One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ....... part 161 .... avocado, sweetcorn, mango and a dollop of Vesta curry

 The continuing story  of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Five foods on the plate, 1948

I wonder how many of these would have featured in the diet of Joe and Mary Ann during their time in the house.

To be fair they were here for just under 60 years and as Britain’s eating habits changed during the 20th century, they may have encountered all five.

But I wonder because by 1970 I had only come across peas and beetroot. True as kids we did get pasta, but it came served with milk and sugar and was a treat, so I guess it doesn’t count.

Mango, 2022

And me, and Joe and Mary Ann won’t be unusual in the absence of peppers, pasta and sweetcorn.

In my case I can remember the first time I came across sweetcorn, pasta, mangoes and even curry.  It was as a student in 1970 that I first had sweetcorn, and a good few more years before I ate pizza, and pasta and not till the 1990s that mango and avocado featured on my plate.

As for curry, in the late 1960s that was courtesy of Vesta Curry, that mix of rice, dehydrated chopped beef and vegetables in a spiced curry sauce.  The boil in the bag rice was cooked while the “other” bits were added to water in a saucepan and simmered away for about fifteen minutes.

Mum replicated this with a home-based mince version which was heavy on raisons, light on the curry powder and came with heaps of rice.

The pizza you make at home, 2024

My first experience of an authentic curry would wait until I was a student in the 70s and went for the three course businessmen’s meals which most Asian and Chinese restaurants offered up at lunchtimes for the staggering price of just three shillings, [15p].

Avocado, 2022

Even more exotic were the salads from the Ceylon Tea Centre in St Peter’s Square, where cold spiced rice vied with bowls of diced fruit, shredded carrot and portions of peppers, peas and meats which were oceans away from the plates of tomato, cucumber on limp green lettuce of my youth.

Leaving the delights of  pizza and pasta to the Bella Napolli on Kennedy Street in the mid 1970s.

Now there is a point to all this which is less a nostalgic trip and more a reflection of just how fast our eating habits changed, under the impact of raising living standards, the push to processed foods aided by advertising, supermarkets  and the hunt for new products from the world’s cuisines to which can be added the fridge and home freezer.

All of which made it possible to move away from the daily trip to the grocer, the butcher, the fishmonger and green grocer, to shopping for the week, secure in the knowledge that it would remain fresh  and allow you to offer up more “interesting” meals along with the quick convenience foods like fish fingers, and that amazing invention of the TV dinner.

Pasta and borlotti, 2023

Mum discovered TV dinners in the mid-1960s ....all you wanted for a roast meal or fish supper in a tin tray which you heated in the oven. They were expensive, tasted awful but mum liked the idea of novelty.

Happily, it was a passing fad and we returned to deep fried corn beef in batter, plates of peeled Italian tomatoes and bacon which vied with potato pancakes and potted beef and fish sandwiches.  To which I can say other sandwiches were available of which sugar, apple and banana ones were popular.

But our Elizabeth reminded me of a whole set of meals that mother made from scratch from soused herring, heaps of pies and puddings and cakes to die for.

That said sweetcorn, mango and avocado were not on the list and nor I suspect would they have walked through the door when Joe and Mary Ann lived here.

Location; Beech Road

Pictures; five foods on the plate, Meta Givern’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, 1948, Chicago, Mango fruits – single and halved, and Ivar Leidus, 2022, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: w:en: Creative Commons, You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work and pizza and pasta dishes, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The simple pasta .... with tomato sauce, 2021

*The Story of a House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

So will the real torta di patate reveal itself …………..

Now this is torta di patate, or so I thought it was.

We have always just called it Italian potato pie, which goes nowhere near a translation other than it includes potatoes.

It has been a mainstay of my cooking since the early 1980s and is made by layering cooked potatoes, mozzarella and black pepper with a tomato sauce topping, and comes out of the oven with that crisp reddish surface before collapsing into a gooey cheese mix on the plate.

On a cold winter’s night it is one of those comfort foods which stand along side mashed potatoes, mushy peas and bubble and squeak, and is not for those on a diet.

