Category: Tomatoes

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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A Rosemary’s Baby Collab – Satan and Silver Screens

Mr. Castevet came in, holding in both hands a small tray on which four cocktail glasses ran over with clear pink liquid. “Mr. Woodhouse? A Vodka Blush. Have you ever tasted one? They’re very popular in Australia,” Mr. Castevet said. He took the final glass and raised it to Rosemary and Guy. “To our guests,” he said. “Welcome to our home.”

The Vodka Blushes were tart and very good.

The above quote comes from the novel of Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin.  Roman Polanski turned the novel into a classic horror film of the same name in 1968.  Here’s me joining in the toast with Rosemary, Guy and their neighbours, The Castavets. Unfortunately,  due to lockdown rules, I can’t welcome anyone into my home at the moment.  But I can toast absent friends.  So when I raised my glass, not only was it to join in the fun of the movie, but also to Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers because, despite being many miles apart we are doing a recipe collab around Rosemary’s Baby!

Vodka Blush

Rosemary's Baby Collab

 

Opening Credits – The Vodka Blush

The film opens with an unseen woman singing what sounds like a creepy lullaby over city street noise and these gorgeous hot pink credits!  Believe me when I say that there is barely a second of this film that has not been poured over by film critic and fan alike – even the credits have been their own article!

I chose to begin my Collab with the paler pink of a vodka blush and utterly agree with the phrase that they were tart and very good!  Sweet / sour is one of my favourite flavour profiles so the Vodka Blush suited my tastes perfectly!  And it was so pretty as well.  I added a little sprig of Rosemary to mine for obvious reasons!

Vodka Blush2

You can find the recipe for a vodka blush here.  It is really easy to make – just three ingredients!

Act Two – Rosemary’s Baby Plot And Mia Farrow’s Yoghurt Gazpacho

Rosemary’s Baby centres around a young couple, Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse (played by John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow) who we initially meet searching for a new apartment in New York.  They decide to rent an apartment in the Bramford building despite it having a dark past.  They move in and Rosemary sets about decorating the apartment. (For an in-depth description of the inside of the apartment, click here). 

Guy and Rosemary meet their neighbours, an older couple, The Castevet’s who invite them round for dinner and vodka blushes.  Despite being initially reluctant to go, Guy hits it off with Roman Castevets and starts spending more time with him.   Rosemary has no such feelings about Minnie Castevets and even though you can tell she is too polite to say so, is annoyed when Minnie and friend pop over unannounced.  Minnie gives Rosemary Terry’s pendant, a supposed good luck charm containing a stinky substance called “tannis root”. 

Guy who had been up until then a bit part actor lands a leading role when the man who was going have the lead goes blind.  Buoyed by his good fortune Guy and Rosemary go full steam ahead with their plans to start a family.  On the night Rosemary is ovulating, the couple are having a romantic dinner when Minnie brings over some “Chocolate mouse”.  Rosemary eats very little of it but almost immediately starts to feel very ill and passes out. 

During this time she has a “dream” in which she is a raped by a demon while Guy, the Castevets and their friends watch on.  She wakes up covered in scratches.  Guy laughs off her concern saying he didn’t want to miss out on baby-making night (this scene is so gross and really cements out view of Guy as a self-centred narcissist not to mention rapist!).  

Shortly thereafter Rosemary discovers she is pregnant and here her nightmare begins.  Her pregnancy is not easy – she is losing weight and in constant pain.  Rosemary then comes to believe that the building is the home to a coven of witches lead by Roman Castevets. She becomes increasingly suspicious of Guy wondering if he is also in league with them. 

Rosemary tries to run away but Guy and Doctor Sappirstein track her down.  They return to the apartment and she goes into labour.  When she awakes she is told that the baby was stillborn.  However, over the following days she starts to hear a baby crying in the Casavet’s apartment.  She picks up a knife and sneaks into the apartment to find Guy, the Castevets and other members of the coven gathered around a bassinet over which hangs an inverted cross.  Guy confesses that in return for fame he gave the child to Satan who is, in fact, the baby’s father.  

Through all of this Mia Farrow as Rosemary is luminous.  She is so beautiful (even when she is meant to be looking gaunt and ill) and her clothing throughout is pitch-perfect!  More on the clothes can be found here.  

Also pitch-perfect is the recipe Jenny sent me for Mia Farrow’s yoghurt gazpacho!  I adore Gazpacho but had never tried one with yoghurt before.  It was delicious.  So refreshing and would be perfect for a hot summer’s day.  The gazpacho is so tasty and the yoghurt so soothing that I made it again a few days later when I had a stomach ache!  Confession – I ate so much of the gazpacho I could barely eat the second course!  But that just meant more leftovers.  Also, the recipe calls for parsley which I added for the OG version.  The second time I made it, I only had basil so I added that instead.  It changed the flavour but was also delicious!  

