ANZAC Day Biscuits

It's a good thing Earth Day is now stretched into Earth Week. It gives me a few more days to put up my posts that tie in with Earth Day.

Today my post commemorates an entirely different day - ANZAC Day.

ANZAC Day is commemorated in Australia on April 25, which is today in my part of the world. I'm not certain what day it is right now down under, but it's close! I want to get the recipe up now so I make sure the post gets made on (or close to) the appropriate day. The explanation of WHY this recipe is relevant to this blog will come shortly, but for now, LET THERE BE COOKIES!!!!

ANZAC Biscuits
reprinted from the Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs

The following is an original recipe provided by Bob Lawson, an Anzac present at the Gallipoli landing.
Ingredients
1 cup each of plain flour, sugar, rolled oats, and coconut
4 oz (125g) butter
1 tbls treacle (golden syrup)
2 tbls boiling water
1 tsp bicarbonate soda (add a little more water if mixture is too dry)

Method

1. Grease biscuit tray and pre-heat oven to 180°C.
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. Melt together butter and golden syrup. Combine water and bicarbonate soda, and add to butter mixture.
4. Mix butter mixture and dry ingredients.
5. Drop teaspoons of mixture onto tray, allowing room for spreading.
6. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on tray for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

This recipe is lacto-vegetarian if dairy butter is used. To veganize it simply use a vegan margarine or other equivalent. The most widely available brand of golden syrup - Lyle's - is vegan. 

Samp Pudding

This post is part of the Food Bloggers Against Hunger project. I only found out about the project this morning so wasn't able to plan ahead and integrate it seamlessly into the structure of this blog, which is why you're seeing the recipe before the history. Don't worry. The history is coming!

 Please take a few moments to send a letter to congress asking them to support anti-hunger legislation. There is more information on taking this important action at this link. You can learn more about the issue of hunger at Share Our Strength's website.

The recipe as printed:

Boil the samp well till dry, add good milk, a little sweetening, and a good quantity of sweet apples sliced thinly, well baked, eaten with molasses, sugar, or without.

My adaptation:

SAMP PUDDING
Adapted from Nature's Own Book by Asenath Nicholson (1835)

2 1/4 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk, divided
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup coarse corn meal
1/2 cup apple, very thinly sliced

Heat 2 cups of the milk and the sugar together over very low heat. Gradually whisk in corn meal, stirring thoroughly to avoid lumping. Continue to cook mixture, stirring until thickened. Arrange apple slices in bottom of a well-greased baking dish and pour pudding over the apples. Pour 1/4 cup of milk over the pudding, do not stir it in. Bake at 300 degrees for about 2 hours.

Almond Caudell

ALMOND CAUDELL
adapted from A Forme of Cury (circa 1390) (with guidance)

1 cup blanched almonds
2 cups white wine, preferably sweet and inexpensive
1/2 tsp ginger
pinch saffron
pinch salt
brown sugar to taste (a few Tbs)

Add almonds and wine to blender and puree. Bring mixture to a boil in a saucepan. Add ginger, saffron, and salt. Lower heat to a simmer and add brown sugar to taste. Simmer 15 minutes. Serve while warm.

 Scan of original page from University of Manchester:



 From the Project Gutenberg ebook of Samuel Pegge's 1780 transcription:

Take Almaundes blaunched and drawe hem up with wyne, do þerto powdour of gyngur and sugur and colour it with Safroun. boile it and serue it forth.

[Although far from a vegetarian cookbook (500+ years early for that :) ), as the first English language cookbook A Forme of Cury is worthwhile to know about for anyone interested in cookery. The recipe above is my own take, informed by too many sources to link to. I think I looked at pretty much every resource on the web dealing with medieval cookery.]

Tomato Nuttose

TOMATO NUTTOSE

adapted from http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/1350/Tomato-Nuttose

6 T creamy peanut butter
1 cup tomato pulp
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 t sage
1/2 t salt
1/4 t marjoram
Onion salt or celery salt (probably garlic salt if you want)

Cream peanut butter into 2/3 cup hot water. Add tomato pulp. Put bread crumbs in bowl and mix the herbs and salt. Add to tomato and nut butter mixture. Add flavored salt to taste. form mixture into a loaf, wrap loosely in foil, and steam 2 1/2 to 3 hours. 

