Holidays - Retro Food For Modern Times

02
Jan
2021

Evita – The Cocktail

categories: Cocktail, Midori, Name Plates, New Year, New Year's Resolutions, Vodka

Welcome to 2021 people of the internet! What will this year bring I wonder? I’m tempted to say that it can only be better than 2020, However, that seems a bit too much like waving a red flag in front of a particularly vindictive bull that tells me to hold it’s beer even as it is pawing the ground and getting ready to charge. So, let’s swiftly change the subject….hmmm…speaking of alcohol….this is the Evita!

The Evita was my cocktail of choice for NYE and a very good choice it was. It has the fruity sweet-sour flavour that I love. And the colours – acid lime green with a flash of orange from the garnish are like a neon version of the more traditional deep green and red of Christmas. Kind of festive edgy if you will. Or 1970’s chic if you won’t.

Evita – The Cocktail

The Evita cocktail contains vodka, melon liqueur, lime and orange juice. You can find the recipe here. There is another cocktail called the Eva Peron which has very different ingredients so make sure you get the right one if you want to make it. Which you should because it is a delightful little tipple!

Evita – The Woman

Truth be told until I started researching for this cocktail did not know all that much about Eva Peron aka Evita. This is what I knew:

She was the wife of the Argentinian president
There was a musical written about her which includes the song Don’t Cry for me Argentina
Madonna played her in the film version of the musical
She was very glamourous and wore gorgeous clothes
I cannot write the name Eva Peron without first writing the name Eva Person and having to correct it.

What I did not know:

María Eva Duarte met Colonel Juan Peron in 1944 and married him in 1945. He became President of Argentina in 1946
During his presidency, Eva, who became known commonly as Evita worked tirelessly to help the poor people of Argentina and to give women full suffrage.
She spoke publicly on labour rights and ran the Ministries for health and labour.
She set up a charitable foundation dedicated to social justice and helping sick and poor Argentinians
And set up an all-female political party.
In 1951 she announced her candidacy for the nomination of Vice President of Argentina, an act that was hugely popular with poor and working-class people.
She was forced to withdraw her nomination because of failing health.
Eva Peron died of cancer in 1952. She was 33 years old.

The Inspiration

What an amazing woman and what an absolute inspiration! Also, what great timing because this is the time of year when I, (and many other people around the world) are setting goals and making resolutions for the New Year.

Learning about this wonderful woman’s life really made me rethink the goals I had started to set – instead of the usual save more, spend less, drink less, exercise more goals maybe this year I will try to live with some of Eva’s grace and devotion to her cause and conviction. Why not make this the year of being strong, vocal and politically active for the causes I care about. And if I can also have all the glamour and wear some pretty dresses that is a bonus!

So, my friends, let’s all raise a toast to Eva Peron. May she inspire us to live our best lives in 2021!

Have a wonderful week and year ahead!

03
Oct
2020

Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel

categories: Desserts, Food Holiday, France, Orange

Happy Caramel Custard Day everyone! Yes indeed there is a day for every sort of food imaginable and October 3rd is Caramel Custard Day! I am celebrating with a Moroccan twist on the classic French dish with an Orange and Cinnamon Creme Caramel.

No one in my family, except me, is a great lover of sweet things. As a result, I didn’t have too many desserts growing up. The one thing we did have and which my mum cooked to PERFECTION was a creme caramel. So, I know what a good creme caramel looks and tastes like. The caramel needs to be a nanosecond away from bitterness, the custard smooth and silky, the top a shiny mirror glaze and the almost ombre effect of the darker caramel soaked custard at the top and the paler pure custard at the bottom.

My problem is, I have, up until now been absolutely terrible at making it myself! I tried to make a creme caramel recipe from Cantina THREE times. Twice the caramel went all crystally. Another time there was no sauce only a hard set toffee that was stuck to the bottom of each of the serving dishes!

Not so with this recipe which came from Lousie Frank’s Winter which is a fabulous book. I’ve made many great dishes from it and, as it was a Tasty Reads selection will no doubt pop up here again!

The Recipe

This version of a creme caramel was lovely. The cinnamon came through quite strongly, the orange not so much. When I make this again, I will sprinkle some orange zest over the top of the completed desserts to really ramp up the taste of the orange. You could, of course, leave one or both of them out completely if you are not a lover of orange or cinnamon and this would still be a damn fine Creme caramel.

So on October 3rd what do we say to Caramel Custards? We say…

Have a great weekend everyone!

25
Apr
2018

ANZAC Biscuits – Chewy or Crispy?

categories: Anzac Day, Biscuits & Cookies, Holidays

In commemoration of ANZAC Day, which is today, April 25, I made Anzac biscuits.

Anzac biscuits are made primarily from rolled oats, golden syrup and coconut. They first appeared in recipe books in 1921 but are thought to have been sent to the troops in WW1 by mothers at home worried about the nutrition of their sons. Because they are eggless, they were able to survive the months-long trip to the front from Australia and New Zealand.

They are now a teatime staple. But the debate rages – should an Anzac biscuit be crispy or chewy?

