Day 6: The Oslo Meal

Last night's dinner wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. After a bit of a disaster where I couldn't get the car started and therefore couldn't pick Tim up from work, going out anywhere for dinner was off the menu. Instead, I veered slightly off the ration course and had a glass of wine while I waited for both Tim and the RACV man to arrive. They did, almost simultaneously.

With the car situation sorted very quickly, we made a decision to stay in and stick to the program. The wine helped. I couldn't bring myself to eat the battered sardines, but I tried the carrots and rice and they were edible. Tim thought so too, although he says he will be glad when the seven days are over.

Without doubt, our favourite meal this week has been the Oslo meal and although it's meant to be a lunch, it is something I will gladly have for dinner, even on so cold a night. I don't know where the name came from, but the Oslo meal was apparently tried out on children during WWII as a way of providing a nutritious lunch. You can see why it worked so well. All the important bases covered with a simple salad, bread, cheese and milk. I suppose the idea might have been to make sure kids had one decent meal during the day, given the whole ration situation.

Making an Oslo meal is the easiest thing I've done all week and has been the easiest eating too. It consists of lettuce and other salad items, including tomato, cucumber, carrot, etc. Probably any salad vegetable you could find would have done. After day two I avoided adding carrot, for what I hope are obvious reasons. Also included is a small piece of cheese (about 25g) which could be grated over the meal. Next, two slices of wholemeal bread with margarine, and a glass of milk.

Verdict: this is such a fresh, easy and healthy lunch that became the highlight of the day for both of us. Far from being an out of date idea, it's the sort of thing I've taken to work many times in a lunch box. I don't usually drink milk by the glass, but I can see how it helps fill you up in a healthy sort of way. For Tim's lunch, I used cheese slices so that he could have it on bread because he won't eat chunks or grated cheese. So in other words, he had a cheese sandwich, salad and milk.

Tim says: simple and filling. In fact, it's deceptively fulfilling. I loved it best of anything I've had this week. I wouldn't mind if Julia keeps making me Oslo meal lunches.

Day 4: Waste not, want not...

It's day four of the ration book cooking challenge and my insides are a little bit sick and tired of carrot and potato based meals. On their own, each dinner so far has not been too bad. But eating like this every single day is starting to get monotonous.

I had grand plans for tonight's dinner that involved sardines and rhubarb - not in the same dish! Two things intervened with my well-laid plans. First, I had to go into Melbourne at short notice. This took most of the day and I wound up with a cracking great headache as a result. I really didn't feel like tackling canned seafood. Second, and possibly more unfortunate, there was a lot of leftover Lord Woolton pie, carrot and mashed potatoes looking back at me every time I opened the fridge.

In true wartime spirit, I decided it was time to get creative with the leftovers. I certainly couldn't make Tim eat them as-was, although I noted that the potato scones were almost all gone. It took about five minutes to throw together a more substantial and tastier pie.

First, I greased and lined a pie dish with some pastry. (Yes, I did use a sheet of frozen stuff - remember the headache.) Next, I made a filling by combining the rest of the original pie, leftover grated, cooked and seasoned carrot and some fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs and chopped parsley. I placed this in the pastry, and topped it off with mashed potato and some salt and pepper. I baked it until it started to brown.

The result was a pretty good pie. It was warm and hearty, it felt closer to a normal meal than previous nights, and it means that nothing has been wasted. I would have grated a little cheese on top, or perhaps even under the potato like I do with cottage pie, but I ran out of cheddar.

Verdict: Waste not, want not! This is a classic example of how bits and pieces can be pulled together to make an enjoyable meal. The carrot and fresh breadcrumbs gave the original pie more body and the parsley freshened it up. With the potato on top, this was like a sort of vegetarian cottage pie and I enjoyedit. I'd definitely make something like this again.

Tim says: Next to fried Spam, this is my favourite dinner so far. It was tasty and filling without being heavy. Much better than potato scones.

Day 3: Carrot roll and potato scones

 

Day three and we're hanging in there with the ration book dinners. It's not that there isn't enough food; it's more that it's becoming clear that it's all fairly similar food. There's no doubt that it's low in fat,  healthy and designed to fill people up by making the absolute most of what was available. It's not even particularly stodgy or lacking in taste. It's just that what was available was a lot of carrots and potatoes.

