It’s Recipe Redux time again and the theme is “Vintage Side Dishes”- Share the story of your favorite family side – or a tale about how you ReDuxed a recipe from an old cookbook or recipe card. Shut. The. Fridge. Door. As a vintage cookbook collector how perfect is that? Well, actually maybe not. How on earth do I choose what gem to pull from my library?
Flipping through three of my faves there are so many laughable and precious pages. James A. Beard’s 1949 classic The Fireside Cook Book has whole chapter on cocktail snacks and rather “modern” illustrations of the time with bikinis and picnics. That’s so the pose I strike, when spreading a picnic too.
My other gem is The Australian Women’s Weekly Cookery in Colour 1960 (an adaption of a UK cookbook) which according to the forward by the original author should, “provide Australian women with a great deal of pleasure, as well as incentive to try dishes they have not met before”. Have you ever met an oven this full?
Or served up a TV dinner like this? (Of course I’m a good dietitian and NEVER eat in front of the TV).
I decided on an asparagus recipe to Redux as I couldn’t get over how fussy these old recipes were smothering this amazing vegetable in cream, butter, cheese and more. Only the highly refined First Slice Your Cookbook by Arabella Boxer 1966 suggested a simple vinaigrette. But then she DID go on to become a British food legend including a recipe column in English Vogue from the 1970’s to 1991. James Beard reserved them as part of a “Dinner for a gloomy day when all the leftovers are gone”. I wish I had nothing on MY to do list like this housewife!
And The Women’s Weekly went far out fancy with a French Je ne sais quoi – and cooked the crap out of them in crepes.
With such beautiful Spring asparagus here right now. Why would you? Instead I just char grilled with haloumi and drizzled with fresh lemon juice, garlic, basil and olives. Grab the recipe here: Recipe Redux Grilled asparagus and haloumi with basil olives
