July, 2020 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Month: July 2020

28
Jul
2020

Name Plates: Pizza a la Garibaldi

categories: 1970's recipes, Italy, Name Plates, Pizza

What do an Italian revolutionary, a biscuit, a beard and this post have in common? They are all named Garibaldi! This Pizza a la Garibaldi comes from The Italian Cuisine I Love (1977) by Jules J Bond. I have a particular fondess for Jules J so I was eager to pick this book back up again. And who doesn’t love pizza?

What is Pizza a la Garibaldi?

Ok. So, I’m not going to explain pizza. Because it’s pizza!

Pizza a La Garibaldi though? Has cheese, green and black olives, oregano / marjoram, and anchovies. I also added some strips of roasted red pepper for reasons which will become clear right about now! This is the picture of the Pizza a la Garibaldi from The Italian Cusine I Love.

And this is me trying to recreate it. I think Jules J piped lines of tomato sauce on his pizza. There was no way in hell I was going to do that so strips of piquillo pepper it was! I wish I’d had some of those cute rolled anchovies with capers to get the same look as Jules. Mine looked like blobs.

The Recipe And Variations

I was interested to see that Jules uses bread dough as a base for his pizza. I have not been able to find yeast for love or money since the start of the first lockdown when everyone went sourdough mad so I was unable to test that part of the recipe out. Also, my preference is for a thin and crispy base rather than a thicker base so I used one of those souvlaki pitas for my pizza.

The Pizza a la Garibaldi was very tasty but for me the big disappointment was the cheese. Part of the joy of pizza, for me anyway is that beautiful streeeetch of the mozzarella.

Parmesan may be tastier but does not give the same joy! I will definitely use mozzarella next time I make this.

Who Was Garibaldi?

Well, we don’t have all day so here are a collection of fun facts about Giussepe Garibaldi

Unifier of Italy

Garibaldi was almost single-handedly responsible for helping Italy move from a collection of city-states to the country we know today. He and his volunteer army of guerilla fighters, the Redshirts, conquered Lombardy and later Sicily and Naples.

Anti Slavery Advocate

Abraham Lincoln offered Garibaldi a job as a Commander in the American Civil War. Garibaldi refused the post partly because Lincoln did not condemn slavery strongly enough for his liking.

Pacifist

Even though he was a soldier for most of his life, in his later years Garibaldi became something of a pacifist beliving that war was generally neither righteous or an effective means of getting what one wants.

Champion of the Underdog

Garibaldi believed in worker’s rights, women’s emancipation, racial equality, and the abolition of capital punishment.

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Garibaldi spent some time in South American and for the rest of his life work the clothing of the gauchos. He is also the originator of the Garibaldi beard.

Keen Entolmologist*

A little known fact about Garibaldi is that he was an avid collector of flying insects, a love he developed in South America. In order to keep his collection with him on his travels, he had specimens of his collection baked into little clay tablets. He could then pop these into his pocket to look at between skirmishes.

These small clay tablets are believed to be the origin of the Garibaldi biscuit.

(Photo via Delicious Magazine UK)

Modern Day Garibladi

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to find one of these but come on down Navarone Garibaldi. In case you haven’t heard of him, he is the son of Priscilla Presley and Marco Garibaldi, stepbrother to Lisa-Marie Presley and a member of the band Them Guns. Hmmm…maybe he could have gone with The Guns of Navarone…or would that be too obvs? Anyway, here he is!

Have a great week. And eat some pizza! It’s scientifically proven to make you happy!

*This “fact” is little known because I wanted to have an interesting story for the origin of the Garibaldi biscuit. The actual truth is that the reason why they are named after Garibaldi is totally unknown.

21
Jul
2020

Waste Not – Spaghetti Bolognese Omelette

categories: Eggs, Leftovers, Omelette, Pasta

Towards the end of the second Fridge, Freezer, Pantry week I used up some Bolognese sauce which had been in the freezer. The first meal I made from this little batch of Bolognese was a traditional Spag Bol. Lovely, tasty, delicious spag bol However, there was still a little sauce and pasta left over so I decided to cook up a dish that had been on my radar for a while now – a Spaghetti Bolognese Omelette!

This recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Love Your Leftovers. This is a very handy book if you are keen to reduce your food waste.

So, as I was making this, delusions of grandeur were flitting through my head. What if the Spaghetti Bolognese Omelette…or the Spag-Om / Bol was to become the viral fusion food of 2020? Move over Dominque Ansell and take your cronuts with you! This is the year in which coronavirus and the Spag-Om™ take over the world. Before you start to mock me, remember that I have been in lockdown pretty much since March. That’s FOUR months. As of the coming Wednesday, we cannot even step out of our houses without wearing masks. No wonder I’m becoming delusional

So is the world ready for the launch of the Spag-Om™?

In a word, no.

This was not very nice. I feel the same way about the Spag-Om™ as I do about chocolate cheesecake. Each of the components is lovely, delicious yummy.

On their own.

But mix them together and you open a minor circle of hell. The Bolognese totally overpowered the omelette. If I was going to wrap my spaghetti Bolognese in something think I would have preferred a tortilla or other sort of wrap that you could toast until the bread got crunchy…maybe add a bit of garlic butter…happy days!

All is not lost though. I think there is something here. I feel a less meat-heavy sauce than Bolognese may be a better option for the future of the Spag-Om™, I have some pesto in my freezer. Maybe next Fridge, Freezer pantry week will see the launch of Spag-Om™2 Electric Booglaoo aka The Pesty Spag-Om™

Stay tuned, stay safe and have a lovely week!

18
Jul
2020

Ye Olde Crusty Cellar Cheesecake

categories: 1970's recipes, Australia, Cheesecake, Desserts

At the best of times, a cheesecake (or really any item of food) hailing from “Ye Olde Crusty cellar” would not sound tempting. However, these are not the best of times, (these may well be the worse of times) and desperate times call for cheesecake! Have I ever mentioned how much I love cheesecake? Next to ice cream, it is probably my favourite dessert. Also, Fridge, Freezer, Pantry week has come around again and I had half a tub of cream cheese icing I wanted to use up. I did not want to make another cake with cream cheese icing so I thought I could hide it in plain sight as it were by mixing it with more cream cheese, sugar and lemon.

(Don’t ask me what look I was going for with the fruit decoration!)

The recipe for Ye Old Crusty Cellar’s Cheesecake came from the book 100 Fabulous Cheesecakes by Ellen Sinclair of The Australian Woman’s Weekly (1971). It is a real shame about the name because the Ye Olde Crusty Cellar cheesecake itself is delicious!!!

Ye Olde Crusty Cheesecake – The Recipe

I did not copy the recipe for Ye Olde Crusty Cellar Cheesecake exactly though. I changed a few things to suit my personal taste. You can decide if you make this whether to follow the OG version or mine. Here is the original with my notes on the crumb crust.

Here are the instructions on what to do with those ingredients to turn them into a crumb crust:

The two changes I made to this were:

I did not add any additional sugar as I thought an entire can of condensed milk would be sweet enough
I did not add the egg yolks. Largely because I could not understand what they were doing there. I totally understand eggs in a baked cheesecake but not in an unbaked. The only thing I could think that they provided was maybe an additional richness to the mix. Again, for my taste, cream cheese and sour cream are rich enough.

I was a bit worried that leaving them out would somehow mean that the cheesecake would not set. But the mixture firmed up beautifully in the fridge overnight to cream a filling that was both light, luscious and not too sweet!

Ye Olde Crusty Cellar – History

The Ye Olde Crusty Cellar was a wine bar opened at 255 George Street brSydney in 1931 by winemaker Leo Buring.

It was described as having:

“the head of Bacchus…to guide guests in and out’ with ‘shaded lights’ and a feeling of ‘cloistered gloom’.

Hmm, not sure cloistered gloom would be the ambiance I would be seeking were I to open a wine bar. But it worked for Leo! The “Crusty” was a destination venue, attracting crowds of visitors, many of whom would have sampled the cheesecake!

Sadly the “Crusty” closed in 1974 but luckily the recipe for us, it’s signature cheesecake lives on!

Have a great week everyone!