Tonight's dinner was slightly more involved than the last few days' efforts. This is because I had to make mashed potatoes in one pot, and grate and cook carrot in another pot. Then came the challenge of moulding the whole thing together to make it look sort of like a roll. Even more of a challenge was photographing it because like yesterday, it isn't the prettiest dish. Still we persevered and here's what you get when you mould mash potatoes around grated carrots and bake.

We also had potato scones. These aren't like the normal, light and fluffy scones you may know and love. You can probably tell that from the photo.

By mixing mashed potato and flour together, you get a fairly sticky dough that you roll and cut discs from, before frying them in dripping. First, they really don't cook very well in a frying pan because the dough is quite dense. Leave them in for too long and they burn. Leave them in too little and they're still raw and gluey inside. My solution was to brown them up in the pan and then throw them in the oven in a tin covered with tin foil. It helped because they cooked right through and were much lighter.

Verdict: Tonight's dinner only required slightly more effort than the last two nights but was still pretty quick and easy. I enjoyed the carrot roll and I could happily have this again as a side with with a roast and some tasty gravy, instead of the usual versions of mash. It's quite tasty and light in texture which was a big difference from the scones.

The scones I wouldn't do again. I found them heavy and not at all tasty and they were no substitute for regular scones or bread. (Or nothing!) I think the recipe book may have left out a few instructions, but I used common sense and they seemed to work out as intended.

Tim says: Not as yummy as last night and I really noticed the lack of meat. The same sort of vegetables are starting to get a bit tiring on day three. The scones aren't as good as normal scones. They're very stodgy. This food might be low in fat but it's energy dense food and can still be heavy.

Carrot roll ingredients:
2 large carrots
salt & pepper
1 tsp vegetable extract (I used half a large stock cube)
2 tsp fine oatmeal, toasted
cold cooked mashed potato

Grate the carrots coarsely and cook for ten minutes in a very little water. Season well and add the vegetable extract and toasted oatmeal. Boil for five minutes, stirring to thicken. Cool. At this stage the mixture will be quite stiff. Have some cold mashed potato ready, dust the pastry board with flour and roll out into an oblong shape. Place the carrot filling in the centre, then fold over and shape into a roll. (I just spooned out some potato and flattened it, arranged the carrot on top and folded the edges over, using extra potato to cover any gaps. I did this directly on a lined baking tray). Dot with a few shavings of fat and bake in a moderately hot oven until nicely browned. Serve well seasoned with brown gravy.


Potato scone ingredients:
225g mashed potato
225g flour (I used spelt)
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
milk
1 tbsp dripping (I used lard)

Mix the potato, flour, salt and baking powder together with enough milk to make a stiff paste. Roll out about 5mm thick. (I just patted it into shape on a floured board, then used a cookie cutter to cut discs) Fry the first cake in a little dripping, the others will do without. (I fried in two batches.) Butter and serve hot, in a pile.

Recipes from: Ration Book Cookery, Gill Corbishley, 2004; pp34 & 38

Day 1: Lord Woolton Pie

Yesterday, as I tootled around the local supermarket, I was really looking forward to this week's ration cooking challenge. Groceries were basic - carrots, beetroot, parsnip, potatoes, etc. Nothing processed, except the Spam. From two supermarkets, I managed to get everything I needed, except an egg substitute. I'll look for a health food store tomorrow and if I can't find it, I'll pretend we live in the country and have chooks.

After porridge for breakfast and an Oslo meal for lunch, it was time to tackle the first dinner recipe for the week. Tonight we had Lord Woolton pie. This dish was named after the Minister of Food from 1940 and apparently it wasn't altogether well received at the time. I can see why that might be if you had to eat it regularly. It's sort of like a thick, winter vegetable soup, baked in a dish under a crust of wholemeal pastry or potato. While it might not sound all that appetising, I found it warming and wholesome and it felt healthy.

The recipe advises to serve with gravy. You need the gravy to give it some extra body and to make it feel more like a meal. For gravy, I used a chicken gravy that Tim (yes, Tim!!!) made for dinner last night. It was delicious and added just that little bit of extra flavour. I chose a crust of sliced potato because I didn't feel like making pastry from scratch and it was fine. Possibly I should have mashed the potato first, but the recipe didn't stipulate. Other versions say to top with some cheese, but I didn't do that either. Next time I will.

