Category: Pasta

Jan 2004 – Pretty in Pink?

Hello, retro food lovers and welcome to 2004!  This month the random number generator chose Pink as the theme for our menu via the pages of Good Taste Magazine. Before we start though, maybe let’s throw around some phrases usually more prevalent in corporate speak than around here…

  • Maybe we just need to redefine what success looks like
  • It was a learning experience
  • And fun.  Don’t forget how much fun it was.

All of this means if the success of this menu lies in its pinkness…this month was a disaster. 

If we redefine success to mean did it taste good?  We are not quite in the pink but certainly faring a bit better than colour alone.  

Gravlax Salsa1

So back in January 2004, we were all shaking it like a polaroid picture to Ooutkast’s Hey Ya, some of you were still watching The Return of the King and people on mass were still reading the Da Vinci Code.  Surely by January 2004 we had reached peak Da Vinci? 

So, in a new year, where pop culture looks very much like the old year, let’s take a look at a pink-inspired menu.  

The Menu – January 2004

Pink Menu - Jan 2003

 

Pretty Pink Drink

Well, how can this go wrong?  There’s pink in the title and for people doing dry January (or Feb fast), it’s non-alcoholic too.  It’s lovely and refreshing.  In fact the only thing wrong with it is…

Pretty Pink Drink

 

It’s not overly pink is it?  I mean on a scale of one to Barbie..I’d give it a 5 out of 10. The Pretty Pink drink looks like the liquid lovechild of the two candle holders behind it. It is a pretty colour though, if not as pink as I would have liked.  It was tasty although having to buy three drinks to make one seemed a little unnecessary.  

Pretty Pink Drink Recipe

zz Pretty Pink Drink

Open Ham Sandwich

Open Ham Sandwich

Is there a sufficient amount of actual pink in this?  Yes!  Is it weird to have an open sandwich as a starter?  Also yes. 

I thought this challenge would be an absolute lay down misère.  Apparently, I vastly underestimated the prevalence of pink foods! 

I was a bit worried about the combination of chutney and avocado in this sandwich but they worked well together.  This was a very nice sandwich. 

Open Ham Salmon Recipe

zz Open Ham Sandwich

Salmon Ravioli With Fresh Tomato Sauce

Salmon Ravioli

I may have used the wrong sort of wonton wrapper for these because, not only was the “pasta” rather thick it was also not nearly as translucent as the one in the picture.  This was not only not overly pink but also a bit meh…the ravioli were hard to make and bland.  The sauce is pretty accurate though!  I also liked that they used the same colour plate as my bowl!

I am certainly alone in not liking this though, the comments on the recipe are all highly complimentary

Salmon Ravioli Recipe

Salmon Ravioli Collage1

 

Peach and Rosewater Sorbet with Peach Schnapps

Peach.  I mean, the clue is right there in the name.  And we’ll leave it to the picture to show exactly how well this met the brief of pink.

Peach Sorbet

Having said that, the peach sorbet was delicious.  I almost wish I had made it back in 2004 so it could have been in my life for the last twenty years.  As a bonus though, last year my mum gave us a…what do you call a really tiny tree?  This was basically a knee-high-to-nothing stick in the dirt when we first got it.  This summer though, we had our first three peaches from it.  So I foresee many summers of peach sorbet in my future life.  And that can only be a good thing. 

It wasn’t anything like pink though!

Peach Sorbet Recipe

zz Peach Sorbet

My Nigella Moment  – Gravlax Salsa

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share.  

I almost had this as the starter but I felt it was a bit cheaty in a pink challenge to have a salmon starter and main.  This, and the sorbet are the things I will take away from this month to be the things I make again and again.  The recipe for the gravlax salsa came with some caraway wafters – I don’t like the taste of caraway so I made my wafers with everything bagel seasoning.  I won’t make them again.  They were ok but for the time and effort they took I would rather buy some.  I haven’t included the recipe for the wafers.   You also do not need the mustard dill sauce for the salsa.

Gravlax Salsa Recipe

Gravlax Salsa2

 

Gravlax 1

Gravlax 2 (1)

So January 2004 was a total failure in terms of meeting the brief, but also gave me two amazing recipes!  And the drink wasn’t bad either.  Let’s see what February brings!

