1980's recipe - Retro Food For Modern Times

Tag: 1980’s recipe

16
Apr
2023

Savoury Upside Down Pie

categories: 1980's recipes, Baking, Chicken & Poultry, Savoury Pies and Tarts

Hello friends! On the menu today is a savoury upside down pie (say what?) which comes from a new book to the blog, 250 Quick and Easy Recipes by Woman’s Day from 1986. It’s actually from Let me tell you , if the savoury upside pie was anything to go by, I am looking forward seeing what the rest of this book has to offer. This was delicious! I made this back in February and looking back at the photos now is really making me want to make it again!

I chose this recipe because of its unusual cooking method. You line your pie dish with bacon (yum) then spoon a mix of minced chicken, creamed corn, and some herbs on top of the bacon. Finally, almost like a tarte tatin, you top the lot with pastry. The end result is great, the bacon and the pastry turn crispy and the chicken mix stays succulent! You will see below that the recipe below calls for green capsicum. I can’t bear them. They also tend to repeat on me for hours afterward so instead of the capsicum, I added some additional herbs from the garden being sage and oregano along with the parsley and mint the recipe called for.

I have been featuring a lot of “posh” food recently. This is definitely not that. This is mid-week budget-style cooking. I think it would be a great family meal. I served my pie with shop-bought sweet chilli sauce, some zucchini pickles made from homegrown zucchini and a watercress and orange salad which will feature in an upcoming post.

Savoury Upside Down Pie – The Recipe

The sweet chilli was the perfect accompaniment to the pie – they really worked well together. The pickles also bought a nice tang. And it all looked lovely and colourful.

The pie was also good cold the following day when I had some for my lunch! I was going to reheat it but couldn’t wait!

250 Quick and Easy recipes really delivered on its title with the Savoury Upside Down Pie! Add in that it was also really tasty and you have a winner, winner chicken dinner! There are a few more recipes which sound like they might be worth a try so I’m sure this will not be the last time we see this book!

Have a great week!

19
Jun
2022

Hummer Strudels

categories: 1980's recipes, Lobster, Magazines, Seafood, Spinach, Vogue Entertaining & Travel

Welcome friends. Today we are channelling our inner Gordon Gekko’s and subscribing to the credo of Greed is Good” to make some luxurious Hummer Strudels. These are coming to us via Vogue Entertaining and Travel from Autumn 1986. Now, greed and huge shoulder pads may have been good in the 1980s but this name is not. To me, hummers are giant gas-guzzling cars nearly always filled with semi-drunk teenagers off to a school formal (aka prom for my American friends). It makes no sense why this is called a Hummer strudel. It also possibly made no sense to the magazine editor who added a subtitle to the recipe so everyone knew they were going to be eating Crayfish and Spinach Strudels.

Or were they? Let’s address the Hummer-sized elephant in the room. These also aren’t really strudels. I guess it depends on a definition of a strudel but to my mind, a strudel has layers of pastry wrapped around a filling. I would call this thing a pasty or an empanada or, if these are considered cultural appropriation, then maybe a hand-pie. Maybe these terms were all too common for the la-di-dah folks of 1986?

Hummer Strudels – The Recipe

The pastry was really short and rich and the spinach, lobster tail and cream filling was delicious! But just because we are adopting the 80’s creed of “greed is good” for today’s meal, it doesn’t mean our 2020’s sensibilities need to suffer. I waited to make this until I could find some highly discounted lobster tails in my local supermarket. These were on sale for $1.50 each! If you are unable to find cheap lobster tails most other seafood would work in this – prawns, scallops, or even any firm white fish. Or a mix of any of them. If you are not a seafood lover, chicken would also work and for a vegetarian version, mushrooms would be great!

A quick note on the pastry too. The OG recipe calls for both lard and butter. I used coconut oil instead of lard and as mentioned above, the pastry turned out beautifully!

For the two lobster tails, I used half quantities of all the other ingredients which made 8 hand pies. So enough to share…or not!

The Hummer Strudels were delicious! So why not channel your inner 80’s icon, stream Wall Street and make these this soon!

Have a great week everyone!

