This recipe dates back to WW1, from the trenches, where food was often not hot by the time it came from the field kitchen to the front line. Soldiers would often throw together whatever they had to hand to make a hot meal and cook them over a little stove in the trenches.
Trench stew is the order of the day, here on Remembrance Sunday…
Ingredients
1 turnip or large potato
1 parsnip
2 carrots
½ tin corned beef
½ stock cube
1 or 2 biscuits or stale bread
1 pint of water
Method
Chop up the vegetables, carrots into small pieces, other veg larger pieces and add to pint of boiling water with stock cube in.
As the veg becomes tender mix in 1/2 can corned beef (I didn’t as I’m vegetarian) and crumble in the stale bread or biscuits/crackers and simmer for a few more minutes.
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Outside the train station in Bremen, Germany. For some reason these young students photo-bombed the photo!!
Normality will be resumed soon…
The past week or so has been hectic but productive in the job seeking department and it looks like I have a third call back interview coming up soon for a forward thinking engineering firm.
Today I am catching up with chores, paperwork and normal family life.
In my mind I have got back on track with wanting to address my weight issues and realizing that life is short and I want Richard and I to be healthy enough to continue on our adventures on planet earth.
We had a wonderful weekend away in July in Bremen, Germany. Beer and Gooseberry cake featured heavily…not so good for the waistline but totally delicious.
I’m now back to the tried and tested 1940s food routine of porridge made with water for breakfast (I add some ground flax seed for Omega 3) and lunches are currently a hearty salad with seasonal raw veg, some kidney beans sprinkled over and a warm potato.
Tonight I will look in my recipe books for a pie..
Yes it does come out a lovely shade of green… much like a savoury green smoothie! A whole bags worth of Kale went into this soup which made enough for six people served with bread.
I know it tastes good as Mr Tiddles (Richard) gobbled his down when he came over for supper – I was WELL impressed!
So here is the recipe for wartime ‘Kale and Potato Soup’ which comes from The Ministry of Food’s wartime leaflet No 15, ‘Easy to Make Soups and Broths’.
Enjoy!
Kale and Potato Soup
2 pints of vegetable stock
1-1/2 lbs of potatoes washed and chopped
1 onion or leek chopped
4 oz kale, shredded
Chopped parsley
4 tablespoons of dried milk (I used a nut milk as I don’t use cows milk)
Lots of salt and pepper to taste (just add extra herbs and spices to your own taste if too bland)
Method
Put half the vegetable stock into a large pan, bring to boil and add the chopped onion/leek and potato and cook until vegetables are soft then mash everything up together.
Bring to the boil again and add the washed and shredded kale
Cook for a further 20 minutes
Add the milk and remaining vegetable stock together and add and reheat
Season with salt and pepper (and spices and herbs of your choice)
The first recipe is a simple, inexpensive, veggie meal, using fresh food from the Co-op, taken from the wartime Ministry of Foods Cheese leaflet No 12… Vegetable au Gratin.
And there is a story behind this dish and it’s to do with the big pottery dish I used in this recipe…
Richard (Mr Tiddles) and I recently spent four days in France in La Rochelle. One day we popped into a small little shop tucked down one of the back streets, to buy some bread, cheese and wine (we heard you have to do that in France so we did).
I think the shop keeper loved Richard and his beard, he called his wife down for a chat (they lived over the top of the shop) and he gave Richard a free big pottery dish which we gratefully took away with us back to the UK.
Seeing the wartime recipe for ‘Vegetables au Gratin’ I just had to use the dish (which by the way says on it ‘Tradition de Vendee – Porc Fermier Plein Air’ and if you know what that translates to I’d be ever so grateful if you could share your linguistic wisdom).
So here is ‘Vegetable au Gratin’ served in a French dish that travelled all the way back from France in Richard’s backpack. It’s simple, tasty, and economical.. ENJOY!
Ingredients
3 breakfast cups of diced cooked vegetables
1 breakfast cup of white or coloured beans
1 small chopped leek
3 oz strong grated cheese (use more if available)
1 oz flour
1/2 pint of vegetable stock
1/2 pint of milk (I used almond milk)
Lots of salt and pepper
Method
Cook vegetables and set aside
Mix flour to a paste with some of the vegetable stock and milk
Put the remaining liquid in a pan and bring to the boil.
Slowly add in the paste and mix
Add the cooked vegetables and half the cheese and season with lots of salt and pepper
Put into a ovenproof dish
Sprinkle with cheese and a sliced tomato (optional)
Grill until browned
This dish serves 4 – 6 people and using ingredients from the Co-op it cost £3.50 to make.
I love afternoon tea, I love that kind of friendly, homely, happy atmosphere that one associates with a nice day out, where colour, creed, wealth, status and dialect pale into insignificance when faced with a mound of simple sandwiches, colourful cakes and a huge pot of loose leaf tea…cue bunting, wartime music and smiling, helpful staff and you have the perfect afternoon.
We ordered ‘The Ivor Novello Afternoon Tea for Two’ (from a replica ration book menu which already had me giddy) and a few minutes later we were presented with simple, green vintage style crockery, and a huge teapot of ‘Fourteas’ blend loose leaf tea in a special teapot filter as well as a timer so we could brew the tea perfectly.
We ordered simple cheese and pickle sandwiches on granary bread which had been baked locally, this was then followed by huge scones with clotted cream and jam and finally, the top tier had a selection of little cakes…Did we eat it all? You bet!
The attention to detail was excellent at the tea-rooms. The staff were adorable and they all looked like they thoroughly enjoyed their jobs, had delightful manners this therefore gave the place a lovely atmosphere.
Out in the garden we found an Anderson Shelter as well as several tables and more garden bunting. Having had such a lovely time on Saturday we went back on Sunday for cheese and pickle sandwiches and another large pot of tea, this time enjoying our afternoon tea outside next to the bomb shelter.
We came away with a feeling that is hard to describe but probably the words pleased and comforted would be appropriate. It’s an experience you HAVE to make part of your visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Mr Tiddles and I went on a fabulous long weekend to Trapani in Sicily. How did we pick our location? A leap of faith based on a return flight on Ryanair for just £50 if we are honest…
We travelled light with just a small backpack each (so as not to incorporate a baggage charge) and Richard booked a convenient B & B called Piazza Vittorio which had got great reviews on Trip Advisor and was only something like £20 per person, per night. It was just 1 minute from the beach and a short walk into the old part of the city which was filled with beautiful old buildings and lovely cafe’s and restaurants..
It was indeed impossible to eat 1940’s… but we did enjoy lovely food and Sicilian wine!
Our B & B room at Piazza Vittorio – Guiesseppa, our host, was wonderfully helpful
We had an absolutely wonderful time, so much to tell have decided to set up a travel blog just so we can keep a track of where we go, what we do and build memories.
