. If the power is out then things you can cook in one saucepan over a camping stove are very useful!

You can download the recipe for FREE in the Pandemic Pantry Community Cookbook.

C xxxxx

PS: I’d LOVE IT if you would subscribe to my YouTube channel. I will be adding a new WW2 video recipe, Pandemic Pantry recipe and Crisis cooking recipe every month (I’d do more if I had the time!)

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Oat Milk | Crisis Cooking Series | Recipe No. 1

With everything that is going on right now, especially the cost of living, I’m going to do a YouTube series on “Crisis Cooking” that will hopefully find alternatives to some of our favourite foods that cost less during difficult times.

I think if the world has taught us anything these past two years, it’s that we can never truly know what the future holds and so looking for ways and preparing to adapt to a change in circumstances is prudent. Whether the crisis is a medical one, loss of employment, ongoing pandemic effects, the soaring cost of living, or world conflict, working out how to reduce costs and bridging those gaps during times of change or hardship, hopefully will be helpful to some degree.

Please join my premiere on YouTube tonight at 7 pm where I go through the process of making my very first homemade oat milk. Being a vegan I buy my oat milk and at between £1.25-£1.75 per litre its far from cheap! Will making my own save me money and what will it taste like?

I will have LIVE chat open during the premiere, so please pop in and say hello and I look forward to hearing from you.

Lots of love, C xxxx

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Savoury Potato Biscuits | WW2 Series | Recipe No. 198

It’s been quite a while since I last created a wartime recipe and I’ve never actually filmed a WW2 recipe in my kitchen here in Swindon, so after I finished work today I thought it was now or never, grabbed my mobile phone, and a potato and set to work.

Anything with potatoes in has already won me over. Add to that simple and inexpensive and a bit strange then it’s a done deal. This recipe is from the Ministry of Foods Potato Leaflet No. 27.

Please note that the recipe DOES NOT make 24 x 3 inch biscuits. Mine made 16 x 2.5 inch (I measured my biscuit cutter) so whoever wrote up the recipe made a boo boo or was just trying to get people to eat more potatoes by promising more food out of so little. Either way, these little biscuits were pretty tasty and you can hear my full verdict on the video I created.

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. margarine
  • 3 oz. plain flour
  • 3 oz. cooked mashed potato
  • 6 tablespoons of grated cheese (I used vegan Violife)
  • 1.5 teaspoons salt (1 tsp would be enough!)
  • Pinch of cayenne or black pepper

Method

  • Rub the margarine into the flour.
  • Add the potato, cheese and seasoning and work to a stiff dough.
  • Roll out thinly, cut into shapes and bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
  • This makes 24 x 3 inch biscuits (no it doesn’t!)

Hope you enjoy making these!

C xxxx

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Crunchies – Recipe No. 195

How simple and so very delicious is this authentic wartime recipe. They were so easy and quick to make and would cope with the addition of sultanas or aromatic spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg or black market chocolate chunks.

I haven’t baked biscuits or cakes for quite some time, simply because I have a rather uncontrollable sweet tooth but with porridge oats being one of the main ingredients, I convinced myself that these were “good for me”. Three biscuits later (had to taste test!) I can comfortably say these are wonderfully comforting and one or two won’t do you too much harm!

Crunchies

  • 5 oz plain white flour
  • 4 oz porridge oats (I used regular porridge)
  • 2 oz sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 oz lard
  • 2 oz butter or margarine (I used 4 oz of Flora plant based butter instead of lard and butter)
  • 2 oz golden syrup
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I didn’t have any and it still tasted great)
  1. Cream the fats, sugar, syrup and vanilla essence together until well mixed.
  2. Add the dry ingredients and mix until a dough forms.
  3. You can then divide mixture into 12 balls and press them onto the lined baking tray until they form round discs about 1 cm thick or you can flour a board, roll out the dough and cut out the biscuits.
  4. Bake at 180 c for about 20 minutes or so until golden brown on the edges.
  5. Remove from oven. Leave to cool on tray for 10 minutes then transfer to wire rack and leave to fully cool.

Makes 12 large biscuits, or 18 smaller ones.

