Bubble and Squeak

From Delia Smith's Frugal Food, 1976.

It's funny, writes Delia, how some very humble dishes like this one can be very special simply because of their rarity - so here's to a comeback for good old Bubble and Squeak!

Bubble and Squeak, rare? In 1976? Delia obviously never ate at her local greasy spoon (downmarket cafe, translator's note). "Bubble" is alive and well and living in London.

1 lb potatoes, peeled
1 small cabbage
1 heaped tablespoon flour
1 oz flour
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
Some good beef dripping for frying

Put the potatoes on to cook in some salted boiling water, then half fill a medium-sized saucepan with some more salted water and bring it to the boil. Cut the cabbage into quarters, remove the hard stalk and shred the rest. Wash it thoroughly, then plunge it into the fast-boiling water, put a lid on and let it boil for about 6 minutes. Now pour it into a colander, put a plate (one that fits inside the colander( on top of the cabbage, place a weight on top and leave it to drain very thoroughly. When the potatoes are cooked, add some pepper and a knob of butter. Mash them, until smooth - don't add any milk, though, because you don't want them to be too soft. Now mix the well-drained cabbage into the potatoes, and when it is cool take tablespoons of the mixture and shape them into round cakes, which should then be dusted in the flour. Fry them in hot dripping to a good, crisp golden brown on both sides. Drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately.

You can use lard or vegetable oil for the frying, and use spinach, kale, sprouts or any leftover greens.

Exciting Ways with Cabbage

From Ethelind Fearon's The Reluctant Cook (1953)

One of the most gruesome memories of meals eaten in any but absolutely first-class English hotels and restaurants is the cabbage. The odour greets you as you enter and follows you as you leave. [The cabbage] is boiled in enough water to conduct a succcessful laundry ... moreover it is stewed so long with the lid on that it turns olive-colour. One then cuts it up and leaves it on the hot plate until the last one to dine has had his fill of it.

I wanted to quote that bit just to remember how ghastly it was. The smell of boiled cabbage followed one everywhere, sometimes mixed with the whiff of paraffin and Alsatians... Here is Ethelind's preferred cabbage method:

Choose a small green cabbage. Forget it until 10 minutes before the meal, then put on a pan with only just enough water to prevent it from burning. When the water boils, shred the washed cabbage into it, press down and boil as fast as you like for not more than 10 minutes, without a lid. Drain it, chop it and mix into it a bit of butter - you heard. I've told you before to put butter in the vegetables and use cream cheese on your bread. Eat it at once. You can even make a separate course of it, eaten with a fork.

In 1953, butter was in short supply and expensive. Those butterless vegetables - shudder! Now we shun butter because we think it's bad for us, but a little will do you no harm.

You can chop cabbage quite finely and stew it in butter with a few raisins and a sprinkling of salt. Or you can boil quickly as above and add butter and a dash of vinegar, or butter and a grating of nutmeg. (Thanks to my mother for the last two.)