retro

Meiji Chelsea, the Japanese candy with the '70s vibe

maki — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:49:33 +0200

Since watching the ’70s edition of The Supersizers last week, I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia kick. I was lucky (or unlucky, depending on the perspective) enough to have spend my ’70s childhood in three countries due to my father’s job—England, the U.S. and Japan. I have fond memories of food, especially sweet snacks and candy, from all three places, my tastes have changed so much as and adult that I can’t stand many of them anymore. The one sweet from that era that I still love is Meiji Chelsea butterscotch candy.

According to the official website (Japanese), Chelsea candy was introduced in 1971. It was the introduction of a new kind of candy, butterscotch, to the Japanese market, and the company wanted a design that was “English (British)” and “expensive” looking. To me the groovy colorful flowers on a black background are very late ’60s-early ’70s swinging London. Remarkably, the design has hardly changed at all throughout the years. Now it looks quite retro-chic. I’d love to have cushions with the flower design on them. (They do have wallpaper and screensavers, as well as printable stationery, available for free download.)

Chelsea comes in several flavors, but the most widely available and popular ones are basic butterscotch (which is very buttery and just slightly salty) and yogurt (yoghurt) butterscotch. They are my favorites, though I do slightly prefer the yogurt butterscotch. Other flavors have been introduced over the years, but these have remained constant. You can also get coffee butterscotch and fruit butterscotch variations. The candy comes either in rectangle or flat oval shapes. Even though the variety packs are a better value, I like to get the boxes because the candies in them are wrapped in a gold or silver foil paper with the same groovy flowers as on the boxes. It’s not overly sweet, and the flat smooth shape melts slowly on the tongue.

The Chelsea song

A special song was commissioned for the first TV commercial for Chelsea. The song became such a big hit that they’ve kept the song for all subsequent TV ads. It’s been recorded over the years by several artists, and there’s even a complication CD of all the different versions! Here’s a Chelsea ad from the ’70s, though I’m not sure if it’s the first ever version.

And here are a few versions from the ’80s. The basic concept remains the same - a cute little blonde girl frolicking in a landscape that is supposed to be English or Scottish. At the end she says “anatanimo Chelsea agetai (I want to give Chelsea to you too)”.

Where to buy Chelsea

You can buy Chelsea from any reasonably stocked Japanese grocery store. The regular mix bag like this one has plain butterscotch, yogurt butterscotch and coffee butterscotch flavors, and the mixed yogurt butterscotch bag has different fruit-yogurt flavored varieties. But if you’re a retro-design fan, do check out the small black boxes too. (Here is their current product lineup).

About changing tastes and snack nostalgia

I think I still like Chelsea because it’s not that sweet. There are other candies and snack from my youth that I can’t eat anymore, mainly because they are just too sweet. For instance, the last time I had a Twinkie was some time in the early ’90s - it was so overly sweet and weird tasting. I used to be able to eat 2, 3 and more at a time if I was allowed to! Sue Perkins was inhaling sherbet fountains on the Supersizers, but I can’t stand those any more either.

Even some Japanese candy varieties, which are generally not as sweet, are impossible for me to eat now - Milky comes to mind. Some other sweet things that I used to love that I can’t eat anymore: Hostess Cupcakes, Pixy Sticks (which are just sherbet fountains in a different format), old fashioned bubble gum, Milk Duds, marshmallows straight (I can eat them in hot chocolate or in s’mores but not just out of the bag).

What about you? What candies or sweets do you still like, and what are best left to childhood memories?

The Supersizers Go...to the 1970s, grooovy

maki — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:45:19 +0200

Near the end of the fourth episode of The Supersizers Go in which the food time travellers go to the 1970s, Sue Perkins says that she saw the ’70s through the banisters of the staircase, as she and her siblings peered downstairs at the goings on of the adults. This was how I experienced a good chunk of the ’70s too. I used to peer through the treads of the very ’60s open-tred wooden staircase in the house my parents rented in Wokingham, Berkshire, head upside down, spying on my parents and their guests when they entertained.

In any case, the ’70s episode was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be, purely for the nostalgia value. I kept on squealing in recognition at many of the various foods trotted out. It did help that I actually spend a few years in the ’70s living in England with my family, since the Supersizers focused naturally on a very British version of that decade.

Giles and Sue eat dinner on trays while watching the telly.

Some fun facts from the episode

Convenience foods and pre-prepared, pre-packaged foods took off in a big way in the ’70s. Frozen food flourished because 2/3rds of the population now had freezers. There were also dehydrated ‘just add water’ foods, boil-in-a-bag dinners, tinned (canned) foods. The ’70s housewife barely had to cook at all. Eating with a tray in front of the TV became popular.
When they weren’t eating in front of the telly with trays balanced on their knees, people were eating more in the kitchen, as informal dining became popular.
People in the 1970s Britain ate on average 800 more calories per day than we do today - fatty fried foods, meat, eggs, full fat milk (delivered in glass bottles by the milk man), lots and lots of sugar. However they were slimmer than we are, probably due to the fact that they moved a lot more, working to work or at least to the bus stop, going up and down stairs in buildings without elevators, and so on. Exercising for fitness also took off in a big way in this decade. (I’m a bit disappointed they didn’t show Sue or Giles working out with an ab roller wheel, but they did show one of my favorite childhood toys, the Space Hopper or kangaroo ball.) Not to mention disco.
Weight loss did become a big concern. Along with exercise regimens, dieting and diet food became quite popular, including meal replacement drinks like Slim-Fast. (I vaguely remember my mother following a national diet spearheaded by the BBC…she ate a lot of tuna with some sort of sour onion sauce.)
Children apparently consumed sugary sweets with abandon in the ’70s. (I remember regularly having an fruity ice lolly (popsicle) that was dyed a bright blue. I loved the way it made my tongue blue. ) Mandatory hot school dinners were phased out at the end of the decade, by Margaret Thatcher.

