wartime recipes

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Vegetable au Gratin – Recipe No 135

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In support of the Central England Co-op’s Easy Eating Campaign I’m making a few wartime recipes to promote simple, easy food and support food bloggers in the UK.

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!

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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

  1. Cook vegetables and set aside
  2. Mix flour to a paste with some of the vegetable stock and milk
  3. Put the remaining liquid in a pan and bring to the boil.
  4. Slowly add in the paste and mix
  5. Add the cooked vegetables and half the cheese and season with lots of salt and pepper
  6. Put into a ovenproof dish
  7. Sprinkle with cheese and a sliced tomato (optional)
  8. Grill until browned

This dish serves 4 – 6 people and using ingredients from the Co-op it cost £3.50 to make.

C xxx

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The 1940s Experiment in the Daily Mail

unnamedI ‘THINK’ tomorrow the Daily Mail is running an article about a strange, fat, middle aged lady who has been trying hard to cure her obesity by living on wartime rations..

Oh… it’s me!

NOTE: Article wasn’t in today’s newspaper but should be soon- will let you know when a publishing date is confirmed xx

It’s taken a LOT of courage to have one’s photo taken and put in a newspaper when you weigh over 20 stone, especially when I did so well losing 80lbs in 2012 living on wartime rations and much of it has returned and I’m having to do it all over again BUT the way I see it is at least I keep trying, keep getting back up again and persevering. (thank you to Bertie at Wrappler for saying I should do it AND Mr Tiddles!)

*** PLEASE NOTE: Sorry will be out of contact of all modern media from March 26- April 8 2014,  but will respond to any enquiries or messages on my return. Thank you xxxxx

But I’m so very passionate about the wartime recipes I’ve been replicating for the past 10 years that it was a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness of perhaps an alternative way to eat and spend less and even get healthier that I just had to go for it. I just won’t check the online edition incase a TROLL says something cruel… I don’t think my heart could take it. It gets easily hurt… I get easily hurt, but as you know I have a new man in my life who now fights my corner and I love him for it.

The Daily Mail were lovely, as was Hannah at Barcroft Media. It involved two photo shoots of food, recipes and myself. They treated me to a new dress but hunting for one and finding one that fitted drove it home to me just how large I am. There were only three shops in the city/town that had size 24 dresses, ASDA, BonMarche and BHS (Evans) and even those were a bit tight. But despite feeling down about this the stylist Lucie was an angel and she made me feel pretty and put some heated rollers in my hair and did such lovely make up and even painted my finger nails! The Daily Mail’s photographer Bruce was just lovely too- both very professional, kind and encouraging.

If anyone has come to my blog from the article in the Daily Mail (I think it’s Monday) you are probably a little interested in the recipes and maybe the weight loss or economical aspect of the 1940s Experiment so I’ll post a few links below that may be of interest

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1. I’ve re-created about 130 Authentic Wartime Recipes so far and will continue to do so, one for every pound I lose so please keep popping back http://the1940sexperiment.com/100-wartime-recipes/

2. Here’s some weight-loss photos you maybe interested in seeing. I’ll never be a skinny minny. I like curves but I just want to be around on this earth for a long time so trying to take responsibility and fight the obesity.. http://the1940sexperiment.com/weight-loss-photos/

3. Will a diet based on Wartime Rations save you money? It does for me. I live on a very low income and do the best I can. Forgive the dollar signs, I was living for a while in Canada at the time. All my future recipes will contain a price break down in £’s and pennies http://the1940sexperiment.com/2012/01/27/will-eating-a-diet-based-on-wartime-rations-save-you-money/

4. I keep myself motivated by making wish-lists on WRAPPLER – I keep several Vintage Lists on there including vintage style clothing I hope to wear when I get below 200lbs! http://wrappler.com/gift-lists/list/340

Finally THANK YOU for all the support you’ve given over the years and the comments you’ve left whether its constructive criticism, recipes, experiences or kind encouragement.

Lots of love as always  C xxxxxx

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Chocolate Layer Cake – Recipe No 128

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Apologies.. I’ve been a bit quiet. Not feeling the best right now with chills, aches and pains, nausea and a rotten old cough! My poor daughter had it first. I don’t often get a cold so complaining more about it than the average person!  On the good side I’ve been pretty much saving all my sugar and fat ration as just haven’t felt up to baking extras. This is good really as I used all my rations right up for the two weeks proceeding this having baked quite a few cakes!