Yoghurt Gazpacho

 

The Final Act – John Cassavetes Minted Meatballs and Spooky Tales about Rosemary Baby

Jenny also sent me the recipe for John Cassavetes Minted Meatballs.  Before we get to them, you cannot believe the problems I have had writing Cassavetes and Castevets in the same post.  I don’t think I have written it correctly ONCE.  

I was quite prepared to hate these meatballs based solely on the fact that John Cassavetes character in Rosemary Baby’s is such a tremendous arsehole.  I’ll hand it to him though.  The meatballs were good.  I ate mine on cheesy bread.  I had filled myself up on three glasses of the gazpacho by the time I got to the meatballs so I only ate two on the night but they heated up really well for lunch during the week. John Cassavetes Minted Meatballs

The mint was really tasty in these.  I am thinking that the next time I make these, I will use lamb instead of beef because mint and lamb go so well together.  What I liked best about these meatballs though was, as they cooked, the grains of rice started to poke out, making them look like little spiky sea urchins in a sea of to tomato sauce!

Minted Meatballs 2

And now here are some weird facts about Rosemary’s Baby – which has been called ” the most cursed hit movie ever made”.

  • Krzysztof Komeda, the composer fell off a cliff at a party and suffered terrible head injuries.  He was in a coma for four months before passing away (incidentally the same fate that befalls Rosemary’s friend Hutch in the film).
  • The year after the release of Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson family. 
  • The Manson Family wrote “Helter Skelter”‘ in blood on the walls of the Tate crime scene.
  • Helter Skelter is a song off The Beatles The White Album.  Mia Farrow was in attendance for at least part of the recording of the White Album.  The Beatles song Dear Prudence is about her sister. 
  • The Bramford Building is, in reality, the Dakota Building.  MArk Chapman shot John Lennon to death outside this same building on 8 December 1980.

Little bit spooky no?

Huge thanks to Jenny for the recipes and for joining in !!! It is always nice to collab on something and this one was well and truly a breath of fresh air during lockdown!  You can read about her experiences with Rosemary’s Baby here!  Oh, and I hope she won’t mind me sharing this photo which was of Jenny doing her Vincent Price impersonation.  I will always think of it as the Rosemary’s Baby picture now! 

 

Have a great week and stay safe!

 

 

 

Tomato and Tarragon Soup with Sun Dried Tomato Bread

Bonjour mes amis, aujourd’hui nous faisons une soupe de tomates inspirée par un jardin d’herbes françaises.

It is actually a tomato and tarragon soup but the French word for tarragon is “estragon” which I kept reading as “oestrogen”.  That’s not generally an ingredient I want in my soup so we’ll keep it English!

It also seems to be a particularly French time of year, Bastille Day just, gone, the World Cup victory and the Tour De France.  And of course, nothing says celebrate like soup right?   Don’t answer that.

Whatever, this soup is super! 😏

Tomato & Tarragon Soup2

Back in the summer,  I grew both tarragon and tomatoes in the backyard.  But it wasn’t until late in the season after the tomatoes had finished that I came across this recipe for tomato and tarragon soup. I had never heard of that combination before – tomatoes and basil?  Definitely.  Chives – most certainly.  Parsley – why not?  But tarragon?  Not so much.

Since then, I have learned that they are both ingredients in a Sauce Choron which is a tomato flavoured Bearnaise sauce.  The only comment I have to make about that is “What took me so long?”  Next summer, Salmon with Sauce Choron will be featuring on the menu but for the meantime as the cold of winter sets in, I will remind myself about the joys of summer produce by remembering how good this soup was!

The tarragon here is homegrown even if the tomatoes are not.

Tomato-Tarragon-Soup2

This was a lovely soup; light and very fresh.  It tasted of summer!  The recipe came from a book called Recipes From a French Herb Garden by Geraldene Holt.

Next month, I am heading to France.  On my travels, I will be visiting the Ville Rose (Toulouse).  And then on to Bordeaux.  Where I definitely will not be sampling any of the local wines!!!!  😉 Given it will be the height of summer when I am there, I wonder if there will be a tomato and tarragon soup on the menu anywhere?

This was a lovely soup; light and very fresh.  It tasted of summer! It is so cold and miserable here in Melbourne at the moment but even looking at these photos brought back memories of warmer days and anticipation of the warm weather ahead in Europe!

 

I served the soup with a sun-dried tomato bread which I feel is a very 90’s adaptation of the Spanish Pan con Tomate where bread is rubbed with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes.  In this version, I chopped up some sun dried tomatoes, some garlic, added some finely chopped basil and a little bit more tarragon and mixed these through some butter.  I then spread this onto some rustic, toasted bread and popped it under the grill until golden.