They drank a LOT during the ’70s. According to the aptly named Action Cook Book (written by spy thriller novelist Len Deighton of all people), for a cocktail party the host was supposed to allow for the consumption of half a bottle of liquor per person for the first 2 hours, and three quarters of a bottle per person for every subsequent 2 hours. So, during say a 6 hour extended party, theoretically the guests would consume 2.5 bottles of liquor each.
Speaking of cocktails, cocktail parties were big during this time, as well as the in-home bar. I remember that my father had a fully stocked liquor cabinet in the large teak sideboard in our living room, even though he rarely if ever drank a drop of alcohol himself. He also kept a few ashtrays in the liquor cabinet despite the face that he hated smoking. (He still doesn’t drink at all. The liquor is long gone, but the teak sideboard has survived several moves and is lying under piles of books in his current living room. It’s a Midcentury Modern classic.)
This was the decade when the package tour holiday really took off. People, or at least the affluent middle class, jetted out of the country for vacation and brought back exotic food from the Continent. They experienced fondue whilst skiing, and brought back cheese fondue from the Alps. They didn’t mention it in the program, but apparently a cheese fondue set was a standard wedding gift during this decade. (Now of course I do live now in the land of the cheese fondue, Switzerland, and I can attest to the fact that people still do eat fondue here at home (it’s an easy way to have friends over). However, I’ve never seen chocolate fondue here, which was invented in New York in 1964, allegedly as a marketing ploy by Toblerone.)
American fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s invaded Britain during this decade. The Hard Rock Café, with their American Diner menu of humongous hamburgers, chips (fries) and ice cream sundaes, opened in London in 1971. (I never had fast food when we lived in England. When we moved to the U.S. later on, going to McDonald’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken was a big treat for us.)

[Edit:] Some things I forgot to include:

The 1970s were aptly described as ” decade of non-stop gateaux and indiscriminate sexual activity”. Sounds like the adults were having fun while I was peering through the stairs. (Not that I think my parents were ever swinging!)
The in-house chef for this episode was Mark Hix, who until recently was the chef-director of Caprice Holdings, owners of The Ivy (a famous/infamous London restaurant) and The Caprice; he now runs his own restaurant. He was the winner of two of the courses in the Great British Chef contest last year, one of which was a take on a traditional British fish dish called Stargazy pie. He seemed to enjoying himself, though he was rather disgusted at the ingredients he had to use.

List of food and recipes mentioned in this episode

Breakfast in the kitchen

Grilled Grapefruit
Boiled Eggs with Soldiers
Croûtes Forestière (see below for recipe!)

Lunch for the ad executive at a restaurant

First course:

Rougets Grillé (grilled whole fish, not fileted)
Garlic Rolls
Chardonnay

Second course:

Duck à l’Orange
Mixed Vegetables
Bordeaux

Dessert

Crême Brulée
More red wine

TV Dinner

First Course:

Boil in the bag fish
Faggots (sort of like a cross between meatballs and sausages)
Crispy pancakes
Smash (dehydrated mashed potato)
Tinned vegetables

Pudding:

Butterscotch Angel Delight (instant pudding)
Banana Custard
Arctic Roll (a frozen swiss roll of sorts)

School lunch

Liver and bacon
Lumpy mashed potatoes
Boiled cabbage

Pudding:

Chocolate sponge
Chocolate pudding with the skin on (Sue and the kids loved this combination)

Sweet shop sweets

Candy bracelets, chocolate cigarettes, sherbet fountains, bubbly bubble gum…

Concorde Meal from the maiden Paris-Bahran flight

Aperitifs:

Caviar and smoked salmon canapes
Dom Perignon

Main course:

Cold breast of chicken with fois gras and asparagus spears
Mixed green salad with vinaigrette dressing
More champagne

Dessert:

Poached orange in Grand Marnier
More champagne

Digestifs

Assorted cheeses
Brandy
Cigars

Après-ski fondue

Melted Gruyère Cheese Fondue
Bread cubes
Boiled potatoes
Vin chaud (hot mulled wine)

Sweet fondue:

Melted chocolate
Angel cake
Apples
Cherries
Marshmallows

Diet food

Ryvita
Nimble bread
Cottage cheese
Strawberry Slim-Fast

The perfect dinner (according to a 1970s poll)

First course:

Tomato soup
Riesling

Second course:

Prawn cocktail garnished with a tomato rosette

Main course:

Steak Diane
Crinkle-cut chips (fries)
Mouton Cadet

Pudding:

Sherry trifle
More red wine

(followed by one of the regular power cuts that occured in the UK in the ’70s)