If you were making a pink menu, what would you include?

 

 

Spaghetti Diable

Greetings Friends and welcome to October. I am celebrating the start of the spookiest month of the year with some Spaghetti Diable. The recipe for our Devil’s Spaghetti comes from The Australian Hostess Cookbook. This book, which is fast becoming one of my favourites, also gave us the Ginger Tingle a while back.

Spaghetti Diable1

The Life of The Grazier’s Wife

Both of these come from the menu of the same Australian Hostess in a chapter called A Grazier’s Wife Entertains. For those not familiar with the term grazier it refers to a person who has farms sheep or cattle.  But maybe I’ll let the grazier’s wife tell us a little bit more about her life.

When planning my menu I consider the conditions out here is in the Austalian Bush.  Our nearest town is 56 miles away and the mail lorry, with my ingredients aboard, has to spend a whole night on the dusty dirt road before it finally arrives at our door early the next morning.  Fruit and vegetables travel 300 miles in a goods train before they reach the mail lorry

It astounds me how anyone survived under those conditions let alone was able to be sufficiently organised to throw dinner parties!  And not just any dinner parties either. Here is the grazier’s wife describing the ambiance of her dinner party.

When dinner is ready I light the candles and limit the lights in the dining room to a corner lamp.  The stereo set continues playing soft mood music all evening.  My large dining table will be set with a plain lilac linen tablecloth and moss green linen table napkins.  The main decoration will be a small bowl of lilac sweet peas with deeper mauve candles inserted into the centre of the float bowl.  On each woman’s napkin there will be a freshly picked pink rosebud tied with a narrow lilac velvet bow”

How delightful does all of that sound!!!!  Who doesn’t now want to get an invitation to dinner at the grazier’s wife’s house?

My own table settings for the Spaghetti Diable were not nearly so fancy.

Spaghetti Diable2

 

Spaghetti and Chicken?

As I was making the Spaghetti Diable I realised that I had never eaten chicken and spaghetti together before.  Growing up, we had  Spaghetti Bolognese and Lasagne (both Beef), Carbonara (Bacon), Marinara (Various Seafood), and Canneloni which was spinach and ricotta.  There was some sort of Tuna Pasta Casserole which is best not spoken about but we NEVER had chicken with pasta.  And even as an adult, they are two things I would not even think of combining.  It even felt weird to be making it.  I realise this says more about me than about the combination of chicken and spaghetti which I’m sure is very normal.  

Spaghetti Diable 3

Is The Devil In The Details? Spaghetti Diable – The Recipe

Is hard to see why this is called Spaghetti Diable.  Diable or Devil in a dish usually indicates the presence of chilli.  And quite a lot of it.  Even allowing for the delicate palates of countrified Australians in 1969, a mere dash of cayenne powder seems a little tame!

Also, I used fresh mushrooms which I sliced and sauteed with the onion and garlic.  I however have the luxury of being able to pop into the local green grocer or supermarket for fresh mushrooms whenever I please without having to wait for them to come over 300 miles on a goods train and then overnight on a mail lorry!

I also added some parsley as a garnish.

Spaghetti Diable 4

 

Tell me, are there food combinations that you think are strange but other people think are normal?  Or combos that you think are normal but other people find weird? 

And have a great week!!!!

The Italian Cuisine I Love Redux

Buongiorno Amici!  Today we are taking another look at The Italian Cuisine I Love by Jules J Bond.  We last looked at this book all the way back in 2012 where I developed quite a crush on the author…Bond…Jules J Bond.  And who wouldn’t crush on this bon vivant and possible spy!  I spent quite a while with Jules J last time and his tuna stuffed tomatoes are still a favourite summer lunch for me!  Today, however, will be a flying visit, albeit a delizioso one!

The introduction to The Italian Cuisine I Love says

Italy is a country where the joy of eating is one of the many joys of life”

The Italian Cusine I Love

And today, wherever in the world we find ourselves, we will be trying to capture some of la dolce vita with some fried anchovy bread and Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce.  Sorry carb phobes, this one is not for you!