Tomato and Tarragon Soup 6

Teamed with the soup it was a double delight of tomato-ishness.  And tarragon-yness

Here is the recipe for the soup:

Tomato & Tarragon Soup recipe2

And the bread:

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Sun Dried Tomato Bread

Delicious herby, garlicy, tomatoy bread, perfect for dunking into soup!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 slices of rustic style bread
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 4 sun dried tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1/4 clove of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp mixed chopped herbs, (I used basil and tarragon)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Combine the butter, cheese, tomatoes and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  2. Spread over the bread.
  3. Transfer to a baking tray and place under the grill until golden brown.

Have a great week everyone!

Signature 1 Vintage Valentine Quick as Wink2

The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 3 – Onion and Olive Pie

“When a substantial first course is called for, it is hard to improve on a savoury tart served warm”

– Margaret Fulton

I so totally agree!

MFCB Olive And Onion Tart
MFCB Olive And Onion Tart

I think the Onion and Olive Pie  looks pretty good in both of these pictures. It’s certainly the best looking item on the 1977 page. In the modern picture though, it really shines.

Both make me wonder why this is not called a Tomato and Olive Pie.

If like me, you really want to eat this, here is the recipe.  From the 1977 version.  This ain’t called Retro Food For Modern Times for nothing.

 

Onion and Olive Tart Recipe
Onion and Olive Tart Recipe

Have a great week…if you want to know what I’m up to on holidays check out my daily Instagram!

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Frosted Tomato Cocktail

The frosted tomato cocktail was my pick from the Adventurous Appetizers section of The A-Z of Cooking. 

Frosted Tomato Cocktail
Frosted Tomato Cocktail

But first, each section of The A-Z of Cooking comes with a sentence or two to introduce it vis a vis:

A is for… ADVENTUROUS APPETIZERS: start a dinner party or special family supper with a new and exciting idea.

Booooooring.

How much more fun if they’d done them all in verse:

There was a young girl called Eliza

Who wanted to make appetizers

She tried the tomat-er

As an exciting new starter

And the result did really surprise her.

Yeah, I know that was hardly “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” but the A-Z of Cooking is hardly The Larousse Gastronomique either.

You know what they say, water finds its level.

I nearly chose a recipe called Sweetcorn Scallops but the only thing scallopy about them was that they were served in scalloped shaped dishes or shells, neither of which I own.

I feel they were already drawing a slightly long bow in naming it. If I’d made it in a normal dish you guys would have left wondering if I’d lost my mind…

I can hear it now  “Errmmmm, that’s bacon, honey, not scallops”

Sweetcorn Scallops
Sweetcorn Scallops

Anyhow, I really liked the picture of the Frosted Tomato Cocktail  from The A-Z of Cooking which is why I chose this one to make. I love that glass.   And  just so you don’t think it’s me, they love a long skinny photo in The A-Z of Cooking.

Frosted Tomato Cocktail - Picture
Frosted Tomato Cocktail – Picture

Here is the original recipe:

Frosted Tomato Cocktail - Recipe
Frosted Tomato Cocktail – Recipe

This was really nice.  So refreshing.  It would be a gorgeous starter for a hot day in mid summer when tomatoes are at their very best.  Or even as a palate cleanser between courses.

However, I felt it was missing something.  Because you know what?  As far as I’m concerned if you’re going to call something a cocktail, it better damn well have some booze in it.  Also, you really needed to ramp up the flavourings in the original.  .

My fennelly  take on the Frosted Tomato Cocktail was inspired by this Serious Eats recipe. You could put the fennel salt around the rim of the glass as they suggest or just include it in the mix like I did.  Celery salt would also be great here, in which case, I would garnish with a celery stalk instead of the mint.

I wanted mine to be vegan so I also omitted the Worcestershire and replaced it with tabasco. It may also be the most delicious thing I have ever made that is zero fat.

Frosted Tomato Cocktail 2
Frosted Tomato Cocktail 2

We’ll be sticking with the letter A for the next sortie into The A-Z of Cooking where we will be looking at the world of after school snacks.  And I might try a haiku.

Have a great week!

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Frosted Tomato Cocktail

A lovely refreshing start to a meal with a slight kick of heat!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 kilo tomatoes, skinned and chopped
  • 125 mls tequla
  • 4 tbsp water
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • juice of 1 lime
  • dash of Tabasco Sauce
  • 1 tbsp sea salt, I used Maldon
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • Mint Leaves to garnish
  • Pepper

Instructions

  1. Toast the fennel seeds in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Place the salt and toasted fennel seeds in a mortar and grind until they are well combined and the seeds have broken down. Pass through a very fine sieve and set aside.
  2. Place the tomatoes, tequila, lime juice, and sugar into a blender and puree until smooth. Add the fennel salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce to taste.
  3. Pour mixture into large ice cube trays and freeze. Just before serving remove from freezer, take the frozen cubes out of ice tray and place them back in the blender.
  4. Puree until smooth but still frozen.
  5. Spoon into chilled glasses, garnish with mint and serve immediately.