Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

Pyxis

I’ve just had a thought about the carrots.........

Can you make carrot crisps?
In the same way as drying apples?

[Deleted User]

you'd have to make them very thin slices but they should work as well as any other root veg, beetroot make lovely crisps as do parsnips, give it a go? let us know how they turn out, interesting !!!

[Deleted User]

Morning, gloriously sunny here, washing done, windows wide in the back and HWK has been and come back from a 2 hour stint on the allotment already!

Today I'm going to give some more ideas rather than recipes and I've been looking through my many cookery books and found ideas for PANCAKES, the flat Shrove Tuesday type that can make a filling meal with a savoury filling and a substantial pudding with a sweet one and the fillings are a good way to use up leftovers or small amounts of many things.


Basic pancake batter to make 8 normal sized pancakes

4oz plain or self raising flour
large pinch salt
1 egg
250ml/1/2 pint milk
1 tablespoon melted butter/margarine

Sift flour and salt into a bowl, beat into a smooth creamy batter with the unbeaten egg, half the milk and the melted fat.  Stir in the remaining milk. Cook in a heavy based pan that is coated with melted fat/oil until the top is set and the bottom is golden brown then flip and cook for a minute or so further to cook the underneath.  

Savoury ideas to fill 8 pancakes
8oz cooked minced meat with a few tablespoons of gravy and some brown sauce/ketchup/chutney with a little Worcester sauce. Coat with gravy or a tin of condensed soup and put into a moderate oven for 25 minutes.

Fried mushrooms and onions with 1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes, some dried basil and rosemary,seasoned well and cover the filled rolled pancakes with 1/2 pint cheese sauce and 1 oz grated cheese and cook as above.


Drain and empty into a bowl a 7oz tin of tuna, add a 2" chunk of finely chopped cucumber, season well and mix with 4 tablespoons plain yoghurt/mayonnaise. Cover with 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes well seasoned and cook as above.

8oz chopped ham and 1/4 pint cheese sauce rolled and into an ovenproof dish, topped with breadcrumbs, seasoned well and a few dots of butter, cover with foil and heat in a moderate oven as above.

8oz corned beef chopped and mixed with a fried onion and a tablespoon pickle/chutney and covered with condensed tomato soup and sprinkled with plain crushed crisps, cook as above


Many other variants can be made depending on what you have, I love baked beans with a bit of mild chilli powder, some fried onion and grated cheese they're delicious piping hot from the oven and filling too.

Sweet ideas to fill 8 pancakes


Fill hot freshly cooked pancakes with hot apple puree flavoured with cinnamon or ground cloves, serve with custard or jam sauce.

Mashed soft bananas mixed with plain yoghurt, grated nutmeg and 1 tablespoon sugar.

Spread with melted warm jam and fresh fruit of the same kind as the jam is made from or banana or apple puree, rolled and sprinkled with sugar.

Spread with golden syrup with orange or lemon rind grated over, rolled and served with ice cream.

Soft cheese mixed with orange rind (grated) and brown sugar, rolled and drizzled with honey.

 For a filling meal that feels a bit special make the 8 pancakes into a stack with two different fillings alternately layered in the stack, thick cheese sauce with cooked peas and mushrooms in it and  a tomato based Italian flavoured sauce make a lovely combination,  use an ovenproof tray/plate and cover the stack loosely with foil and heat in the oven for 25 minutes, sprinkle with grated cheese and serve with more of the tomato sauce.  Cut like a cake into wedges.

Sweet ones work too but tend to be a bit heavy on ingredients that may be hard to get.  Many ideas online so some research would maybe let you use what you have in?

Hope you enjoy if you try any of these xxx.

Pyxis

Ok, do you want a really good laugh? 😂😂😂😂

I sliced 5 MEDIUM-sized carrots using a food processor, so the slices came out all shapes and sizes. 
I had them in a 100degree oven for three hours, turning once halfway through. At the halfway mark, they’d shrunk a bit, but still looked like carrot slices.
At the three hour mark, turned the oven off and left them in until the oven was cool.

When I opened the oven, this is what I found...the pen is to show the scale. Remember, these were 5 medium carrots..........





😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I am eating them, though. Gotta get the Vit A! They are a bit crunchy but very chewy.

They could do with being salted, but I’m resistant to adding salt to stuff, so I am chomping and chewing my way through them dutifully! 😂

I don’t think they are worth the palaver, though. Frying them into crisps would probably be better! 
I’ve got more coming in my veg box this week, so frying it might be, albeit shallow frying!

(chomp chomp chew chomp)

[Deleted User]

Good try! they LOOK edible, in fact they're rather pretty! well done for being innovative and having a go, good on you Pyxis! xxx.

Pyxis

MrsLurcherwalker said:

Good try! they LOOK edible, in fact they're rather pretty! well done for being innovative and having a go, good on you Pyxis! xxx.

Yes, they are rather pretty....and curly!

I ate about two carrots worth, but am a bit carroted out now! 😁

If I don’t finish them as they are, I’ll chuck them into the next stir-fry, and eat them up that way! 

[Deleted User]

I made carrot and coriander soup with some of our excess of carrots as I know we're getting another kilo tomorrow in the pub box that we've booked and I also made some snack size cumin roasted carrot batons  roasted in the oven which were vey nice with the soup as a side nibble.  Just cut carrots into matchsticks, into a bowl with a glug of oil and turn round with your hands and add whole cumin seeds, a dusting of sugar and ground black pepper (could dust with chilli too if you wanted) and into the middle of a 200deg Fan oven for a minimum of 45 minutes (mine could have done with 15 minutes more)  sprinkle with salt when cooled down.  They were nice!

Brambling

Pyxis do you have a microwave? I've made potato crisp in the microwave and it works well, just keep an eye on them as they can turn quickly.  There are recipes on google for carrot crisps in the microwave 

Pyxis

Brambling said:

Pyxis do you have a microwave? I've made potato crisp in the microwave and it works well, just keep an eye on them as they can turn quickly.  There are recipes on google for carrot crisps in the microwave 

I do have a microwave. 

Edit.......yup, have found some instructions.

joannaber

When I was growing up in Poland we loved a grated carrot and apple salad. Also when my mum made tomato soup she always put either pasta or cooked rice in it so that it was a meal in itself. We often just had soup for dinner but it would be enriched with bits of sausage or bacon and lots of diced potato.