Seafood - Retro Food For Modern Times

18
Jun
2023

June 2003 – Gluten-Free

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Cocktail, Gluten Free, Noodles, Prawns, Sorbet

Hello, retro food lovers! Today we are taking a trip back to June 2003 for a gluten-free meal brought to us by Donna Hay Magazine, issue #x. Was gluten-free a thing back then? I know obviously people with Coeliacs and other conditions would have needed to be gluten-free but I am not sure it was as popular as it is now. However, before we see whether or not we could prepare a decent meal from a magazine in 2003, let’s see what was making headlines!

Europe launched it’s first mission to Mars

J.K Rowling released book 5 in the Harry Potter series, Happy Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.

Glastonbury was headlined by Radiohead, Moby and R.E.M

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl premiered at Disneyland

So, a pretty good month for pop culture! And space exploration. But was it as good a month if you had gluten free guests arriving and all you had for inspiration was the latest edition of Donna Hay Magazine?

The Menu – June 2003

Grapefruit Bianco

This was refreshing and quite savoury. I used a bit less sugar than the recipe and I loved the combination of the slight bitterness from the grapefruit and the herby/citrussy Cinzano. This really helped to set the tone for the rest of the meal!

Grapefruit Bianco Recipé:

Sugar Cane Prawns

I loved these! I didn’t use the rice paper as per the recipe but added some lettuce leaves to use as wraps. Any leftover sticks are great the following day in a baguette with some more lettuce, some herbs, chilli and pickles, banh mi style!

Sugar Cane Prawns Recipe

Pad Thai

Who knew this take-out favourite was so easy to make at home? This was so tasty it had the fussiest eater in the world commenting on how good the tofu was!

Pad Thai Recipé:

Grown Up Spider

Just to explain for my non-Australian readers. We are not about to eat arachnids. We call a mix of soft drink and ice cream a spider. This one mixes sorbet and Moscato into an adults-only version which was a lovely refreshing end to this meal. I used mango sorbet in my Spider and it worked really well.

Grown-Up Spider Recipe:

My Nigella Moment – Crispy Skin Chicken

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 one of the most appetising things in the mag!

There were a few contenders for my Nigella moment in this magazine. There were some macarons…but hold fire as we will be making them next week. If they work out! Then there was a four-cheese toasted sandwich which sounded divine. Cheese is my love language after all! But a sandwich seemed a little contrary to the gluten-freeness of this post. So, I went with this Crispy Skin Chicken because just looking at it makes my mouth water!

I didn’t make the crispy skin chicken because:

1) I couldn’t find spatchcocks

2) Deep frying is such a faff and,

3) I very doubt I could make something that looked that good!

I think the June 2003 Donna Hay Magazine gave me some fabulous inspiration for my gluten-free meal! And it made someone enjoy tofu!!! 10/10 for this one!

Have a great week!

28
May
2023

May 2003 – The Letter P

categories: Chicken Liver, Classic Recipes, Crab, Steak, Super Food Ideas

Welcome friends to Twenty Years Ago today, where we find out what the good people of 2003 were eating via a magazine of the time and a self-imposed challenge by which to deliver a menu. Today’s magazine was Super Food Ideas from May 2003 and the challenge was to build a menu that featured the letter P.

But first, let’s set the scene by having a quick peek at what was hot in May 2003. The Matrix Reloaded was number one at the office followed by X2: X Men United and Bruce Almighty. Topping the Australian music charts through that same month were “In Da Club” by 50 Cent, “Rock Your Body” by Justin Timberlake and “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence. Also, sneaking up on those charts was another favourite of mine, “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes so for my mind, May 2003 had some pretty good music and some fairy average films. In book sales for the month, The Da Vinci Code was #2 and The Devil Wears Prada was #8.

So, pop some JT on your speakers and open that bottle full of bub, because we are going to party like it’s your birthday with a menu featuring the letter P.

The Menu – May 2003

Chicken Liver Paté – To Wake You Up Inside

There were actually a few options for the starter – the paté which I chose, a prawn cocktail and some mini potato cakes with smoked salmon and creme fraiche. I literally eeny meeny miny mo’ed these three recipes to choose one. The pate was easy to make and was quite delicious. It was a little grainier than bought patés but that probably says more about my food processor than any real flaw in the recipe.

Chicken Liver Pate Recipé:

Pepper Steak – To Rock Your Body

The pepper steak main was delicious! And another classic to go with the very traditional starter! And although I am trying to limit my consumption of red meat, this is likely to go on high rotation!

Pepper Steak Recipe:

Pecan and Date Syrup Pudding

I was soooo disappointed that I didn’t have time to make this. I even bought all the ingredients but, the weekend I had planned to make it, I also realised we had most of a bag of apples that were getting a bit old…so apple pie it was. However, as I said I have all the ingredients so this pudding may make an appearance in the coming weeks.

Pecan and Date Syrup Pudding Recipe:

My Nigella Moment – Chilli Crab

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!

I mean…who does not love a Chilli Crab. I mean…who does not love Chilli Crab. We had the most memorable chilli crab in Malaysia. We went on a tour to see the fireflies where part of the tour was dinner. The restaurant looked pretty basic – plastic plates and cups, definitely catering to the tourists going to see the fireflies so we were not expecting much. Then they brought out the chilli crab!!! It was amazing. So fresh and tasty. It was divine. So expectations were high on this one. Could I do our memories of chilli crab justice?

I am not going to blow my own trumpet to say this was as good as our Malaysian meal. For a start, it was not followed by cruising down the river watching fireflies, it was followed by a night on the couch watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall which was this week’s film club choice! BUT…this was AMAZING!!!! A seven-nation army couldn’t hold me back from this one!

