Those were the days my friend
"Why does nobody make dumplings any more?" asked Howard, "Apart from us I mean". I didn't have an answer. They're a quick and stupidly cheap way of bulking out a stew - not to mention easy to make.
With the resurgence of "British" cooking on tv and restaurant menus it seems that whilst some dishes are abundant, with ingredients like offal almost becoming fetishised by celebrity chefs in their determination to get us to eat the wibbly wobbly bits, other things are being forgotten.
Don't get me wrong, I love chewing on some good crackling or a mashing chicken liver cooked in sherry onto a thick piece of sourdough - but when was the last time you saw butterfly cakes? Now it's always a red velvet this or whoopie pie that - covered in a thick layer or frosting - never butter cream.
At primary school one of my favourite lunches was sausage meat pie. This was the 80s, this was pre-Jamie Oliver and do you know what? It was blimming delicious! All you needed was mashed potatoes (definitely not a puree and always lumpy), baked beans and some brown sauce to finish it off. If there was sponge and pink custard for pud then you were in for a real treat.
Talking of treats, does anyone make blancmange any more? Not a panna cotta, a proper pink blancmange - possibly shaped like a rabbit on a bed of green jelly "grass"?
And when was the last time you went to a party where they served something on a stick that wasn't a cake pop? I was horrified to read in The Guardian of the impending arrival of a pie pop - what happened to a cocktail sausage or a bit of cheddar and a pickled onion?!
What food are you nostalgic for? Or are some things best forgotten?
Many thanks to Howard for his spark of inspiration :)
With the resurgence of "British" cooking on tv and restaurant menus it seems that whilst some dishes are abundant, with ingredients like offal almost becoming fetishised by celebrity chefs in their determination to get us to eat the wibbly wobbly bits, other things are being forgotten.
Don't get me wrong, I love chewing on some good crackling or a mashing chicken liver cooked in sherry onto a thick piece of sourdough - but when was the last time you saw butterfly cakes? Now it's always a red velvet this or whoopie pie that - covered in a thick layer or frosting - never butter cream.
At primary school one of my favourite lunches was sausage meat pie. This was the 80s, this was pre-Jamie Oliver and do you know what? It was blimming delicious! All you needed was mashed potatoes (definitely not a puree and always lumpy), baked beans and some brown sauce to finish it off. If there was sponge and pink custard for pud then you were in for a real treat.
Talking of treats, does anyone make blancmange any more? Not a panna cotta, a proper pink blancmange - possibly shaped like a rabbit on a bed of green jelly "grass"?
And when was the last time you went to a party where they served something on a stick that wasn't a cake pop? I was horrified to read in The Guardian of the impending arrival of a pie pop - what happened to a cocktail sausage or a bit of cheddar and a pickled onion?!
What food are you nostalgic for? Or are some things best forgotten?
Many thanks to Howard for his spark of inspiration :)
Comments
The dishes I remember most are things like home-made pies - sometimes with suetcrust pastry (not just shortcrust) or a home-made apple-pie, with some cheese straws made with the leftover trimmings of pastry. Leftovers were (or ARE) great things. Bubble+squeak on a Monday with leftovers from the Sunday roast.
And other simpler treats - like jelly, or little home-made cakes- and not just brownies - but other less-american chocolate cake or marble-cake and all home-made.
I *have* seen butterfly cakes recently. But they're more likely to be found in a village hall, or a church brin-and-share than in a high street cafe or a supermarket.
It all takes time of course. But what a great way of spending a few hours - simple home cooking.
These days I make my own stock out of the bones of the sunday roast, adding the meat to pies and relishing the jellied bits.
A lot of Italian cooking centres around stale bread - Panzanella salad, Miascia cake, bread soups. Even breadcrumbs for meatballs.
They might take a little more time but what you spend in time, you save in money. Surely a good thing when we're all needing to be frugal!