Fanny Hill’s Lunch (at a swinger’s party)

French Kiss (a sort of ox tongue casserole?)
Nymphomaniac’s Prayer (asparagus spears and some kind of sauce)
Potatoes Masoch
Red wine

Pudding:

Ali Baba au Rhum
Banana Candles (a la Fanny Cradock, see below)

American diner food at the Hard Rock Café

(The first Hard Rock Café opened in London in 1971)

10 ounce burgers
Fries, onion rings
Chocolate milk shakes
Coke floats

Dessert:

Hot fudge brownie
Hot fudge sundae

Breakfast in bed

Tea (made with a Teasmaid, a combination alarm clock and tea maker)
Fried eggs
Bacon
Fried bread
Bloody Mary

Cocktail party

(following Fanny Cradock’s The Party Cookbook; cocktails following Len Deighton’s Action Cook book)

Preliminaries:

Table decoration: Lemon Pigs (lemons cut to look like pigs) and a foil gondola, both a la Fanny Cradock (see below)
Cocktails (allowing 1/2 bottle of spirits per person every 2 hours; 3/4)
Wine cup (Black Tower, soda water and Curaçao with ice, served in a big bowl…a punch bowl of sorts in other words)
All the guests except one bring a bottle of Mateus Rosé as a hostess gift

Party food:

Twiglets
Ritz Cracker Hors d’oeuvres
Cheese and Pineapple
Coronation chicken vol-au-vents
Avocado and prawns
Swedish bird’s nest (see below)
Steak tartare
Haddock mousse
Fish sandwich cake (layers of sardines, prawns, canned salmon and lumpfish eggs combined into a stacked sandwich, iced with mayonnaise )
Roast chicken with green mashed potato (mashed potato colored with green food coloring)
Salmon and cucumber mould with Liebfraumilch jelly (a salmon and cucumber gelatin mould..Liebfraumilch is a type of semi-sweet white German wine)

Dessert:

Black Forest Gateau
Cheesecake
Cheeseball
Baked Alaska

Fanny Cradock

All in all the episode was very entertaining. They did however engage in quite a lot of Fanny Cradock bashing. Fanny Cradock was (in case you didn’t know) a tremendously influential TV cook and cookbook author, the precursor to Delia Smith in the UK, the Martha Stewart and Nigella Lawson of her day. Fanny Cradock gets bashed fairly regularly on British television, because she was so of her time. Besides, she evidently wasn’t very nice (she was as horrible snob, a nightmare employer, and more), her television career ended in disgrace when she ruthlessly humiliated an ordinary housewife on air, and she and her sidekick/husband Johnnie Cradock are both long dead. (I was waiting to hear Graham Kerr, aka the Galloping Gourmet, be discussed, because his cooking and style were so very ’70s - perhaps even more so than Fanny, whose television career ended abruptly in 1976 and whose heyday was probably the 1960s. But he didn’t get even a passing mention. He did get equal billing with Fanny on a documentary about television cooking that aired back in 2001 called The Way We Cooked.)

I have had a long term fascination with Fanny Cradock (see here and here), and in the course of my interest I’ve acquired some of her cookbooks over the last few years, including the massive 5-volume bound set of Fanny and Johnnie Cradock Cookery Programme, a subscription-only magazine in 75 parts or issues. Apparently the producers of this Supersizers episode referred quite a lot to the Cookery Programme, but they shoehorned her recipes in to fit their narrative.

For instance, for their Swinger’s party they made something called Banana Candles:

They said that the recipe was from Fanny Cradock, saying ‘even she got into the swing (wink wink) of things’. They also made fun of a table garnish she came up with, Lemon Pigs. I looked up the original recipes, and in fact she was not suggesting to adults that they make sexually suggestive erect bananas or decorate their cocktail party spread with lemons cut to look like pigs. Both are on the back pages of the Cookery Programme, as projects for the Small Fry, or children. Here are the Banana Candles, where the instructions clearly call for adult assistance:

Of course, Fanny did suggest some jaw-droppingly kitsch party table presentations. Here’s one of the more staid onces, also from the Cookery Programme, made entirely of deep fried bread.

I do think Fanny gets criticized more than she deserves though. Her cookbooks are on the whole not bad at all, and really encourage her readers to cook things from scratch, using good ingredients. She pays attention to economy too rather than relying on expensive food. Sounds a lot better than Butterscotch Angel Delight pudding and frozen faggots with Smash to me.

Two other Fanny Cradock recipes presented on this episode were Swedish Birds’ Nest and Croute Forestier. I’ve found the original recipes for both! Here are the Swedish Birds’ Nests:

A bed of finely chopped (“scissored”) chives, parsley or a mix are arranged on a plate, in a sort of double helix pattern. On top of that are arranged (going from the outer rings inwards) capers, cold diced potatoes, finely chopped anchovy filets, then finally two raw eggs. “These are particulayrl delicious when served with dark rye bread and butter”, says Fanny. Now apparently these are called Faagelbo (Fågelbo) in Swedish, but the only things I could find for the term in Google was a type of Ikea sofa, or an actual nest of eggs. Do Faagelbo exist as a food in Sweden?