Up until now, I was firmly in the crispy camp. I like my biscuits to have some crunch to them. But this month in the Tasty Reads book club we are doing the Relish Mama Family Cookbook and Nellie Kerrison’s recipe is for chewy Anzacs.

So chewy Anzacs it was. Ever the sceptic, and thinking there was no way they could be as good as a crispy Anzac, I tried one, still warm from the oven.

And then another one. Just to check I hadn’t been mistaken in thinking the first one was so good.

Then a third.

I ate eight of them the first night.

I would now like to point out that this in no way reflects greed but a strict adherence to the scientific method of testing a hypothesis several times to ensure that the results of an experiment can be duplicated.

This was the first recipe I have made from this book. I am looking forward to many if they are the standard of the Anzacs. Here it is:

And there is one from the 1930’s for the crispy kind:

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/recipes/anzac-biscuits-crispy-version/8926926

I will leave you today with some images from the National War Memorial in Canberra because, after all, more than biscuits that’s what today is about!

Have a great week!

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17
Mar
2018

REPOST Dublin Coddle – For St Patrick’s Day

categories: Bacon, Budget Recipes, Cabbage, Holidays, Ireland, Potato, Sausage, St Patrick's Day

Isn’t Dublin Coddle the most adorable name for anything ever?

It sounds like a cuddle and that is exactly what you are going to get from this hearty and warming mix of sausages, cabbage, bacon and potatoes.

I don’t seem to have the best of luck with Irish recipes (remember the corned beef potato salad?)

I had planned to make a totally safe homemade Irish Cream because hot damn do I love a little bit of Bailey’s! However what they don’t tell you in most recipes for it is that, because it contains fresh cream, homemade Irish cream has a fairly limited lifespan. As I am trying to moderate my diet and alcohol intake at the moment drinking a whole bottle of whiskey and a shit ton of cream over the space of about 5 five days did not seem like a viable option.

Fun…just not a viable diet option!

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So Dublin Coddle it was. And whilst this was nowhere near as awful as the debacle that was the potato salad, the recipe I used for Dublin Coddle (sorry I cannot remember from whence it came) was not without problems.

It asked that you layer thinly sliced potatoes into the bottom of a baking dish then piled your sauteed cabbage, onion and bacon on top and topped that with sausages. Then you added stock to the dish.

And therein lay the problem. Even though I cooked this for absolutely AGES, the potatoes at the bottom didn’t cook at that well and were totally soggy. And, as viewers of the British Bake Off know all too well, no one likes a soggy bottom!

This was good but I wonder how much better it would have been if the potatoes had gone on the top and gone all crispy and delicious?

I will actually make it that way next time and update you on how it turns out! The good thing about this recipe is that it was traditionally made from leftovers so you can play around with ingredients and cooking techniques as much as you like!

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Here’s the recipe!

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Dublin Coddle

Print Recipe

A delicious hearty meal, perfect for St Patrick’s Day

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

8 sausages – the recipe said pork, I used beef
2 onions, sliced
2 rashers of bacon, sliced
2 cups of cabbage, sliced
stock or water (I used vegetable stock)
Oil
salt and pepper
parsley
Dijon mustard

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Heat a little oil in a large pan and brown the sausages. You may have to do this in two lots.
Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside.
Add a little more oil if required and brown the bacon and onions.
Toss the cabbage through the bacon and onion mix and cook for a few minutes.
Layer the potatoes in a lightly oiled casserole or baking dish.
Top with the cabbage and bacon mix. Season well and almost cover with the stock.
Top with the sausages.
Bake at 190C until the potatoes are tender.
Sprinkle with parsley and serve with mustard.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 4

Meantime, enjoy your St Patrick’s Day!!!!

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30
Dec
2017

This Paté is a Turkey!

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Holidays, Leftovers, Recipe Fail

Welcome to the end of the world. Or at the very least the end of The A-Z of Cooking (1977).

Prepare to feel robbed.

Dear A-Z of Cooking,

Look…listen…over the past few years we’ve had joy, we’ve had fun, we’ve had seasons in the sun.

There’ve been many good times.

Remember the Mushroom Cakes?

And the Brioche?

The Profiteroles? They were awesome!

Okay, so it wasn’t always smooth sailing. There were downs with those ups.

There was this:

Still one of the scariest pictures I have ever seen in the pages of a cookbook.

And lets not forget this delightful looking salad:

Or this suggestion for punishing people who drop in without notice:

But on the whole, it’s been good times.

And this is how you end it? With a Turkey Paté that looked like cat food until I slapped a few sage leaves and pomegranate seeds on top? And, I might add, tasted of nothing?

And whilst we’re at it…right from the start you promised me an A-Z.

So…ummm…why are we done after Yesterday’s Leftovers?

Where’s my Z, you dick?

And a really bad turkey paté.

And no Z.

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Category: Holidays

Evita – The Cocktail

Evita – The Woman

The Inspiration

The Recipe

Dublin Coddle

Ingredients

Instructions

Nutrition