Salad - Retro Food For Modern Times

24
Dec
2014

Cranberry Party Salad

categories: 1970's food, Cranberries, Gelatine, Holidays, Salad

If Christmas has an official fruit, to my mind it would have to be the cranberry. We smother our turkey in it, serve it up with some brie for an oh so yummy canapé and knock it back by the bucketful in Christmas inspired cocktails.

If retro cooking had an official dish, it would have to be the jellied salad.

And if these two met at a party and got a little tipsy on a few too many festive sherries and had their very own love child? It would look a little like this:

And you know what? If there’s any rationale for hiding your love children in the attic? The Cranberry Party Salad from Salads For All Seasons could well be it.

I wasn’t the worst thing I made this year. Oh, no, that is a dead heat tie between the Paleo Muesli and the Paleo bread…

It wasn’t awful like these, it was just way too sweet for my taste to have as a savoury dish. It’s a problem I have in general with Cranberry sauce. Sometimes it feels as if someone snuck up whilst I wasn’t looking and smeared my turkey with jam. To me, the thing, the whole raison d’etre of the cran is the tang.

I was also a little disappointed that the fruit and nuts and…yep ok…spoilers ahead…celery…floated to the top which became the bottom once I turned it out. Then I looked at the picture in the book and it looks like her fruit is all chunked at the bottom too.

Also, look at her terracotta water cooler in the background. And look at my Kris Kringle present this year…we do the one where you can steal gifts and believe me, there was nothing coming between me and this baby. Sadly, I stole it off one of the nicest people in the world. And she really wanted it because she had stolen it from one of the boys. Caitlin, if you read this, I’m sorrynotsorry.

I am seriously a couple of oddly placed copper moulds away from having that retro kitchen!!! That woman also has weirdly large man hands like me too. And that blue salad? Will be made. I promise. I have to see how that particular combination of ingredients becomes blue…we will find out together in 2015. I may even wear a badly fitting blue dress and have my water cooler in the background for some happysnaps.

Rosemary says this is to be served with light meats and poultry. But how? You have to remember that this type of dish is most definitely not in any kind of ancestral memory I have. Well, having said that, I did ask my mother WEEKS ago to give me the recipe for a salmon and jello type thing she used to make. Which, I have STILL not got. Someone’s game needs to be lifted….

Given the spread between chunky at the bottom and clear at the top, it seemed sensible to slice it. To my mind that just looked way too weird on the plate. In the end, I treated it like a cranberry sauce and ate it on crackers with ham and cheese.

Huh…it doesn’t look too bad in the photos and, in all honesty, this wasn’t awful….just waaaaaayyyy to sweet for my taste. And I tarted it up by adding fresh cranberries into the mix….

Leave this one with me. I’m going to ponder it over the next 12 months and next year, I’m going to bring you the best cranberry party salad ever!!!

Any suggestions, you know where to send ’em.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

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08
Dec
2014

Sportsman’s Saturday Salad

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Eggs, Salad, Salami

Great name huh? It just kinda rolls off the tongue. Sportsman’s Saturday Salad. I have no idea why it is called that; but the name instils visions of mad hungry footballers coming home after a match demanding to be fed. This is a relatively hearty salad with beans providing the bulk and salami and eggs providing the protein. I guess it is kind of a man salad….even though I tried to make it as pretty as poss.

This gem comes from…huh…where else? Rosemary Mayne Wilson’s Salad’s for All Seasons. And it’s good. Really good!

He had a couple of mates coming over to do….things…in the garden pertaining to retaining walls and welding and digging post holes. Maybe. I’m pretty sure it was something like that. Whenever they started talking my brain did that thing they do in the Snoopy cartoons when the teachers talk….

I may have even started snoring at a few points. But anyway, there were, if not exactly sportsmen in my house at least some semblance of burly-ish men and they not only ate this salad, they wolfed it. I also pretty much ate my own weight of it so it is by no means limited to sportsmen.

I did make it on a Saturday but believe me, this would be good any day of the week!

Sportsman's Saturday Salad2 — Sportsman’s Saturday Salad2

Here is the original recipe and below you will find my tweaked version.