Incidentally, just about all of Fanny’s recipes in the Cookery Programme have French names attached to them, with the exception of the few which presumably came from a particular country, like the Faagelbo. This is in keeping it seems with the ’70s when speaking French was considered to be very chic. (I guess that attitude still lingers to this day in some circles, especially food ones.)

Finally, here’s the Croûtes Forestière, or Fried Bread Case Filled With Mushrooms and Bacon Rolls. In the episode it’s presented as a breakfast dish, but Fanny clearly meant it to be served at a dinner party.

Here is the recipe presented in its entirety…my comments in [brackets].

1 top of a cottage loaf [For non-British people: a cottage loaf is a large, round loaf]
1 small egg
3 fl. oz. milk
4 to 6 de-rinded rashers [bacon used to come with the rinds still on!]
6 oz. mushrooms
1 1/2 oz. butter
1 1/2 fl. oz. oil
1 rounded dessertspoonful flour
6 chopped tarragon leaves [6! exactly!] fresh or dried
salt and pepper to season
1 rounded eggspoon English mustard [is an eggspoon smaller or bigger than a teaspoon?]
1 6 fl. oz. good bone stock or 1 fl. oz. cooking sherry and 5 fl. oz. stock
oil to fry

Scoop crumb from bread knob, invert on table and when hollowed out, vandyke the top edges (see picture). Beat egg with milk, pour into what is now a bread water-lily, swill round until absorbed, lower immediately in smoking hot oil and fry until interior is a good golden brown. Keep warm on serving dish in oven at Gas Mark Low or 200°F. Fry bacon rashers dry in a shallow pan turning them carefully until cooked to desired texture. Roll up, keep warm on dish with bread case and add oil and butter to bacon fat in pan. When hot toss unskinned, sliced mushrooms [people used to skin, or peel, mushrooms!] and their stalks into this mixture, shake and turn over moderate heat until they have taken up the frying agents. Toss in flour and mustard and work until smooth with the back of a wooden spoon, add chopped tarragon, dilute gradually with small additions of stock blending thoroughly after each addition until all is smooth and creamily sauced. If choosing sherry, add before stock. Season to taste, pile into ‘water lily’, arrange bacon rolls on top as in our picture and serve piping hot.

Except for deep frying the bread, this may even be edible…

Next week the Supersizers go back to the time of Shakespeare. My recap, which should be considerably shorter than this one, will be delayed until the week after since I’ll be away next week.

Supersizers Go recaps

Edwardian Supersize Me, not part of the series, but sort of the pilot that aired in 2007
Description of the whole series, plus World War II (episode 1)
Restoration (episode 2)
Victorian (episode 3)
1970s (episode 4)
Elizabethan (episode 5)
Regency (episode 6, last in series)

Fairly low-fat creamy red pepper, tomato and garlic soup with not low-fat grilled cheese, bacon and mushroom sandwich

maki — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:22:51 +0100

The theme of the elimination challenge in the most recent Top Chef was to create an adult version of childhood comfort food. The winning combo, created by Betty, was a variation of the classic pairing of cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of just tomatoes, she added roasted red peppers to the soup, and instead of just cheese, she put grilled portobello mushrooms in the sandwich.

It looked like just the thing for lunch, but when I checked out the recipe as demonstrated by Lee Anne, I wasn't too happy with the 2 cups of heavy cream in the soup. Not that I have anything against cream, I just thought it wasn't necessary in this case. So I fiddled around a bit and came up with a much lower fat, but still satisfyingly creamy, version. The creamy texture comes from the pureed peppers and the roasted garlic. The only added butterfat in this version comes from the spoonful of sour cream or crême fraîche that each person adds at the last minute, so the cook can shift any responsibility for the added calories to the eater. The soup is almost as good without the cream, so it can be served to a mixed group (vegetarians and omnivores, dieters and non-dieters, lactose-intolerent folks and Swiss people, etc.)

I've also reduced the number of vegetables used. I think the basil and celery used in the original recipe would bring in minestrone-like overtones, and the cream of tomato soup flavor I was aiming for was much simpler, a combination of sweet with a little sour.

The sandwich is not very low-fat. No real grilled cheese sandwich is. Mine is quite similar to Betty's version, except that I used Gruyère cheese, and added crispy bacon. I also used regular mushrooms instead of Portobellos, since that's what I had on hand and they are way cheaper. I also used plain whole wheat sliced bread, not sourdough (I think sourdough gets rather overused in Caifornia).

Fairly low-fat creamy red pepper, tomato and garlic soup

4 large red or orange sweet peppers, or a combination (I used 2 red and 2 orange)
1 large can (800g / 28 oz) of crushed tomatoes
5 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 medium onion
2-3 Tbs. olive oil
1 bay leaves
1 Tbs. dried thyme
1 vegetable stock cube
water
salt and pepper
1 Tbs. honey (optional)
2 Tbs. lemon juice
Sour cream or crême fraîche

Equipment needed: stick blender (immersion blender) or blender or food processor

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Wrap the unpeeled garlic cloves in aluminum foil.

Cut the peppers in half and de-core, de-stem and de-seed. Put them cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes in the oven until the skins are blackened and blistering. Bake the wrapped garlic cloves with the peppers (just put the package on the edge of the baking sheet)

Take out the baking sheet. Push the peppers towards the center of the sheet, and wrap the peppers completely in the parchment paper. Leave until cool enough to handle. Peel off the skins. (Wrapping them in the paper steams them, which makes the skins come off a little easier.)