I also said I wasn't going to alter the recipes this week as far as possible. I didn't, except that I will be using stock cubes instead of 'vegetable extract.' Having done some research, I think this is about as close as I'll get. Oh, and one last thing - I halved the proportions below, because 1.8 kilograms is a lot of vegetables for two people for one dinner!

Verdict: This is such an easy recipe to make and it's actually very tasty but you do need to season it well. The gravy helps with this. It's also fairly filling, although you will need something else with it unless you eat a whole lot of it. We had leftover roast chicken. Would I make it again? Yes, in some form. I'd probably make the pastry or top it with mashed potatoes and cheese to make it a little more robust.

Tim says: It was yummy. Full of flavour, filling and good comfort food. I would eat this one more often. I was a little bit hungry afterwards, but I didn't have much to start with. I'll be happy if the food is this good all week.

Ingredients
450g each of diced potatoes, cauliflower, swedes and carrots
3-4 spring onions
1tsp vegetable extract
1tsp oatmeal
a little chopped parsley
225g cooked, sliced potatoes or wholemeal pastry for topping

Place the diced vegetables, spring onions, vegetable extract and oatmeal into a saucepan, add just enough water to cover, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool.  Put the mixture into a pie dish and sprinkle with parsley. Cover with a crust of potatoes or pastry. Bake in a moderate oven until the topping is nicely brown and serve hot with gravy.

Recipe from: Ration Book Cookery by Gill Corbishley, 2004, p19.

Super energy slice

I don't have a lot to say about this one. Tim rides a bicycle. A lot. So do his mates. They are constantly hungry, especially before, during and after big rides. Where most of us would be worried about fat and sugar content, these guys insist on cramming in as much of both as physically possible without throwing up. Anyway, apparently my last effort wasn't nearly energy-dense enough. Specific feedback included that it needed chocolate. So here I go again.

This is the new and improved version, dubbed iSnack2.0 by Tim, who incidentally thinks it could have been sweeter. Sigh...

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup fresh apple juice

1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup muscovado sugar

1/2 cup rice puffs

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1 egg

100g melted butter

1 tbsp cinnamon

It's simple - mix everything together really well. Press into a greased or lined tin and bake at 180º until golden brown, but don't let it go hard. This should take about 20-30 minutes.

Melt 375g white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Add a half a cup of chopped craisins and stir. Spread over the cooled slice. Allow the chocolate to set and then cut into slabs.

A bit of a tart...

I was inspired the other week by some stuff I saw in a cafe display case. Not inspired in a good way mind you - just inspired to do better. Sorry if that sounds trite, but the half dozen ordinary looking, still partly frozen savoury tarts in the display case did nobody any justice. I could see the condensation collecting on the limp strip of pepper draped over the top as they slowly thawed. Yuck! They looked soggy and unappetising.

In the week that followed the defrosting tart incident remained very much on my mind. Am I obsessive? Maybe. Am I determined? Definitely. What did I do about it? I decided to get creative and make my own.

Now I don't come from a quiche or tart sort of family. Dad didn't eat that sort of thing, so mum didn't cook it. It was as simple as that. And, since I do come from a 'everything is made from scratch' type of family, we never bought the ready made variety when he wasn't around. My point is that my experience is somewhat limited to the occasional lunch at a friend's house or cafe adventure.

But back to my plan of action. I rummaged about in the fridge, and found some seasonal ingredients that I really love: leek and potato. What a marriage made in culinary heaven these two are. Throw in some free range eggs, some nice cheese, parsley, etc, and there you have it - a potato and leek version of the humble savoury tart. It was pretty quick and simple too and kept well in the fridge and lunchbox.

End result? I was pleased. Very pleased. So was Tim. (Especially since I took the easy route, used bought pastry and couldn't eat any of them myself!)

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

1 cup sliced leek (white part only)

200g thinly sliced potato

1 sheet short crust pastry

2 eggs

1 tbsp light sour cream

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp finely chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup freshly grated grana padano

Place half the butter in a fry pan and soften the potatoes for about five minutes at a low temperature. Add the rest of the butter and the leek and cook for ten minutes. Salt & pepper to taste.

Lightly beat the eggs, and then add the cream, milk, parsley and cheese.

Oil four 10cm (diametre) tart tins, quarter the sheet of pastry and gently ease each one into a tin. Cut the excess pastry away. Prick the bottom of each with a fork.

