Vegetable Balls and Tomato Pancakes

From The Best Way Book, circa 1916. Economic recipes that sound just... delicious.

Boil some rice until soft. Have ready some left-over vegetables, chopped very fine. Now mix rice and vegetables thoroughly. Bind with an egg, form into flat cakes or balls. Fry in boiling fat. This makes a tasty meal.

Tomato Pancakes

Three or four tomatoes
One egg
4 tbsps flour
1/4 pint water
1 cup grated chese
tomato sauce
chopped parsley

Skin and seed the tomatoes, and mash with a fork
Make a batter with flour, egg and water and add the tomatoes
Beat well.
Heat some fat in a frying pan, pour a small cupful of the mixture, frying it until brown on each side.
Put a spoonful of hot tomato sauce in the centre of each pancake and fold over. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and grated cheese.
Serve very hot.

Turnips Boulangere

from Delia Smith's Frugal Food, 1976 (a boulangere is a baker)

2lb small turnips
1 onion, chopped
2 slices streaky bacon, chopped
1/4 pint hot stock
1/4 pint milk
1 oz butter

Preheat oven to 350F

Peel and slice turnips thinly. Arrange the ingredients in a casserole or baking dish (generously buttered), as follows:

a layer of sliced turnips
a sprinkling of onion and black pepper

Repeat until you've used up all the turnips and onions.

Pour in milk and stock, dot the surface with butter. Sprinkle chopped bacon over the top and cover with a sheet of buttered foil. Bake in the top half of the oven for an hour. Remove the foil and bake for a further 30 minutes.

So why "boulangere"? In the olden days when most people didn't have ovens you'd have had to take a dish like this to the baker's.

Cake or Pudding

From Ration Book Cookery.

12 oz hot mashed potatoes
flour to bind
4-6oz dripping, lard, suet or mixture
3 oz sultanas or other dried fruit
2 oz sugar
nutmeg

Mix the potatoes with a little flour to bind. Work in the fat, sultanas, sugar, salt and nutmeg. Add more flour to make a fairly stiff dough.

Put the mixture in a greased shallow tin and bake in a slow oven until crisp and brown. Serve hot for tea or with custard for lunch.

(You could probably add double the amount of sugar.)

Peanut Salad

From Ration Book Cookery

1 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp mashed potato
1 tbsp chopped onion
sliced beetroot or tomato
lettuce leaves
salad dressing
grated cheese or chopped ham

Put peanut butter, potato and onion in a bowl. Beat well together, then form into small balls. Mount each on a slice of beetroot or tomato. Arrange lettuce leaves in a bowl and place mounted peanut balls on them. Serve the salad dressing separately and a dish of grated cheese or thinly sliced chopped ham.

Sunset Salad
Grate orange peel, and mix into hot mashed potato. Whip with a little vinaigrette or mayonnaise and include a little finely chopped celery or spring onion. Pile onto a bed of grated cabbage or torn lettuce and decorate with a few sprigs of celery.

Pear, Prune and Ham Risotto

From the Women's Institute Book of Home Cooking
The Women's Institute used to give cooking demos. Perhaps they'll bring them back now the BBC has axed Ready, Steady Cook.

8 oz brown rice
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp oil
1 pint stock
1/4 pint white wine
1/2 tsp basil
1 eating pear
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 red or green papper, deseeded and diced
8 oz cooked ham, cubed
2 oz prunes, chopped
pepper rings to garnish

In a heavy pan, fry the rice and onion until the rice begins to brown. Allow to cool slightly and add the stock, wine and basil. Bring to the boil and then lower the heat, cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is soft.
Cut up the pear and toss in the lemon juice. Mix with the diced pepper. When the rice is cooked, add the ham, pear, pepper and prunes and heat through, stirring all the time.
Serve hot or cold.

You could leave out the peppers. But it would still be pretty nasty!

Poor Knights of Windsor

From the Women's Institute Book of Home Cooking, 1984

A sliced loaf of bread
1/4 pint milk
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg
butter and cooking oil

Cut the bread into 2in wide fingers. Warm the milk and sweeten to taste. Beat the egg. Soak the fingers in the milk. Drain. Dip in the beaten egg. Fry in sizzling butter and oil (the oil stops the butter burning).
Serve piping hot with melted golden syrup or warmed jam.

Rich Knights (Swedish variation)
As above, but dipped the egged fingers ino chopped almonds and sugar. Serve with cream.

Peasant Girl in a Veil

From the Women's Institute Book of Home Cooking, 1984

2 lb ripe Victoria plums
4 oz granulated sugar
6 oz butter
1 oz caster sugar
6 oz fresh white breadcrumbs
1 egg white
1/4 pint whipping cream

heat the oven to 180C/350F.
Slit the sides of the plums and take out the stones. Fill each cavity with a teaspoon of granulated sugar and a knob of butter. Arrange the fruit, cut side up, in an ovenproof dish. Cover with caster sugar according to taste and cook for 30 minutes. Leave to cool.
Fry the crumbs lightly in the remaining butter and sprinkle over the plums. Whisk the egg white until stiff and lightly whisk the cream. Fold the two together and spoon over the plums.