You can listen to this recipe on Spotify: https://anchor.fm/carolyn-ekins

https://anchor.fm/carolyn-ekins
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Rhubarb & Apple Jam – Recipe No. 193

My friend Jacquie (who I hadn’t seen in person for over 30 years) recently dropped off a big bag of rhubarb at my door. It was absolutely lovely to see her again at a distance and to receive the gift of rhubarb. Infact, I’m doing quite well because Olly, her husband (who I also hadn’t seen for over 30 years) dropped off 3 raspberry canes for my garden last month too. Needless to say, when it is safe to visit in a month or two (or three) it will be great to catch up with them properly and bring reciprocal goodies in return!

The very next day I set to work on making a rhubarb and apple jam (with a cup full of frozen berries thrown in for good measure). Using a standard recipe from the Ministry of Foods ‘Jams and Jellies’ leaflet I substituted one of the main ingredients (in this case elderberries for rhubarb) and that was pretty much that.

Maincrop Rhubarb often has stringy bits in it, you’ll see what I mean when you cut the end. Simply lift the strings and pull down the stalk to remove them. I removed some of mine not all. Everything was fine..

As always, jam with rhubarb is delicious. To me, it is synonymous with an English wartime kitchen garden. As I enjoyed some fresh homemade bread slathered with the jam after taking the main photos today, it somehow fit perfectly into a warm sunny afternoon. Despite being in the town centre, my garden backs onto ‘Queens Park’ in Swindon (where I now live) and I am lucky to have robins, blue tits, wrens, magpies, squirrels, bees and butterflies visiting daily and several curiously watched and hovered as I sat back quietly enjoying the simplicity and taste of bread and jam.

Hope you really enjoy this recipe.

C xxx

 

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs rhubarb
  • 2 lbs Bramley apples (any type will do but cooking is best)
  • 1 cup of mixed wild berries (blackberry, elderberry, blackcurrants or frozen mixed berries, whatever your favourite is!)
  • 3 lbs of sugar

 

Method

  1. Wash and peel apples and cut into chunks.
  2. Wash and string (where necessary) the rhubarb and chop into chunks, cover in all the sugar, mix and set aside for 30 minutes to bring out the juice.
  3. Put the sugar-coated rhubarb, rhubarb juice and apple chunks in a preserving pan (or similar) and simmer gently (add a little water if necessary) stirring slowly until soft (about 5-10 mins).
  4. Add the berries, bring to the boil and simmer, stirring slowly until soft (about 5-10 mins). Add a little more water if necessary as you don’t want the fruit to burn.
  5. Continue to boil rapidly for a further 10 mins stirring regularly.
  6. Take off the heat and test a large drop of jam on a chilled saucer and if it crinkles after a couple of mins it’s ready (alternatively use a jam/candy thermometer until it reaches 105C)
  7. If not boil for another 2 mins and repeat the test until ready.
  8. Remove excess scum with a slotted spoon.
  9. Ladle hot jam into hot sterilised jars having first made sure glass rims of jars are spotless. Clean with white vinegar if not.
  10. Put on hot lids and twist until finger tight. Set aside to cool undisturbed or alternatively further process in a hot water bath to ensure a good vacuum and seal.
  11. Makes several x 300 ml jars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pickled Beetroot – Recipe No. 192

Who doesn’t like that beautiful deep burgundy and earthy beauty of beetroot? It is, of course, just wonderful baked and eaten straight from the oven with just salt and pepper BUT it also takes on quite a different taste and usefulness when pickled for further use throughout the year. I particularly love my pickled beetroot preserved with juniper berries which somehow remind me of fragrant evergreen forests, certainly evocative of the wild. I like that..

It really is so simple to pickle beetroot and if you don’t want to go to the extra faff of processing the filled jars in a hot water bath at the end (so you can store them for several months in your larder) then you can always place the jars in your fridge instead and just make sure to use them up within a few weeks.

Once you bake your beetroot save the juice that is in the tin foil, once strained you can store it in the fridge for a few days and use it as a food dye for cakes.

Enjoy!