25
Apr
2022

Vogueing A Ham and Cheese Croissant

categories: 1980's Food, 1980's recipes, Bread, France, Magazines

Now you might be wondering why on earth am I featuring a recipe for a ham and cheese croissant? Surely that’s not even a recipe? Well, we are cooking from the Vogue Entertaining Guide from Autumn 1986 which means we are making easy food complicated because that’s what posh people wanted back then.

You or I or most normal people would make a ham and cheese croissant by placing ham and cheese inside a croissant and toasting it. If I was feeling a bit fancy I might grate the cheese. I always add a bit of mustard because I love the ham, cheese, and mustard combo. That’s as fancy as I normally get.

But Vogue in 1986 would have us melting the cheese with some cream and pouring it over the top of the croissant. And if that’s what Vogue wanted me to do, that’s exactly what I did! I feel that someone at Vogue HQ back in 1986 thought making a sauce, somewhat akin to the bechamel used in a traditional Croque Monsieur would make this more…French? Sophisticated? Elegant?

Or, none of the above.

It was messy and made the croissant soggy. And no one likes a soggy croissant!

But there was something here I didn’t want to let go of. And I’d bought a multipack of croissants

I also had some of that cheese sauce left.

So why not give it a little twist?

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 2 – Better In Than Out

The problems with Day One (apart from having to make a cheese sauce) were the sogginess and the mess. I want to be able to eat my ham and cheese croissant without utensils. However, pouring sauce over the top of the croissant made this impossible.

But….instead of over the croissant, what if I put the sauce in the croissant?

This was a lot less messy. I could pick it up and eat it without having to use a knife and fork which was a bonus and it also meant that the outside of the croissant stayed crispy and flaky. But it was a bit messy, the sauce leaked out onto my hands a bit so it was still not ideal.

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 3 – The Bruléed Croissant

So the issue with making this with cheese sauce instead of plain cheese is the sauce. For day 3 I thought about how to make the sauce less, well, saucy. Which is how I got to the idea of the bruleed croissant. Same as Day 2 but instead of serving the croissant as soon as I added the cheese, I popped it back into the oven and under the grill for a few minutes.

This was the best so far. The croissant was crispy and flaky. The sauce was not too runny and it took on that lovely flavour of grilled cheese.

Day Four – A Break Day Bagel

Day Four I went into the office and bought a bagel for breakfast from my favourite place. I was getting a little bit sick of ham and cheese croissants. However….

It. Was. Terrible.

Possibly the worst bagel I have ever eaten.

I’m not naming and shaming them because pre-covid they were superb. But I also will not be buying a bagel from them for a while. I have sourced a new bagel place not too far from home which I will try out during the week. As well to the traditional salmon and lox, they also have some combos like a chicken katsu, a miso mushroom and a labneh and za’atar bagel. All of which I cannot wait to try!

Day 5 – The Classic Ham and Cheese Croissant

Sometimes you just have to go back to basics and tell Vogue to take a hike.

Swap out the sauce for a slice of cheese and place your croissant under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese melts. I used a slice of Jarlsberg but feel free to to use whatever melting cheese you have.

Oozy cheese, flaky croissant, no cutlery required to eat. Perfection!

Here’s the recipe from Vogue October 1986. Why you might want it is another question entirely!

For slightly more successful dishes from Vogue October 1986 you could check out the following:

Have a wonderful week my friends!

14
Feb
2022

Chocolate Mousse Hearts

categories: 1980's recipes, Desserts, Magazines, Meringue, Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! Love is in the air are we are celebrating with some Chocolate Mousse Hearts largely inspired by a recipe in the Autumn 1986 issue of the Vogue Entertaining Guide. Before we continue though, I need to be totally honest with you. The recipe requires several instances of piping using an icing bag and this is not one of my strong suits. Hopefully, you will find my less than perfect hearts endearingly wonky rather than downright comical. And as we all know…love means never having to say you’re sorry so let’s get to it!

Okay, deep breath, here we go…

Now, these babies might not look perfect but, I gave one to The Fussiest Eater in the World earlier.

He took his first bite. “Wow”.

Second bite “Oh my God!”

The overall vote was “Delicious”.

So, they might not be the prettiest things in the world. But they are definitely a sweet treat!

Just a little shout out before I continue though, that beautiful plate my heart is on comes from Yael Gronner Ceramics on Etsy.I bought some of her wares late last year and have been dying to feature them!

