marguerite patten

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Cheese potatoes

This meal was easy and yummy!

Being vegan I couldn’t use regular cheese but I used a dairy free cheese ( Daiya – the best dairy free cheese I’ve come across).

I try and eat as much RAW food as possible every day so I served my “cheese potatoes” on a bed of baby spinach and it was quite delicious.

Cheese potatoes

  1. Bake one large potato per person.
  2. Cut in half when cooked and carefully scoop out each half.
  3. Mix the scooped out mixture with a little margarine/butter, some salt and pepper and dried mixed herbs and a sprinkling of cheese and fill the potatoes again
  4. Place on baking tray, sprinkle a little cheese over and some more pepper
  5. Cook on a slow grill until a little browned
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Cold meat pasties

I often get my 1940s recipes from old cookbooks or through modern nostalgia publications, museum information, reliable sources on the internet and from listening to people who lived through the war…

However- sometimes the ingredients and quantities given can be quite wrong. I have discovered this as I cook my way through 100 authentic recipes… this means that the second or third time I cook a dish adjustments have to be made to ‘get it right’…

Here is a ‘cold meat pastie’ recipe from ‘Feeding the Nation’ by Marguerite Patten. The original quantity in the recipe called for 2 tablespoons of chopped cooked vegetables to make 4 pasties. There was no way this was enough- more like 2 tablespoons of chopped cooked vegetables per pastie. The recipe also originally called for 2 tablespoons of gravy or water- again not needed. Using this amount of liquid just doesn’t work…

Cold meat pasties

  • Shortcrust pastry made with 8 oz flour, 4 oz fat and cold water to bind
  • 8 oz cold meat minced (whatever you have spare- I use a mixture of sausage, bacon, minced beef or corned beef)
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 8 tablespoons of cooked chopped vegetables
  • 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 chopped tomatoes
  • salt and pepper
  • milk or egg to glaze

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C
  2. Divide pastry into 4 pieces and roll out each piece into a circular shape a little larger than a saucer
  3. Mix the vegetables, onion and minced meat, Worcestershire sauce and seasoning together in a bowl
  4. Spoon the mixture into the middle or onto one side (depending on how you like your pastie to look)
  5. Apply water to edges before bringing together, flute the edges or use a fork to press together
  6. Prick a couple of times with knife or form
  7. Apply some milk or beaten egg to pastie
  8. Place on baking tray and cook for around 30 minutes until golden brown

Serve with salad or gravy and mash

Makes 4 pasties

Ideal the next day cold in lunch box!

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Danish Apple Pudding

First of all SORRY for the quality of the photo- if you stare at it for too long you’ll be heading to the nearest ‘Vogue Optical’ for an eye test…… I really miss the Canon Eos Digital (that used to take incredible photos).

So here is the recipe for ‘Danish Apple Pudding’ that I cooked yesterday. It tasted really nice and was very easy to make.

Danish Apple Pudding

  • 2lbs apples (peeled and thinly sliced)
  • 2 tea cups of breadcrumbs
  • 2 tablespoons of golden syrup (uk) or table/maple syrup (North America)
  • 1-2 level teaspoons sugar per apple used (according to taste)
  • 1/2 oz margarine
  • several drops of almond essence

Method

  1. Place apples in saucepan with a couple tablespoons of water and cook over medium/high for 5 minutes or so until apples become soft.
  2. Add in the sugar and almond essence and mix thoroughly with fork until mixture is pulpy.
  3. Grease a pie dish with the margarine
  4. Add a layer of breadcrumbs to the bottom and then cover with a layer of applesauce. Continue like this until all the mixture is used up and finish with a layer of breadcrumbs (you can always make more breadcrumbs if you run out of these)
  5. Drizzle the syrup over the top
  6. Place in a moderate over (about 180 C) for 45 minutes or until the top is golden.

Serves 4 – 6

TIP: Make sure the breadcrumbs used on the top layer are quite fine. If you use larger chunks they can resemble croutons!

100 Wartime Recipes: Page has now been updated… CLICK HERE for all 1940s wartime recipes that have been recreated and photographed as part of the 1940sExperiment!

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Cottage Pie or Shepherds Pie (if made with lamb)

Tonight I am well stuffed (in the culinary sense)… I baked a wartime ‘cottage pie’ and fear that an actual cottage could have been the main ingredient as I am so full! This was one-hell-of-a-satisfying-meal on a cold winter night! I must make this more often…

One of the most satisfying things about the meal was the comments that flew my way as it was being gobbled down

Youngest hobbit…” Yum- this tastes good! There is no bits of starch in it like last time…”

Eldest hobbit …. ” Jeremy (boyfriend) wants to hire you as a cook”..

Eldest hobbits boyfriend.… ” Every meal I have tasted here has tasted so good..”

Middle hobbit …” Ewww- what’s that????” (this is not surprising as he is a vegetarian who doesn’t like vegetables)

Eldest hobbit….(who is also vegetarian but who I prepared a separate topping for)… ” ………just silence….”  (trust me this is good!)

Try this fabby, tasty, tummy filling, stick to your ribs meal- it is worth the effort!

Cottage Pie

  • 1 lb mince beef or soy mince made up to 1lb in hydrated weight ( note a weeks ration of mince beef for one person was about 1 lb ). Make it with minced lamb for a Shepherd’s pie.
  • several large potatoes
  • 2 oz cheese
  • dried herbs (Rosemary & Thyme work well)
  • salt and pepper
  • beef stock or vegetable stock ( 1 pint or more)
  • bisto gravy powder
  • peas and finely chopped carrots and onion optional
  • blob butter or margarine

Method

  1. Brown the mince
  2. Add the chopped veggies (optional)
  3. Add salt and pepper and herbs
  4. Add beef stock, stir and simmer for 15 minutes (thickening towards the end by mixing bisto powder with a little cold water to a runny paste and adding to beef stirring all the time- beef sauce should be quite thick!)
  5. Meanwhile chop up all the potatoes into small chunks
  6. Place in salted hot water and bring to the boil until tender and drain.
  7. Mash with generous (if rations allow) blobs of butter or margarine, add salt and pepper to taste
  8. Finally add milk so mash is spreadable
  9. Place mince sauce in a small cooking tray with deep sides or shallow casserole dish
  10. Pipe or spread mashed potato on top
  11. Sprinkle with 2 oz of grated strong cheddar (or vegan alternative) and some dried herbs if you like
  12. Place in oven for 20 minutes at 200 c
  13. Finish off under broiler/grill to brown top

Serve with steamed fresh veggies!

Serves 4 with veggies

“This post is part of Twinkl’s VE Day Campaign, and is featured in their Best Wartime Recipes to Celebrate VE Day from Home post”