On the subject of recipes in Newspapers...

[Docb]

The glossier end of journalism delights in having a food section in their weekend editions and last weekend one had a recipe for broad bean pod soup. Was this to be another super food or just some poor hack filling column inches without being accused of plagiarism - I'd never seen such a recipe before. Need some soup and have a glut of broad beans. You can guess what's coming. I had a go.

Recipe basically was to brew up broad bean pods with sauted onions and veg stock. Thought I would pep it up a bit by adding the juice from my last kimchi batch and a big bunch of tarragon. After all, the recipe said the pods did not have much taste. The recipe also said the pods could be stringy, but more of that in a bit.

Pressure cooked for 20 mins and opened the pot. Tasted it and thought, couldn't taste broad bean but the tang from the kimchi juice and tarragon was interesting, better blend everything to see if that makes any difference. Out comes blender, whizz away for a bit, take out blender and it was clogged with stringy bits from the broad bean pods. Fish around in the pot and find it full of stringy bits. The stringy bits had defeated my stick blender butI was not to be defeated. Out comes sieve. So much string nothing came through. Got out colander. That seemed to work, with a bit of prodding and pressing I could begin to separate the soup from the stringy bits.

The net result is that I have some passable soup which nobody would ever guess had broad bean pods as a base and a big pile of ex-broad bean pod stringy bits to put on the compost heap.

There are several morals from this story.

When looking at newspaper recipes it is the throw away lines (little taste, stringy)not the headlines which tell you what you need to know, just like any other story in the paper.

If you are going to try a newspaper recipe, be prepared to be bold and imaginative if you don't want to chuck the result away.

Broad bean pods are best put straight onto the compost heap, there is nothing to be gained from cooking them first.

 

[saffron15]

In the sixties when I was a kid i remember my Dad and his friends used to make wine. They were all test pilots in the military so I suspect it was a nice change and a challenge, but I don't know if they drank it. I remember helping one of his friends pick dandelions but their favourite was broad bean wine.

 

[helli]

I feel these recipes have got worse since the advent of the internet. Newspaper glossy content producers have too much competition but still want to compete.

When I was a kid, my Mum used to get Womens Realm every week. Each addition had a selection of recipes. If they sounded appealing, they were trialed and, if they past muster, they would be cut out and saved in a photo album. One of those ones with film you had to peel back to place your photo in place. If you ignore that the film yellowed over time, it was a great idea because the film would protect the recipe from the inevitable cooking splatters.
I know my Mum still cooks some of those recipes and I suspect she still stores them in one of those photo albums (with yellowing pages).

 

[harbottle]

In the sixties when I was a kid i remember my Dad and his friends used to make wine. They were all test pilots in the military so I suspect it was a nice change and a challenge, but I don't know if they drank it. I remember helping one of his friends pick dandelions but their favourite was broad bean wine.

My granddad used to make pea-pod wine. My Dad said it was like loony juice!

 

[Docb]

@helli - lets start a "what my mother read" nostalgia fest. My mother was not as posh as yours and read Womans Own. Next door were Scots, so she read The Peoples Friend.

 

[nonethewiser]

Don't do stringy food, yuk.

Very rarely look up recipes, more so with soup whereby create own by throwing all sorts in pan.

 

[helli]

@helli - lets start a "what my mother read" nostalgia fest. My mother was not as posh as yours and read Womans Own. Next door were Scots, so she read The Peoples Friend.

These magazines used to do the rounds. My Mum would read it and pass it on to her Mum who would pass it on to someone else.
So, whilst Woman's Realm may sound posh it was well thumbed

 

[saffron15]

My Mum's favourite was Woman's Realm she also got a small paperback of their recipes. My two favourites were brown rice with sardines and walnuts and a sort of mousse made with carnation milk, fruit and jelly. We are talking a while ago.

 

[harbottle]

My favourite magazine was Club International. Only available in bushes.

 

[Lisa65]

My Mum's favourite was Woman's Realm she also got a small paperback of their recipes. My two favourites were brown rice with sardines and walnuts and a sort of mousse made with carnation milk, fruit and jelly. We are talking a while ago.

I used to love the carnation mousse! My mum made it almost every week.

 

[saffron15]

I used to love the carnation mousse! My mum made it almost every week.

My favourite was lime jelly and mandarin oranges!

 

[Fiona#42]

I use quite a lot of recipes from the Guardian food supplement, I particularly like Meera Sodha's column. Most of the recies are fine, but there's a certain amount of reading between the lines to make them work. Sometimes including rewriting them in the order of preparation. And don't get me started on Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes, which all seem to have at least 30 ingredients!

 

[Leadinglights]

My favourite was lime jelly and mandarin oranges!

You can still make that with sugar free lemon and lime jelly which you can get in some supermarkets and mandarin oranges. It is very refreshing.

 

[saffron15]

You can still make that with sugar free lemon and lime jelly which you can get in some supermarkets and mandarin oranges. It is very refreshing.

But would it be ok with the carnation milk? I liked the contrasting textures. Haven't eaten it this century!

 

[Leadinglights]

But would it be ok with the carnation milk? I liked the contrasting textures. Haven't eaten it this century!

If you like carnation milk, no reason why not, I hate it. If I make the raspberry or strawberry sugar free jelly with red berries in then I have cream but don't like cream with citrus fruit.