20 Years Ago Today - Retro Food For Modern Times

24
Apr
2023

Lunch in Provence – April 2003

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Delicious, Magazines

Bonjour les amis et bienvenue dans mon déjeuner inspiré de la Provence et d’avril 2003. My inspiration for this menu came from the April 2003 issue of Delicious Magazine. Initially, the topic was “So Frenchy So Chic” but as the menu evolved, so did my interpretation of it. Not for us the hustle and bustle of a Parisian bistro. Today we are taking it slow and enjoying the fresh air and rustic pleasures of lunch in the countryside. With a tiny bit of Asian influence thrown in. It is not totally unfounded either, after all, back in the day, the French has colonies in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and parts of Thailand.

Let’s set the scene, shall we? Lunch is being served outside on a long table sheltered from the sun by the branches of the same olive trees that are providing your entree. The air is scented with lavender from a nearby farm and somewhere nearby a little brook is babbling away…

Maybe something a little like this!

Our April 2003 Menu

Eagle-Eyed readers will notice that for the first time ever in these 20 years ago today posts that we are not opening with some sort of beverage. Instead, we are closing out with one. This is because the starter I chose, the Braised Olives and Almonds was the most purely “French” course whilst the only cocktail in the book was very Asian in its ingredients. The two didn’t really work together so I thought moving the cocktail to the end of the meal would work better!

Braised Green Olives With Roasted Almonds

These were so more-ish! And so easy to do! I could happily munch on a bowl of these any day of the week! And I know we are holding out for the Sakitni at the end of the meal…but a glass of lovely French cider (Maybe a pear cider to match with the dessert) or some Provence Rosé would make this perfect drinking food!

Braised Green Olives and Roasted Almonds Recipe:

Glazed Salmon with Lime Beurre Blanc and Tomato, Ginger and Basil Salsa

This was really delicious and I liked the method of cooking the salmon in foil. I had not tried this before as normally I pan fry or grill my salmon. This was a more delicate way of cooking it. I also used salmon fillets which made this so much easier to cook as a weeknight meal. I simply placed the lime leaves under the salmon, the lemongrass by its side, and the lime on top. Whilst we’re at it…I used regular red sweet chilli sauce instead of the yellow one suggested in the recipe. I don’t think I have ever even seen yellow sweet chilli sauce!

Glazed Salmon with Lime Beurre Blanc and Tomato, Ginger and Basil Salsa Recipe:

Pear Tart with Ginger Custard

I did not make this one – the purpose of these Twenty Years Ago Today recipes is not for me to cook the whole menu, even though sometimes I wish I could! It is about seeing if a particular magazine from the past can fulfill a brief. I don’t love pears so this is not something I would make BUT, I felt the Pear Tart fit in nicely with the French Country theme and the ginger custard echoed the ginger in the salsa that went with the salmon

Pear Tart with Ginger Custard Recipe:

Sakitini

To close out our French country meal we have a very Asian-inspired martini – sake, a lychee instead of an olive, and ginger which has been present in the main and the dessert. This is a sweeter style of martini rather than the dry style most people would drink so it ,is a nice if somewhat unusual, way to round out a meal.

Sakitini recipe:

My Nigella Moment – Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake

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!

Again this month, this was a really tricky one. There were two recipes that I wanted to cook. In the end didn’t do either, possibly because I spent so long vacillating between the two that I ran out of time to do either!

The first was a Brownie, Raspberry and Drambuie Trifle. I mean…OMG…how good does that sound? BUT the second was a Chocolate Raspberry Pudding cake from the lady herself! And how could I resist not Nigella-ing Nigella? Plus, I have made this recipe from How To Eat several times and it has never failed me. It is my go-to recipe if I ever need to bake something that I know will turn out well!

Chocolate Raspberry Pudding Cake Recipe

This was certainly the most challenging menu to pull together as there was nothing in the magazine that seemed specifically French. I felt it came together pretty well even though I had to tweak the theme a little bit! We’ll save So Frenchy So Chic for another day and leave this one as So Frenchy So Rustique! Whatever we call it, April 2003 provided some delicious food which is what it’s all about!

Have a great week!

26
Mar
2023

Let’s Get Lit – March 2003

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Bread, Pasta, Sangria, Seafood, Soup, Tomatoes, Wine

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

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!

Happy times! Here’s the one from Delicious!

Sangria Recipe:

Beer Bread with Pastrami and Relish

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

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:

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!

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 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!

