Potato Salad has been around for a long, long time, but I thought it interesting that Mum had this American Potato Salad in her collection. As far as I can see the main thing that is different from our home grown Australian versions is the dill pickles.
As my husband says, like mother like daughter, I scribbled this recipe down on a piece of paper one night after eating them at a friend’s house. Sadly he passed away recently, so in honor of a great fellow and a good cook here’s his recipe for Oven Dried Tomatoes.
Salad dressings these days are many and varied. You can make them yourself or buy them in the supermarket, but in the 1950s you had no choice but to make it yourself. Mum always had a bottle of homemade mayonnaise in the fridge. Today this recipe seems a bit mundane, especially with the condensed milk, but it’s part of my family history and I’m guessing lots of others as well.
Sorting through Mum’s recipes all last year made me take a look at my own Recipe Folders and I decided that it really was time to update them. So over the Christmas break I sorted them and put them into new, clean folders. It took three days of hard work, but the reward was discovering lots of old favorites and especially old recipes passed down from Mum.
These Summer Onions are one of them. Mum loves onions and these are a version of pickled onions, the big difference is the onions you use. Salad onions are the best as they are large and have a softer texture. Also you don’t have to leave them weeks to mature, they can be used the next day. They are great on sandwiches and with cold meat and salads.
As the question marks indicate, you can adjust the sugar and salt to taste and over the years I’ve also added extra spices, just whatever I have in the cupboard. You really can’t go wrong.
With a 15 minute preparation time this makes a quick and easy vegetable bake.
Around the 1970s it became popular to grown zucchinis in backyard vegetable patches, they were easy to grow and produced a good crop. As a result recipes for slices, soups, and cakes started to pop up everywhere. This cake is just one of the many. We tried it out without the nuts, mixed fruit or coconut. It came out very moist and we feel that it needs the either the nuts or fruit to give it more flavour. Lemon icing would be a good addition as well.
ZUCCHINI CAKE
Wash and grate zucchinis (skin and all). Beat eggs well and gradually add sugar and beat till thick and creamy. Add vanilla, oil and zucchini and nuts/fruit/coconut, if using, mix well. Add dry ingredients that have been sifted together. Pour mixture into 2 loaf tins or a large cake tin. Bake at 180ºC for 1 hour or 1¼ if using larger tin. Mixture is not very thick. Ice, if desired.
Mum used whatever pieces of paper came to hand to write down recipes. This piece had someone’s address on it, but there was still lots of blank space to add a recipe!!
CHICKEN & TORTELLINI SALAD
Dressing:
Add pasta to a large pan of boiling water. Boil uncovered till tender. Drain. Rinse pasta under cold water, drain well. Meanwhile, heat oil in non stick pan, add fillets, cook 5 mins on each side or until cooked. Cut diagonally into 2 cm strips. Make dressing – combine all ingredients in jar, shake well. Combine, pasta, fillets, spinach and tomato in large bowl, add dressing toss well. Garnish with lemon rind.
Italian families have a tomato sauce day, but the Smith family had a Pickled Onion night. Once a year Mum bought bags of small brown pickling onions, assembled the vinegar & spices, washed the jars and issued the order “If you want to eat pickled onions this year you have to stay home and help”. Not a job any of us particularly liked doing as top and tailing the onions and removing the skin may not sound all that hard, but in bulk it’s a big job. So with my Dad and brothers, who usually stayed well away from the kitchen, we set to work, with Mum supervising of course. The result was jars and jars of lovely pickled brown onions. They were eaten straight from the jar, if Mum didn’t catch you, appeared on salads, with plates of cold meat and in sandwiches – cheese and pickled onion was one of Dad’s favourites. They usually lasted all year and a fresh batch was always anticipated. While they may not be as popular these days, the Smith family still love them. I hope you enjoy them as much.
PICKLED ONIONS
(Fowlers Saucette is no longer available but we do now have pickling spices so I’ve substituted them and added a few more directions)
Peel onions and soak with salt overnight. Next day drain (do not leave longer than overnight as you want the onions to be crisp). Rinse and dry with kitchen towel. Pack onions into sterilized jars add a few cloves to each jar.
Boil vinegar, sherry, spices and sugar together and let cool. Pour liquid over onions and seal jars.
NOTE: To shorten the onion peeling process you can top and tail the onions, then put the onions in a large heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to cool and once the water is cool the skins will just rub off. Drain and pat the onions dry, but don’t leave in the water once it has cooled as the onions will start to go mushy.
One of Mum’s favourites, though I’m not sure this a good name for this potato dish. It’s in my cookbook as Mum’s Layered Potatoes – a much better name I think. I usually double the recipe, with the exception of the Cream of Chicken Soup, as this is a great dish for entertaining a large number people and goes really well with summer barbeques or casseroles.
LAYERED POTATO SAVOURY
Place half of potato over base of shallow ovenproof dish. Spread corn over potatoes. Place half of the bacon & spring onions over the corn mixture. Sprinkle half the Cream of Chicken Soup over the corn. Arrange remaining potato on top. Combine milk & cream, pour over potato. Cover dish and back at 180º for 30 mins. Uncover sprinkle with cheese and remaining bacon.Bake a further 30 minutes until golden and potato is cooked.
Serves 4
Beb's Recipe Drawer 