A Meatless Supper Snack

[igenlode]

I watched the Greta Thunberg programme, on recommendation -- very disappointed. It came across as preaching to the converted (and I am the converted) with a celebrity travel gloss: stilted conversations between the teenage protagonist and foreign scientists staged in an English which is mother tongue to neither of them, all too obviously being delivered for the benefit of the onlooking camera and pitched at an educational level lower than the average schools TV programming. (I wasn't that impressed by the concept of a 'school strike' to start off with, and was even less so after she divulged that she couldn't cope with an ordinary school life in the first place.)

The programme didn't seem to know whether it was doing 'Greta Thunberg's nomadic hotel-room life with exclusive behind-the-scenes BBC access', or a serious documentary about climate change, and fell pretty heavily between the two stools. Mind you, my almost universal experience of television programmes on subjects that I actually know something about beforehand is that they are unwatchably shallow and trivialised :-(

I know she is only seventeen and not a native English-speaker (her attempt to rabble-rouse a crowd with "To the world leaders -- you haven't seen anything yet" in place of the demotic "you ain't seen nothing yet" raises an unintentional smile), but putting her in an interview alongside David Attenborough only emphasises that he is a far more effective communicator. And -- in my opinion -- pitching the next episode as "oh no, dreadful disaster as Covid-19 interferes with Greta's plans to tour the world" came across as tasteless in the extreme. But then I shan't be watching it. I shall be otherwise engaged, as I was for the previous programme last week.

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I've made several recipes successfully out of the pre-war recipe booklets I mentioned. These were among a big box of old books left outside by one of my neighbours for passers-by to help themselves to. I really don't need more cookery books, but felt I had room for two small ones... although I'm probably the only person who would have been interested in them not as 'vintage collectibles' but as actual sources of useful recipe ideas!
The "500 Cookery Hints" was issued as part of the "Lady's Companion Household Series"; "120 Ways of Using Bread" was put out by the Millers' Mutual Association.


A Meatless Supper Snack from "120 Ways of Using Bread" (alongside such dishes as Rhubarb Bread Pudding -- simple and very effective -- and Rabbit Pudding, which is rabbit steam-baked beneath a crust of breadcrumbs, lemon and herbs) consists of breadcrumbs and grated vegetables bound together with butter and beaten egg. I had some left-over grated cheese from another dish and added that as well, but I have to say the added flavour wasn't really detectable.


Savoury rissoles made of mashed beans and lentils were a similar idea from "500 Cookery Hints" but using different ingredients; more trouble to prepare but less fluffy inside. Maybe I should have made the balls for my 'snacks' smaller to ensure they were definitely cooked all the way through when the outsides were crisp! Still, it's a good way to make two meals out of one egg and a bread roll...

Comments

[watervole]

How do you make rhubarb bread pudding? We've got some stewed rhubarb in the freezer from last year.

[igenlode]

It's basically a rhubarb Brown Betty; the recipe is for uncooked, unsweetened rhubarb, but it might work with pre-stewed, though I imagine the result would be soggier. Ideally you end up with a crisp caramelised topping, and the pudding infused with sweetened buttery juices.

Place alternate layers of chopped rhubarb and breadcrumbs in a well-greased pie-dish (I used butter), commencing and ending with the crumbs. Take sugar to taste (depending on the quantity of rhubarb), mix with a little ground ginger and sprinkle on well. Dot small pieces of butter all over the top and bake gently for half an hour.

The quantities given are 10 stalks of rhubarb and a pound of breadcrumbs to 1oz butter, which would make for a rather large pudding! I think I used a couple of stalks of rhubarb, a tablespoon of sugar and 3-4oz brown breadcrumbs.

[igenlode]

On the other hand, '500 Hints' does have recipes for Rhubarb Cream, Rhubarb Fool, Rhubarb Mould(1) and Rhubarb Trifle, all of which require the fruit to be stewed "to a pulp" as an opening stage ;-)
Plus Rhubarb and Tapioca Mould and Rhubarb Mould(2), where the cooking of the fruit is more a part of the process...

[watervole]

My mum used to make rhubarb fool. I always liked that. In fact, I think we might have some for tea!

[igenlode]

Their Rhubarb Fool sounds more like trifle to me — in fact more so than their recipe for Rhubarb Trifle, which contains no sponge cake!

You mix your rhubarb pulp with half a pint of custard, crumble 2 sponge cakes (size unspecified) and add the crumbs to the mixture before topping with whipped cream.

For the 'trifle', you make a custard with cornflour, egg yolks and milk, although they don't call it that — I wonder if that implies that the 'custard' of the other recipe is intended to be the powdered sort? &mdash, pour it over the stewed rhubarb and top with beaten egg white... the latter apparently both unsweetened and uncooked, which seems rather an insipid prospect :-(
Personally I'd either fold the beaten egg whites in to the fruit and/or custard, or make meringue of them.

[watervole]

My mum's rhubarb fool was just rhubarb puree mixed with sugar and custard and occasionally a little cream and allowed to set.

I'm with you on the egg whites!