Fried Anchovy Bread

Bear with me for uno momento haters of anchovies……just take a moment to look at this…

Fried Anchovy Bread

Yes, I thought that might change your mind.  But if you really, really hate anchovies, leave them out.  Add some salami or prosciutto or olives just have it with the cheese!  If you also don’t like cheese, then I have nothing for you.

Fried Anchovy Bread2

Now that’s the Italian Cuisine I Love!

Fried Anchovy Bread – The Recipe

Fried Anchovy Bread recipe

As delicious as the anchovy bread was, it was just the begining!

Spaghetti In Garlic Sauce

As the fried anchovy bread was quite rich, I thought I would keep the second course quite light.  I wanted to have pasta because last time I didn’t make any of the pasta dishes.  I chose a Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce.  This is a version of a Spaghetti Aglio e Olio and was super yummy!

Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce 1

Spaghetti In Garlic Sauce Recipe

Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce Recipe (1)

Spaghetti in Garlic Sauce 2

It was so nice to step back into the worldof The Italian Cuisine I Love. I now own a few more in the Cuisines I Love series so hopefully it will not be another eleven years before we step back into the world of Jules J Bond!

Let’s Get Lit – March 2003

Hello friends and welcome to March 2003! Avril Lavigne was topping the charts with I’m With You, Bringing Down the House was #1 at the box office and U.S. troops invaded Iraq looking to seek and destroy Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. No wonder, when reflecting on the events of twenty years ago, we here at Retro Foods for Modern Times felt we might need to get a little boozy!  This was the theme for our menu which came from the March 2003 issue of Delicious Magazine!

March 2003 – The Menu

rffmt gets boozy menu

Sangria

As if we could have a boozy menu without a starting drink!  I love Sangria which despite being Spanish in origin always reminds me of our 2017 trip to Portugal where we would have a pre-dinner sangria most days!

Sangria in Portugal

Happy times!  Here’s the one from Delicious!

Sangria1

Sangria Recipe:

Beer Bread with Pastrami and Relish

Due to time constraints, I didn’t make this but doesn’t it look amazing?

Beer Bread Recipe

Spaghettini Alle Vongole

OMG, this was so good.  And also when I really wished I had made the beer bread so I could mop up all the delicious sauce left in the bowl.  I had never eaten Spaghettini Alle Vongole before and although this took a bit of effort to cook, it was worth it!

Spaghettini Alle Vongole Recipe:

Spaghetti Alle Vongole RECIPE

Citrus Salad with Cointreau Cream

To finish out the meal, we have a Citrus Salad with Cointreau Cream.  For an alternative dessert, but one that still uses Cointreau, you could sub in last week’s White Lady which also came from this magazine!

Citrus Salad with Cointreau Cream recipe1

My Nigella Moment – Salmorejo

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was the most appetising thing in the mag!

This was a difficult one.  I was torn between two recipes that really appealed to me.  One was a pink grapefruit tart.  However, as we already had a dessert containing grapefruit I decided to go with the other recipe from March 2003 which caught my eye – salmorejo.

Salmorejo is a cousin of gazpacho.  Gazpacho is one of those things that I thought I would hate.  Cold tomato soup?  Yeccchhh!!! That is until I tried it.  And from then on it was love!  I will note that even though I am a garlic lover, 4 cloves of garlic was too much for this!  Two would, I think have been plenty! 

It looked exactly as it did in the picture too!

Salmorejo

 

Salmorejo Recipe

Salmorejo recipe

Delicious Magazine certainly delivered on our ask for a boozy menu.  We had red wine and brandy in the sangria, beer in the bread, white wine in the spaghetti and Cointreau in the dessert!

Let me know if you would like to contribute a theme to my list.  I’m happy to take on any challenge!

 

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Spicy Mac And Cheese Bites

How many of you have ever had a horror day on the cooking front?  The day when nothing went right?  So It was with me when I went to make the “Baked Curly Shells and Proscuitto Cake” recipe from the November 2002 editiion of Super Food Ideas mag.  For various reasons, about to be elaborated upon, these morphed into these spicy mac and cheese bites!

