Dinner never had a name when I was growing up.
'This is great, Mum,' we would say, tasting another delicious concoction; a thick soup, perhaps, containing all manner of ingredients, or a stew of some description. 'What is it?'
Forced to come up with a name, she would sometimes say 'It's Mother's Mixture. Now stop talking and eat!'. Other times, she'd say, 'It's goolygum!', which I understand was Australian bush slang for a stew of indeterminate origin, but I could be wrong because I can't find it in a dictionary, and Mum only knows that she got the expression from her mother who grew up on a farm in New South Wales.
Whatever. Mum was not fond of fancy names. We were never presented with anything a la Mode, Kiev or a la King, let alone anything entitled 'Supreme'. We never ate anything edged with piped ... whatever it was that was piped around the edges of things in the 1960s. And when it came to dessert, lemon pancakes were never crepes suzette.
Apart from all that, she often just made recipes up.
*
So this made-up recipe from the the other night is dedicated to mum:
I had some mashed potato left over, I always make too much. I also had half a large chicken breast fillet which had been stuffed with rocket, cream cheese and pesto and poached in white wine and garlic. (Usually the dog gets the leftovers but not when they're this good!) I warmed the potato through, adding some milk to help it along, then cubed the chicken into small pieces, opened and drained a small can of sweet corn and folded the chicken and the corn through the potato. Salt and pepper and there's a nice lunch.
It has no name but it is DELICIOUS.
But if you really insist, we'll call it Chicken and Sweet Corn Hash.
'This is great, Mum,' we would say, tasting another delicious concoction; a thick soup, perhaps, containing all manner of ingredients, or a stew of some description. 'What is it?'
Forced to come up with a name, she would sometimes say 'It's Mother's Mixture. Now stop talking and eat!'. Other times, she'd say, 'It's goolygum!', which I understand was Australian bush slang for a stew of indeterminate origin, but I could be wrong because I can't find it in a dictionary, and Mum only knows that she got the expression from her mother who grew up on a farm in New South Wales.
Whatever. Mum was not fond of fancy names. We were never presented with anything a la Mode, Kiev or a la King, let alone anything entitled 'Supreme'. We never ate anything edged with piped ... whatever it was that was piped around the edges of things in the 1960s. And when it came to dessert, lemon pancakes were never crepes suzette.
Apart from all that, she often just made recipes up.
*
So this made-up recipe from the the other night is dedicated to mum:
I had some mashed potato left over, I always make too much. I also had half a large chicken breast fillet which had been stuffed with rocket, cream cheese and pesto and poached in white wine and garlic. (Usually the dog gets the leftovers but not when they're this good!) I warmed the potato through, adding some milk to help it along, then cubed the chicken into small pieces, opened and drained a small can of sweet corn and folded the chicken and the corn through the potato. Salt and pepper and there's a nice lunch.
It has no name but it is DELICIOUS.
But if you really insist, we'll call it Chicken and Sweet Corn Hash.
Sounds good! My mom used to do a dish like that with ground beef and peas and mashed potatos mixed together. Sometimes those are the best meals.
ReplyDeleteOh those are the best meals.
ReplyDeleteAnd in my world, anything mixed with mashed potatoes is fabulous.
But in your world, you make it all sound so much better than fabulous.
My Mom's best was called Chicken with Glop. It involved chicken boobs and cream of mushroom soup and peppers and onions all roasted.
ReplyDeleteWe won't,however,discuss the chicken under glass.
Yes, Sara and Food Whore, mashed potatoes make the world go round. Jo, chicken with glop sounds great - mmm, chicken under glass, do tell - reminds me of my mother's jellied lamb tongues all pressed into a glass dish under a weight.
ReplyDelete