A Month of Eating 1974 Style

Since the New Year I've been trying to eat more seasonally, diversify my cooking and use my 1974 Cookery Year.  British food of the 1970s doesn't have a great reputation.  Indeed if you think of cookery programmes of the time the food is swimming in double cream and alcohol (think of Keith Floyd).  To a certain extent the last month has reinforced those stereotypes.  Our food has been quite 'brown' and the amount of cream that many of the recipes call sound like a heart attack on a plate.  Mr Vitty hasn't appreciated the changes either- saying it reminds him of the  food of his childhood - apparently not a good thing.  January possibly isn't the best time to try and eat seasonally, so we'll plough on (but perhaps I'd have been better off cooking my way through Nigel Slater's new book - maybe next year).


What stikes me most about the recipes from 1974 is how much our food culture has changed, exemplified by the need to explain what tagliatelle was. Yet it's not only the diversity of our food that has evolved, but also how we shop, what we buy, and how we consider how food affects our health.  The national food survey has been looking at the food shopping habits of the UK population since 1940 and an analysis of that data since 1974 has recently been released.  This shows that we are eating less of things like white bread, liver and  full fat milk replacing them with things like pasta, brown bread, skimmed milks and pizza.  This may be due to the impact of food health campaigns such as the focus on saturated fat and cholesterol in the 90's as well as societal changes such as the increased reliance on convenience foods.

We are also spending a smaller proportion of our income on food.  This may be due in part to the growth and pricing power of the supermarkets.  It's also a reflection of intensive farming practises and a lower farm gate price that results in things like last years milk price where farmers were being paid at below the cost of production for milk.  I've really enjoyed shopping more locally and buying regionally produced foods, but it is a luxury I'm glad I'm able to afford in both time and money. 

Rhubarb and Banana - really?

I love rhubarb.  The bright pinkish red of the first forced rhubarb of the year appeared on the market and I couldn't resist buying a handful.  Normally we eat it paired with apple in a crumble or as a counterfoil to the rich creaminess of a sweet custard filled tart.  But pairing it with banana as suggested in my 1974 cookery year seemed a bit odd.

The recipe was for a rhubarb and banana compote and basically involves brasing the rhubarb in orange juice and sugar until it was soft then mixing with sliced banana and allowing it to cool.  Mr Vitty was a bit sceptical as was I but it tasted alright and went quite well with some natural yoghurt we had in the fridge.  There are many better things to do with rhubarb and bananas, nevertheless here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb Rhubarb
6 oz Caster Sugar
Juice of an Orange
1 lb Bananas

Method:

Trim the rhubarb and chop into 1 inch pieces.  Put the rhubarb in an oven proof dish with the sugar and orange juice. Cover with a lid and bake for 35 minutes at 150 C until the rhubarb is soft.  Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.  Slice the banana into a serving dish and pour over the rhubarb with its juices.  Cool and chill in the fridge.  Serve with cream or ice-cream (or in my case yoghurt).