In the meantime, chop up the onion and sauté in a heavy bottomed non-reactive pot with the olive oil until transparent and soft. Add the can of tomatoes, stock cube, peeled peppers, bay leaves and thyme. Take the garlic out of the foil pouch and squeeze out the softened insides into the pot.

Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the peppers are completely tender, about 15-20 minutes. Take out the bay leaves.

If you have a stick blender (immersion blender), blend the mixture thoroughly until smooth. Or, put in a blender or food processor in batches and blend. Optionally, strain through a sieve or strainer (I don't bother with this).

Return to the pot, bring back up to heat, and if it's too thick add a little water until it's the desired consistency. Add the lemon juice and stir very well. Taste and if you think it needs to be a bit sweeter, add the honey. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with a bowl of the sour cream or crême fraîche on the table, and have the diners put as much of it as they want on their soup.

Grilled cheese, bacon and mushroom sandwich

The key is to pre-cook the bacon until its crispy. Don't put uncooked or flabby bacon inside a sandwich.

To make 2 sandwiches:

4 slices whole wheat bread
Cheese of your choice (I used Gruyèyere)
4 slices bacon
1 cup or so sliced fresh mushrooms
Butter

Cook the bacon with your preferred method. (I cook them between layers of paper towels in the microwave for uses like this.) Slice your cheese of choice thinly.

Sauté the mushrooms in a little butter until they are brown and a bit crispy on the outside. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the sandwiches by putting two bacon slices each on the bread, topped with cheese and the mushrooms. Melt some more butter on a flat grill or a frying pan, and grill the sandwiches on both sides until the cheese is melting and the bread is crispy-brown.

Serve immediately.

Lets GourMets! '80s retro cooking with the New York Mets

maki — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:19:23 +0200

In the corner of the world where I live right now, the Major League Baseball playoffs are not exactly a hot topic. 99% of Swiss people do not know, or care, anything about baseball.

When I moved here several years ago, I tried to follow baseball via the internet and other means, but it wasn't the same. MLB.com started offering streaming video and radio of some games, but the time difference was just too tough. Staying up night after night for games that broadcast in the wee hours of the morning here became too much. So, I lost touch.

Until this past week. Our local cable company suddenly announced that they were switching many channels to digital only. So, reluctantly we switched over from good old analog. Lo and behold, the digital package came with NASN, the European equivalent of ESPN. And it's showing all the baseball playoffs! The games are repeated during the day too, so I don't have to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks.

Yes, I'm a masochistMets fan. I once lived in Flushing, Queens, with windows facing towards Shea Stadium, and the fact that the Mets played there was a big part of why I stayed there for a couple of years. My 18th floor apartment in a typical Queens apartment block was not exactly ideal - I had mice as roommates, and a hellish downstairs neighbor, and the commute to school took me an hour. But oh, the beautiful view when the Mets were playing at home! Shea glowed like a jewel in the darkness. Never mind that more often than not the Mets didn't sparkle on the field. I loved them anyway.

This year of course, they are a good team again. (As I write this, they have just defeated the L.A. Dodgers 3 games to 0 in the divisional playoffs.) I don't really know this team at all, and I suddenly feel old because half the team look like kids to me - except for the ageless Julio Franco, who is way older than me and everyone else in the world. Still, the uniform is right, and the stadium is right, and the fans in the stands with their witty signs look just like the Mets fans I used to know.

Back in the '80s, before the 1986 World Series winning team, when they were very bad, the Mets tried a lot of promotions and gimmicks to try to get the fans into the seats. One of them was a cookbook put together by some of the players' wives, called GourMets.

I bought my copy sometime in the early '90s at a baseball card convention (yep, I was that kind of girl) but when I flip through the pages I do remember many of the players . Several of the pages are signed by the players' wives. My copy has an updated section from 1983 - the original part is from 1982.

In format and content, GourMets is basically a community cookbook in the tradition of the ones that have been put together by church congregations and Junior Leagues all throughout America. Proceeds from sales of the book went to the March of Dimes. It's in a ring binder with a bright orange wipe-clean plastic cover. Each entry has a picture of the player, a short bio (including how he met his wife, if he's married), and the recipe, most of which are submitted by the wife or a mother. In typical '80s fashion, most of the recipes are of the kind with ingredients like cream of mushroom soup and pre-made pie crust. Sandra Lee didn't invent the "semi-homemade" way of cooking, folks - it's been around for a long time. A few are bit more sophisticated, like a salad made with a real vinegarette (from Ralph Kiner of all people), not to mention a very complicated recipe for something called Veal Zingara from Rusty Staub. (Rusty went on to open his own New Orleans style restaurants after retirement.)

It's amazing how much our food tastes have changed since the early '80s. But while I didn't exactly grow up eating such food, they are rather charmingly nostalgic. I have tried out a few of the recipes, and some are surprisingly good, while others...are not.

So, in honor of the 2006 Mets making the playoffs, and for my memories of Mets Ghosts past, here are a few recipes from GourMets. Some of them I've actually tried and can vouch for, others I present here for the sake of curiosity. Besides, the '80s are back, aren't they?

My comments are in [square brackets] below.

