When I was given an enormous marrow (actually an overgrown courgette) by a work colleague the other day, I was up for the challenge it would present seeing as I am the only person in my household that appreciates a good marrow!

In my best frugal style I’ve so far lived off the marrow for three days now and have got halfway through it and so far created three dishes. The first was a ‘Marrow Masala’ which made me two main dinners and a packed lunch for work, a courgette drizzle cake of which I ate several slices at home then brought the other half to work where surprisingly my mostly male colleagues enjoyed it despite telling them the main ingredient was “Allan’s Marrow”.

Today I used a recipe for wartime marrow chutney to make three large pasta jars full of this surprisingly delicious meal accompaniment. I’ll be taking one of these as a gift to a BBQ tonight, so pretty confident that I won’t be poisoning anyone…(despite building up a reputation as the ‘Letitia Cropley’ of South Yorkshire)

Here is the recipe

Marrow Chutney

• 2 lbs of marrow
• 2 apples
• 2 onions
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 lbs sugar
• handful of sultanas (optional)
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of pickling spices (I had none so used some dried herbs, pepper, crushed chilli flakes, turmeric)
• 3/4 pint of vinegar (I used 1/2 malt and 1/2 apple cider)

Method

1. Chop apples into small pieces and slowly soften for 5 minutes in a large saucepan with a little of the vinegar.
2. Add the two chopped onions, add more vinegar, cook for another 5 minutes stirring when needed.
3. Chop up the marrow into 1/2 inch pieces (after removing skin and seeds) and add two pounds of marrow to the saucepan with most of the rest of the vinegar and stir.
4. Hold some vinegar back to add later on if mixture gets too thick.
5. Add the sugar, salt, sultanas, pickling spices and stir bringing to a simmer.
6. Cook on medium/low for about 45 minutes until everything is cooked soft and some of the mixture is getting thick and pulpy. Add a little more vinegar if mixture is too dry and thick.
7. Meanwhile add the clean rinsed jars on a baking tray into a preheated oven at 140 C for about 10 minutes until jars are hot and steep lids in boiling water.
8. When mixture is ready removed from heat and remove jars from oven.
9. Add hot mixture to hot jars and screw lids on.

Makes 3 larger jars or 5 jam jars. Will keep for a year in the larder, refrigerate once open.

Today I have had bread rolls for lunch and bread rolls for dinner because these ‘oat topped bread rolls’ were so delicious that I couldn’t stop. I’d run out of bread at home and it was easy to knock up a small batch of rolls and cheap too!

Using the basic home-made bread recipe used on the home front during WW2 (fat free) it didn’t take long before 6 large bread rolls appeared out of the oven and filled my tummy.

Instead of using plain flour I used one of my favourite flours (which was open in the cupboard already) and that is Allinsons Country Grain Bread Flour which is so tasty, chewy and malty with whole grains in.

Total cost: I worked out the cost to be under 5p per roll using a store brand strong bread flour and it was under 10p per role using the ‘Allinsons Country Grain Bread Flour’.

Oat Topped Bread Rolls (makes 6)

• 3/4 lb (340g) plain flour (strong bread flour for best results although this was not for sale during the war!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4/10th pint (225 mls) of warm water
• 1.5 teaspoon dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Handful of porridge oats

Method

1. Place flour, yeast, sugar and salt into mixing bowl and mix.
2. Add in the warm water and mix well adding more water or more flour as needed until it is the right consistency.
3. Remove dough onto a floured board and knead until it feels nice and stretchy and elastic.
4. Use parchment paper to line a baking tray (with sides) and divide the dough into six round balls and slightly flatten.
5. Cover the tray with a clean damp tea towel or cling film and place somewhere warm to prove (should nearly double in size)
6. Remove cover, sprinkle with some oats, and place in a pre-heated oven at 180c for about 20 minutes or so.
7. Leave to cool on tray once removed from the oven.

175-200 cals per roll.

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Here is a nice tasty wartime flapjack recipe which I’ve made twice in the last two weeks as I had lots of oats to use up and some hard margarine. I divided the mixture up and added a handful of mixed dried fruit into the second half. You could anything you wanted like some chopped nuts or shredded coconut.

Flapjack (makes 8 large or 12 regular slices)

• 250g Porridge Oats
• 100g Butter (or hard margarine)
• 100g Light Brown Sugar
• 2-3 Tbsps Golden Syrup (or any thick table syrup)

Method

• Put the butter or margarine and the golden syrup into a saucepan and melt gently. When the mixture becomes liquid mix in the sugar and stir.
• Remove from heat and add in the oats. (and any additional ingredients you want to add like dried fruit or coconut).
• Grease an appropriate size container and press in the flapjack mixture with the back of a spoon.
• Place in a pre-heated oven at 160-180 C for 20-30 minutes until edges are golden brown.
• Remove from oven and set aside. Cut into slices while still warm. Leave to cool completely before removing from tin.

Cost = 80p in ingredients.