I found it in the first Italian cookbook I bought which was one of a series published by Marks and Spencer.*

I bought into the lot from Mediterranean Cooking, Christmas Cooking and The St Michael All Colour Cookery Book.  

They were cheap to buy, simple to read and made good food, and I still use them today long after I went up market with some of Marks’s posher food books and before  branching out to the well-known celebrity cooks from Floyd, to Delia and Claudia Roden.

And I now cook  Torta di patate for the Italian side of the family, but here I ran into a mystery, because none of them have ever eaten it, or certainly not as torta di patate, which my Italian wife makes and consists of mashed potato, cheese and for those of us who are not veggie comes with a selection of meats including prosciutto as well as eggs.

It too is a firm favourite with our kids and is always an option on the table at Christmas.

Of course, when you look at the ingredients of both dishes it is easy to see that what we are dealing with are variations on peasant food, filling, cheap and replicated across the world.

They walk along side my favourite aubergine dish, Parmigiana di melanzane which Rosa who is from Naples makes a mean version, while my Greek friends continue to sing the praises of moussaka.

Today we are comfortable with these and many other dishes, but I always reflect on my own journey which now embraces aubergines which I came across for the first time in my 30s.

But then I spent my early years with dripping, sugar sandwiches and the exotic Vesta curries of which there is nothing wrong with.

Location; our cook books

Pictures; Torta di patate, 2022 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and cover of Italian Cooking, 1982

*Italian Cooking Anne Ager, 1982

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton ... part 135 ….. chicken in a basket ……Black Forest Gateau and Blue Nun

 The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

How we ate in 1975

Now Monday was one of our anniversaries, and as it coincided with Valentine’s Day I opted to do something special.

Over the years, like any house we have had shedloads of them stretching back to when Mike, Lois John lived here in the 1970s.

And on a whim, I chose to cook a meal from that decade.  It all seemed simple enough, a starter of Prawn Cocktail or pate  with Ritz Biscuits followed by chicken in a basket and rounded off by Black Forest Gateau, cheese and more but different  biscuits, and all accompanied by a bottle of Blue Nun.**

The Galloping Gourmet, 1972

Instantly there will be plenty of people who can share alternative dishes, some who will slip back a decade and offer up Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Beef Bourguignon and duck a l'orange, and those who did “interesting things” with spam, and cornbeef.

The purists out there will also quibble over some of my choices arguing that prawn cocktail was their signature 1960s dish.

In my defence at home in Well Hall vesta boil in the bag was as close as we got to exciting and exotic eating in the 60s.

That said all of us who were born in the immediate post war era, grew up with new and different foods which were a product of the growing tide of prosperity and consumerism along with cheap foreign holidays which combined to make us adventurous.

And made more possible by the acquisition of a fridge and later a freezer, which offered up the possibilities of buying into Artic Rolls, frozen foods and the TV dinner for the lazy.

Blue Nun, 1970s

Here in the seventies we fell on a heap of new dishes which were as much about experimenting with “foreign foods” as it was a reaction to the food we had grown up with.  In that respect Beef Bourguignon was always going to sound more exciting than beef stew with dumplings, and a pavlova would score above rice pudding, jam rolly polly or fruit salad with carnation milk.

It also chimed with the Habitat furniture, quirky kitchen utensils, and the duvet.

All of which I suspect passed Joe and Mary Ann who lived here from 1915 until 1973, which I know is a big assumption given that they had embraced plenty of the “new” from a telephone in the 1920s to a telly three decades on.

They may well have enjoyed the starters of Prawn Cocktail and pate with Ritz biscuits followed by chicken in a basket and rounded off by Black Forest Gateau, accompanied by a bottle of Blue Nun.

Sadly, we didn’t.  

The plan stalled when I couldn’t get the Black Forest Gateau, took another dip with the knowledge of what went into the pate, and just what prawns eat, and finally crashed with the idea of cooking the chicken.  

So, faced with an alternative plan I abandoned the Blue Num and went with a roast pepper salad and an orange salad, followed by Parmigiana di melanzane, and tiramisu with a selection of red and white wine.***

Parmigiana di melanzane, 2022

And here I have to confess that I can never better Tina’s tiramisu, so went with one from Morrisons.