Mookie Wilson (wife: Rosa)

Mookie Wilson was not really a great player I guess but boy, was he exciting! Always upbeat, always hustling his butt off, he was a true shining light even when the team around him was dismal. And he is forever remembered for hitting the ground ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6. (If that means nothing to you...never mind, it never will. People who do remember Game 6 will do so for eternity.) His son, Preston, plays for the St. Louis Cardinals.

This recipe from the South (Mookie is from South Carolina) is sticky, brown and sweet. The recipe doesn't mention salt but it's much improved with it. It's not exactly low-carb, or low-fat, or low-anything. It is presented as a side dish for pork chops. It's actually quite yummy, if you like sweet side dishes that is.

Mookie's Quick and Easy Candy Yams

6 sweet potatoes, sliced
1 cup sugar
4 Tbs. butter (or 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup of water

Place butter in a 2 quart sauce pan over medium heat. Place sliced potatoes in melted butter, add 1 cup of sugar, pour water over sugar and potatoes. (This will spread sugar through the potatoes). Cover and cook over medium heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour (checking pot occasionally).

Ron Gardenhire (wife: Carol)

Did you know that the manager of the Minnesota Twins used to play for the Mets? I didn't remember either.

I haven't tried this recipe, but it's typical of many of the dessert recipes in GourMets - put together some package mixes and canned or frozen fruit, with a ton of butter or margarine (also called "oleo").

Cobbler (the easy way)

1 can fruit pie filling
1 box dry Jiffy Cake mix (or one layer mix)
1/2 stick margarine
nuts or coconut

Place fruit filling in well greased baking dish. Pour cake mix, or sprinkle, over fruit filling. Melt margarine; pour over cake mix and run a fork through cake mix, punching openings over the top for the margarine to run through. [Mmm, margarine.] Do not stir or mix. To with desired nuts or coconut. Bake for 45 minutes or until brown in a 375°F [190°C]. oven.

Keith Hernandez (wife: Sue)

Ahh, Keith Hernandez. His coming signaled the resurgence of the moribund Mets, and led to their championship year of 1986. My teenage self briefly had a mad crush on him.

This recipe, however, is not quite top-class. I hate Crescent Rolls - to me they have an odd chemical taste. But if you like them it could be good. Pillsbury still makes them after all these years...maybe they've improved the formula since I last tried them sometime in the '90s. This uses one of the favorite ingredients of the Mets' wives, cream cheese.

Beef and Broccoli Pie

1 lb. ground beef
8 oz. cream cheese
10 oz. broccoli [I assume they mean frozen]
2 pkgs. Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, uncooked
1/3 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
sharp cheddar cheese, grated (as much as you want)
1 onion, chopped

Cook the broccoli in a separate pot. While the broccoli is cooking, brown the ground beef and chopped onion in a skillet. After the ground beef mixture is browned, reduce heat to a simmer. Add the milk, cream cheese, one beaten egg and mix until creamy. Add the broccoli (cooked) and mix well. Turn off heat.

Roll one package of crescent rolls on a floured surface. Lightly pinch the seams together and mold in a pie pan. Add the meat mixture. Sprinkle the grated sharp cheddar cheese over the top. Roll the second package of crescent rolls in the same manner as the first package, forming a top crust now. Brush with the second beaten egg.

Pre-heat oven to 425°F [220deg;C]. Bake at this temperature for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F [180°C]. and cover with aluminum foil if it browns quickly. Cook an additional 20 minutes and serve. Enjoy!

José Oquendo (wife: Zeneida)

The third base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals was 20 years old in 1983, and playing second base for the Mets. This classic Puerto Rican recipe is one of the few in GourMets that I have made several times because it's really good. I do however add several ancho or jalapeño peppers. It could be that Mrs. Oquendo omitted them for her audience - elsewhere in the cookbook, a "super spicy beef enchilada" dish has one jar of "enchilada sauce" in the whole thing.

Notice the unusual lack of branded packaged food.

Arroz con Pollo (Chicken with Rice)

2 1/2 to 3 lbs fryer chicken parts
4 Tbs. olive oil
1 8-oz. can of tomato sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 cups raw long grain rice
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. salt or to taste
1/2 tsp. sazõn (saffron)

Hint: It is preferable to blend onion, green pepper, garlic and cilantro in blender as this will truly enhance the flavor of this dish.

Wash chicken; pat dry.

Heat oil in pan over moderate heat. Add tomato sauce, onion, green pepper, garlic, 1/2 cup water and cilantro; sauté until tomato sauce thickens. Add chicken parts and cook well on all sides (about 20 minutes). Remove chicken from pan. In same pan add rice; sauté for 2 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups water, salt and sazõn. Bring mixture to a boil. Lower heat and cover pan. After rice is cooked, add chicken parts and cook until chicken is heated up again.

Serve with salad and bread. Makes 4 servings.

Craig Swan (wife: Sandy)

Craig Swan was a pitcher for the Mets during the early '80s, one of their Dark Periods. This recipe is presented here as a curiosity and sign of its times. A molded gelatin salad, made with Lemon Jello and ginger ale, marshmallows within...and a topping of thickened pineapple juice, whipped cream and cheddar cheese. Yipes.

I'm been too scared to try this out myself so far. Please let me know if you do.