So here is a recipe for one of the cakes I baked about 10 days ago. It was delicious and I sandwiched it together with a wartime recipe for chocolate spread.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Layer Cake

  • 3 oz fat (margarine)
  • 1 tablespoon of golden syrup or treacle
  • 8 oz plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 oz of cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 oz sugar
  • 1/2 pint of warm water

Method

  1. Put fat and syrup into a pan and dissolve
  2. Mix all dry ingredients in a basin and stir in melted fat and syrup, mix to a very soft consistency with warm water.
  3. Pour into two greased sandwich tins and bake for 30 minutes in a medium oven. (about 180 C)
  4. Remove and allow to partly cool in tin before turning out.
  5. When cool sandwich them with mock whipped cream or chocolate spread.

Chocolate Spread

  • 1 oz cocoa powder
  • 1.5 tablespoons of fine sugar
  • 1 dessertspoon of flour
  • 1/2 cup milk

Method

  1. Mix dry ingredients
  2. Add milk gradually and bring to the boil
  3. Beat until quite smooth
  4. Use when cooled
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Colcannon – Recipe No 124

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Colcannon (and Bubble & Squeak) is like junk food to me. It’s the highly seasoned combination of buttery mash and sauted leeks and cabbage, browned in the oven, that has me salivating and always wanting more.

I know that’s odd, since when do people enjoy cabbage as much as junk food? In Colcannon I do…

Colcannon

  • 2 cups mashed potato
  • 2 leeks chopped
  • 1 cup curly greens (cooked- I sauted the chopped leeks and chopped savoy cabbage[any cabbage or kale will do] together in a pan)
  • ½oz margarine
  • lots of salt and pepper!

Mix potatoes, greens and leeks (you can also use onion instead) and margarine well together, put in a flat baking tin or pie dish and bake until nicely browned.

(From Health for All Wartime Recipes circa 1942)

How much does Colcannon cost to make? For the pie dish above which is enough for two generous portions, it cost me less than £1 so essentially 50 p per person.

Would a wartime diet alleviate food poverty?? CLICK HERE

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Leek and Lentil Pie – Recipe No 122

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Leek and Lentil Pie

  • 2 small cups dried lentils
  • 4 cups well seasoned stock (vegetable, chicken- your choice)
  • 6 leeks
  • Mashed potato
  • Cornflour/starch
  • Extra salt/pepper/dried herbs
  • Dollop of margarine

Put the washed lentils and the leeks, washed and cut into small pieces, into a pan. Add the stock, cover tightly and cook on a slow heat until tender. Mix in a dollop of margarine and then some cornflour/starch to make a thick mixture. Put into a well-greased dish, leave to stand for 15 minutes and then cover with mashed potato. Bake at 200 celsius/ 390 F until golden brown (about 30 minutes)

Serves 6

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‘Air Raid’ Apple Chutney – Recipe No 119

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The Hobbits (it makes them sound so young and small but they are not) hated me today. I stunk the house out with onions and malt vinegar simmering away for an hour.  A gas mask would have been useful (having been in a gas chamber with  Chlorobenzylidene Malonitrile and a sadistic NCO I think the simmering malt vinegar, in a confined space, comes pretty close)

BUT the discomfort was worth it as now I have 6 small jars of delicious ‘Air Raid’ Apple Chutney in my cupboard and after it has matured for a week or so, it will be used frequently on my plate to liven up the sometimes samey meals.

Why ‘Air Raid’ chutney? I’ve listened to folk who lived through the war and it seems that quite often, if food hadn’t been prepared and set aside to take into the Andersen Shelter, food like bread, jam and chutney were often grabbed from the larder on the way out of the door for something to nibble on.

Here is an authentic wartime recipe for apple chutney..