Capsicums repeat on me so I always sub something else into recipes containing them. In this instance it was chopped cherry tomatoes.
I also subbed in 5 bean mix for the kidney beans because that’s what I had in my cupboard.
And I happened to have some of the saffron yoghurt left over from when I made the super delicious eggplant dish from Perisana so I used that instead of mayo. You have to waste not, want not with the saffron, that stuff’s exxy!

Because I am obsessed with finger food, I made mine into bite size portions but you could also make a big salad as per the original.

This is great, quick, easy tasty and I thought it looked pretty as well.

And remember, it’s not just for Sportsmen. Or Saturdays. It’s barely even salad. It is really badly named. But delicious!

Try it!

And have a fabulous week.

And let me know if you have any food you think is incorrectly named!

[yumprint-recipe id=’12’]

03
Nov
2014

Giddy-Up, It’s a Melbourne Cup Pineapple Double

categories: 1970's food, Chartreuse, Cocktail, Crab, Midori, Pineapple, Salad Dressing, Starters

Those of you who don’t live in Australia may be unaware that the Melbourne Cup is run on the first Tuesday in November. The Melbourne Cup is our version of the Kentucky Derby or Ascot or the <<insert the biggest horse race from your country here>>.

Melbourne Cup Crab and Pineapple Appetizer

They call it the race that stops a nation because, come tomorrow at around 3:00pm, just about everyone in the country will stop what they are doing to watch, or listen to, the running of the Cup. If you happen to live in Melbourne, you get to stop for a hell of a lot more than that. We get the WHOLE day off work. Seriously. We don’t go to work all day because for about 5 minutes in the afternoon some horses run around a track. It’s awesome, the most mad and random holiday ever!!!

And because we’re not working, if people aren’t actually going to the races, they have parties and bbq’s or set up parties in the car park at the track, kind of like tail gating but classier. Every one dresses up and the weather is generally good – it’s party time here!!! Apart from the hay fever. That’s still sucking.

And what better way to celebrate your Cup Day holiday, than this adorable vintage salad from Rosemary Mayne-Wilson’s Salads for All Seasons and the accompanying MC Cocktail which I made up to go along with it?

The unifying element between the two is pineapple. And can I just say. Forget Chanel #5.

Pineapple has got to be the best smell in the world. When I opened that can? I just wanted to take a big swim in that glorious scent. Soooo good. And yes, I used pineapple from a can. Fresh pineapple is great. If you happen to live in Cambodia…OMG, the best, sweetest most heaven scented pineapple ever…or you have a couple of spare hours to pfaff about with peeling and coring and taking the eyes out and blah blah blah. As far as I am concerned, canned pineapple is the way to go.

What was not so good was the tinned crab. It was….fairly bland is a nice way of putting it. Completely tasteless would be another. Despite that, the pineapple was sweet and the dressing was surprisingly good. I think that if you used fresh crab meat this would become super good.

RMW recommends decorating this with crab legs. Even if I had made this using fresh crab I would find that a bit creepy. I used some chopped up chives and mint (both can I add, fresh from my garden)!

Alternatively you could forgo piling the crab into and onto the pineapple rings and mix them together and serve in these amazing bits of crabby kitsch!

I would still use the watercress to line the crab bowls. That peppery goodness added a real bit of zing to this dish.

But I will tell you something totally weird. As I was making it, I believed I had spotted a huge flaw in the logic of this salad. Cos that’s the kind of thing I think about, The logic of food. As I may have said a couple of times before, it’s nice to see that Philosophy major isn’t going to waste!

So, here was my concern. You pile your crab meat onto and into the hole of your pineapple ring. However, the law of gravity would suggest that when you picked up your pineapple ring that the crab meat in the hole would not, should not lift with the ring….

Weird thing is? It totally does. Well nearly totally does. A smidgeon of crab may remain on the plate but it will lift. You need to pack it in fairly tight though.

I would definitely make this again. But I would definitely use fresh crab meat.