Spoon a quarter of the potato and leek into each tin, spreading it out evenly. Then spoon in the egg mix over the top. Tap the tins to settle the mixture.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180º C. Serve with tomato relish, salad and a glass of white wine.

A very veggie kind of week #2

Well I did say I was craving veg this week. Actually today I had an absolutely beautiful salad for lunch at "As You Like It" which is what I always used to call the Street Theatre cafe, since that's where it is. With colleagues I really like, we dined on a range of tasty treats, washed down with champagne we didn't mean to order. It worked, but I felt a bit fuzzy going back to the office. Thank God for Earl Grey.

Anyway, the current issue of Delicious has an Italian focus. I love Italian food. I grew up with it and I'll enjoy discovering new Italian dishes until the day I die. I saw a recipe for eggplant parmigiana with buffalo mozzarella and thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately I didn't have quite all of the ingredients and it served 8-10 people which is way too much parmigiana for this household without company present. And even then... So I compromised - slightly changed the herbs, used spelt and cut back the quantities. And this is what I came up with - eggplant parmigiana, suburban style. 

I have to say, even my little carnivore who only eats veg at my insistence, loved this and wasn't impressed when I got to the last piece before he did.

Ingredients:

Two large eggplant, washed and cut into 1cm rounds

1 cup spelt flour (or whatever plain flour really)

2 tbsp dried oregano 

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil leaves

2 tbsp chopped fresh sage leaves

2 free range eggs

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 x 400g peeled tomatoes, pureed

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

280g mozzarella, sliced

Put the eggplant in a colander in layers, sprinkle liberally with salt at each layer and let stand for 15 minutes. Rinse well, pat dry with paper towel.

Preheat oven to 190ºC and olive oil a deepish baking dish. 

Place the flour in a shallow dish, together with the chopped herbs, salt and pepper. Stir well. In a second shallow dish, lightly beat the eggs with a tablespoon of water. Dip each slice of eggplant in the flour, shake a bit, then in egg. Place them on lined baking trays in a single layer and sprinkle with garlic. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked. 

In the oiled baking dish, layer a third of the eggplant. Cover with a third of the tomato, Parmesan and mozzarella. Repeat until it's all used. Bake for 40 minutes or until the top is brown and bubbling. You can start by covering the top with foil and removing it about half an hour in so that it browns last. Serve hot or cold.

Now if you want the original recipe, you'll find it in this month's Delicious on page 88. 

A very veggie kind of week

Sometimes you just want, nay - need,  a lot of veg. This is such a week for me, much to the Ladybug's disgust. (She counts on choice tidbits whenever possible). Such is my desire for veg that today I even ordered chicken prahram without the chicken. 

Inspired by the latest issue of Delicious, I thought I'd try something new - schiacciatta as the Italians call it. Broccoli pie for the rest of us. Now you may find yourself asking: 'Why? Why, oh why would anyone put broccoli in a pie?' It's a good question and I can only imagine that at the time it was invented, the inventor was met with as much enthusiasm as I was when I suggested a sort of breakfast pie. (I still don't think it sounds that bad.)

I have to admit if someone sprung this on me as a concept, without visuals, I'd be dubious. Having seen it in the magazine, I was more hopeful. It looked good, and turns out that it is. The flavours are simple and clean, it's easy to make and it works well cold for lunch the next day. In one shot, the pastry has become my favourite pastry recipe ever. I used the leftover to make a killer calzone. Even my favourite carnivore gave it two thumbs up. So from page 127-128 of this month's Delicious, I give you schiacciatta.

Ingredients:

3 heads broccoli, trimmed & thinly sliced

6 spring onions, thinly sliced

100g parmesan cheese

1/2 cup (125ml) olive oil, plus 3 tbsp extra

6 anchovy fillets (optional) - but I really recommend this. It adds that little something.

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional) - again, just do it!!!

Dough

30g fresh yeast or 2 x 7g sachets dried

2tsp sugar

700g plain flour

100ml plain flour (naturally I used spelt flour)

100ml olive oil

For dough, crumple fresh yeast into 3/4 cup (185ml) water and add sugar. Stir until yeast dissolves. (If using dried, mix water with sugar then sprinkle with yeast) Leave it in a warm place for 10-15 minutes until frothy.

Sift flour and 2-3 tsp salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in yeast mixture, add oil and 3/4 cup (185ml) lukewarm water. Mix well with your hands. If it's too dry, add a little more water or if too wet, more flour.