14
Jul
2020

Frizzled Artichokes with Gribiche Sauce

categories: Eggs, France, Vegetables

I have been wanting to make a Gribiche Sauce ever since I first read about it in an old edition of Gourmet Traveller which teamed it with some deep-fried Artichokes. The other day in the greengrocer I saw some gorgeous artichokes that prompted my memory of this dish.

These looked so beautiful…but first, let’s talk Gribiche. Gribiche is a French sauce…kind of like a tartare sauce with hard-boiled eggs. It is really tasty. I love the way the creaminess of the eggs offset against the sharpness of the vinegar, cornichons and capers. These are my flavours!!!

And I also adore artichokes, but hardly ever cook them because let’s face it, they are not the most user friendly of veg are they? Even if they are one of the prettiest!

Via Olivers Market

These were so fun to eat. I can just imagine, after the ‘rona, when we can entertain again, having a row of these down the table with little dishes of gribiche for people to dip into! But wait!!! The fun doesn’t stop there. These are also incredibly fun to make. Watch the leaves as they fry…

They move!!!!

How cool is that! Have you ever seen anything like it? Also apologies for the sound of my podcast coming through – I was so excited and wanted to capture these moving leaves that I didn’t have time to turn it off! And if anyone else out there listens to Kim and Ket Stay Alive – Maybe, Hey! How are you! I am a fellow fan!

The recipe for the Gribiche Sauce in Gourmet Traveller is pretty fancy in that it contains both chervil and tarragon, neither of which are currently available, it being the dead of winter here! Also, I’m not sure if chervil has ever been available in the shops. I feel it is something you need to grow. And I used the last of my homegrown tarragon for Meredith Baxter Birney’s Tarragon Chicken. So, I fried the artichokes according to the Gournet Traveller recipe but I made the Gribiche Sauce using this recipe from the New York Times. I did have a little dill in the fridge which I added because I thought it might help to give a slightly aniseedy flavour which would have been present with the chervil and tarragon.

Other Ways To Use Gribiche

If you happen to have some Gribiche sauce left over after making this, you can use it up in the following ways:

With Asparagus – this seems to be a very popular combination. I love toast so this recipe caught my eye!
And speaking of toast look at this grilled cheese with speck and gribiche. It looks spec(k)tacular!
Heston likes it in a salad
It goes well with chicken
And fish
Even beef can take a bit of Gribiche sauce!

So no shortage of options for any leftovers!

That’s me done! Have a wonderful week everyone!

12
Jul
2020

The Case of the Exploding Egg – Vegetarian Scotch Eggs

categories: Eggs, Leftovers, Vegetarian

No, this is not one of Agatha Christie’s little known cases but true-life kitchen drama. Do you think there is such a thing as Covid brain? Because I feel I have become increasingly scatty over the last few…how long have we been in lockdown now? Oh, that’s right, it doesn’t matter how long because we have just gone back into it for another SIX weeks. 😕 For the love of God, people of Melbourne stay TF away from each other. Most of you aren’t even that attractive, why anyone in their right mind would want to get in your personal space is beyond me!

Ok. Rant over. Deep breaths and let’s talk about Vegetarian Scotch Eggs. And explosions.

Oh, these were so good!! The idea from them came from me making Diana Henry’s Baby Pumpkins with mixed mushrooms, leeks, grains. This was also totally delicious and I can heartily recommend making it!

But, after making this, I had a lot of the stuffing mix left. This is no disrespect to Diana. I’m sure had I wanted to stuff 8 eight baby pumpkins her quantities would have been just fine. I was cooking for one. There are usually only a certain amount of times you can divide a recipe before becoming nonsensical. You can generally halve quantities. Sometimes quarter them to no ill effect. Trying to cook to an eighth of a recipe makes no sense. So I guesstimated what I would need for one pumpkin which left me with a lot of leftover filling. The filling was delicious so there was no way I was going to waste it but what to do with it?