MC - Midori and Chartreuse Cocktail — MC – Midori and Chartreuse Cocktail

So, what do you do with the leftover juice from the can of pineapple? Well, if life gives you pineapple juice, I say make a super refreshing and tasty as hell cocktail. I also happened to have a bottle of Midori hanging about. It was given to me as a housewarming present when I moved into my old apartment. How on earth it managed to survive 13 years I have no idea. Anyway on that bottle was a tag and on that tag was a recipe for a cocktail called a 24/7 which was Midori, Chartreuse, lime cordial and pineapple juice. I made this and it was ok. Then I made a second one where I subbed in some fresh lemon juice for the lime cordial and it was much better. Then I made a third…(see what I mean about being surprised that bottle hadn’t been drained long ago?) where I added a splash of ginger beer. And ladies and gentlemen, we had a winner!

I’m calling my version the MC – Midori and Chartreuse, Melbourne Cup…

Oh, and the left over salad dressing? Was really good on some oysters the following day! It had that Bloody Mary Shot vibe about it. Kind of retro in it’s own way!

Oysters with Tomato - Horseradish Dressing — Oysters with Tomato – Horseradish Dressing

I will be spending Cup Day cooking up a Joan Crawford inspired Romantic dinner for two courtesy of Jenny at Silver Screen Suppers…stay tuned, I think it’s going to be awesome! Whatever you do, I hope it’s fabulous!

Print

Melbourne Cup Crab & Pineapple Appetizer and MC Cocktail

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

For the Appetizer

6 pineapple rings
400grams (14oz) crab meat (preferably fresh)
1 bunch watercress
Mint and Chopped Chives to serve (optional)

For The Tomato Horseradish Dressing

1 tsp prepared horseradish
1/2 cup tomato juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce
salt & pepper to taste

For the MC Cocktail

30ml (1 oz) Midori
15 ml (1/2 oz) green chartreuse
15 ml (1/2 oz) lemon juice
Pineapple juice
Ginger Beer
Ice

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For the Tomato – Horseradish dressing (can be made in advance)

Mix all the ingredients together and chill

For the Melbourne Cup Crab and Pineapple Appetizer

Arrange the watercress on a large plate or six small plates.
Place the pineapple on top of the watercress.
Mix 1-2 tsp of the dressing through the crab -just enough to help it stick together. Pile the crab onto the pineapple rings
Spoon a little bit of the sauce over the crab (a little goes a long way, so go easy) or serve the dressing on the side. Sprinkle with the chives and mint.

For the MC Cocktail

Fill a long glass with ice. Add the Midori, Green Chartreuse and Lemon Juice. Add pineapple juice to about 2 cm below the rim of the glass.
Top with ginger beer.

29
Sep
2014

Hayman Island Chicken Salad

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Chicken, Pineapple, Salad

Don’tcha just love it when bits of your life just seem to fit together? This Hayman Island Chicken Salad pretty much joined all the dots for me last week.

If last week my life was a movie, this week is a jigsaw.

I have always been inordinately fond of a jigsaw. I think it stems from being an only child and it being one of the things I could do alone. We have been doing some jigsaws at work recently and it has been awesome. We set them up in the kitchen so, at lunch time or randomly through the day, people can go in a do a piece or two.

Although, just between you and me, I think the lady who is bringing them in secretly hates us. Not for her the art prints which are my favourites or the Alpine scenes and waterfalls of my childhood, No way, Uh uh…She likes the impossipuzzle. We had only just recovered from #2 which was this:

No, not a series of pieces thrown on the table. The top one is the picture.The bottom one is a close up. It was only five hundred pieces and it took us three weeks to complete! It also left us shattered remnants of human beings. Then she brought in number 3.

Yep, no borders and five extra pieces. Not to mention a plethora of cats that all look the same She really does hate us.

There was some weirdness as well. We finished puzzle #2 on a Friday but left it out so people could admire our puzzle making skills and laud us accordingly. No change on Monday. However, when I came in on Tuesday, someone had removed the four corner pieces. They hadn’t taken them or thrown them away. Just removed them and left them on the table. Who or why? No idea. I work with some strange people.

But enough of the literal, here’s the metaphorical.

After eating my weight in bacon whilst being obsessed with Fruity Devils I felt the need for some slimming.