19
Mar
2023

White Lady

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Chocolate, Icecream

I was inspired to make a White Lady by two things. In Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie, Bridget recalls a poem by Frances Darwin Cornford called To a Lady Seen From a Train which mentions a white woman. Simultaneously, I found a recipe for a dessert called a White Lady inthe March 2003 edition of Delicious Magazine. This makes this post not only a Dining with The Dame adjacent post but also a Twenty Years Ago Today adjacent post. I do so love it when things come together!

Part of the poem recalled by Bridget runs as follows:

O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves

Now, as you can tell from the fragment above, this is not a great poem. But something about it roused the ire of other poets of the time. And in what, I imagine to be some sort of precursor to a modern-day rap battle, the poet A.E Housman parodied To A Lady Seen From a Train as follows:

O why do you walk through the fields in boots,
Missing so much and so much?
O fat white woman whom nobody shoots,
Why do you walk through the fields in boots,

And that was not the last word on the subject either. Another poet, G.K Chesterton wrote his own poem called The Fat White Woman Speaks in response to Cornford

Why do you rush through the field in trains,
Guessing so much and so much.
Why do you flash through the flowery meads,
Fat-head poet that nobody reads

Move over Ice Cube, your beef with N.W.A has nothing on Chesterton! Also, this is not about to become a poetry blog, even though I seem to be talking about it a bit recently!

I mean really! Little did that poor woman taking a shortcut through a local field realise that she was going to be weight shamed, accused of being utterly unloveable and have it lamented that she is not the target of a sniper!

In contrast, we are celebrating her with a White Lady or Dame Blanche which is a Belgian ice cream sundae.

White Lady – The Recipe

The White Lady was delicious! But also serves as a warning. Ladies, if you are walking through fields, maybe take your gloves off so you don’t incur the wrath of battling poets!

Have a great week!

11
Feb
2023

Girl’s Night – February 2003

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Cocktail, Duck, Fish, Magazines, Tuna, Vodka, Watermelon

Hello Friends! This week we are stepping back in time to February 2003 via Delicious magazine. It just so happened that the topic that came up in my random generator was Girl’s Night. So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to tie this into Galantine’s Day.

Before we get into that, let’s set the scene for February 2003. The month started with “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera topping the charts. This was replaced by Avril Lavigne with “Im with you” for the remainder of the month. Number one in the box office was “How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days” and the best-selling book this week was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

My menu has somewhat of a pink theme which seems fitting for a Girl’s night but the content is definitely adult, starting with a watermelon vodka cocktail!

Watermelon Vodka Cocktail

This was so simple! I added a little squeeze of lime into the watermelon and vodka mix as I felt it was a bit too sweet / one note without it. It was super refreshing and made the most of our lovely summer produce! Be careful though…too many of these and you’ll be slurring

I am beautiful no matter what they sayWords can’t bring me downI am beautiful in every single wayYes, words can’t bring me down, oh noSo don’t you bring me down today

into a pretend mic and telling all your gal pals how much you love them before dessert!

Watermelon Vodka Recipe:

Beetroot Confit and Marinated Goat’s FetaTarts

I didn’t make these because I pretty much hate beetroot. To me, except for one Beetroot Tzatziki which I love, it tastes like dirt. The funny thing is though, it is something I really want to like. So I keep trying to make things with it in the hope that I will find the magic recipe that turns that switch in me from off to on. In this instance, I love the look of the pastry dotted with poppy seeds, the shape of the tiny little black dots echoed in the round of the goat’s cheese, and the gorgeous crimson of the beetroot in between.

Confit Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Tarts Recipe:

Tuna Carpaccio

I loved this!!! It was so good! (one thing, I completely forgot to add the cucumber to this!). Also, I had no mixed baby cress so I subbed in watercress. When I was in Darwin recently, we went to a restaurant called Pee Wee’s at the Point for the Fussiest Eater in the World’s birthday. There, I had a buffalo carpaccio which was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life! That dish came with a Hot English Mustard Mayo which inspired me to add my own mayo to this carpaccio. I made a Wasabi Mayonnaise (you can see a little dab of it front and centre in the above photo).

Here is a pic of that buffalo carpaccio. Just looking at it makes we want to go all the way back to Darwin so I can eat it again!

Tuna Carpaccio Recipe:

Baby Tiramisu

These look adorable! And despite not being pink, they are the perfect way to end the evening…or to snack on as you are settling on the couch to watch a dvd or two! And because they are tiny, you can eat one and still fit into a dress just like Kate Hudson’s in “How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days”!

Baby Tiramisu Recipe:

My Nigella Moment – Duck with Berries

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!

