Tuesday 11 June 2013

Eating in the Fifties

I have been incredibly silent on the blogosphere of late, but I return to you with some quirky, thought provoking sentences. Food and the way we eat has changed a lot over the years, in fact, it's changed a surprising amount. Here's a humorous take on what eating was like in the 1950's; 

"Curry was a surname.
 Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet.
 Spices came from the Middle East where they were used for embalming.
 Herbs were used to make rather dodgy medicine.
 A takeaway was a mathematical problem.
 Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.
 The only vegetables known to us were spuds, peas, carrots and cabbage.
 All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the
 salt on or not.
 Condiments consisted of salt, pepper, vinegar and ketchup and brown sauce if we were lucky.
 Soft drinks were called pop.
 Coke was something that we put on the fire.
 Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner.
 A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.

 A microwave was something out of a science fiction movie.
 Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
 Bread and jam was a treat.
 Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.
 Coffee was Camp, and came in a bottle.
 Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
 Figs and dates only appeared at Christmas.
 Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town.
 Salad cream was a dressing for salads, mayonnaise did not exist
 Hors d'oeuvre was a spelling mistake.
 Only Heinz made beans.
 Leftovers went in the dog.
 Fish was only eaten on Fridays.
 Fish didn't have fingers in those days.
 Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.
 Ready meals only came from the fish and chip shop.
 For the best taste fish and chips had to be eaten out of newspapers.
 Frozen food was called ice cream.
 Ice cream only came in one colour and one flavour.
 Jelly and blancmange was only eaten at parties.
 Healthy food consisted of anything edible.
 Indian restaurants were only found in India .
 If we had eaten bacon lettuce and tomato in the same sandwich we would
 have been certified
 A bun was a small cake back then.
 The word "Barbie" was not associated with anything to do with food.
 Cooking outside was called camping.
 Seaweed was not a recognised food.
 Pancakes were only eaten on Pancake Tuesday
 "Kebab" was not even a word never mind a food..

 The phrase "boil in the bag" would have been beyond comprehension.
 The idea of "oven chips" would not have made any sense at all to us.
 The world had not heard of Pot Noodles, Instant Mash and Pop Tarts.
 Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being
 white gold. Prunes were medicinal.
 Surprisingly muesli was readily available in those days, it was called
 cattle feed. Pineapples came in chunks in a tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one.
 Mushrooms were an occasional treat.
 We never heard of Croissants; we certainly couldn't pronounce it.
 We thought that Baguettes were a problem the French needed to deal with.
 Garlic was used to ward off vampires, but never used to flavour food.
 Water came out of the tap, if someone had suggested bottling it and
 charging more than petrol for it they would      have become a laughing stock.
 Food hygiene was all about washing your hands before meals.
 Campylobacter, Salmonella, E.coli, Listeria, and Botulism were all
 called "food poisoning."
 
The one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties... elbows."

Monday 31 December 2012

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

So, it's the last day of 2012. What a year, very unforgettable for many reasons. But I must say, we finished it off fabulously.

Christmas was, as it should be, a period of complete gluttony and indulgence. I ate, and I ate, and I ate some more. We had an amazing Christmas dinner thanks to my mum and dad. After years of singing "CHRISTMAS IS COMING, THE GOOSE IS GETTING FAT," at the top of my voice, I actually ate goose for Christmas dinner. It was rather nice. We also had partridge, pigs in blankets, amazingly roasty roast potatoes (properly crispy on the outside, wonderfully fluffy on the inside - my dad used the fat from the goose to cook them), carrots, bread sauce... oh the list goes on...

I ate chocolate upon chocolate, and drank mojitos everyday for about five days (time for a change of cocktail for the new year I think!).

People have definitely caught onto the fact that I love food - I received some great cookbooks; Nigelissima (granted, the name and the TV show are a bit ridiculous, but it does have some great recipes in!), Jamie's 15 minute meals and my new favourite, Levi Root's Reggae Reggae Cookbook. Now I can not only nostalgically gush about how much I love Caribbean food, I can actually make it. I also got a George Foreman grill, (finally I can make toasties in my flat!), and a toy rabbit - who's also a chef.

It's safe to say, it was a fantastic Christmas and hopefully, the new year will bring lots more foodie delights along with it.

Though not Christmas related, it has just occurred to me that I haven't mentioned MasterChef, well, if you didn't watch the most recent series of Professional MasterChef you most definitely missed out. Everyone knows how much I love cooking shows, and I think my followers on Twitter got a bit bored of my incessant MasterChef Tweets, but I just loved it. The final two weeks were definitely my favourite. Seeing all the restaurants with two and three stars was great, I am now desperate to eat at The Fat Duck and The Hand and Flowers... If anyone has any spare cash to lend me, I'd be grateful!

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Dinner time.


To follow my previous post, here are a few suggestions of meals that don't take too much effort - you know that that take-away isn't good for you, and you can't reaally afford it.

Stir fry! Quick and easy!
Selection of - Sliced pepper, onions, mushrooms, carrots, beansprouts, sliced beans. Throw in some diced chicken or prawns, add a sauce at the end - keep a sachet or two of black bean, lemon or oyster etc in the cupboard. For more bulk serve with egg noodles (cheap and keep in the dry cupboard just add boiling water and soak for 3 mins, drain and serve!) Takes about 5 mins!
 
Beef Mince
Cook up a batch of mince - onion, garlic, beef mince, can tomatoes, seasonings. Freeze in foil trays, defrost as required. Add kidney beans and chilli for chilli con carne, add oregano and a few mushrooms for bolognaise. Serve with rice, pasta, crusty bread, tortilla chips.
 
