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| Aerial View of Tin Can Bay |
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Wild Dolphin Feeding, Tin Can Bay |
Call me “old-fashioned”...I don’t care. No doubt I’ve been called far worse.
I’m
sure you remember the sing-song we used to warble when we were kids....“Sticks
and stones.....” etc.
Actually, in many
aspects, being called “old-fashioned” is not such a bad thing.
Centuries ago when my late brother and I were little
kids - from our wee small years forth - we never kicked up a stink, pushing
plates aside, whingeing, refusing to eat what was put in front of us at meal
times. We didn’t need to be bribed or
cajoled into eating our vegetables, green, white, yellow or orange. Colour wasn’t a factor; we didn’t
discriminate. No force was necessary; no
harsh words required. We loved our vegetables
and hoed in happily.
Academy Award worthy performances weren’t part of
our dinner rituals.
Without fuss or ado, we ate our breakfast, lunch and
dinner – no tantrum accompaniments required.
We understood what was on the plate in front of us
wasn’t going to kill us. There was no reason to be distrustful. Our health and welfare were of uppermost
importance to our Nana and our Mum. We
were fed simple, natural, healthy food.
Everything tasted pretty damn good to us.
Processed foods weren’t in abundance; not as
common a commodity, or as expansive in variety as they are these days.
Canned baked beans, canned spaghetti, Windsor and
luncheon sausages, saveloys, cherrios, Camp Pie (similar to the Spam), macaroni
(the only type of pasta available in those days of yore), Vegemite, Peanut Paste
(definitely crunchy), Velveeta processed cheese, cheese spreads, and some
others sat on the grocery shelves.
Supermarkets weren’t the size of palaces as they are
nowadays. Corner mixed stores were
familiar sights, even if not all of them were situated on a corner.
Along with our love of vegetables, we never turned
our nose up at meat, either.
Golden steak and kidney pies hot from the oven were
favourites among many other delicious offerings e.g. soups, roasts, liver and
bacon in brown gravy, rissoles, roast meatloaf, Aberdeen sausage, silverside or
corned beef/brisket, hearty oxtail stew, beef stew with dumplings, casseroles
and braises filled our dinner plates....not all at the same time, of course!
A spoonful of golden syrup was always added in the
making of braises.
Fat beef sausages in onion gravy were once a week
regulars. I loved tripe drenched in white sauce thick with onion, parsley, and
chunks of potato. Yum! Sometimes Nana coated the pre-cooked
honeycomb tripe in a thin batter, dry breadcrumbs, or just flour before
deep-frying. Many of you are probably
screwing your nose at my mere mention of tripe, thinking I’m talking a lot of
tripe. Oh! Well! What’s new?
There wasn’t much, if anything, we didn’t enjoy
eating.
Chicken in those days was mainly presented only on special occasions such as Christmas, Easter and, perhaps, birthday celebratory dinners.
Curries, accompanied with rice always received an
enthusiastic “tick”, as did fritters. Lima
beans drenched in a delicious home-made tomato sauce made by the hands of our
Nana was another much-favoured meal.
Fish featured regularly, too. We enjoyed freshly-caught fish, along with
smoked haddock or cod, kippers, canned herrings in tomato sauce, and, of course, sardines.
Fresh was always best; and because our
mother loved fishing, we dined on fresh fish quite often. Fresh oysters, mud crabs and sand crabs were
eaten with gusto. At young ages, both my
brother and I learned how to skillfully shuck oysters without stabbing
ourselves. We were taught to treat our oyster knives as if they were made of gold. And such fun we had chasing the Soldier Crabs along the beach...days of freedom....
The main event was always followed by pudding.
The word “dessert” was never the word used
around our dinner table back then when I was a kid. It was always “pudding”, a word derived from
the French word, “boudin”, which originated from the Latin “botellus”. The latter, in fact, means “small sausage”.
So it really became twisted somewhere along the way! “Pudding”, of course, can refer savoury
dishes as well as sweet. (A silent nod
of recognition to “Yorkshire Pudding”. He'd feel slighted if I failed to make mention)!