Chilli Crab Recipe:

Oh my gosh, Super Food Ideas delivered on the P recipes! This was a great month of eating for me culminating in that chilli crab…possibly the best month yet! And the pudding still to come!

So tell me, if you were making a menu featuring the letter P, what would you make?

And 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!

02
Jan
2023

Oysters with Caviar

categories: Oysters, Posh Food, Starters

Happy 2023 everyone! Today I am sharing a “recipe” for a starter that is low on fuss and time but high on elegance! Oysters with caviar will bring the luxe to a formal dinner party or some glam to your backyard barbecue. We had these as a little snack before heading out to dinner on New Year’s Eve. I am actually using salmon roe instead of caviar for my oysters. I may like to eat like a posh person but my budget does not spread to a 1/4 cup of real caviar. If you would like to use the real stuff though go right ahead! Oh and please invite me to your party!

Australia’s Favourite Recipes – The Book

A few months ago, we decided to use charity shop books as a theme for our Tasty Reads Cookbook Club. Most of our club members met for breakfast and then went looking through the local op shops for some culinary treasures. The book I chose, Australia’s Favourite Recipes is a monster of a book. I regretted buying it almost the minute I got it home because it is so big it does not fit into any of my bookshelves and so can only be accommodated lying flat. It is also very heavy which makes it quite cumbersome which probably explains why I have not cooked from it a lot. For context, it is about shoulder height for Holly who is a small beagle.

One thing I did make from this book was a lovely Apricot Meringue Dacquoise for the Cook Book Club meeting.

Actually, on reflection that Dacquioise was amazing. Even if I do say so myself! I’ll throw in the recipe for that too as it would also be perfect for entertaining!

And speaking of recipes, here is the one for the Oysters with Caviar if you can even call something this simple a recipe! I guess though when you are using some luxe ingredients like Oysters and Caviar, you want to keep things simple! The last thing you would want to do is to overshadow them!

I used the Yarra Valley caviar infused with Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin for these. The dark colour of the gin-infused salmon roe is so pretty and festive!

The Recipe – Oysters with Caviar

I really liked the pop of the salmon roe in this. Which got me thinking…for Christmas, the Fussiest Eater in the World bought me a Finger Lime tree. These are Australian native limes but instead of the normal lime flesh when you open them up your get these lovely pearls as in the picture below.

They are very slow growing so it will likely be a few years before my little tree bears fruit. But I already have plans to celebrate my first lime by remaking this recipe using a finger lime instead of a lemon for a double pop! We have the variety called pink ice which is the middle one in the picture above. Here is our little tree. And in another comparison, here is the large book next to the small tree.

Ok, I promise that will be the last time I compare one thing of a size you don’t know to another thing of a size you don’t know. 🤦 Here’s the recipe for the Dacquoise!

To all of you, thank you so much for reading and commenting! Have a wonderful, safe and happy new year!

29
Dec
2022

Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches

categories: 1980's Food, 1980's recipes, Afternoon Tea, Avocado, Crab, Sandwiches

Hello friends! Welcome to the latest post on “What Posh People ate in the ’80s”. This recipe for Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches comes from the Vogue Entertaining Guide from Autumn 1986. The article features a mother and daughter who love to entertain after a match or two on their private tennis court. When I said posh I meant swish enough to have a house with its own tennis court!

I would LOVE to be invited to a spot of doubles followed by an elegant afternoon tea! (Note to friends – can one of you please get rich so we can do this? And can we also wear gorgeous tennis dresses like these?)

The whole thing reminded me very much of the John Betjeman poem called A Subaltern’s Love Song:

Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Miss J.Hunter Dunn,
Furnish’d and burnish’d by Aldershot sun,
What strenuous singles we played after tea,
We in the tournament – you against me!

Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,
The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,
With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,
I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn

Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
How mad I am, sad I am, glad that you won,
The warm-handled racket is back in its press,
But my shock-headed victor, she loves me no less.

Her father’s euonymus shines as we walk,
And swing past the summer-house, buried in talk,
And cool the verandah that welcomes us in
To the six-o’clock news and a lime-juice and gin.

Rather than lime juice and gin, this article waxes lyrical about a boysenberry daiquiri served with the afternoon tea:

One of Helena’s specialties is the delicious boysenberry daiquiri which is smooth in texture, with a wonderful colour and just enough zing in it to revive tired tennis bodies

And even includes a large picture of said daiquiris:

But, back in 1986, if you had a tired tennis body and needed the reviving properties of a boysenberry daiquiri, you would have been SOL as the Vogue Entertaining Guide did not give you the recipe for it! It’s the opposite of Chekhov’s Gun. Even today, with full use of the internet, the closest thing I could find is this recipe for a berry daiquiri from the BBC. Never let it be said that I don’t give you something to soothe your tired tennis body! I mean it’s not boysenberries but what can you do? Maybe boysenberry daiquiris only exist in the realms of people who have their own tennis courts and would never dream of publishing their recipe on something as mucky as the internet!

The Recipe – Avocado and Crab Finger Sandwiches

The article made no mention of who Margie is/was so neither shall we. These were very yummy and delicate sandwiches. And whilst I don’t want to drag Agatha Christie into every post, they were certainly something I could imagine people eating after a hit of tennis in one of her novels. Whilst someone was being stabbed in the drawing room.

I added a sprinkle of chives from the garden and some chive flowers as a garnish for my sandwiches.

The Saratoga Torte which I featured a while back is from this same article.

I am now going to go dream of a life that includes

The traditional charm of a tennis afternoon tea expressed through the use of gleaming family silver and old lace

Have a wonderful week!

Category: Seafood