chapter XXIII - school dinners 02

When I first thought about this school meal blog, I hit the world wide web to do some research to see other people's memories. What I discovered suprised me. It seems no matter where you were in the country, we were all fed virtually the same meals. We all seem to love and hate mostly the same meals. I never considered the fact that the dishes, the recipes were centralised. But it seems they must of been.  

We all had our favourite school meals and we all had dishes that filled us with dread when we knew they were being served. But oh how happy I was, when a kid who had been in and our before me, told me that one of my favourites was on offer. 

These are some of those favourite meals, well mine anyway ....

fish and chips

These were the days when fish was always served on a Friday. Catholic or not, we got fish on a Friday.

Sometimes simply steamed fillet, sometimes battered fish and chips. Sometimes served with normal garden peas, sometimes mushy peas and sometimes baked beans. While the latter was always eagerly looked forward to, the batter on the fish and the chips were more than likely on the soggy side, due to being kept hot in steam laden bain maries.

Ever have a battered fish that is coated with something more akin to a thick cake mix? Usually it means the batter has been made with eggs in it, apart from the Japanese tempura batter, eggs should never be used if you want a light crisp batter

recipe - fish batter
1/2  cup flour            (plain)
1/2  cup cornflour
001 cup soda water  (well chilled) or beer
002 tsp  baking powder
              yellow food colour

recipe - method of preparation
Sieve together the flour and baking powder, add a pinch of salt. At this stage you can add other flavourings if desired, e.g. garlic powder, onion salt, chopped parsley etc. Add the soda water (this is best chilled to the point of ice crystals forming) and quickly mix to a batter. Do not over mix the batter, if a few lumps of flour remain, all the better for a little better batter! Quickly stir through a few drops of yellow food colour. Use within 10 minutes of production. 

note - for best results, ensure the food your coating is small enough to cook within minutes and ensure your fat is fresh, clean and hot; 180 - 200C). Some chefs like to coat the food with flour before battering, I prefer not to as this encourages the batter to thicken. If you like your fish well battered, when the fish goes into the hot oil, take a spoon and drizzle some extra batter back and forth onto the cooking fish. 

chicken pie

Definately two thumbs up on this one. One of the main courses I got excited about when I saw it was the choice of the day. Well when I say choice, our choice was simple; like it or lump it. It was simply; boneless pre-cooked chicken meat, pre-cooked peas mixed in a light gravy, that was topped by a crumbly, short pastry. Usually served with boiled potatoes and vegetables of some description.

corn beef fritters
A 'speciality' of my mother's at home (the recipe for which I will blog in a later chapter. But also a familiar favourite with school dinners; slices of tinned corned beef, dipped in batter and deep fried. But if you can't wait, use my batter recipe above and go for it!

curried eggs
I don't remember how these were served, as in what they were served with. I can't imagine in the 60's it was with rice; rice was something we made rice pudding with only. But I do remember it was served; half boiled eggs with a curry sauce, that had sultanas in it. 

potato and cheese pie

Usually served, as I remember with steamed cabbage. This dish was basically what is known as gratin dauphinoise. Except our slices of potato, were baked with milk I think (not cream) with grated cheese, because the liquid was always thin (curdled) and with fatty lumps of cheese.

Not particularly pleasant as I recall. But gratin Dauphinois however ....

recipe - gratin Dauphinoise
001 kg potatoes
250 ml cream
001 tsp chopped garlic
100 gm grated cheddar 

recipe - method of production
Wash, peel and wash the potatoes. Slice thinly and combine with salt and pepper, place into a buttered roasting tray or similar. Combine the cream, cheese and garlic and heat gently. Pour over the potatoes and place into a preheated oven (170C) and cook until the potatoes are soft and the sauce has thickened. remove. Sprinkle with extra cheese and gratinee under the grill until golden brown. 


bangers and mash
Great sausages, even if they were over cooked and hard, some so so gravy, and always served with mashed potatoes that were unseasoned and full of uncooked lumps of potato. And how was the mashed potato served? With a ice cream scoop of course! That way, each kid was 'punished' with exactly the same amount each; two scoopfuls.

Mind you, what else would kids do with inedible mash potatoes but have a food fight with them! Flicking it off a spoon like a medieval, castle invading, rock launcher at your best friend, oh what fun. Unless you got caught at it of course and then frog marched to the head master's office.

recipe - cheffie's ultimate mashed potatoes

001 kg potatoes
300 gm butter
050 ml hot milk

recipe - method of production

Wash the even sized potatoes well, place onto a baking tray and place into a pre-heated oven (200C) and bake until soft and cooked. Remove and allow to cool slightly, cut in half and scoop out the pulp. Push through a fine sieve. Beat through the butter and sufficient milk to form a smooth mash/puree. Taste and season with Maldon sea salt (pepper and freshly grated nutmeg can also be added) 

note - the baked skins can be cut up, re-heated and served with sour cream, thai sweet chilli sauce, salsa or similar. 

roast lamb
Every so often we would have a "roast dinner". Usually some nasty semi warm grey roast lamb, with roast potatoes that had got soggy from the steam hot box, sliced carrots or peas. The lamb was invariable barely edible with so much grissle in it, it was more like chewing bubble gum. That even after major chewing, it still had to be swallowed as a whole piece. The whole meal, stank from that oh so familiar mutton stench from the fat of the mutton.

Sounds horrible? It was, but for some reason I still remember it with fond memories. Maybe because I just like a good roast dinner, pity it wasn't a good roast dinner!

xmas dinner
The last school dinner before the Christmas term break was the most eagerly awaited dinner of the year. A  roast chicken/turkey dinner with Xmas pudding and custard for dessert. The latter never seemed to be enough, because I know a few times the last few kids had to go without. This never happened with any other meal.

next blog - the school dinners that I dreaded .......