C xxxxx

Ingredients

  • Several large beetroots, 12 medium or 20+ tiny ones
  • 750 ml vinegar (white, malt or pickling)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 dessert spoon black (or mixed) peppercorns
  • 1 tablespoon of juniper berries (my own addition just because I love them)
  • 1 dessertspoon of mustard seeds (optional)
  • 1 bay leaf in each jar (optional)

Method

  1. Gently wash beetroots and cut some of the stalks and tails off but leave an inch or so of the top and bottom on so they bleed less when cooking
  2. Place all in a couple of large pieces of tin foil brought together at the top or individually wrap.
  3. Cook in oven at about 180 C for an hour. Tiny ones less, large ones longer. Bake until tender.
  4. 20 minutes before the beetroot has cooked place clean washed jars into the oven to sterilise for about 20 minutes.
  5. You will also need to bring a large deep saucepan of water to a simmer as you will need to process the jars of beetroot after they have been bottled (not everyone does this but for safety I do as it ensures a good vacuum and seal)
  6. Remove from oven and when cool enough to handle place in water and removed the skin and top and tail. If cooked properly the skin will easily peel away. Rinse and place on non-porous plate or tray.
  7. Cut into chunks for the medium or large beetroots, tiny ones can be pickled whole.
  8. In a saucepan place the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, peppercorns and juniper berries (and mustard seeds if you like those)
  9. Stir and bring to a simmer until all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
  10. Remove jars from oven, fill jars with beetroot leaving 1/2 inch headroom, (add a bay leaf if you like) pour on hot liquid from saucepan.
  11. Clean jar rims with vinegar then put lids onto hot jars and liquid, finger tight.
  12. Place in hot water (covered by water) and simmer for about 20 minutes.
  13. Remove safely with jar lifter.
  14. Set aside and leave undisturbed so the jars create a vacuum and the lid depresses. Several hours later you can move the jar.
  15. Leave to mature for a week before using.
  16. Makes several small jars or 3 large ones.

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Mock Brains – Recipe No. 191

Mock recipes were created during the war because people missed the ‘real thing’ during times of rationing. Forgive me for saying this but SERIOUSLY, were brains so popular before the war that people really missed eating them? It would appear so…

Someone had posted this recipe on a 1940s food group on Facebook. Once I had recovered from the image of ‘Anthony Hopkins’ as Hannibal Lecture exhibiting a ‘Flehmen Response’ to the thought of human flesh and fava beans with a nice Chianti, despite being a vegetarian, I HAD to try this weirdness. Thankfully the massacre of oats was the only heinous crime I was about to commit…

Let me tell you, these mock brains were TASTY (but only with lots of seasoning and browning in fat). I was impressed as much as I was with the ‘MOCK BLACK PUDDING’ so don’t be afraid of trying these. They are so cheap to make which isn’t a bad thing right now with no work and no jobs!  I greedily ate these ALL for my lunch with a salad. I’d even go as far as to say if you added some garlic and extra spices like hickory smoke and paprika, you could cook them in fat in smaller nugget shapes and once they had cooled slightly, enjoy them with a nice tomato sauce or dip as a treat. I’d go for it and quite easily forget this was actually porridge!

 

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of leftover porridge
  • 1 tablespoon of self-raising flour
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 egg
  • large pinch of thyme
  • salt and pepper

 

Method

Chop the onion very fine, mix into the porridge, add the flour and flavouring, bind together with the beaten egg, form into rissoles, roll in flour then fry in hot fat until brown.

 

My tips: Don’t skimp on the frying fat, this will help give it some flavour. Add lots of salt and pepper and herbs and spices you like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Blackcurrant & Bramley Apple Jam – Recipe No. 190

This jam was just lovely! I used the recipe from one of the Ministry of Foods ‘Jams and Jellies’ leaflets (see below) substituting elderberries for blackcurrants (as I had a couple of bags in my freezer). I have 3 jams on the go right now, plain blackcurrant, this blackcurrant and apple and a rhubarb, apple and berry (recipe coming soon). I’m particularly enjoying a teaspoonful in my morning porridge or a dollop on my fresh homemade bread 2 or 3 times a week.

I sterilise my jars for these jam recipes by washing the jars, rinsing in hot water and then placing the empty jars in a pre-heated oven at 150C for 20 minutes, removing them on the tray moments before ladling in the hot jam. The lids I rinse, place in a bowl, pour over very hot water from the kettle until the lids are submerged, and leave them there for several minutes before the jam is added to the jars.

Enjoy!

