wartime recipes

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Belted leeks

I bought myself a small bunch of organic leeks from the Bridgewater Farmers Market yesterday, after I had attended a quick volunteer meeting at the market for the Growing Green Sustainability Festival , taking place next week, where I’m looking forward to being a greeter (and hopefully not scaring folk away!)…

I found a Ministry of Food recipe for belted leeks and couldn’t wait for lunch time today and I’m pleased to say this quick and simple dish was delicious.

As always, I used a meat substitute for bacon (Tempeh) and a dairy substitute for regular milk (hemp milk) what with being a vegan and all…

Here is the original recipe…

Belted Leeks

  • 1 lb small thin leeks
  • 2 oz bacon rashers
  • 1/2 pint of white sauce
  • salt and pepper
  • dried herbs if wished

Method

  1. Trim and cook the whole leeks in boiling water until soft enough to eat (about 10-15 minutes)
  2. Drain well and save some of the leek water for the sauce
  3. Put the leeks in a heated dish and cover with the white sauce (see recipe for white sauce below)
  4. Grill the bacon and cut into narrow strips and arrange as belts over the leeks

(makes 4 helpings)

Recipe for white sauce

Use margarine or butter. Heat 1 oz of this in a pan and mix in 1 oz of flour, cooking over a low heat and then add in slowly while stirring, 1/2 pint of liquid (milk, milk and stock etc). Keep stirring and as the sauce comes to the boil it will thicken. Season to taste..

Some sights from Saturdays Farmers Market in Bridgewater..

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Cheese, tomato and potato loaf/pie – No 77

This was nice today for my dinner. I served it on a bed of spinach as I love my greens! I used the leftover cheese sauce I made last week and being vegan I used a dairy free cheese..

Cheese, tomato and potato loaf

  • 1 lb (450g) cooked new potatoes
  • 12 oz (350g) tomatoes
  • Cheese sauce (click here for recipe)
  • A little grated cheese (Daiya is a great vegan alternative here in Canada as it melts and tastes good!)

Method

  1. Cut potatoes into slices about 1/4 inch thick
  2. Cut the tomatoes into slightly thicker slices
  3. Grease a 2lb loaf tin or an deep pie dish
  4. Pre-heat oven to 180c (350F)
  5. Arrange a third of the potatoes in a neat layer in the dish and cover with some of the cheese sauce and then half the tomatoes
  6. Put in half the remaining potatoes with the rest of the sauce and tomatoes and finally cover with the rest of the potato slices
  7. Season, add onion slices, dried herbs and a little grated cheese
  8. Cover and cook for 45 minutes
  9. Uncover and cook for 15 minutes until brownedServes 4
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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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Cheese sauce – No 74

Cheese sauce you say? Hang on, you are a vegan aren’t you? Well yes I am… BUT occasionally, I’ll use a dairy free cheese, as my cheese ration, just so I can make some recipes. This week I bought some dairy free cheese and vegan sausage for my cheese and meat instead of extra split peas, lentils and nuts…

Cheese sauce

  • 1 tablespoon of flour (2 dessert spoons in US and Canada)
  • 2 oz grated cheese
  • A little dry mustard
  • Teacup of milk (I use a dairy free alternative like Hemp milk)
  • Pinch of salt and pepper
  • teaspoon of margarine or butter

Method

  1. Blend flour and mustard with a little milk until smooth, add rest of milk
  2. Bring to the boil adding a teaspoon of margarine or butter as the milk becomes warm, and gently cook, stirring constantly, for a minute until the sauce thickens
  3. Add grated cheese and seasoning and stir over a gentle heat until fully melted

Serves 2-4

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Mock duck – No 73

Ignore the fact that my squished up vegan sausage used in this recipe with the addition of my lovely yellowy cheese sauce,  makes this look like a dessert dish served with custard… it’s not. Infact it was a most awesome and delicious “Mock Duck” recipe that I would highly recommend you try. It was simply delicious!