My first thought was arancini. But why stop at arancini when you can also put an egg in it? And thus the ideal of my vegetarian scotch egg was born. I popped an egg onto boil, intending to have the perfect four minute boiled egg in the centre of my scotchie. Then went back to work. So, about half an hour later I was drawn out of some intense concentration on a particularly fascinating spreadsheet by what sounded like a bomb going off in my kitchen. First, there was a massive bang, very closely followed by something hitting the window so hard I’m surprised the glass didn’t shatter. The water had dried out in the pan so much that the egg had actually exploded!!!! There was egg shrapnel all over my kitchen. It was like eggmageddon in there!

Like this but on the stove:

Vegetarian Scotch Eggs Take Two

You know how when people who can’t cook say I can’t even boil an egg? So, after the first egg EXPLODED, and I’d cleaned the kitchen and taken a few sedatives because the goddamn thing sounded like a bomb and my heart was pounding like a jackhammer it was time for egg number 2.

On the positive side…this one didn’t explode.

But I did kind of wander off mid-cook to take a call and lost track of egg time. I could tell while peeling it that it was hard-boiled and not the beautiful runny yolk I wanted. But I wrapped it in the mushroom, leek and barley filling regardless. This is the year of not wasting anything remember.

Sure we lost an egg in some explosive collateral damage but you know …I blame Covid for that. I have no rationale for that blame. It’s fucking everything else up so it can also take the blame for my exploding egg. And you know if I hadn’t been working from home and been distracted from cooking it by…errmmmm…work…

Let’s swiftly move away from that one.

Egg 2 turned out pretty delish even though hard-boiled.

Vegetarian Scotch Eggs Take Three

I had a little of the mushroom filling leftover after wapping egg 2. Third-time lucky right? Right! This time I did not take my eyes off that pan for the entire four minutes. I barely blinked. And voila the perfect 4-minute egg as per the pictures above and below

Because it was still so soft it was a little harder to wrap in the filling than the hard-boiled egg. I was terrified I would press too hard and cause the yolk to ooze out before I could get it crumbed and fried.

It’s a bit hard to give you a recipe for this because it was based on the leftovers from the Diana Henry recipe which is here:

You need to judge how many eggs your leftover filling wil cover. To crumb and cook the Scotch Eggs, see my recipe for Pakistani Scotch Eggs. To get your eggs the way you want them, see below:

In lieu of a proper recipe this week, here is a little list of what is currently floating my boat.

Watching

Crazy Delicious – an amazing cooking show on Netflix. Think Heston done by home cooks, a magical ingredient garden, a delightful host in Jayde Adams, oh and Heston is one of the judges!

Dead Pixels – another British show, this time a comedy about the lives of three people obsessed with a video game.

Searching For Sugarman – this was our most recent film club choice. It’s so touching and warm-hearted and as an added bonus, the sounds track is awesome! There has not been a DAY since I watched it when I have not listened to Rodriguez’s Cold Fact at least once!

Reading

I just finished reading “One of Us is Next” which is Karen McManus’ follow up to “One of Us is Lying”. I didn’t love it as much as the first book but it was still a good fun read.

Podding

My current fave is Season 4 of Slow Burn by Slate. I loved Season 1 & 2 of this which covered Watergate and The Clintons respectively. I have not listened to S3 which is about Biggie and Tupac yet but I am going to start it in the next few days. Season 4 is about David Duke who is ~~a total dick~~ a white supremacist politician from Louisiana, and formerly a grand wizard poobah double dragon something from the KuKluxKlan. ~~AKA~~ ~~a total f**king dick..~~

Here’s Topher Grace brilliantly playing him in Black Klansman.

Please send me your recommendations for books, tv, pods, films, music something, anything to keep me entertained over the next few weeks!

Life Update

Just to make us all feel a little bit better about the state of the world, here is a picture of Holly being adorable. This little dog has absolutely captured our hearts in the last 6 months. She has gone from a timid little thing who was scared of everything to a cheeky little girl who is confident and happy in her life. Being able to give such a lovely girl, who has had such a terrible life, a loving home for the last chapters of her life is the best thing we have done for a long time!

If anyone is thinking about adopting an older dog or a dog rescued from medical research please reach out. I am happy to share our experiences.

Have a great week everyone! Have fun, stay safe, and please, send me your recommendations for books, films, podcasts, tv, etc!