C xxxx

PS: There are useful jam making supplies on my Amazon shop HERE

 

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lbs Blackcurrants washed & drained (frozen berries are fine)
  • 1.5 lbs Bramley apples peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch sized chunks
  • 2.5 lbs Granulated sugar (maybe only 2lbs of sugar if using sweet apples)
  • 300 ml Water

Instructions

  1. Put the water and apple chunks in a preserving pan (or similar) and simmer gently, stirring slowly until soft (about 5-10 mins).
  2. Add the blackcurrants, bring to the boil and simmer, stirring slowly until soft (about 5-10 mins).
  3. Add the sugar and keep stirring to dissolve the crystals.
  4. Once dissolved boil rapidly for 10 mins stirring regularly.
  5. Take off the heat and test a large drop of jam on a chilled saucer and if it crinkles after a couple of mins it’s ready (alternatively use a jam/candy thermometer until it reaches 105C)
  6. If not boil for another 2 mins and repeat the test until ready.
  7. Remove excess scum with a slotted spoon.
  8. Ladle into sterilised jars. Makes several x 300 ml jars

Caveat: You can further process the jams after bottling (submerged in hot water and simmered for a further 15 minutes for a jars up to 500mls and 25 minutes up to 750 mls). This is often used to ensure a proper seal/vacuum once removed from the hot water. Although I usually further process with pickles etc I don’t always with high sugar jams as long as everything is clean and piping hot and the rims of the jar are absolutely clean when placing the lids on. Although botulism is quite rare these days you can’t be too clean and too careful so feel free to process further… xx

BOOK UPDATE: “The Pandemic Pantry cookbook is about half completed now. It is taking longer than I thought mostly because I’ve been using the nice weather to work in the garden to try and prepare for planting a victory garden. With no job and an uncertain future right now I HAD to put this first and make it a priority knowing that the nice weather wouldn’t be with us forever (we are forecast nearly two weeks of rain starting tomorrow). I feel that our food supply is important especially if prices rise over the coming months and hopefully, a garden of sorts will help my economic situation a little if times get tough…. hope you understand. I’ll be catching up with the book this week. Thanks for all the great recipes and messages. It’s been AMAZING!” C xxxx

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Wartime Spiced Biscuits – Recipe No. 189

Dear all,

I found this recipe online from a woman who wrote that this was her Grandmother’s recipe she used during the war for a special treat. At the moment I’m finding most of my untried wartime recipes online as all my cookbooks remain up north under my sons’ bed at his flat. It may be a month or two before I’m able to collect them too due to our current pandemic restrictions.

These biscuits came out quite soft, almost scone-like but delicious nevertheless. Grated carrot (or grated lemon or orange rind) would have been nice to include too so I will bear that in mind next time!

BOOK UPDATE: “The Pandemic Pantry cookbook is about half completed now. It is taking longer than I thought mostly because I’ve been using the nice weather to work in the garden to try and prepare for planting a victory garden. With no job and an uncertain future right now I HAD to put this first and make it a priority knowing that the nice weather wouldn’t be with us forever (we are forecast nearly two weeks of rain starting tomorrow). I feel that our food supply is important especially if prices rise over the coming months and hopefully, a garden of sorts will help my economic situation a little if times get tough…. hope you understand. I’ll be catching up with the book this week. Thanks for all the great recipes and messages. It’s been AMAZING!” C xxxx

Ingredients

  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon mixed spice (I used 1/2 tsp)
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 3 tablespoons caster sugar
  • 1 dessertspoon dried egg
  • 180g margarine or butter
  • 4 tablespoons chopped sultanas plus raisins (I used mixed fruit instead.
  • 1 dessertspoon milk, or more if needed

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 C / Gas 5. Grease a baking tray or use baking paper.
  2. In a bowl, mix together the dried ingredients. Rub the margarine or butter into the mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the fruit and then the milk to form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and roll out to 1cm thickness.
  3. Cut into rounds using a fluted biscuit cutter. (I actually put dollops on the tray as the mixture was quite moist so this could be why mine was more cake like – see photos) Arrange on the baking tray.
  4. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven, cool and serve.

Makes around 15

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Bread & Butter Pickles – Recipe No. 188

Bread and Butter Pickles really are one of those synonymous Great Depression recipes. The origins are likely from the 1920s, a few years before the crash and subsequent depression.