When you use “real” sausage for your recipe, aesthetically, it will be more pleasing. Vegan sausage has very little fat in it, real sausage will be fattier and squishier and you will be able to form into a smooth duck breast shape..

This would be most excellent served with small buttered new potatoes and some lightly steamed asparagus and some cranberry sauce!

Mock duck

  • 1 lb sausagemeat
  • 8 oz of onions grated
  • 8 oz tart apples peeled and grated
  • 1-2 teaspoons of fresh sage or 1/2-1 teaspoon dried sage (I used two of fresh as I love sage)

Method

  1. Spread half the sausagemeat into a flat layer in a well greased baking tin or dish (I used some foil to shape into a duck breast shape)
  2. Top with a layer of the grated apples, onion and sage
  3. Add the rest of the sausagemeat and try and form into a duck breast shape
  4. Cover with well greased paper or foil and bake in the centre of a moderately hot oven for 40 minutes or until the sauasagemeat is cooked.

Serves 4

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Eggless ginger cake 72/100

100 recipes in 1 year update: 72 recipes re-created and 28 left to re-create before October 1st!!

This weekend was time to cook a few sweet things…

Believe it or not, the sugar ration is way too generous for me, probably because I don’t actually consume many cakes nor desserts, so I always have plenty available. HOWEVER, as a 1940s housewife, I think to keep the home-front morale up, it would have been important to use the ration for sweet desserts, to keep those little pouty faces smiling…

This is a very simple eggless ginger cake recipe. I found it tasted rather boring when it came out of the oven so decided it needed livening up with some mock cream. I used this mock cream recipe but to make it less gritty I ground it down further using a pestle and mortar..

So my lunch was tea and ginger cake, which was rather nice for a change..

Eggless ginger cake

  • 6 oz (175g) of self-raising flour or plain flour sifted with 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
  • 2 oz (50g) of margarine (vegans use a dairy free alternative)
  • 2 oz (50g) sugar
  • 6 tablespoons (10 in North America) of milk (vegans use almond or hemp milk)
  • 3/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 teaspoons of vinegar

Method

  1. Grease and flour a 7 inch cake tin
  2. Pre-heat oven to 190C (375F)
  3. Sift the flour (and baking powder if using) with the ginger into the mixing bowl
  4. Rub in the margarine, mix in the sugar and then the milk
  5. Blend the bicarbonate of soda and the vinegar (the mixture will bubble)
  6. Beat into the cake mixture
  7. Spoon into the tin and cook for 20-30 minutes
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Sausage rolls

Being vegan I never thought I’d find myself devouring sausage rolls again but I REALLY wanted to make the sausage rolls using the recipe in “The Victory Cookbook” by Marguerite Patten (Celebratory food on rations!)..

So when the word “meatless sausages” loomed out at me from the vegetarian/vegan shelf at Superstore, I knew it was time to grab them from the fridge and head to the checkout, rush home and let my mouth drool (without the guilt) as I enjoyed the aroma, whafting from the oven. Whilst the meatless sausages didn’t taste as nice as animal flesh, and the wartime pastry, no where near as nice as flakey pastry, they were very, very tasty indeed…

The recipe below uses regular sausages but if like me you are vegan or vegetarian it’s easy now to find meatless sausages, in most large stores, to use in this recipe

Sausage rolls

  • Shortcrust pastry made with 8oz of flour (click here)
  • 8 oz of breakfast style sausages (cooked)
  • a little milk for glazing (vegans can use almond, hemp or soy milk)

Method

  1. Pre-heat oven to 200C (400 F)
  2. Roll out the pastry and cut into strips about 4 or 5 inches wide and 12-14 inches long
  3. Moisten the long ends with milk
  4. Place the cooked sausages in the centre in a long line
  5. Roll one end of the pastry over the sausage
  6. Moisten with milk along the end
  7. Bring other long end of pastry over the moistened end and press lightly
  8. Cut along the strip of rolled sausage into 2 inch pieces (smaller or larger if you want)
  9. Cut two slits in pastry on top of each one
  10. Brush with milk
  11. Place in oven and cook until golden brown