Jacket Potato
Wash and stab a couple of times so it doesn't explode! Bake in a medium over (175c) for an hour and quarter or until soft inside. Get your homework done while its cooking, or speed up by giving 10 mins in the microwave first then 15 mins or so in the oven! op with your beef mice or cheese & pickle, tuna mayo.
 
Pasta Salad
Cook extra pasta if you're having it with something else. Add tin tuna, sweetcorn, mayo etc and keep in a box in the fridge to have as a quick fix!
 
Lentil Soup
Chopped onion, garlic, 2 diced carrots, 2 - 3 oz lentils, stock cube and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer until lentils tender ( 20 mins or so) mash to thicken with potato masher. Freeze or refrigerate left overs.
 
Cous Cous
A bag of cous cous goes a very long way!
Put a few table spoons into a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water, cover and leave for several mins. Loosen with a fork. Add herbs, raisins, chick peas,teaspoon of cumin powder, lemon juice, drizzle of olive oil,salt, pepper and anything else you like! keep in the fridge. Serve as it is with leaf salad or fill toasted pitta breads!
 
Fish.
Piece of salmon, white fish, mackerel (available in frozen fillets) Place on large square of foil, top with herbs, knob of butter, splash of lemon juice. Wrap up, place on tray. Bake at 180c for 15 mins or longer if frozen.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Little time, Little money.

Okay, so, admittedly I’m not always the best at getting my five-a-day and eating proper meals. I have, perhaps, been known to have a bacon and egg sandwich in the morning and then eggy-bread (French toast) for dinner (variety is the spice of life, I know). But apparently eating well when you lack both time and money isn’t actually that difficult! (I did have to get my mum to help me out with this, I’d probably tell you to order a Domino’s pizza every night.)

So let’s start off with a list of must haves for the kitchen, to make sure you’re prepared for those nights when you have stacks of work to do and very little in your purse:

Foil freezer trays
Tin foil
Tins of chopped tomatoes, baked beans, soups, chick peas
Cereals (avoid the high sugar ones!)
Rice
Pasta
Cous cous
Lentils
Bottle of lemon juice (saves lemons going mouldy!)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar / glaze
Pitta breads (freeze pop straight into the toaster)
Eggs, cheese, milk, bacon

Make sure you keep your basics stocked up so that you’re always able to cook up something nice!

Quick meal suggestions to follow… (Mum will again be a main contributor to this post. Mum knows best.)

I'M BACK.

I know, I know, I know. I haven't posted for a very long time... Applying to uni and working lots is my excuse and I'm sticking to it. But here I am, I'm back again. And it's Christmas very soon! So, completely not in keeping with the Christmas spirit of over indulging, my next post is about eating well. Don't worry, there will be some indulgent Christmassy posts soon!

Monday 8 October 2012

Romania 2012

I have lots of other things I should probably be doing at the moment but I keep remembering that "The Village" magazine was sent to me the other day, so I thought I'd share my excitement with you!

During the summer I did an amazing two week journalism work placement in Romania thanks to my mum and dad and the fab people at Projects Abroad.

Whilst there I did some writing for the English section of Romanian magazine "Satul" and my copies of it have finally been sent to me! It's such a great sense of achievement seeing my writing printed in a magazine... and, me being me, I even managed to get a small article about food in there too! Very surprisingly none of the dishes me and the other girls on the placement wrote about involved cabbage; I think I must've eaten cabbage for dinner 98% of the time whilst I was there.


I've searched high and low for a digital copy of this edition but can't find one anywhere, might try and scan in the articles at some point so that those of you who aren't lucky enough to see me all the time can have a quick look!


Traditional Romanian dishes of stuffed tomatoes and aubergine "salad" that me and other volunteers helped to prepare!

Served with bread, bowls of soup and copious amounts of Iced tea - creating the perfect summer feast.


 
When we went to interview a family in a small village, Bod, we were welcomed with homemade doughnuts. I can confirm that fresh, homemade doughnuts are still amazing, even in 35 degree           
heat.                                                                 
   
Jenny, my host, making her  delicious jam in her kitchen!

Sunday 7 October 2012

Coconut Dhal


I love love love this recipe. We found it in an Olive magazine recipe booklet and I've had it at home quite a few times. I never realised quite how simple it was to make – perfect if you’re short on time and don’t want loads of washing up to do! It is just delicious, and as a lover of creamy, coconutty curries like Korma, this is perfect for me. You can adapt it to be as spicy as you like it. Enjoy it with some flat-breads or rice. 

If you’re only cooking for one, like me, then this recipe makes too much. You could halve it, but as the coconut milk I had was a 400ml tin, I didn't like to. So I've frozen it instead and now I have an instant meal for another day!

Ingredients:
2 medium tomatoes (chopped)
250g red lentils
400ml tin coconut milk
1 onion (chopped)
green chilli’s (as many or as few as you require)
1 teaspoon turmeric

Method:
Put all the ingredients in a pan with 300ml water and simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils are tender.

There’s ONE step. How great is that?!
BEWARE: This has a habit of sticking to the pan, so regular stirring is a necessity.


To garnish:
(Optional) Fry one sliced onion in four tablespoons of oil until crisp. Add a handful of fresh curry leaves or coriander and two teaspoons of mustard seeds and sizzle together. Pour over lentils.

I left this out as it means using another pan, but if you can be bothered, go for it as it does add a great flavour and texture.


(Photo from BBC Good Food)