QUOTE: Bread-and-butter pickles are a marinated pickle produced with sliced cucumbers in a solution of vinegar, sugar, and spices which may be processed either by canning or simply chilled as refrigerator pickles. The origin of the name and the spread of their popularity in the United States is attributed to Omar and Cora Fanning, a pair of Illinois cucumber farmers who started selling sweet and sour pickles in the 1920s and filed for the trademark “Fanning’s Bread and Butter Pickles” in 1923 (though the recipe and similar ones are probably much older).[3] The story attached to the name is that the Fannings survived rough years by making the pickles with their surplus of undersized cucumbers and bartering them with their grocer for staples such as bread and butter.[4]

It makes sense that after a plentiful harvest and a glut of cheap vegetables available in stores/markets, people started preserving without the need for refrigeration for leaner months during the winter and of course, this behaviour came into its own during the Great Depression and WW2 (however home canning dated back into the 1800’s). When nothing much else was available, some salty and sweet pickles sandwiched between bread and butter was much welcomed and enjoyed.

Bread and Butter Pickles were in many recipe books in North America during WW2. I have a strong nostalgia for these pickles as when I lived in Canada, a small group of volunteers would congregate in the Lions Club community kitchen in Mahone Bay to make hundreds of pickles and jams to fundraise for the Mahone Bay Settler’s Museum. I loved the times I helped out with this amazing bunch of women and the smell of processing Bread & Butter Pickles still remains with me.

So I HAD to include them on my blog, they are absolutely worthy. I have just eaten a bread and butter sandwich filled with the pickles and it was delicious.

C xxx

PS: You can buy jars, implements and pantry ingredients for this recipe via my online Amazon recommended list CLICK HERE

 

 

The original recipe was said to contain just cucumbers, onions and green peppers as the main vegetables. The recipe has changed in the last 100 years but the one below I have based on a handwritten note I found online from someone’s Grandma during WW2 in North America.

Ingredients

  • 8/10 small firm cucumbers (or 4/5 large firm cucumbers)
  • 4 cups of white vinegar
  • 2 cups of sugar ( you can use a little less)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 tablespoons of kosher or pickling salt
  • 1 large mild onion
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 tablespoon of mustard seeds
  • 2 teaspoons mixed or black peppercorn
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds (I didn’t use as I had none)
  • 1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves (I didn’t use as I don’t like cloves)

Method

  1. Chop the cucumbers into 1cm or 1/4 inch slices after having removed and discarded both ends.
  2. Chop the peppers into long slices
  3. Chop the onions into very thin half-round slices
  4. In a large bowl mix the chopped vegetables above with the kosher or pickling salt (table salt will make the pickling brine cloudy)
  5. When all the vegetables have been mixed thoroughly, cover with some cling film in contact along the top and place on a cold shelf in your fridge for 2-4 hours so the liquid will leach from the vegetables making them crispier for pickling.
  6. After 2-4 hours you need to thoroughly rinse the vegetables several times in copious amounts of cold running water to remove as much salt as possible. Set aside to drain while you make your pickling brine.
  7. Get a large stockpot and fill with water, enough to cover the jars you will be using for the pickles as you’ll need to place the jars in once you have filled them. Bring to the boil. You can boil your empty jars in this for 5 minutes before filling or alternatively rinse the clean jars and place on a tray in a preheated oven (160 C) for 15 minutes until hot. You should always ensure that your jars are hot when you add in hot liquids.
  8. Place jar lids in a bowl of boiling water ensuring they are covered. Set aside.
  9. In a large saucepan put in your vinegar, water, sugar, mustard seeds, peppercorns, ground turmeric, celery seeds and ground cloves (if used).
  10. Bring to a very gentle simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar and ensure everything is well mixed in.
  11. Fill each jar with a mixture of the vegetables.
  12. Add in the hot brine leaving a head-space of about 1/2 inch to allow for expansion during the processing in hot water.
  13. Clean top of each rim of the jars with some kitchen roll and white vinegar.
  14. Place lids on jars, finger tight. Do not over tighten however they should be firmly on.
  15. Place jars into stock-pot (not directly onto the bottom, you can stand them on a silicon muffin tray or place a damp tea towel in the bottom of the pot).
  16. Simmer for 15 minutes for 500 ml or less jars and longer (about 25 minutes) for 1 litre jars.
  17. Remove from pot with a jar lifter and place on a tea towel and leave undisturbed for a couple of hours. The lids will depress and form a safe seal.
  18. Once cooled, clean up the outside of the jar, label and place somewhere out of direct sunlight for storage.
  19. Leave pickles for at least a week although I opened up a small pot the day after pickling and they tasted great!
  20. Makes 8 smaller pots or 4 large ones!

PS: You can buy jars, implements and pantry ingredients for this recipe via my online Amazon recommended list CLICK HERE!