Blancmange, junket, jelly, trifle, apple/fruit pies,
baked rice or tapioca, sago, bread and butter pudding, steamed pudding with
homemade custard, apple crumble or banana custard (I wonder if anyone still
makes banana custard) filled our bowl and our stomach.
Stewed fresh fruits, such as loquats, mulberries,
apples, peaches, as well as canned fruits, served with custard, were part of
the fare, too. Fresh fruit salad was a regular.
On rare occasions strawberries
from our garden managed to make it to the table. Nine times out of ten, my brother and I ate
them straight from the plants...without reprimand.
Because we had an ice chest, not a fridge, ice cream
was a treat we enjoyed only when out and about.
For us, meal times were never a battlefield.
Fast-food/take-away back in the Dark Age (more like
the “Enlightened Age” to my way of thinking) was limited to crisp,
golden-battered local fish and chips, potato scallops, meat pies, pasties and
sausage rolls...and, of course, Chiko rolls.
And, sometimes, if you were lucky, and entered the right fish and chip shop, a crumbed or battered deep-fried
prawn cutlet.
When I have fish and chips, vinegar is a must, never
tomato sauce. When I have a meat pie (or
two) it’s always with Worcestershire Sauce, never, ever with tomato
sauce! That, of course, is just my taste...others prefer otherwise.
I wish a bakery somewhere these days
knew how to make good pasties.
Over the
years I’ve searched high, low, wide and far to find delicious pasties like those
I enjoyed during my childhood, but, unfortunately, to no avail. I can still taste the pasties (and meat pies)
made by the Gympie bakers, Condies and Harry’s.
And a special, special mention goes out to the best meat pies of all
that were made by Hind’s Bakery in Tin Can Bay. They were the greatest and most memorable. Salivation personified!
So, yes...as children my brother and I needed no
coercion or force to make us eat our food.
We enjoyed everything...including the boiled and roasted peanuts we
bought, using some of our pocket money, on Saturday evenings after watching the
pipers and drummers of the Scots’ Pipe Band march along Mary Street, Gympie’s
main street.
In no way am I inferring my brother and I were
perfect children. We weren’t – far from
it – but we never needed urging when it came to eating the food placed before
us.
The only thing we kicked up was a
football, never a fuss.
Almost every day articles appear in various forms of
the media about how to make kids eat their vegetables, particularly green
vegetables. And, they leave me wondering
what the hell is going on!
Many might say I’ve not a clue because I didn’t have
kids of my own. Maybe they are right;
maybe not.
Sometimes kids are pandered to far too much. They are allowed to rule the roost.
Adults can be guilty of talking too much in front of
kids. There’s an old saying - “Little
pigs have big ears” - in other words - “be careful what you say in front of
children”.
Years ago I was babysitting a friend's little boy for the weekend while she went away with her beau.
The kiddie, who was a lovely little fellow, was about two years old...give or take a month or three. Come meal time he decided to throw a tantrum...throwing himself on the floor, legs in the air, yelling his lungs out. It looked like a lot of fun and an interesting pre-dinner exercise routine, so I decided to join him on the floor. I mimicked his every move, angle and scream. Suddenly, he stopped, looked at me and began laughing. I joined in...and within a couple of minutes he was back up at the table digging into his savoury mince, wiping his plate clean without another murmur of complaint!
Shouldn’t parents, not the kids, be the ones who set the
home rules? Turning the household into
“Lord of the Flies” can’t be fun for anyone.
See! I am old-fashioned! I admit it!
In the words of Manuel of “Fawlty Towers”; “I know nothing!”
And the status quo shall remain, I believe...that much I know.
Oxtail Stew: In Dutch oven,
heat 2tbs x-virgin olive oil and 3 chopped onion. Sauté until soft and slightly
golden; add 4 chopped medium carrots, 3-4 chopped parsnips, 3 celery sticks,
finely chopped and 4 chopped garlic cloves; cook 5-6mins; remove from pot; set
aside. Lightly dust 2-3kg oxtail with plain flour. Add 2tbs x-virgin olive oil
to Dutch oven; increase heat to med-high; add oxtail; brown. De-glaze pan with
2c red wine; add 2 cans crushed tomatoes, 2tbs tomato paste, 2tbs
Worcestershire sauce, 1tbs golden syrup or brown sugar, 2c beef stock, rosemary
and 2 bay leaves; bring to a fast simmer; season; cover. Transfer to 180C oven;
cook 2-3hrs, until meat is falling away from the bone. Serve with: mashed
potato, polenta or buttered pasta.