Spicy Mac And Cheese Bites

Spicy Mac and Cheese Bites – The First Error

The base of the OG recipe was ricotta cheese.  I went to the deli section of my local supermarket.  “Can I have 250 grams of ricotta cheese please?”

The little gobshite behind the counter (believe me, the truth of this statement will bear out) said.  “We don’t have any”.

“Ermmm…..could you check out the back please?

He went out the back but he returned far to quickly to have checked for anything.

“We don’t have any””

Ok.  So I was shopping at around 7pm so the proper, non-supermarket, deli was closed.  The tubs of ricotta in the dairy aisle  were all the size of small swimming pools.  I didn’t want to be spending the rest of the week finding recipes to use that much left over riicotta.    So I decided to use bechamel, for which I had all the ingredients for at home.

“‘Ok, no worries, can I have 12 slices of proscuitto please?

“‘Of what?”‘

“PROSCUITTO”

Let me be clear, we’re still not at the point where he became a gobshite.

Spicy Mac And Cheese Bites2

 

Spicy Mac and Cheese Bites – The Second Error

So I got my proscuitto.  Sorry, PROSCUITTO.  And headed home.  Boiled up my macaroni.  Made my bechamel.  Mixed my macaroni and bechamel together.  It was a little bland.  I added some chilli flakes.  It’s the Sri Lankan in me.  I like things a little spicy.  I then went to line my muffin tins with proscuitto.  (Just like last weeks cupcakes, I was making smaller versions of these “cakes” to work with my picnic theme.

I opened my pack from the deli and was faced not with proscuitto but with Sopressa!  Which is an incredibly spicy salami.

Now my first ever job was in the supermarket deli.  Never ever would I have mixed up proscuitto and sopressa!!!!  And this my friends, is what made him a gobshite!

But by now it was close to 9pm.  I  did have the energy to get back in the car, drive back to Woolworths, explain what had happened, swap out the sopressa for proscuitto, drive home…

So I remembered that old Italian adage.  “When life gives you sopressa, make….mac and cheese bites anyway”‘.

These little mac and cheese bites were so good!  I would probably drop the chilli from the pasta mix when making again though as, with the sopressa they were really quite fiery! They were also good reheated and cold / ambient temperature!  So would be great picnic food.

The OG Recipe

Baked curly shells

My Spicy Mac and Cheese Bites

Print

Spicy Mac And Cheese Bites

Spicy mac and cheese!  Perfect for picnics, lunch or anytime!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 250g curly shells or other macaroni
  • 12 slices or proscuitto or 24 slices of sopressa
  • Chilli flakes (optional)
  • 2 tbsp bread crumbs
  • Butter

Cheese Sauce

  • 500ml milk
  • 4 tbsp plain flour
  • 50g butter
  • 100g grated vintage cheddar cheese
  • Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
  • salt and pepper

Olive oil spray  / butter for the mufffin tin

Instructions

Cheese Sauce

  • Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.
  • Add the flour to the butter and stir with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.
  • Gradually add the milk, whisking all the while to remove any lumps.
  • Cook, stirring all the time, until the mixture boils and thickens.
  • Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring frequently for 5 minutes or until the sauce is the consistency of custard.
  • Remove the sauce from the heat, add stir through the cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add a pinch or two of freshly grated nutmeg and some chilli flakes if desired.

Macaroni

  • Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the packet. You can reduce the cooking time a bit as the macaroni will be baked later.
  • Heat your oven to 180C.
  • Mix the cheese sauce into the macaroni.
  • Grease your muffin tin.  I prefer to use a spray for this but you can use butter or olive oil if you prefer.
  • Line the bottom and sides of each muffin cup with sopressa or proscuitto.  Cut the proscuitto into 2 pieces.
  • Spoon the pasta mixture into the lined muffin cups.
  • Sprinkle with breadcrumbs
  • Dot with butter
  • Place into the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the tops are nicely browned.
  • Let sit for a few minutes before removing from the pan.

 

Spicy Mac And Cheese Bites3jpg

Let me know if you make either recipe!
Have a great week!

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