The Wartime Dinner Party

Late February, my friend Marieluise contacted me to discuss another one of her seriously-inspired-fun projects: a wartime dinner (discover more of her challenges). The exchange started as follows:

~ Marieluise
Hi Virginie,
Would you be willing to co-host a ‘War Rations Dinner Party’ with me at mine for a challenge (…) With BREXIT looming over us, I thought it would be nice to celebrate how far we’ve come. I would try to get a high spread of EU nationals and Brits together (…) This is going to be tougher than your average. And not as yummy! And require 1940’s costumes (…)

~ Virginie
Yes!
(You got me at co-host and dinner party)

 

And so a date was set and Marieluise sent the invitations. All I had to do was select the recipes, work out the rations, and find an outfit.

After spending a long time browsing a website called ‘the 1940’s experiment’ (it is worth a look), I selected 4 recipes for the event with the aim of preparing a meal as balanced, nutritious and good as possible.  I felt sure some of them would come out well (like the soup for starter),
for others, I had my doubts.

 

My fridge is always full of leftovers after a dinner party: I would rather have too much than not enough for the guests and, anyway, I have grown to love being creative in finding new ways to use those leftovers. Here, with the amount of food bought for 6 people – as per the picture – I didn’t expect there would be much left afterwards.

 

Now, for the dinner preparations:

Bread: Irish Soda bread
500g whole wheat flour
50 cl buttermilk
Bicarbonate of sodium
Salt

I love Irish soda bread! When I saw it was among the recipes of the period, I could not resist at the opportunity to make some.

I mixed the flour with the salt and the bicarbonate of sodium (the recipe indicated 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp bicarbonate of sodium. I am French, ‘tsp’ is alien to me. The online converter gave me a figure with decimal. No way, I went for the feel and taste), then added the buttermilk. I kneaded the bread to get a uniform, well blended dough. Then I formed a round shape and flattened the top slightly to give it the classic Irish Soda bread shape. Next, I made a cross shape on top and placed it in a pre-heated oven to 200 C for 40-45 minutes. Once out of the oven, I wrapped it in a t-towel and let it in it all day until dinner time.

Result: it was a success, a proper Irish-soda bread! There was still room for improvement, as it could be slightly lighter and spongier, but it is an excellent start. I will try again soon.

 

Starter: Squash Soup
1.2 kg of squash
2 onions
40g butter or margarine (I used butter. It must have costs a lot of coupons back then!)
1.5 litre of vegetable stock
Worcestershire sauce
Marmite
Salt and pepper

I dices the onions and threw them in a pan with the butter to let them golden, then added the vegetable stock, some Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and marmite. It was pretty much a British onion soup. In the meantime, I opened the squashes and emptied the seed, then sliced and placed them roasting in the oven until they melted in the mouth. I put the squashes and the British onion soup in a blender, mixed everything together, and voilà! I checked the seasoning, added a little bit of marmite, placed it in the pan again to let it simmer and really blend the savours together for 10-15 minutes. So simple, economical, and yet really good!

Result: I will do this again. I would have loved more on the day, and the next day!

 

Main: Beef & Prune Hotpot
200g prunes
300g beef
900g potato
3 large onions
30g butter
Marmite
Salt

Right. I know this is a surprising choice, but I had faith that the prunes and beef would make a good combination. I grew up with Mediterranean cuisine and had so many Moroccan tajines, I know that fruits and meat go well together. On this, I was correct, but not everything in this recipe convinced me.

First, I diced the onions and browned them with the little of butter I had, then threw in the beef cut in chunks, and after the pitted prunes. I added a small quantity of marmite stock and let it all stew together. I had already adapted somewhat the recipes – to be honest, I adapted all of them a little, aside maybe from the bread, but always kept the ingredients. Now I was wondering if I should not change another thing. I hesitated and decided not to. I should have gone for my instinct and prepared the pot like a shepherd’s pie, instead I layered as instructed thin slices of raw potato and the stew, finishing with potatoes. I placed it all in the oven to cook slowly at 170 C for an hour or so.

Result: the beef and prune stew was good, the potato layers were ok, but the top layer of potato was simply not cutting it. Ah well… We still all finished our plates!

 
 
 

Dessert: Cynthia’s Eggless Sponge
1/2 pint tea
90g sugar
90g sultanas
300g whole wheat flour
Mixed spice (with cinnamon)

This recipe intrigued me and I was looking forward to discovering what would come out of it. First, place tea, butter, sugar and sultanas in a saucepan on low heat until the butter is melted. Let it cool. Mix flour and spices together (I was very liberal with the mixed spices. The whole pot went into it). When done, mix the dry and the liquid ingredients until you obtain a homogenous mix. Here, I took the liberty to choose that the wartime host had Scottish connections, and so had access to whisky… And added a shot in the mix. Ooops! I placed the dough in a greased cake tin and cooked it for about 45 minutes at 180 C.

Result: The cake had a nice taste, and was less heavy than I feared. Still there was not much ‘sponge’ in it. It would have been better with ice-cream or just with cream, but in time of war…

 

Overall, the meal was a success. Sure, it was not memorable gastronomy, the dishes were not excellent, yet they were good, sufficient, and the guests were satisfied, happy even (or so they appeared to be). What a relief!

 

As for the party itself, we had a jolly good fun! Music and costumes created a perfect vintage ambience and we laughed the whole night through. We even had a Danish Humphrey Bogart and our own RAF pilot, a gentleman officer who brought us spitfires. What more could we dream of, us ladies!

Cheers to Marieluise and to our fun-loving friends for another night to remember!

 

And thank you for reading,

Yours, Virginie