Tempora Mutantur

Read more from Gerald

It was a Latin axiom that I could never get quite right at school, “Tempora muntantur, nos et mutamur in illis”…the times are changed and we are changed in them.

It came to mind the other day as with the onset of Spring I started the annual tidy and turn-out of my office. I am quite happy to bin old paperwork and even to box books that I will never read or use, in the hope they will find a good home at the local book fair but there are three tatty foolscap notebooks with which I will never part. They mean as much to me as an annotated and much-loved family cookbook handed down through generations would to any home cook; they are the recipe scrapbooks from when I first started to cook. Although I rarely…if ever…use them now, as an historical reference to food styles of the time they are invaluable. Donna suggested I should copy any useful recipes to a computer file and then carefully store the books…somewhere out of the way she said! It was while going through the collection that I realised how things had changed in 40 years.

This was the age of the dinner party, a time when the word French or Italian on the home menu was a doorway to elegant domestic dining. A mention of the more earthy and exotic Mexico usually lead the dinner guest to expect chilli powder and beans or corn in the dish, and Indian meant they would find curry powder somewhere along the line. There were many dishes of the salmon mousse (set in a ring mould), ham steak, crown roast of lamb, stuffed vegetables, fondue (both cheese and chocolate), fruit salad in melons/pineapple and whipped creamy dessert in a wine glass, sort of thing.

Alcohol also featured quite a lot. In those days, wine had yet to take the place it now holds among our social beverages; the pre-dinner drink of choice was more likely to be spirituous, a mixed drink, like gin and tonic, whisky and ginger or a cocktail or of course, a beer. Flambéed desserts were not uncommon, Crepes Suzette being the best known. The main course didn’t escape the odd tot of falling- over water either as this recipe for ham steak shows:

Tipsy McPig

• 2×2.5cm thick ham steaks

• 60ml Scotch whisky

• 30ml sweet vermouth

• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

• 2 tsp brown sugar

• 2 tsp prepared hot English mustard – use Dijon if preferred

Make cuts round the edge of the steaks to prevent them curling and put them in a shallow dish. Mix the Scotch, vermouth and bitters then pour over the steaks. Leave to marinate for 90 minutes, turning once.

Remove the steaks from marinade and put under a hot grill for 6 minutes, turn and cook for another 5 minutes. Mix the sugar and mustard with 2 teaspoons of the marinade, spread the mix over the top of the steaks and return to the grill for a minute or so until glazed. Serves 2.
(Please note: No pineapple was harmed in the making this dish!)

And next time you are feeling a little decadent for having a glass of Lindauer at brunch be glad it’s not an Orange Wake-Up. To make one, pour 150ml fresh orange juice over ice, stir in 20ml each of brandy, white rum and sweet vermouth and serve decorated with a slice of orange.

In among the multiplicity of meatball recipes, family bakes, the then daring recipes using avocados and the pages on stuffing or deep-frying just about any food known to man, there were recipes I still treasure, like these two, ideal for picnics, light lunches or summer suppers:

Poseidon's Pleasure

• 450ml thick mayonnaise – homemade if possible

• 120g cooked and peeled prawns

• 120g crabmeat – tinned is fine – drained

• 120g tinned sardines – the ones packed in spring water not oil – drained

• 6-8 anchovy fillets – drained on paper towel

• 2 rollmops or marinated herrings

• ½ tbsp curry powder

• 1 large green capsicum

• 1 large red onion – white will do at a pinch

• 3 cloves of garlic

• Freshly ground black pepper

• Rye bread or black bread

Finely chop the sardines and rollmops. Slice the capsicum and onion into very thin rings.

Blend the anchovy and garlic to a paste. Mix the paste evenly into the mayonnaise adding the curry powder and a generous pinch of black pepper. Carefully stir in all the fish and seafood. Serve piled on slices of the bread and decorated with the rings of capsicum and onion. Serves about 6.

The Reason for Toast

• 500g cream cheese

• 120g streaky bacon – fried until crisp then crumbled

• 1 green capsicum

• 1 red capsicum

• ½ a cucumber – split, seeds removed, salted and drained

• 120g almonds – toasted

• ½ red onion

• 1 small clove of garlic – peeled and crushed

• 1 tbsp each chopped parsley and chopped chives

Finely chop the capsicums, cucumber, onion, almonds and garlic.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth then carefully add the other ingredients and stir until well mixed. Serve with thick slices of hot toasted sourdough bread.
Serves 8.

This last recipe is not really health food but it so delicious I have to keep it:

Crackle and Dunk

• Pork crackling

• Oil

• Salt

• 700g Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and sliced

• 30g butter

• 30g brown sugar

• 300ml dry cider

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. With a sharp knife, score the pork into long narrow strips then rub with oil and plenty of salt. Place the pork on a baking tray and cook in the oven until it is blistered and golden all over, draining excess fat from time to time.

Meanwhile put the apples, butter, sugar and cider into a saucepan. Cover and cook gently until it forms a smooth sauce. Pour into a bowl.

When the pork is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to harden. Break the crackling into strips and serve on a platter with the apple dip.

There must be so many timeless recipes in books and folders like these and I am sure that although times may be changed, we don’t have to change in them to enjoy good food … terminat auctor opus.