Frosted Salad

2 pkg. lemon Jello
2 cups boiling water
2 cups 7-Up or ginger ale
No. 2 can crushed pineapple, drained, save 1 cup juice [not sure what a "no. 2 can" is]
1 cup small marshmallows
2 bananas, sliced
1/2 cup nuts [doesn't specify what kind of nuts]

Prepare the Jello as directed on the package using the 7-Up or ginger ale instead of water. Allow it to partially set. Add the pineapple, marshmallows, bananas and nuts and let it set.

Topping

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. flour
1 cup pineapple juice (from what was saved)
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Combine the egg, sugar, butter, flour and pineapple juice,. Cook until thickened and cool. Then fold in one cup of whipped cream and spread over the Jello mixture (after it has set). Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese.

Darryl Strawberry (his mom Ruby provided the recipe)

Not many long time Mets fans can think of Darryl Strawberry without mixed emotions. He was the Great Hope...for a while it seemed like he would fulfil his potential, but...he never did.

I think the 7-Up in this recipe is supposed to make it lighter, or something? In terms of ingredient proportions though, this is sort of a pound cake.

7-Up Cake

3 sticks butter [12 oz. / 340g]
2 cups sifted flour or Wondra [an instant-blend flour]
5 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. lemon extract
1 cup 7-Up soft drink

Pre-heat oven to 325°F [160°C]. Mix together softened butter and sugar. Add eggs, stirring in one egg at a time. Mix in flour until mixture is smooth. Add lemon extract. Add 7-Up. Mix well with mixer. Grease and flour tube pan. Bake at 325°F. for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Cool for one hour. Remove from pan.

Dark chocolate peanut butter cups

maki — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 06:14:38 +0100

Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. To be more specific, "lack of" is the mother of kitchen experiments. Clotilde's post lamenting the fact that she couldn't get Reese's Peanut Butter Cups easily in France reminded me that quite a lot of the kitchen experiments I do have to do with trying to re-create some food or flavor that I miss, from somewhere else I used to live. I've written about some of these experiments before, such as trying to recreate a good New York bagel.

I miss Reese's Peanut Butter cups too, and they are just about impossible to get here in Switzerland. (It's strange that I even miss them, because when I lived in the U.S. I barely ate them at all.) We can get Mar's Bars, Snickers, and many other American candy bars, but not Reese's. So, when I saw Nigella Lawson's recipe for Peanut Butter Squares in her baking book How To Be A Domestic Goddess, I had to try it.

The peanut butter squares were great, but I had to start tinkering with it. I wanted to make it better than Reese's, more intensely peanutty and chocolately. So I changed the milk chocolate topping to a dark chocolate one, and added some finely chopped salted roasted peanuts to the peanut butter part. And of course, they had to be in cups rather than mere cut up squares (though squares are easier). The result is indeed like an adult version of Reese's. They are also very pretty, and I think quite guest- or gift-worthy.

Peanut butter is sticky, oily stuff, a pain to wash up afterwards. I try to avoid doing the dishes as much as possible (Max does it about 90% of the time) so I came up with a way to mix the peanut butter base in a bag. The same bag is used to pipe the mixture into the cups too. It's a lot of fun for kids or adults.

These peanut butter cups are very, very rich, so take one at a time and nibble slowly. In an hour, possibly less, you'll be craving another one.

Dark chocolate peanut butter cups

The measurements here don't have to be that precise, since there is no actual baking involved.

350g / 12 oz (about 2 cups) smooth peanut butter
1 cup of salted roasted peanuts
225g / 8oz (about 1 cup) icing sugar
50g / 1.8oz (about 1/4 cup) brown sugar, or raw sugar (Rohzucker)
500g / a bit more than a pound, or 5 bars, of dark chocolate, minimum cacao 50% (I used Cailliers Cremant)
90g / 3oz unsalted butter
Supplies needed: shallow paper cake/muffin cups (use regular cake cups if you can't find shallow ones), plastic zip bag

[Edit: I didn't make clear how the butter should be divided up previously. Thanks to Lisa for pointing it out.]

Chop up the peanuts with a knife or in the food processor until they are as fine as you'd like them to be.

Put the peanut butter, 60 grams/2 oz (2/3rds of the) butter, peanuts, and both sugars in a sturdy plastic zip bag (don't use cheap thin ones because if the bag bursts, it isn't going to be pretty). Press the air out of the bag and close it. Knead and mix the bag until the contents are completely mixed and smooth. This part of the process is rather soothing and fun to do - you may find yourself doing it for longer than needed (sorry for the pun).

Once the mixture is mixed, press down the mixture towards one corner. Cut off the corner with scissors, and twist the bag - now you have a sort of pastry bag.

Squeeze about a tablespoon worth of the peanut butter mixture into each paper cup, smoothing out the top of each with your finger. Each cup should be about 1/2 full. It's easier if you keep each cup in the stack of other paper cups for stability while you fill them.

Once the peanut butter mixture is all used up, make the chocolate topping. Break up the chocolate into a bowl or a soup plate (the soup plate will allow for faster melting since the chocolate is more spread out). Melt it in the microwave at medium for about 3 minutes. Check at this point; if the chocolate is still hard, mix and nuke for about 1 minute more. Add the rest of the butter, and nuke for another 30 seconds. Mix the chocolate and butter well with a spoon until smooth.