Green Vegetable Stir-Fry: Heat large wok over a high heat.
When very hot, add 2tbs oil, 1 long red chilli, sliced, 1 chopped garlic clove
and 1tsp grated ginger; stir-fry about 30secs. Add 200g trimmed sugar snap peas
and snow peas and 1/2c thawed peas, if frozen; stir 2-3mins. Remove from pan;
set aside. Add extra oil to wok if needed; add 2-3 heads of broccoli cut into
florets, 1 trimmed bok choy, trimmed kale and 3 sliced spring onions. Cook on
high heat, stirring, 4-5mins, until soft. Return peas; add juice of 1 lime
juice, 1-2tbsThai fish sauce and 1tbs soy sauce; stir-fry until hot; season to
taste. Remove from heat; stir through 1/4c coriander leaves; serve. Throw in some roasted nuts of choice, too,
such as cashews, walnuts, almonds...and/or pumpkin (pepita) seeds or sunflower
seeds.
Cornish Pasties: Heat oven 220°C. Using
fingertips, rub together 125g cold butter and 250g plain flour until it resembles
breadcrumbs. Blend in 1tbs cold water to make pastry dough. Cut into 4 equal
pieces; put in fridge for 10 mins. For filling - Mix together125g diced lean
rump steak, 1 small onion, diced, 1 small carrot, diced, 75g diced, waxy
potato, 75g diced Swede turnip, 1tsp mustard and pinch of mixed herbs; season.
Roll out the pastry into 14cm (5½in) rounds; brush the edge with the egg. Place
prepared filling in one half of the pastry round. Fold pastry in half making a
moon shape; firmly squeeze the edges together, crimping the pastry with your
fingertips. Repeat until all are done; place on a baking sheet lined with
baking paper; brush pasties all over with beaten egg. Bake in oven, 10 mins then reduce the heat to
180°C; cook for a further 35 mins. For a vegetarian version – replace meat with
50g semi-hard cheese, diced celery, diced leek; add 75g diced potatoes and
diced Swede.
Chiko Rolls: Thaw 8 sheets of spring roll pastry. Cook 200g
finely diced chicken (or lamb, if you prefer) in pan; set aside. Melt 2tsp
butter and 1tbs olive oil together in a deep-sided fry pan. Add 1 finely
chopped onion, 1c green cabbage (Savoy), finely shredded, 1 celery stick,
finely slice and 1 grated carrot to the fry pan; cook until soft. Add the chicken
or lamb, 1 crumbled chicken stock cube and 1tbs plain flour; stir through to
combine. Lay out 1 pastry sheet at a time, keeping the rest under a damp tea
towel so they won’t dry out. Place roughly 2-3tbs of mixture at the bottom
centre of the sheet; fold over sides to the middle and roll. Brush the end with
egg to adhere the pastry. Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan...enough oil to
completely cover for deep frying. When
the heat is right, Add roll to the oil and cook until golden. Drain on paper
towel and serve while still hot. Omit
chicken, and add other vegetables of choice, add some kale, and/or zucchini, too, for
a vegetarian Vego Roll!
Coconut Blancmange: In saucepan, dissolve 8tbs
cornflour in 1litre milk; add 1 tin sweetened condensed milk, 200ml coconut
milk and 100g desiccated coconut. Simmer on med-heat until thickened; stir
constantly with wooden spoon. Place moulds in cold water bath; pour in mixture;
chill 3hrs or until firm. Dissolve 200g caster sugar in 175ml water; add 200g
pitted prunes; cook without stirring 10mins; cool. Serve with unmoulded
blancmange.
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| Cheerios aka Little Boys |
