Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

[Deleted User]

These will come out like little flat pancakes because the meat etc. is in little pieces rather than it being in bigger chunks coated with batter like pieces of fish from the chippy.  makes cooking in a frying pan an option and uses much less oil/fat to fry in so not using up your supplies too quickly.  If you have a jar and something to sieve the oil through you can (keep the savoury and sweet oil that's been used separate, fish flavoured apple fritters YUKKK!) strain the oil when it's cooled and use it again for fritters a few times, thus being even more frugal!

Pollie

I was thinking I needed a deep fat fryer, so thank you for the recipes and information on the fact a frying pan will be deep enough.
I also use a wok for some deep frying, eg home made chips.
 

PipneyJane

MrsLurcherwalker said:

Morning everyone, colder today here and just the kind of day to stay warm by being in the kitchen cooking.

An old fashioned but delicious pudding first today

Chocolate Apple Stirabout

4 oz S/R flour
3 apples (use up old ones)peeled, cored and diced
1 1/2oz sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2oz margarine
pinch of salt
milk to mix

Heat the oven to hot 200deg C ish and grease an ovenproof dish.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl, rub in the margarine.  Add the sugar and the diced apple and mix with enough milk to give the consistency of a batter.  Pour into the greased dish and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes to half an hour.

Economical Chocolate Cake

2oz margarine
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
6oz plain flour
2oz sugar
2 dessertspoons cocoa powder mixed to a paste with water
1/2 a teacup of treacle filled up with warm milk

Cream the fat and sugar and add the beaten egg, then the cocoa paste and then add alternately the rest of the dry and wet ingredients until it is completely mixed in. Pour into a shallow greased cake tin and bake in a moderate oven for 30 - 45 minutes, taking great care not to let it burn.  When cooked remove from the oven and grate some chocolate over the top of the hot cake which will melt and form a delicious topping.  Turn out when cold.

Crunchy Chocolate Slab

1/2lb broken/stale sweet biscuits (broken small)
2oz sugar
1 egg
2oz margarine
1oz cocoa powder

Melt the margarine over a slow heat in a saucepan, add the sugar and cocoa and stir until dissolved then whisk in the beaten egg and stir slowly for 2 minutes. Add biscuits to the saucepan and mix thoroughly.  Turn into a greased tin and level the top.  Put into the fridge to set when cold.  Cut into fingers to serve. 


Some yummy things to make life a little sweeter today xxx.

Thank you for the recipes.   I love a nice chocolate cake.  )

I'm confused, though, by the description I highlighted in bold "1/2 a teacup of treacle filled up with warm milk".  Does that mean:  "half fill the teacup with treacle and use a small amount of warmed milk to fill the inevitable gaps, since treacle is so thick it won't settle into one blob"?  (Which book did this recipe come out of?  I may already have the answer somewhere.)

TIA

- Pip

[Deleted User]

I make oven chips, large potato cut into thinnish chips, wash well, dry on a tea towel, line a baking sheet with baking paper.  Put dried chips into a bowl and drizzle with a little oil (any will do)  turn them round with your hands to make sure they are all coated and spread out in one layer on the paper lined tray. Heat oven to 200 before you chop the potato and it will be good and hot by the time you've done all else. Chips on tray into the oven for 25ish minutes, turn once if you want to (I don't bother) and you get edible chips.  Not deep fried and golden like fried ones but perfectly nice. Salt and pepper them and enjoy.

DO NOT SALT THEM BEFORE COOKING or they put out lots of moisture and don't cook properly.

Pyxis

MrsLurcherwalker said:

I make oven chips, large potato cut into thinnish chips, wash well, dry on a tea towel, line a baking sheet with baking paper.  Put dried chips into a bowl and drizzle with a little oil (any will do)  turn them round with your hands to make sure they are all coated and spread out in one layer on the paper lined tray. Heat oven to 200 before you chop the potato and it will be good and hot by the time you've done all else. Chips on tray into the oven for 25ish minutes, turn once if you want to (I don't bother) and you get edible chips.  Not deep fried and golden like fried ones but perfectly nice. Salt and pepper them and enjoy.