Fill up each cup with the chocolate, smoothing out the top with your finger or a knife. Try not to lick your fingers during this whole process, unless of course you plan to eat all the cups by yourself, in which case it probably doesn't matter.

Cool in the refrigerator until the chocolate is firm, about 1 hour. Store in the refrigerator until all consumed. The way is goes like this: you go to the refrigerator. You mean to take out the water bottle, and accidentally take a peanut butter cup. Repeat every hour or so. Any other occupants of the household will do the same.

Makes about 24 cups.

Note: if you would rather not put in peanuts, increase the amount of peanut butter by about 1/2 cup, and add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. You can also use chunky style peanut butter (which is rather hard to get here in Switzerland), increasing the amount by about 1/2 cup.

Jalapeño and cheese cornbread

maki — Sat, 28 Feb 2004 15:11:28 +0100

Although I do love baking as a hobby, the fact is that it's possible to get great bread from the local bakery or even the supermarket here in Switzerland. So, most of the day to day baking I do is of quick-bread type of things.

Quickbreads, or breads made with leavening agents other than yeast or natural yeast, aren't really a part of continental European baking tradition. They are a part of British, Irish (with such things as scones, soda bread and such) and definitely American cooking tradition though. I love all kinds of American quick-bread recipes, such as biscuits or muffins, but cornbread is one of my favorites.

I made this cornbread for dinner a few days ago. It's quite rich so you don't need much else, though of course you can serve it with a barbeque, or chicken, or chili or whatever strikes your fancy. We had it with some chili with kidney beans. It would make a nice meal by itself with a salad. It also freezes very well, and works great as a take-along lunch and such. However, it is at its best fresh out of the oven.

Don't be afraid at the amount of jalapeños in this - when it's baked the heat becomes quite mellow. If you are timid however, decrease the amount to 1 small jar.

This is adapted from a recipe that appears in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, but the heat has been turned up quite a bit and I use whole corn instead of creamed corn. I made this change initially because it's just about impossible to get creamed corn here in Switzerland, but it turns out that the whole corn works even better somehow. Mr. Clayton also uses non-fat dry milk all the time in his recipes, but I prefer to use fresh milk. There are several other adjustments made which I think makes it even better.

This is a recipe that's best made with a food processor, though you can of course do it by hand.

Jalapeño and cheese cornbread

2 1/2 cups of yellow cornmeal (or medium-grind polenta)
1 cup of regular white flour (all-purpose)
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup olive oil
1 400g or 16 oz can whole corn
2 small jars of sliced jalapeño peppers, drained
2 cups of grated aged cheese (Gruyere or Cheddar)
1 large onion

Preheat the oven to 200° C / 425° F. Grease two square or rectangular pans, about 25cm / 9 inches square or so. (I always use a 25 cm square brownie tin and a small Pyrex glass loaf pan.)

Combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.

Cut up the onion and chop it in the food processor. Add the eggs, oil, milk and cream and process until mixed. Add the can of corn with the liquid and process briefly. Add the jalapeño peppers and pulse just until they are a bit chopped (but not too fine). (You can also use whole canned jalapeños, but in that case take off the stalk parts.)

Gradually mix the liquid into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Stir in most of the cheese, reserving some for the top.

Pour the batter into the pans, about 2/3rds full. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes until a wooden skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Variation: add some bacon bits (sautéd and well drained), or cut up proscuitto ham, to the batter.

Fishfinger buttie

maki — Wed, 10 Dec 2003 21:49:42 +0100

I grew up in Japan, England and the U.S., so all the good and bad of the food culture of each country is part of my food vocabulary. While I like to try out new things as much as any enthusiastic cook. "comfort food" to me means things that I used to eat when I was little.

The British have a penchant for the most wonderfully stodgy food. A fishfinger buttie is one such thing. I honestly don't know if this thing would taste good to anyone except someone who's grown up eating it. Jamie Oliver even has a recipe for it in one of his cookbooks (I can't remember which...it could be Happy Days). It's basically a white bread sandwich with yes, fish fingers or fish sticks - those breaded frozen things with dubious fish (they usually say cod) inside, that you either bake in the oven or fry up in a pan - as the filling. Sounds awful? Maybe, but it is a tasty snack sometimes. For some reason I like this only in the cold months...I never get a fishfinger buttie craving in the summer.

My version of a fishfinger buttie

For 1 buttie (sandwich):

4-6 frozen fish fingers (fish sticks)

2 slices of good quality white bread

Iceberg lettuce

Worcestershire sauce or steak sauce

Mayonnaise

Prepare the fish fingers, either by baking in the oven or toaster oven, or frying them in a bit of butter in a frying pan. If you do this drain them well on paper towels. Do not microwave the fish fingers. Sure it's just snack food, but you don't want soggy fingers!

The bread should be fresh and good. A nice crusty bread is nice, but regular loaf bread would do too. The slices should be pretty thick.

Spread each slice of bread with some mayonnaise. Put the fish fingers on one. Drizzle the Worcestershire sauce or (preferred) thick steak sauce over the fish fingers. Cover with a couple of iceberg lettuce leaves, then the other slice of bread.

Eat with milk or a good bottle of beer.