Knead dough in bowl until soft and elastic - sprinkle with a little flour if too sticky. Roll dough into a ball. Cover with a damp tea towel. Stand in a warm lace for 1 1/2 hours to double in size.

Preheat oven to 190º C. Put broccoli, onion, parmesan, oil, anchovies and chilli and some salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix well with your hands.

Halve the dough and roll out one piece to the same size as a baking dish about 30cm x 35cm. Brush some extra oil over the dish, then line with dough, using your fingers to stretch it out to cover the base. Spread the broccoli on the dough, leaving a border. 

Roll out the second piece of dough and place on top of the broccoli. Seal edges well by pinching dough - the steam trapped inside will cook the broccoli. Brush top with oil. Bake 1 - 1 1/4 hours until light golden. Rest for at least 30 minutes, then serve warm or cold. 

Just a couple of things: If you really wanted to avoid making the pastry from scratch, you could try puff. But this is just so easy and so delicious that you should give it a go. Second, I brushed the edges with water & stuck the lid on by pressing the edges with a fork and cutting away the excess. No pinching for me. 

T'was a stormy night in Canberra...

OK. So perhaps 'stormy' is slight overkill, but it was windy, rainy and freak'n cold! And yet our friends still dragged themselves from their warm houses on the other side of town to come to dinner on Saturday night. I knew I couldn't disappoint them on such a night!

I turned to my friend, Mr Pot Roast. I really love pot roast. It's rich, tender and flavoursome if done properly, (which is hard not to do since it's so easy). Even the cheapest, most uninspiring piece of meat can be saved by a slow cook in onions, red wine and it's own juices.

On this occasion, I used a piece of basic roasting beef from the supermarket (Mr Chops was shut) and browned it on each side in a combination of macadamia oil infused with lemon myrtle, and olive oil. I threw in two quartered brown onions for good measure. When everything was brown, I chucked the lot in a large pot, splashed in some red wine, salt, pepper and a spring of rosemary, and cooked it, covered, at about 150ºC for around four hours, without touching it. I could have basted it from time to time but I was busy with other stuff.  No matter. It still fell apart on the fork. 

But I digress. What I really wanted to say is that with any dinner party, there's always someone with special needs. It's usually me, and I'm lucky that most of our friends know this and take care of me. This time, we had someone of the vegetarian persuasion at the table. I almost did the whole meal vegetarian but Tim vetoed that idea pretty quickly. 

What I really hate about vegetarian cooking is that so many people approach it as though it's just a simple case of removing the meat element from a meal. Restaurants cop this criticism from me too. Frankly I think it's a lazy way of doing things, and one that has a tendency to result in a half-arsed effort that leaves the vegetarian feeling short changed. To cook vegetarian  well, you need to make the vegetables the hero of the meal, not just remove the meat and hope that what's left over will do. It's not that hard!

For our vegetarian friend, I decided to do stuffed peppers. I know it's been done a thousand times with different rice-based fillings, but I was pretty happy with this recipe. I made a proper risotto first, rather than mixing some rice with vegetables. Make up whatever risotto you like - I used arborio rice, vegetarian stock, white wine, finely chopped carrot, celery, roasted red pepper, oyster mushrooms and shallots, and seasoned with fresh sage, lemon zest, a little chilli and salt. I tossed through some parmesan and cheddar cheese. Normally I'd never use cheddar in a risotto, but I ran out of parmesan and the shops were shut, being Anzac day & all. It still worked.  Into the peppers this went, and I roasted them in a bath of basic tomato sauce- tomatoes, onions, basil, salt & pepper blended finely, in a covered dish. The trick was not to over cook these. First, the risotto and sauce is already cooked so you really just want to cook the pepper a bit. You also want the peppers to retain their shape and texture and not turn into a sludgy mass.

When you take the time to prepare something like this, it really is a substantial alternative to meat. It was served with all the baked veg, bread and salad that the carnivores got. Nobody missed out!

As an aside, and for what it's worth, I've got a few tips for making a good risotto:

1. Don't let the stock cool down. Keep it simmering away and add it bit by bit into the risotto. 

2. Keep stirring!!!

3. Risotto should not be a stodgy mass that can be sculpted into shapes. It should have some liquidity to it. 

4. Cheese should be added as the last thing, after the risotto is properly cooked. Wine should be the second last thing you add.