I also had some left over pineapple and oranges and Rosemary Mayne Wilson’s Salads For All Seasons.

There is a section on diet salads in the book however it contains recipes like this

And this:

I don’t know, maybe I’m just being picky but if I was making a recipe that I wanted people to eat, I’d think twice about having the word “mould” in the title. Just saying. Maybe that was Rosemary’s cunning plan. You are so repulsed by the name of the food that your appetite is automatically reduced. Then you realise it’s either cottage cheese and pineapple juice (note, you don’t even get the pineapple) or lamb and curry powder in gelatine and what’s left of it disappears all together. Voila. I suppose it’s one way to get skinny!

Handily, not all of Rosemary’s recipes are that disgusting. I made my version of her Hayman Island Chicken Salad which used up my leftover oranges and pineapple. It was pretty tasty and looked quite pretty with the green from the avocado, celery and spring onion, the orange from the oranges (duh) and the yellow pineapple. Mango would also be great in here and would add to the tropical vibe. I have shown it here as a sandwich but I also took some into work for lunch and it was great just as a salad too. Also, there was no avocado in the original. I just had one that needed to be used….

There is no explanation given the Salads For All Seasons as to why this recipe is named after Hayman Island which is a holiday resort on the Great Barrier Reef. I can only assume it was served there back in the 1970’s. It is possibly the thing in the white dish front and centre below.

Hayman Island Buffet via Vintage Queensland

So I had made my Hayman Island Chicken Salad and then, in a coincidence weirder than someone removing the corner pieces from a jigsaw, I happened to glance at the cover of this month’s Gourmet Traveller which had been sitting on my coffee table unread for a couple of weeks. (It actually made an appearance last week, slightly obscured by my huge glass of wine…)

And totally obscured by my hot sauce was this!

Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think the universe is trying to tell me something. And I’m fairly sure that it is that I need to get to Hayman Island pronto.

You see, I read that article and there is no mention of a chicken salad. Nor does it appear on any of the resort menus.

Which is, as far as I am concerned a travesty.

I feel it is my duty, no my mission, to bring this salad to the attention of the resort owners. I would be quite happy to spend a weekend working with the chefs to bring help back this piece of Hayman Island history. Although…we would probably need to match it with some wines and a cocktail or two. Hmm…maybe I’ll need a week.

And we needn’t go all out with the retro vibe. The outrigger canoe as a buffet table? That can stay gone.

And I’m not greedy. I don’t need the $ 10,600-a-night penthouse. I have simple tastes. The $1990 per night beach villa with private pool will be just fine.

How glorious does that room look? The only downside is that now I have that Coldplay song running through in my head.

As do you now too. Don’t thank me. You’re more than welcome.

All together now…Para, para, paradise…..Whoa-oh-oh oh-oooh oh-oh-oh.

So what do you think of my chances of getting the all expenses paid trip to Hayman to act as historical cuisine consultant to the chefs?

Yep. Me too. (Sigh).

Oh well, at least I have the salad!

Have a great week!

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Print

Hayman Island Chicken Salad

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

4 cups cooked chicken
1 cup celery, chopped
1 tbsp spring onion, chopped
1 tbsp capers
1 avocado, flesh cut into cubes
2 oranges, segmented (the original recipe called for tinned mandarin segments)
1 can pineapple pieces
2 tbsp slivered almonds, toasted
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp lemon zest
dash of tabasco sauce (optional)
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt & pepper

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Combine the chicken, celery, spring onions, capers and lemon juice.
Chill for 1 hour.
Mix lemon zest, tabasco if using, and mayonnaise. Chill.
At serving time, add the pineapple, avocado and oranges to the chicken mix.
Gently add the mayonnaise and carefully mix through.
Season to taste
Top with almonds and serve.

18
Mar
2014

Raising the (Salad) Bar Part 1: Cuban Aguacate Salad and Dressing

categories: 1970's food, Avocado, Cucumber, Feta, Rum, Salad

One of the reasons I love old cookbooks is sometimes you get a little insight in to the lives of the people who owned them previously. My latest favourite vintage find, Salads For All Seasons is no exception.

There is an inscription on the front inner cover that reads “To Ann, Happy Christmas 1985. Love Aunty Ev & Uncle Bill.