DO NOT SALT THEM BEFORE COOKING or they put out lots of moisture and don't cook properly.

That sounds like a plan.....I have a surfeit of potatoes  at the moment!

[Deleted User]

Yes Pip, exactly that half fill a teacup with treacle and then fill it up with milk until it's full.  Couldn't tell you which book it's from it's written in my mother in laws handwritten book that she used in the war, jolly useful thing to have inherited.

fairy3

Hello everyone - thank you for your recipes am so enjoying the thread and am going to make the Crunchy chocolate slab later, will have to use a square casserole dish as have no baking tray (yes am THAT bad at baking but I can cook). Just a couple of queries - have found a bag of coconut flour in the cupboard - can I use this for anything? Have no SR flour and no hope of getting any but do have plain and baking powder. Trying to adapt from cooking for myself and maybe three or four meals for my DD and DS's a week to making 3 x meals and snacks every day! Am generally good at meal planning and shopping but feel my skills are being fully tested. Have dug out The Austerity Cookbook by Bridget Ardley and 'Meals that are different' issued by the Stork company which has some 'interesting' recipes to maybe adapt.
Thanks in advance F x

ToastLady

Fairy3 have a look at https://thecoconutmama.com/coconut-flour-recipes/  for ideas. I've also got a packet which I haven't used yet. It's probably well out of date.

[Deleted User]

Morning, today for a bit of variety I've found some winter salads made with veg that ought to be in season at this time of year and that we might still be able to get hold of

Potato and Bean Salad

1lb cooked potatoes cut into small pieces
a tin of butter beans drained and rinsed or 4oz dried butter beans soaked overnight and cooked.
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1oz finely chopped celery
salt pinch of cayenne pepper
mayonnaise
fresh chopped parsley to garnish

Mix all in a big bowl and sprinkle parsley over the top.

French Bean Salad

450g French beans, topped and cooked in salted water.
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
black pepper
1oz black olives chopped small

Cook beans and run under cold water, leave in a colander to dry a little
  Put oil, lemon juice and pepper into a screw topped jar and shake well, pour over the beans, toss to coat and sprinkle over the chopped olives, season to taste.

Cauliflower Salad
1 small cauliflower, cleaned
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon  French/Dijon mustard
black pepper
black olives

Cook the cauliflower whole in a pan of salted water for 6 - 7 minutes.  Drain and run under cold water until cool enough to handle.  Cut into florets and put into a large bowl.  Combine all ingredients EXCEPT THE OLIVES in a saucepan and bring it to the boil, remove from heat and whisk well then pour over the cauliflower.  Put in fridge to chill and serve garnished with olives.

Potato and Spinach Salad
1lb new potatoes cooked cooled and sliced
some fresh spinach leaves, washed and shredded
1 tablespoon chopped onion /3 spring onions sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
5oz plain yoghurt
salt
black pepper

combine potatoes, spinach and onion in a bowl, pour over dressing made with the remaining ingredients, chill in fridge and serve cold.

Coleslaw with a difference (do not use salt, it degorges the cabbage and makes the salad wet and horrid, salt at the table not in the bowl and then it will store in the fridge for a few days)

Green/red cabbage (the hard white variety) finely sliced (quantity to suit family size)
1 large carrot grated
1/2 an onion peeled and chopped very small
1 apple washed, cored and diced with the peel on
a handful of sultanas/raisins
a couple of stems of celery, washed and diced
French dressing or mayonnaise
black pepper to taste

Mix all together well in a large bowl, season to taste with pepper only and it will keep in a Tupperware style container in the fridge for a couple of days.


Hope these are useful, making the most of what we can get veg wise at the moment seems sense doesn't it? xxx.

-taff

Tha's exactly as I've always made coleslw { except ] I use onion powder now instead of actually onions, and I throw in some smashed up nuts or pumpkin or sunflower seeds to add to the texture....Soaking the raisins or sultanas first is nice too because they plump up...I don't bother with celery either....