Lunch today was a British restaurant dish that we also used in week two, vegetable curry. Looking through my various books and leaflets I actually have at least four different recipes for curries, and one wartime cookbook even has a whole section of curry recipes! That surprised me really because I would have imagined that imported spices would be in short supply, yet they seem to be plentiful enough that even mass catering can include curries and I have never seen spices on the lists of things needing points coupons either. Perhaps the fact that you only need a little made it easier to bring in the quantity needed, where bulkier things like rice and sultanas were in shorter supply? I would love to know more, so please leave a comment if you are a spice expert!
The recipe we tried last time was just curry powder, stock and flour to thicken the sauce. All of the recipes are a bit like that, generic curry powder rather than individual spices and no Korma or Masala, just "curry." This time I did use a recipe that was a little bit more complicated, from a ministry of food booklet on different things to do with potatoes. It had a few extra spices, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, a spoonful of chutney and extra vinegar and sugar. I also found a recipe that used marmalade and golden syrup - perhaps next time I'll give that a go!
As it turned out I didn't get to eat my curry, I was out for lunch and had a ploughmans instead. Salad, brown bread, pickles and a bit of ham were all within my rations and I didn't eat too much of the cheese or pork pie! Sometimes the modern world does tempt you with lovely things, but I just do the best I can and move on, no harm done. Actually I find the hardest thing about the whole experiment is the fact that nobody else is doing the same. I have to choose not to get certain foods in the supermarket, even though I could, and walking past a bakery or seeing other people having cake in a tea shop is a real test. I don't miss those things when I don't see them though!
Tonight we tried a recipe designed to use dried eggs (although we used fresh), bacon and egg pie. This being the forties it did of course have to contain potatoes and the first thing was to make potato pastry, with less flour and fat than normal pastry. You line a pie dish with the pastry and fill it with a mixture of mashed potato, egg and bits of cooked bacon. We had one egg and one rasher of bacon each and it was certainly a filling pie, so a good way to stretch things and very nice with some veg and a spoonful of chutney. It was rather like a slightly less eggy quiche, and I imagine you could add other things to it, like cheese or herbs, to vary it a bit. Not a bad find!
We followed that with a syrup sponge pudding and custard, and when I was making the pudding I discovered to my astonishment that there was only a spoonful of golden syrup left in the tin. I don't think I have ever actually emptied a tin of syrup before, they are just semi magical things that hang about staying strangely half full for all eternity!
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