chapter XXIII - school dinners 03

Here are some more of those memories of my school meal days; in this case the ones I dreaded. I will blog my memories of the desserts (or afters or puddings as we called them) With recipes that would have made life so much tastier if they had used my recipes .....

By the way, the photo on the right is one of my junior school in Plymouth (Salisbury Road) and the one on the left is my Secondary School (Tamar Secondary for Boys)

I found this little gem of a poster while trawling the net researching, it comes from a kids comic from the 70's I think. The idea was, kids forwarded thier ideas and the comic's artists turned it into a wanted poster. The kid as can be seen was rewarded with a £1, if their idea was used.

So here are some of the, not so fondly remembered dishes, but with my upgraded, love it now recipes.

note - I would love to hear of your stories and memories of school meals, feel free to add comments etc below.

steamed cabbage

The bane of most school kids, school meal lives. Grey or colourless hunks of cabbage, placed in large trays with holes and bulk steamed. Steamed until it no longer resembled anything earthly. No seasoning, no taste and all the vitamins cooked out of it. Mind you it did make for great smelly farts afterwards in the classroom!

I can't remember if I loved or hated it. But I do remember strongly disliking the strong stench that pervaded the whole dining hall when it was being served. My little sister however loved it. She had a great little scheme going with the cabbage. As we could not leave the table until we had eaten everything on our plate (or risk detention or lines) she would eat everyone's cabbage, but in return they had to give her some of their dessert. What a right con artist!

recipe - cheffies steamed cabbage
001 pc cabbage
001 pc small onion
001 pc garlic clove
004 pc streaky back rashers
025 gm butter

recipe - method of production
Cut the cabbage in half through the stalk, clean thoroughly and shake away any excess water. Finely shred. Finely slice the onion and crush the garlic. Cut the bacon into thin strips. 

Using an extra large saucepan, fry the bacon in a tiny amount of olive oil over a medium heat until nicely brown and crisp, add the garlic and onions and cook gently without colour until softened. Add the butter and the cabbage and cook gently while stirring until it starts to wilt, place on a tight fitting lid and cook gently until cabbage is nicely wilted (approx 5 minutes). Remove from the heat, taste and season with maldon sea salt, lots of freshly milled pepper and a hint of freshly grated nutmeg. 

note - try the same recipe but add some freshly chopped pineapple in there 

mince and vegetables
another dish served with the infamous mashed potatoes. This culinary delight, was minced cooked in a gravy, that always had peas and diced carrot in. No prizes for guessing what we called this dish!

liver and onions

This I would class under the heading; 'no more for me chef, i'm full'. The liver was overcooked, dry and usually a grey/green colour, cooked in a thin gravy with bits of bacon and sliced onions. The liver was almost impossibly hard, no knife would ever cut it and it usually bounced when 'accidentally' dropped on the floor. This culinary delight was usually served with mashed potatoes that always had hard lumps of un-cooked potato still in them. My recipes for liver and onions can be found in the earlier blog chapter. 

spam salad
"Spam, spam, spam, spam ..... wonderful spam, glorious spam", well according to Monty Python that is. For me growing up in the 60's we often got a spam salad for our school dinner. Limp, slightly browned lettuce, tomato and cucumber slices, grated carrot, slices of, or was it cubes of spam and (usually half boiled) potatoes, if my memory serves me right? Oh and there was always peanuts in amongst the salad for some reason.

steamed carrots

Hated them! Do what you would, I hated carrots for years and all due to school meals. They were never seasoned, they were simply sliced and bulk steamed cooked in trays. What made me hate them more was when after lining up to have your meal dished up, the dinner lady would remove the lid and I would get blasted by an intense carrot infused steam .... yeeeeeeuck! 

But as life would have it, I was then taught how to cook them properly and now I love 'em! This recipe is especially good for those winter carrots, that lack flavour and sweetness. 

recipe - cheffie's glazed carrots 

002 cup sliced carrots - sliced very thinly

002 tsp  honey

002 tsp  sugar

001 tbs  butter

recipe - method of production

Place all ingredients into a large saucepan; you want a large surface area. Add enough water until it comes just below the top of the carrots. Do not panic here and add too much, as the carrots cook they soften and will fall below the level of the water. Simmer the carrots gently until the carrots are cooked, as they cook the sugar, honey and butter will combine to form a nice caramelised glaze and should all but disappear. If the carrots cook and there is lots of water remaining, crank up the heat and evaporate the water away. 

next blog - yummy school desserts ......