If there was a theme it was home cooking from Italy, and especially from the Italian south, but it still fitted with the idea of something different, and that has been how we have served up meals in the house for decades.

Cooking in the 1970s with Jeni Wright, 1978

Leaving me just to reflect I may go back to the 1970s relying on another favourite cookbook published in 1978, by Marks and Spencer.  

We shall see.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; how we ate in 1975, from the collection of Lois Elsden, The Galloping Gourmet, 1972, The St Micahel All Colour COOKERY BOOK, Jeni Wright, 1978, and  Parmigiana di melanzane, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and a bottle of Blue Nun, 1970s, displayed in the Little Museum of Dublin, 2020, LitMusDub, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

*The Story of a House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

*Blue Nun, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Nun

*** Parmigiana di melanzane, fried slices of aubergine, cooked between layers of mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and topped with tomato sauce.

Food from the World ..... no 3 .....from Cheryl in California ....Clam Chowder

The new series exploring food from around the world, with a mix of recipies from friends and the history underpinning their dish, and just what food can tell us about the past.

And today, Clam Chowder which Cheryl says, "here on the Central Coast of California, the chowder is thicker and many times it is served in a sourdough bread bowl. 

I make my own sourdough bread these days, so I serve it toasted on the side.  

My son says it’s his favorite meal I cook. My favorite place to get it from a restaurant is Splash Cafe in Pismo Beach, California.  We always get it in a bread bowl to go, and sit on the sand while we eat it".  

4 slices of bacon

5 green onions, sliced thin

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 large potatoes, peeled and chopped

Clam juice

3 cups half and half

3 Tablespoons flour

Sprig of Rosemary

3 cans chopped clams

Fry bacon in pan until crispy. Remove bacon and crumble for garnish. Sauté onions and celery in bacon drippings until tender. Meanwhile, cover potatoes with clam juice, add Rosemary sprig and simmer until tender.  Add flour to onion and celery mixture and cook for a couple of minutes. Add some of the half and half and stir until it starts to thicken. Combine with the potatoes and add additional half and half. Add clams. Stir until heated and thickened. You may add more or less flour to make it the way you like it.  I serve it with bacon and green onion slices sprinkled on top. 

Location, California

Picture; Cheryl's Clam Chowder , 2021, From the collection of Cheryl Mansfield Heisler  

Food from the World ..... no 2 Lois in Weston .......Marmalade parmalade

The new series exploring food from around the world, with a mix of recipies from friends and the history underpinning their dish, and just what food can tell us about the past.

Some of the earliest of my childhood memories comes from the dark nights of late January when each year, my dad would make marmalade. 

My sister and I would lie in bed in our bedroom at the front of the flat where we lived in Cambridge and the delicious warm smells of Seville oranges and black treacle would drift through... and in the morning there would be a shelf full of gleaming pots of gold, Dad's marmalade. 

Dad would make a special pot of shred free marmalade for my fussy sister who only liked the jelly. The first taste of new marmalade was wonderful, it had a fresh fruity flavour which over the months would develop and mature as the new batch developed and matured in its dark cupboard, darkening and deepening as it aged. 

This marmalade would keep for years... although it didn't; we had it every morning with breakfast and only the occasional pot would still be in the cupboard or on the breakfast table the following January when the new batch was made.

I am sure that my grandma made marmalade too. I’m sure it was a family thing in my Dad's childhood just as it was in mine but I don't think his recipe was from his mother. I think he found the recipe he used in the Daily Telegraph some time in the early 1950’s. 

Over the forty or so years he made marmalade he developed his own recipe, adapting the method rather than changing the product. His method was to boil the Seville oranges whole, then cut them, scoop out the cooked flesh, scrape out the white pith, then slice the skin – but not too thinly. The magic ingredient was black treacle. We called it  Parmalade, because of course, Pa made it!

There would be a difference in the taste in different years because of the differences in the Seville oranges, some more sweet, some more juicy, some with some tiny difference in flavour which changed the marmalade. 

