ration diet

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Potato scones – No 76

These were so delicious and perfect to serve with some veggies and gravy (and meat if you are not a vegetarian)..

Potato scones

  • 4 tablespoons (6 tablespoons in the US) of self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon (1.5 tablespoons in the US) margarine or cooking fat
  • 4 tablespoons (6 tablespoons in the US) of mashed potatoes (drained and then mashed with nothing added although leftover mash would work too)

Method

  1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and rub in the margarine.
  2. Add the mashed potato until light and creamy
  3. Mix together to form a soft dough (add a little milk if needs be)
  4. Press out into a round and slice into 6
  5. Brush the top with milk
  6. Bake in a moderate oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown
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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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Bread and Apple Pudding

So today our family main meal was a large potato floddie, served with some mince in a thick gravy and veggies.

For pudding the request was for ‘bread pudding’ yet again. To avoid this wartime pudding permanently being referred to as “bread-pudding-yet-again” I turned to a large bowl of sorry looking apples for divine inspiration- after-all Sir Isaac Newton stared at apples for an awfully long time before being rewarded with an answer…

Sir Isaac Newton stared at apples for an awfully long time before being rewarded with an answer…

After a few minutes of thinking (doesn’t take long as my brain is quite small really..) the answer came easy. Use the scabby, bruised apples, grated straight into the bread pudding mixture. And so I did…

This dish even surpassed the original bread pudding recipe. The apples gave it another taste dimension.

As I have used the word NOM, NOM, NOM! way too much just recently, and fabby and yummy way too much in the past, I had to come up with a word to describe the feeling, within my being while consuming this delicious dish.

It was…….. toe licking tingly (don’t ask)

Bread and Apple Pudding

  • 10 – 12 slices of bread ( stale is fine!)
  • 2 ounces of margarine or butter
  • 2 ounces of sugar
  • 2 ounces of dried raisin sultanas
  • 1 beaten egg (fresh or dried)
  • 1 large grated apple
  • milk to mix
  • cinnamon
  • extra sugar for topping

Method

1. Put chopped up bread (cut/tear into small chunks) into a basin and add a little water. Leave for a few minutes.

2. Squeeze bread out until fairly dry

3. Return bread to empty basin and add all the other ingredients (except spice) adding a little milk to make a sticky consistency

4. Add cinnamon a little at a time until your own taste

5. Place mixture into a greased pan

6. Cook at 175 degrees C for an hour or so until edges are browned and centre is hot

7. Sprinkle sugar on top 10 minutes before end of cooking

8. Allow to cool a little, slice and serve

Serves 6- see below!