Chocolate Mousse Hearts – The Breakdown

We start off with a meringue base – the first lot of piping. And it really sets the tone for the rest of the dish. If you can do this bit perfectly, the rest of the dish will be a doddle. When you are doing the piping try to build up the outside of the hearts as much as possible.

Then those little depressions in the middle of the hearts are filled with jam. The recipe said berry jam but I used cherry. I LOVE the combination of cherry and chocolate plus I don’t like how the seeds in strawberry and raspberry jam can get stuck in your teeth.

Those little hearts? I had some of the meringue mixture left over and I thought they might be cute as garnishes or as taste testers.

So, right about now, you might be thinking where’s that chocolate mousse I was promised? Well, it’s coming right up. Along with our second bit of piping:

I topped my mousse with some crumbled up Flake and a little gold lustre powder.

And a cherry on the top!

Chocolate Mousse Hearts – The Recipe

So, I was halfway through making this when I came to the sentence that said the chocolate mousse needed to set overnight. I needed to get them made and take my pictures on Sunday 13th to have any hope of being able to ost this today. Normally I am a bit more organised but life has got in the way this month!

It’s also the reason I garnished with a flake and not chocolate leaves and curls.

So, I found this mousse recipe online that did not have to chill overnight and used that instead. I chilled it for 2 hours then piped it onto my hearts.

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day or nothing at all, these decadent chocolate hearts are a good addition to your dessert repertoire. They are very sweet though so for future making I would make them a little smaller (The widest part of my hearts was probably about 10cm across). Or keep them big and share with someone you love!

Have a great week!

26
Dec
2021

Saratoga Torte

categories: 1980's Food, Australia, Desserts

You may be thinking that the recipe for Saratoga Totre comes from the American chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. It does not. I found this recipe in the October 1986 issue of the Vogue Entertaining Guide I had never heard of Saratoga Torte and assumed it was an American dish. I was very surprised to learn that it is actually an Australian recipe. There is a small town called Saratoga on the Central Coast of New South Wales so it may have originated there.

Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte

Technically this recipe is called Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte however, as there is no mention of who Madelaine is or how her Saratoga Torte differs from anyone else’s, I am taking the liberty of dropping her name. The recipe comes from an article entitled “Anyone for Tennis?” focussing on mother and daughter entertainers Maria and Helena Law.

This is also the same edition of Vogue Entertaining that gave us this recipe for crumbed lamb cutlets.

Sao Biscuits

Sao (Say-O) biscuits are key to making Saratoga Torte. These are a savoury cracker biscuit that have been made by Arnott’s biscuits since 1906. Sao is possibly an acronym for Salvation Army Officer as one of the Arnott’s Brothers was indeed an officer in the Salvation Army.

If you are not in Australia and you want to make a Saratoga torte I would suggest substituting water crackers. However Sao’s are quite large so I would use double the number of water crackers.

Also, if you happen to be researching Sao biscuits stay away from any mentions of the soggy Sao. This is a practice apparently indulged in by groups of teenage boys. As with most things done by groups of teenage boys it is highly unsavoury.

You have been warned. Proceed down that path and anything that comes at you is on you. Which is potentially a very bad choice of words.

Let’s swiftly move on!

What is Saratoga Torte?

Imagine if you made a meringue mixture and you added crushed-up crackers and crumbled walnuts to the mixture. Then you baked that and topped it with whipped cream and flaked chocolate.

That, in essence is Saratoga Torte.

And it is delicious!!!

The nutty meringue with a little hit of salt every now and again from the crackers is so good! And the cream and little hints of chocolate are the perfect foil. A little hit of Amaretto or Frangelico in the cream would also not be entirely out of keeping.

This was a bit sweet, the next time I make this I will drop the sugar down to 3/4 of a cup and not a whole cup. The key to a lovely thick and glossy meringue is to add the sugar quite slowly and to make sure that each spoonful melts before you add the next one.

The Recipe – Saratoga Torte

Saratoga Torte is utterly delicious, very easy to make and also a little bit out of the ordinary. Why not make it as part of your New Year’s festivities?

Also, if anyone knows the origin of Saratoga torte or who Madelaine might be, please drop me a note in the comments!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

I’m on holiday from work so hope to have another post for you before the new year. Whatever you are up to, I hope you have a wonderful week!