All his marmalade was good but some years were definitely above average. As with all food in our household, the new batch was discussed and debated... flavour, texture, sweetness, bitterness... because bitter is a good thing in marmalade, it has to be tangy and sharp, it is not a jam, it is... marmalade.

Lois is an old friend and author.

Her new novel ​Winterdyke is now available as a paperback and on Kindle! It is #7 in her Thomas Radwinter genealogical mysteries which are now all available as paperbacks and eBooks:

 Location; Weston-super-Mare

Pictures; Marmalade parmalade, 2021 from the collection of Lois Sparshot

Food from the World ..... no 1 Lori in Canada

The new series exploring food from around the world, with a mix of recipies from friends and the history underpinning their dish, and just what food can tell us about the past.

Today it is Lori from Ontario and Canada.

This recipe is a great Canadian sweet potato casserole. It is a delicious and much have dish in our family, especially with turkey at Thanksgiving. My hubby, from England, just cannot wrap his mind around sweet dishes on the dinner plate! 

 Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole

3  cups cooked mashed sweet potato (3 large potatoes)

2  cups  brown sugar

2  eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup  milk

​1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

Topping

1/3 cup   flour

1/2 cup  butter - melted

1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts if preferred)  

​Cook peeled sweet potatoes until fork-tender, 40 to 50 minutes. Cool until easily handled. 

Mash the sweet potatoes. Make sure most lumps are removed.

Lightly beat eggs. Add in vanilla and milk and spices as desired. Blend with potatoes. Stir in 1 cup of brown sugar.​

Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish, place mixture in dish. 

Mix 1 cup brown sugar, pecans, and flour in another bowl. Pour melted butter over pecan mixture; toss until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle over potatoes.

Bake until hot and beginning to brown around the edges, about 40 to 45 minutes.

Location, Canada

Picture; Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole, 2021, Lori Oschefski

The blog does food ……. an appeal to the World

 The blog has always done food, ranging from the history of food, to foods across the world and some of our own popular, less popular and downright strange dishes.*

And of course, when ever you look at the history of the subject you turn up so much more, like the two different words for pork, depending on whether you were a Norman conqueror or a defeated English peasant.

Along the way there is the story of adulterated foods, the ongoing history of legislation to protect the quality of what is eaten, and those moments like rationing which throw up a whole heap of things to explore.

While in the 21st century we continue to debate the links between, food, commercialism, and the health of the nation.

But the blog has also just celebrated good food, through the cooking of Italy and in particular the south of the country, to the fads and fashions of what we eat.

Occasionally the stories come from other parts of the world, and here comes the new series, which will last as long as there are people willing to share their dishes and is pretty much an appeal for people to offer up a recipe, with a picture, and a history.  

The history can be a very personal one, or draw on the bigger picture including the time and events surrounding its first use.

So there is the obvious “Scouse”, and haggis and lots more.

I have been sneaky and left a challenge with friends, but that is only to start the ball rolling.

Now I am a vegetarian, but as I never push my own views on the blog, there is no bar to what will be allowed.

So that is it.  You can sign up by leaving a comment here on the blog, or contacting me via Facebook or twitter.  

If you leave your email address, it will be used but never published.  

And all pictures must be your own or are copyright free.

Which just leaves one last addition to the challenge, which you do not have to include, and that is a wine/beer or non alcholic story.

Mine will always be drinking retsina from jam jars, in a small taverna at the bottom of the Acropolis on warm summer's evening.  Long after the food was forgotten that retsina, the jam jars, and the friends I was with has stuck with me.

As has a magical night on the island of Kefalonia , eating, drinking and watching the sun set over the sea with Tina.

Location; the kitchen and the World

Pictures, Risotto alla pescatora, and Easter cakes, 2019, cooked by Rosa, favourites from the USA from Meta Givern’s Modern Encyclopaedia of Cooking, 1948, Chicago, a few cook books from the kitchen, all of which  have themselves past into history, and a night in Kefalonia, 2019, Balzano

*Food, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=food