Thing is…the book was published in 1971. I don’t want to judge but I dunno….unless it’s an absolute classic, giving someone a 14 year old cookbook makes me think that some regifting may have been at play here.

I suspect Ann may not have been the favourite niece.

In the foreward Elizabeth Durack Clancy O.B.E. says:

“I commend this book because it is so useful and practical. “The wilful extravagant maid” can learn some fresh devilment from these pages but the “housewife that’s thrifty” is equally catered for.”

Hmmm…I’m thinking Aunty Ev may have been one of those “thrifty housewives”. And good old Ann, a maid of will and extravagance. It’s all starting to come together….it certainly explains the parsimony of the Christmas present. And the lack of a term of endearment in the greeting.

Next up, the introduction where author Rosemary Mayne-Wilson tells us:

“Salad used to something served on Sunday evenings. It consisted of neatly shredded lettuce, tomato wedges, hard boiled eggs and a slice of cheese. It was served with the sliced leftovers of the Sunday roast. Generally it was put straight on the plate, but when there were visitors it was served in a crystal salad bowl. To make it daring, a blob of mayonnaise was added, but this ‘extra’ was confined to adults”

Personally, I’d be quite happy eating that salad. But more importantly, who knew mayo was a rite of passage?

Then again, have you heard of those Menarche Parties that people are throwing their daughters these days? I swear, if my parents had ever done anything like that to me, I would still be locked in the bathroom, listening to The Smiths on repeat and sobbing “You hate me don’t you? You really fucking hate me.”

You can view the full horror by clicking on the link below but just to whet your appetite, included in the party pack provided by…

wait for it…

Menarche Parties R Us.com ((2021 Update – sadly this site no longer exists))

(I swear you couldn’t make this shit up if you tried)

…are 2 games. One of these is called “Pin the Ovaries” and the other is called the “Puberty Marshmallow Game”.

(2021 Update – sadly this site no longer exists)

Pinning ovaries sounds like something a serial killer would do. And I never want to know what a puberty marshmallow game entails.

For the love of God, bring back the dob of mayo on the Sunday Night Salad. “You’re a woman now Ann, have some Hellman’s”.

“Gee thanks Aunty Ev. Any chance of some tips on frugality?”

Wow,that was a spectacular digression. Where we we? Salad. Yes. Right. Ok. Sorry, I’m still being gobsmacked by the puberty marshmallow game.

Salad. We’re here to talk about salad.

Back to the Introduction of Salads For All Seasons – after dropping in the comment about the mayo, in a lovely piece of randomness, Rosemary Mayne-Wilson tells us:

“Of course this has all changed and now nearly everyone owns a wooden salad bowl”

Bear with me while I nip across to Ebay because I am one of the few who own nothing of the sort. And now I desperately want one. I really want one that looks like this:

But I’m guessing I might have to make do with something a little more mundane.

And it will come in handy because I’m thinking that this could be a long haul. There is so much that is both amazing and godawful in Salads for All Seasons, that I think it’s worth spending some time here.

I was going to work through it from start to finish…until I read some of the recipes and paused for a moment of sanity. So we’ll be kind of working our way through in a fairly random order but skipping some of the truly awful and the just plain boring.

But just to get us off to a to an extravagant and devilish start, put your hot pink dancin’ shoes on, because your tastebuds are going to be doing the Rhumba with this awesome Cuban inspired salad.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:2]

Who knew you could put rum into salad dressing? It’s certainly efficient – you can toxify and detoxify at the same time!!! And it tastes great!

I”m going to be spending my week, trying not to think about marshmallows! Hopefully Salad dressing liberally dosed with Bacardi will help that act of forgetting.

Have a fabulous one whatever you do!

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Tag: Salad

Melbourne Cup Crab & Pineapple Appetizer and MC Cocktail

Ingredients

For the Appetizer

For The Tomato Horseradish Dressing

For the MC Cocktail

Instructions

For the Tomato – Horseradish dressing (can be made in advance)

For the Melbourne Cup Crab and Pineapple Appetizer

For the MC Cocktail

Hayman Island Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Instructions