Green Pea and Tomato Scramble

Although this book is one I’ve had since even before I started actively buying vintage cookbooks I don’t think I’ve ever cooked anything from it (may not be true, can’t be bothered to check). This is because it’s horrendous. Every single image in it is a browny-yellow shade and it makes vegetarianism sound like a problem which they’ve come up with a few palliative measures to make the burden slightly more bearable rather than a perfectly reasonable culinary choice. I’m sure with a bit more enthusiasm and better food photography many of the recipes would be more appealing but as it is, I’ve never wanted to cook any of them. Why I suddenly decided to the other night remains a mystery.

Liptauer Cheese

This was the first thing I started making for our recent Eurovision party, being skilled at planning ahead I bothered to read the recipe card sometime before the party started so this got the chance to rest for the couple of hours it specifies. Lots of things seemed to go wrong with this, the quantities seemed off, I seem to remember reducing the amount of capers and thanks to a shopping omission didn’t add the chives until a lot later. When I first tasted the dip it struck me as one of the least appealing things ever – the potential of the separate parts had combined to form a disgusting looking and tasting goo. It was horribly sharp and I considered going off-recipe simply so as not to horrify my guests, but was utterly lost as to what would sort it out, so shoved it in the fridge as if the fridge was magic and would somehow transform this mess into something edible.

Hungarian Onion Soup

Sorry this is being posted late! Events ran away from me towards the end of last week.

As promised, another soup, and one you could conjure from store cupboard ingredients, (if you own a store cupboard, I took these items from my spice shelf, carb-drawer and the fruit bowl).  I’m interested to see if it’s edible exactly as written or if these seven ingredients actually don’t magickallye combine into a tasty meal.(This recipe is from Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookery Book, 6th edition, 1958).

Cauldron Goulash and Galuskas

This comes from the rather alarmingly covered Hungarian Culinary Art by József Venesz (Corvina Press, 1958):

(Shiny pig. Would eat).

Ahem.

Chicken Paprika

My feelings about paprika are well-documented so I’m slightly ashamed that I’ve never cooked Chicken Paprika before – I have at least 2 different recipes for it. I’m going to start with the simplest though – from Beverly Pepper’s Potluck Cookery (Faber and Faber, 1955).

Herbed Carrot Salad

a) apologies for the delay; b) ph34r the fusion of herbed carot salad, mashed potato, sook choo na mool and SAUSAGES! This is what happens when you cannot make salads for one, have urgent leftovers in need of eating and yet CANNOT refuse yourself sausage and mash after a tough day. Hurrah?!

Ingredients
450g carrots
peeled clove garlic
1/8 – 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch cayenne pepper
juice of one lemon
1/8 tsp granulated sugar
olive oil to taste
salt
freshly chopped parsley to garnish

Marrakech Meatballs

Another from Josceline Dimbleby’s Cooking with Herbs and Spices – this time savoury:

Says Josceline –

One of my favourite Moroccan dishes is these simple meatballs, which are served with eggs lightly cooked in the same dish at the last moment. The taste when the egg yolk breaks into the spiced meat and juices is quite delicious.

Beans with Corn and Pumpkin (Porotos Granados)

I bent the rules slightly here by using up some butternut squash in place of pumpkin and as various substitutions for those who cannot lay their hands on cranberry or navy beans are suggested, I feel I’m doing justice to the spirit of the dish.

We are informed that this dish is originally from Chile (Porotos is the Chilean word for beans) although it has ‘decided Indian overtones’ in terms of its ingredients and that the corn/pumpkin combination is also popular in the Basque country and Aquitaine.

Paprika Corn Kernel Fritters

I love  smoked paprika so much I want to quote 30 Rock.

Paprika Corn Kernel Fritters

LEFTOVER:  COOKED CORN KERNELS
about 1 1/2 cups

AND

Flour, 1 cup
Baking powder, 1 teaspoon
Salt 1/2 teaspoon
Paprika, 1 tablespoon
Well-beaten egg, 1
*Milk, 3/4 cup
Finely chopped green pepper, 2 tablespoons
Fat or lard
Lemon quarters, 4 – 5

Sift flour with baking powder, salt, and paprika. Beat egg into milk; blend into flour mixture. Beat with rotary beater until smooth and free of lumps. Add corn and green pepper. Drop by spoonfuls into 1/2 inch hot fat in shallow frying pan. Fry until golden brown. Drain and serve with lemon quarters.

This is a side dish – makes 4 – 5 servings.

*Substitute: Part milk, part corn liquid.

Notes

• I only had 1 cup of sweetcorn so I adjusted the quantities of other ingredients accordingly.

• I made the batter, realised I didn’t have any pepper in the house, ran to shop round the corner which has a carp selection of veg and as they had no green pepper, was forced to buy red.

Conclusion

There seemed to be insufficient batter to bind the fritters, however they fried perfectly which shows what I know.  (Really, my sister is the family fry queen.)  They were a very nice accompaniment to grilled chicken and steamed kale. I ended up making 9 decent sized fritters, which would probably constitute 3 – 4 portions for someone less greedy than me. (I have 5 left… mmmm, breakfast.) Another nom from Potluck Cookery.

Frittered by Elly

Spicy Lamb Hot Pot

Recipe three is from 500 Recipes for Casserole Dishes by Catherine Kirkpartick (this impression is from 1969). Published by Paul Hamlyn the book is from a series of ‘500 Dishes for..’ books, I also have 500 Recipes for Mixers and Blenders in my collection, and amongst the others published were 500 Recipes for Slimmers,and 500 Recipes for Home-made Wines and Drinks. Both the books I have are somewhat battle-weary, yellowing glue and musty dry pages – these books look like they’ve been well used, and indeed the contents are mainly decent standard recipes – good on their own but also with a lot of potential for improvisation and ingredient substitution – a quality that usually means a book will be referred to often.