Retro recipes and Delia

My lovely neighbour Jessie was doing a big clean out and kindly offered me some cookbooks, which I happily accepted. Today I was browsing through the succinctly named 'The Minced Meat Cookbook' and came across a number of recipes that made me guffaw with laughter at their retroness. When I checked the date of publication, expecting late '70s, perhaps early '80s I couldn't quite believe that it was first published in 1992! Crikey. What a long way we have come since 1992. Some gems from the afore mentioned gem-of-a cookbook...

Chili eggs with crispy coconut crust (brilliant alliteration)
Spicy coconut mince
Fruity meatloaf with tomato apple salsa
Prune and apple roll
Lamb and beetroot bake
Chicken, almond and mango pie
Chicken and fig bonbons
and my personal favourite, Sausage apple roll

I think I missed a clearly essential part of minces history during my life - pairing it with sweet fruits and/or coconut. Bizarre! But obviously extremely popular during the '90s.

Interestingly, Delia (Smith, hereafter only referred to as Delia) would probably still be cooking these, the saucy minx. Her 1998 classic television series "How to Cook" followed closely by "Delia's Summer/Winter Collection" and the all time snigger inducing "Delia's Christmas" - the final episode of which is titled the "The final 36 hours countdown to Christmas day" is one of my all time favourite cooking series. There's something about the sternness and unbending directiveness in her delivery that makes me feel secure that the recipe will work. But she's so stiff and serious that it makes also highly enjoyable viewing.

Classic Delia

Ah Delia, I salute you in all your matronly ways. You got an entire nation of women rushing out first thing to buy the ingredients of the dishes you prepared on their teles the night before. Not many women can claim to have sold supermarkets out of eggs. When Delia showed her devoted followers how to boil an egg it did indeed happen. Seriously. There's even a term coined for it: the Delia effect.

Next time: Erin and I are definitely going to make it to a Wellington on a Plate event this weekend. Location yet to be confirmed though we have narrowed it down to a shortlist of about 4. Watch this space....

Rick and Peta

Well it's been a big week for me! Have had the pleasure of seeing 2 of my favourite chefs and hearing them talk about their expereinces. First up was Rick Stein.

Rick was very funny! The show was co-hosted by Mark Sainsbury and Rick's old sous chef (a kiwi). They had some good banter going on. He cooked a number of delicious smelling recipes and even brought them out to the audience to try. Unfortunately I never got to try any but I'm sure they were yummy.



My lovely colleague Robyn and I went to hear Peta Mathias talk about her adventures in Marrakech on Wednesday night. This was part of the Dominion Post writers series of talks. Now, I've met Peta once before when I worked at an event she was hosting and I thought she was a right madam and not very nice at all. So my expectations weren't very high. But I was really surprised! She was extremely funny, engaging and personable. Peta shared some interesting experiences, not only about cooking, but about life in Morocco, women's fashion in Morocco and how to overcome vertigo. FYI: throwing yourself backwards onto a bed is a helpful vertigo technique. Intriguing!

In other news, I made a rather lovely beef and ale casserole last night which I completely forgot to photograph. The newly brunette Anna and Matt were lucky enough (!) to enjoy this little gem with me. Matt enjoyed it so much he had thirds. There is no greater compliment than devouring the entire casserole, so cheers Matt!

I had wanted to serve the casserole on mashed potato but unfortunately my potatoes had decided to start growing mould so they went into the bin. So couscous was substituted. It worked ok. A good tip I learnt from Peta Mathias is that when you are cooking instant couscous you should always use stock instead of water. I tried this and it made a big difference in taste. I also recommend making sure the 'click' you hear is not the multiplug overloading but the kettle finishing boiling. I did not check this and thus my couscous wasn't as fluffy as it could have been. Somewhat disappointing.

Coming up - Wellington on a Plate is in full swing and there's some cocktails and cupcakes coming up at Martha's Pantry. Also Moore Wilson's Food Heros. And Erin and I keep promising each other that we will try a set menu or two! So there should be some exciting events to report on over the next few weeks.