CAROLYN’S TIP: Wheatmeal shortcrust pastry can look a bit grey! Take a pinch of curry powder and mix with a few tablespoons of milk or your egg mixture and brush over the pastry to give it a lovely golden glow

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Wartime root vegetable soup

I HAD to try this recipe submitted by Marina Unger.. it is an authentic wartime root vegetable soup recipe and let me tell you, I had this for breakfast this morning and she is right…. it’s YUMMY!

Marina Unger-
Yummy and super easy, very filling soup recipe for you. Cooked it today to take the chill out of our rainy weather!
1 swede (turnip in North America), 2-3 carrots, 2-3 parsnips, half an onion, two potatoes, 1 litre stock, sprinkling of fresh parsley. Dice all veggies (peel the swede) and add to stock. Bring to a boil and cook until veggies are tender. Puree if desired (I did) and sprinkle with parsley before serving 🙂

 

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Vegetable Pasties

Yum, yum in my tum!

Here is the wartime recipe for an awesome vegetable pasty I made the other night.. I LOVE these and they are great cold the next day, perfect to carry in to work for a packed lunch!

Vegetable Pasties

  • Shortcrust pastry ( click here for recipe )
  • 1 lb of lightly cooked diced vegetables (onions, carrots, turnip, parsnips, potato, swede)
  • 2 tablespoons of gravy (I actually used 4 tablespoons of leftover thick lentil gravy)
  • 2 chopped tomatoes (optional – I didn’t use)
  • 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (optional – I didn’t use)
  • salt and pepper
  • reconstituted dried egg or milk to glaze

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C  (400 F) and grease a baking tray
  2. Roll out the pastry and form into 4-6 rounds brushing the edges with a little egg or water
  3. Mix the ingredients and gravy etc together and put in the centre of each round or to one side depending on where you intend to have the seam
  4. Bring edges together and press between finger and thumb along the seam to seal
  5. Make a slit of prick with a fork and brush with egg or milk
  6. Place on baking tray and cook for 20-30 minutes until golden brown

CAROLYN’S TIP: Wheatmeal shortcrust pastry can look a bit grey! Take a pinch of curry powder and mix with a few tablespoons of milk or your egg mixture and brush over the pasty to give it a lovely golden glow

 

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Death to PLATEAU- Day 4

I spent well over 4 hours in the garden yesterday clearing up debris, digging, moving things about with my wheelbarrow and generally being very busy… It was good to be so physically active and also find out that I had many useful combatant weapons,  such as a chainsaw, in my barn,  should the “Zombie Apocalypse” ever find it’s way to rural Nova Scotia…

Unfortunately today I feel like I have been run over by Hannibal’s War Elephants. I guess this means I was using muscles I hadn’t used for a very long time, or, I was indeed fighting the living dead in my sleep…

I think the latter highly unlikely. Twenty-five years ago, I may have been a Self Loading Rifle markswoman, (a useful skill in Zombie annihilation) but today, I’d be more likely to sit the Zombie down, hold his hand and ask if there was anything troubling him and tell him to take deep breaths and visualize a meatless alternative…

So here’s todays food..

Breakfast (600 cals)

Wholewheat pancakes with golden syrup
Sunflower & flax seeds

Lunch (500 cals)

Marmite on toast (with margarine)
Handful of dates

Dinner (1000 cals)

Two substantial vegetable pasties (recipe coming later)
Side salad

Drinks

 Water
Black tea
1 cup of almond milk ( 50 cals)

Exercise (300 cals)

 1 hour house cleaning including a little yard work

Food:        2150 cals

Exercise: – 300 cals