video 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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Mock Banana – Recipe No. 148

This is the legendary and authentic wartime recipe for ‘Mock Banana’.

Before the war the Brits imported 70% of their food which equated to around 20 million tons per year!

Imports dropped significantly to about 1/3rd and consequently many foods such as bananas were impossible to get hold of. Prior to the bar the Brits went crazy for bananas so it was one of the foods that were truly missed.

Somewhere, some strange culinary mind obviously decided that a substitute was needed. This was when the good old parsnip was brought into play…

My lunch today consisted of 4 mock banana sandwiches and actually, despite the rather bizarre experience, they tasted pretty good! (but then again I do love parsnips)

Mock Banana

1 medium parsnip per round of sandwiches
2-3 teaspoon of caster sugar per parsnip
2-3 squirts of banana essence per parsnip (you can buy on eBay)

Method

Peel and chop up the parsnip and boil until soft
Drain and mix in the caster sugar and banana essence
Mash until fairly smooth
Cool down
Spread on your bread and make your sandwiches!

parsnips