Mid-Winter Christmas

Mid-Winter Christmas and Emma's triumphant return was a raging success! The menu was as follows...

Nibbles: Chips and dip, cheese and crackers.

Main: Roast chicken, roast vege selection, couscous and roasted vege salad, green salad, potato gratin, spanakopita, lasagne. Oh yes, and nut roast - I keep forgetting the nut roast - according to Emma, it was the star of the show...hmmm.

Pudding: Chocolate eclairs, ice-cream and fruit salad, chocolates.

Well I'm not sure what happened to the ice-cream and fruit salad (I think we were too full) but everything else was spectacular! Thanks to Helen, Emma and Triona for allowing me to delegate parts of the meal. There might have been some spontaneous combustion had I attempted to do it all! Anyway, I did a chicken, couscous, potato gratin, spanakopita, lasagne and the eclairs.

The finished dishes, ready to be transported to the Love Nest

Note the strawberries marinating in Cointreau too. Mmmm! I admit I tried a few, just to make sure they were ok. Quality controll you know...very important...


There was some morphing into Delia Smith as lists of lists were drawn up. Then there was a list of time frame broken down into half hourly segments...I shan't go on, but you get my drift. I was hoping there'd be some magical change into Nigella but this appeared not to happen.

Cooking went smoothly and was completed by 11:30, thus allowing me to enjoy the rest of the day. Until it was eclair time. Didn't want to do these too early as I figured they'd get soggy. I will admit there were 30 eclair cases.... however the full number didn't quite make it to the party... there were a few breakages! I decided to pipe the cream into the cases as I figured it would be easier - and it was. Got a big snaplock bag, filled it with the whipped cream, snipped the corner off and piped away happily.

Note the artfully placed holly - I impress myself no end

Saturday was the first time I'd ever made a lasange! I've made the mince and bechamel many times before, albeit seperately. I was a bit nervous as to how it'd turn out as when I was assembling the bad boy it seemed a bit sloppy, but it was actually fine once it had cooled. We reheated it just prior to serving and it still held together nicely. As requested (thanks guys!) here's the recipe I made up as I went along

Lasagne - Sophie style

Meat sauce:

Oil for browning

500 gm (ish, can't remember how much I used) mince

Garlic, crushed

Tomato paste, a couple of tablespoons

Jar of good quality bolognese sauce

Salt and pep

Brown the mince and garlic, drain off any excess fat. Add tomato paste and bolognese sauce. Season. Cook slowly over a low heat for ages (I simmered slowly for 2.5 hours).

Bechemel sauce:


Butter 2tbsp

Flour 2 tbsp

Cream 1/2 c

Milk 1/2 c

Grated cheese, generous handfull

Salt and pep

Melt butter, add flour to make roux. Cook out for a min, add milk and cream. I used a whisk to ensure there weren't any lumps. Season. Now, I know bechemel doesn't traditionally have cheese but I was concerned it wasn't thickening enough so I chucked some in! Worked a treat. If you are more patient than me then you'll be able to add your milk slowly. I got a bit excited and added it too quickly.

Assembly:

Put a layer of the meat sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Pour a layer of the bechemel over. Place the lasagne sheets on top. Keep layering until you reach the top of the dish. Finish with a layer of grated cheese. Don't do what I did and overfill your dish - there were some interesting hissing noises coming from the oven that alerted me to this. Cover with foil and bake at 180 degrees for hmmm,45 mins or so. I didn't actually time it, just guesstimated and checked after awhile.


In other news, this Sunday I'm off to Rick Stein! My wonderful mother found tickets were heavily discounted and snaffled some for the family. I'm thoroughly overexcited about this as it was something I was desperate to go to but couldn't really afford. I'm hoping I'll get to see some amazing recipes from the Steininator - he's quite a legend really. I hope he brings Chalky - is Chalky still even alive? I would be very sad if he wasn't. He's a great side-kick.

August has arrived and with it the imminent arrival of Wellington on a Plate - hooray! I'm all booked in for Cocktails and Cupcakes at Martha's Pantry and am eagerly looking forward to Food Heroes at Moore Wilson's - last year was amazing! What an exciting month there is ahead of me.