Blossom: Day Nineteen, Shredded

More carrot.

Friday 19 Frocktober

Outfit/s

• Trousers, cotton blouse, sunhat

 Menu

• Breakfast - toast etc.
• Lunch - sandwich etc.
• Dinner - vegetable kugel - recipe below.

Mood

• Busy!

A very busy day today, racing about doing things like shop-maintenance, banking, postage, picking up drycleaning, shopping, cleaning, walking Darling Dog, cooking ...

So no time to frock up nicely, instead I'm afraid I wore my forties-style practical gear and gave the pinny a bit of a workout.

I suspect that this was fairly common during the actual forties. We see plenty of photos of people carefully dressed in their streetwear or working clothes, complete with the neatest coat and hat they could manage; more rarely do we see those days when Mum didn't have time to curl her hair and wore a scarf and an apron all day, and couldn't be bothered with stockings so wore knitted socks or trousers. But such pictures do exist.

This is pretty much me today. No sefies as it is too hot to wear lipstick ...

This evening I made up another of my old recipes. I have had this recipe for vegetable kugel forever and forget where it came from in the first place, but I've been told it's a staple of lovely Jewish cooking. I know this one is an old one, and it isn't as luxurious as some recipes you'll find. Esentially it's a simple vegetable pudding based on potatoes, but there's something about it ... it's really delicious.

Blossom's potato vegetable kugel

As usual, I started with carrots, spuds, and onion. The Terrible Trio.

And parsley - I just can't keep up with it at the moment!

 This recipe employs the forties housewife's very best friend:

It isn't possible to be a forties housewife without one.

 Grate your potatoes and carrots. The recipe says to also grate the onion - but I can't bear the thought, so I chop it finely instead.

After all the grating, wring out your aching arm and thank heavens these were invented before the 1940s.

Got a hand grater? You'll also need these.

Also finely chop the parsley and add it to the crunchy grated mess.

Yep. Looks like forties food.

Now add some crushed garlic, a beaten egg, a little vegetable oil and some wholemeal breadcrumbs. My recipe calls for powdered milk but I didn't have any so I didn't use any. Mix the whole lot together and put it into a greased dish (or a dish lined with non-stick paper).

Put it onto a moderate oven to bake for around half an hour.

 After about half an hour the vegetable shreds should be getting tender and it should smell lovely and be browning slightly.

So far so good.

Sprinkle the top with a bit of grated cheese.

Strongly flavoured cheese means you need less of it.

 Bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the whole thing smells so good you can no longer bear not eat it.

Then eat it.

Kugel is great with a dob of yoghurt and chives.

This version also makes a lovely side dish with your main meal. It reheats well and is fantastic for lunch the next day. It is amazingly satisfying, you don't need much to feel pleasantly full. It's an ideal ration recipe.

My grandfather had Jewish friends in England during the war. I like to think of their kitchen being filled with this glorious fresh vegetable fragrance. As it would have been easy enough to make with powdered egg, and can be made with plenty of different vegetables as they came into season, I can imagine the recipe might have been passsed around a bit. Try it some time, you won't regret it.

Frock you later,
Blossom