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Air Raid Apple Chutney

  • 8 oz onions finely chopped
  • 1/2 pint malt vinegar
  • 2 lbs of peeled and chopped apples
  • 1 teaspoon of pickling spices
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds (optional)
  • 12 oz sugar
  • 2-4 oz of dried fruit

Method

  1. Put chopped onions in a pan with a little of the vinegar and simmer gently until soft
  2. Add chopped apples, ginger, salt, mustard seeds and pickling spices in a muslin bag and some more vinegar to keep the mixture moist and stop burning
  3. Stirring time to time, cook gently until soft
  4. Add the sugar and the dried fruit, the rest of the vinegar and stir. Continue to cook gently until the mixture is quite soft and thickened
  5. Remove the bag of pickling spices and add hot mixture into clean hot jars (I wash, rinse then heat in oven on medium for 30 minutes) and immediately screw on clean hot lids.
  6. Leave to cool the store in larder for at least 1 week before trying. Matures after 14 days..

Makes 3 lb jars or 6 small jars

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PS I made some good old fashioned ‘stout’ and bottled it last week. This is a piccy of the first bottle I opened. It tasted lovely and I sat by candle and computer light savouring the moment!

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Vegetable pie – Recipe No 118

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This was DELISH- seriously!  If you love simple plain, nourishing, affordable comfort food you’ll love this. I served mine with vegan sausages.. (part of my meat ration!)

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Vegetable Pie

Put some mixed cooked vegetables into a pie type dish and season well with lots of salt and pepper. Make a thick gravy with 1 oz of fat and 1 oz of cornflour/cornstarch and 1/2 pint of vegetable stock and seasoning. Pour this over the vegetables then place a thick crust of mashed potatoes over the top, sprinkle with cheese (I didn’t) and bake on medium heat for about 30 minutes until the potato is browned.

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FREE Wartime recipe book archive

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Thank you to my Facebook friend Kayleen, who tagged me in a post this morning as she had found a volume of wartime recipe books in a Manchester Photographic Archive on Flickr. This is exciting! I can almost smell the pages!

A volume of recipes dating to World War Two. The folder contains manuscript, typescript, and printed recipes, and booklets of recipes published by Birds, Good Housekeeping, Ministry of Food, Van den Bergh & Jergens Limited and the Women’s Gas Council.

Forms part of the Garner family of Manchester’s collection in the Documentary Photographic Archive. Donated by Doris Henderson of Australia, 1997.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE RECIPE BOOKS

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Toad in the Hole- Recipe No 114

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This was a popular wartime recipe using sausages and batter and was very filling when served with vegetables, potato and gravy.  I used vegan sausages, soy milk and omitted the egg (and added a teaspoon of vinegar and a level teaspoon of baking powder) to make the dish “vegan friendly”. It tasted good but the batter was heavy and didn’t rise much.

Here is the original wartime recipe..

Toad in the Hole

  • 1 oz of margarine/butter or dripping
  • 1 lb sausages
  • 5 oz plain flour
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tablespoon dried egg powder
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/2 pint of milk or milk and water

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C (400 F) or Gas Mark 6.
  2. Put the cooking fat into a Yorkshire pudding tin and place in oven for 5 minutes, add the sausages and toss in fat and cook for a further 5 minutes or so.
  3. Raise the temp to 220 C (425 F) or Gas Mark 7
  4. Blend the ingredients for the batter together (dry ingredients first and then slowly mix in the water/milk)
  5. Pour the batter over the piping hot sausages and bake for 30 minutes until well risen and golden brown
  6. Remove and serve

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Malted loaf – Recipe No 113

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I made a wonderful wartime malted loaf the other day. so simple, so tasty, so share-worthy.

So here it is…

Malted Loaf

  • 12 oz plain flour (or malted grain flour)
  • 1 tablespoon of malt extract (if just using plain flour)
  • 1 oz margarine or butter
  • large pinch salt
  • Quick rise dried yeast
  • 1/8th pint warm water or water/milk (add more if too dry)

Method

  1. Place flour, salt and malt extract into bowl and mix
  2. Add in the margarine and rub in
  3. Sprinkle in the quick rise dried yeast
  4. Add in the water/milk and stir
  5. Bring together into dough ball and knead for about 5 or 10 minutes until nice and silky
  6. Place in a 2 lb tin
  7. Place a clean damp tea towel over the top of the tin and place in warm place to rise
  8. Once dough has risen to about an inch or more over the top of the tin remove tea towel
  9. Leave for a further 10 minutes to rise further
  10. Place in pre-heated oven at 200 C and cook for 30-40 minutes until golden brown
  11. Remove and leave to cool in tin for 15 minutes before removing loaf and leaving to stand until cooled
  12. Slice and serve

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