 

-------------

 

Nuttose was developed in 1896 by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Yep, the breakfast cereal guy. You'll be hearing lots about him in the future, but for this post I'm keeping the focus on Nuttose.

Nuttose is considered the first product intended explicitly as a meat analog or replacement, although some authorities award this honor to Protose (also developed by Kellogg). At any rate, Kellogg was selling Nuttose commercially by at the latest 1908. The basic "formula" of Nuttose - grind nuts into paste, add water and flavorings, thicken with a starch, form a cutlet or patty and steam it - will be familiar to many reading this post.

 

For a different Nuttose recipe click here . Please note the recipe at this link is not historically accurate - Nuttose did not contain gluten as an ingredient (other meat analogs developed by Kellogg contained gluten, but Nuttose did not).

Granola

GRANOLA
adapted from 'All-Protein Crunchy Granola' Recipes for a Small Planet (1973)
makes 12 cups

1/2 to 3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup oil
1 Tbsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup soy grits
1 cup wheat germ
2 cups grated unsweetened coconut
7 cups rolled oats

Heat the syrup, oil and vanilla in a dutch oven until very thin.
Take of the heat and mix in the remaining ingredients in order given. Try to coat as thoroughly as possible.
Place the dutch oven in a 350 degree oven and toast the granola lightly. The mixture will begin to toast after about 15 minutes. Stir mixture every 5 - 10 minutes after it begins to toast. Allow to cool before placing in containers.

Fruit Sticks

FRUIT STICKS
adapted from Food and Cookery, 1911

1 3/4 cups pastry flour
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 T oil
1/3 c water
2/3 c raisins

Finely chop raisins. Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Rub oil well into this dry mixture.Mix water in so it is evenly distributed and forms a dough. Take half the dough and roll into a thin sheet. Distribute the chopped raisins evenly over it. Roll the remaining dough into a sheet and cover the first sheet of dough. Press the sheets together and cut diamond shapes. Prick each shape several times with a fork. Bake in 450 oven until the crisps are just light brown. Do not over bake.

Savory Frijoles with Natural Rice

Adapted from New Age Vegetarian Cookbook (1968)

Savory Frijoles with Natural Rice

1 1/3 cups cooked rice (preferably brown rice)
1 can pinto beans
1 Tblsp margarine
2/3 tsp Vegex (see note)
3 Tblsp vegan sour cream (see note 2)
Chopped parsley, to taste

Drain and rinse the beans. Heat the margarine, Vegex, and sour cream in a pan over medium heat, stirring,  until the sour cream dries noticably. Stir in the beans and continue to heat until warm. Serve beans over the rice. Garnish with chopped parsley.

NOTE (VEGEX):

Vegex is a yeast extract similar to marmite or vegemite. It is commercially available, although the alternatives may be easier to find without resorting to buying over the internet. Another good substitute in this recipe is Better Than Bouillon No-Beef Base.

NOTE (SOUR CREAM):

I generally DESPISE recipes that attach the word 'vegan' to an ingredient without providing more guidance, yet I'm doing that myself here. There are plenty of recipes for sour cream taste-alikes floating around the net to try out. When I see 'sour cream' in a recipe my mind reads 'plain soy yogurt', so that's what I use.

NOTE (GENERAL):

Again, my adaptations were modifications to fit the way contemporary cooks go about the business of cooking. If I was making this as a meal I would tweak the flavors quite a bit. As is it seems terribly bland. Could definitely use some cumin and oregano ....

Peanut Soup

Adapted from A Vegetarian in the Family (1977), page 25

2 servings

1 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup peanut butter
scarce 1/2 cup soymilk
1/4 tsp chili powder

Bring stock to boil in a pan. Whisk in the peanut butter. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add soymilk and chili powder. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste.

RECIPE NOTES:

Most of the dishes in this book are fairly everyday type food. There is little in the way of flash or flair. What intrigued me about this dish are its (unstated) African origins. It stands out compared to other more humdrum dishes.

The original recipe calls for 1/4 tsp salt, which I have changed to 'season to taste'. Peanut butter usually contains salt, as do many stocks. Additional salt will often be unnecessary.

Note 'natural' peanut butter should be used. Peanut butter should contain no more than 3 ingredients: peanuts, oil, and salt. Any additional ingredients are usually unnecessary.

Other than eliminating the additional salt my 'adaptations' are merely 'fixing' the quantities listed so they fit contemporary recipe style (e.g. '1 cup' instead of '1/2 pint')