This month, my Nigella dish is Duck with Berries which came from an article on romantic food to cook for Valentine’s day. It was so good! Timing is so important when cooking duck and this recipe nailed it!

Duck with Berries Recipe:

Delicious Magazine certainly delivered on the Girl’s Night Menu!

Please let me know if you make the Beetroot Tarts. I am so intrigued by them! And also, if you are old enough to have had a girl’s night in 2003, would this have been the menu you would have chosen?

If you would like to contribute a theme, please let me know, I’m up for any challenge you can throw at me!

And happy Valentines, Galentines or however you want to spend the coming Tuesday!

14
Jan
2023

Summer Vegetarian – January 2003

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Cocktail, Summer, Vegetarian

Hello Friends and welcome to Twenty Years Ago Today for January 2003. It’s summertime here in Australia and living is easy. We want some no-muss, no-fuss food – and if we can slap it on the BBQ – so much the better! The magazine I am using for this month is Super Food Ideas from December 2002. The theme is summer vegetarian…will the magazine meet the challenge?

Here’s the menu I devised from the recipes in the magazine. I was able to meet my challenge of relaxed summer vegetarian food quite easily – there were a few options for the opening drink, the starter, side and dessert. There were not so many vegetarian mains but I really liked the sound of the sweetcorn and zucchini burgers! And the fussiest eater in the world loves peanut brittle so we appeared to be onto a winner, winner vegetarian dinner!

Pineapple and Rum Crush

This was summer in a glass! Rum and pineapple is a classic tropical flavour combination. I also liked the refreshing scent of the mint. This is a perfect hot-weather drink!

ChunkyAvocado Dip

I did not make this as I could not find a ripe avocado for love or money the day I wanted to make it! Here’s the recipe. This came from an advertisement for Tupperware, hence the mention of the serving vessel.

Sweetcorn and Zucchini Burgers

I was excited to make these because I love a zucchini fritter and I love a corn fritter. Also, I picked the zucchini and the parsley from my garden! What could be better than combining the two? Unfortunately, these were not good. Usually, when I make zucchini fritters, I squeeze the water out of the zucchini after grating them. This recipe did not say to do so and, when I am cooking a recipe for the blog or for Tasty Reads, I follow the recipe exactly. Maybe because I did not squeeze my zucchini (which sounds like a euphemism if ever I heard one) the mixture was a mess! I had to add almost double the amount of flour suggested to get something that would even hold together. The burgers tasted too much like flour and not enough like sweetcorn or zucchini. I would not make these again. If you want to try them, I would try squeezing the moisture out of the grated zucchini. Or for a really good recipe for zucchini fritters, use this one from Epicurious which is one of my faves!

Tomato Salad with Creamy Dressing

This was good, nothing special but a tasty tomato salad. We are about to have a bumper crop of tomatoes from the backyard so I might be making it again very soon!

Peanut Brittle

This was a semi-fail but entirely due to user error! The recipe says to microwave for 6-8 minutes. I do not cook with my microwave very often and got a bit panicky when at the six-minute mark the dish I was using to cook the brittle in felt very hot. The mixture inside it looked like something normally seen in the crater of a volcano about to explode. I lost my nerve and stopped the cooking process! As a result, the candy creation was not brittle but had the consistency of fudge. It was delicious though! Next time I will hold my nerve and cook it for the full eight minutes!

My Nigella Moment

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 in because it was really good! This month, my Nigella moment came from an article on Asian food which included one of my restaurant favourites, Thai Fish Cakes. This is my go-to starter when eating Thai but I have never even contemplated making these at home! I loved these! They were deliciously tasty and were very close to the ones you eat in restaurants. I will definitely make these again! Also, happy Lunar New Year Everyone!

I hope you have enjoyed my trip back to the vegetarian food of 2003. It certainly had some mixed results. The absolute highlight for me were the fishcakes, they were sensational! The cocktail was pretty good too!

Future Twenty Years Ago Today Posts

I have been thinking about these 20 Years Ago Today posts and I decided that, whilst I love doing them, the risk is that the menu themes will get a bit predictable and will be limited to the food that I like. To give me a challenge and to hopefully really highlight what is featured in my 20-year-old magazines, I have come up with a list of menu themes and each month I will randomly select a theme and see if I can build a menu from that theme out of the magazine in question. Some of the themes are serious, some are based on actual food preferences of people I know (for example, the Fussiest Eater In The World once told me he did not eat white food. Except for potatoes, bread, rice, cauliflower, fish, milk, yoghurt….the list goes on!) and some I made up to challenge myself! You can find the list of themes here: