HAS any span of years been decisively insulted and demoted by a single remark as the 1970s are by the tag "The Decade That Fashion Forgot"? We think back now, and remember bad disco music, bad, flared trousers, Liam Cosgrave, Jim Callaghan, Gary Glitter, glam rock and not much else.
The 1960s has become a golden age, the 1980s a time remembered for red braces and greed, the 1950s as pleasantly naive, but no one has a good word to say about the 1970s It is uncool, a no go area for remembering.
As with everything else, the food of the 1970s has suffered from this collective amnesia. Before nouvelle, before Pacific Rim and Thai, before California, it seems to have been a time when nothing was happening. Of course, this is quite wrong.
It was actually in 1973 that the term "nouvelle cuisine" was ink vented by Gault Millau, and that, classical French cooking began to, change. In 1974, Richard Olney's classic Simple French Food was published. Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery was published in 1977 and Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book in 1978.
So let's resuscitate some of the staples of the 1970s, and begin with the timeless dish that is moussaka. Along with lasagne, it is now almost a food lover's curse word, signifying all that is worst in international cooking. But when did you last make a true, simple moussaka, and drink a beefy, tannic bottle of red wine with it?
It is a smashing dish, and what has gone wrong with it is the fact that people cut corners. You can't do this: it is an elaborate recipe which needs lots of stove time. Here is a classic recipe for moussaka, one that repays all that time - in the kitchen with every mouthful. This recipe comes from Tess Mallos's The Complete Middle East Cookbook (Grub Street, £18.99), first published in 1979!
Moussaka
Serves 6-8
1 kg (2 lb) aubergines olive oil salt
MEAT SAUCE:
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons oil
1 kg (2lb) ground beef or lamb
1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon pepper
CREAM SAUCE:
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups milk
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese salt and pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
1. Cut aubergine into 5 mm (1/4 inch) slices with skin on. Sprinkle slices with salt and leave for one hour. Dry with paper towels.
2. Oil the base of a baking dish, add a layer of aubergine and brush with oil. Lightly brown under a hot grill, turn, brush again with oil and brown other side. Alternatively, aubergine may be shallow fried in oil. Stack on a plate when cooked.
3. Gently fry onion and garlic in oil for 10 minutes. Add meat and brown over high heat, stirring well. Add remaining meat sauce ingredients, seasoning to taste. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
4. Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in flour and book gently for two minutes. Add milk all at once and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Let sauce bubble gently for one minute.
5. Remove from heat, stir in nutmeg or cinnamon, one tablespoon of the cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover top of sauce with buttered paper if not required immediately.
6. Butter an oven dish 33 cm x 23 cm x 5cm (12 x 9 x 2 inches) and place a layer of aubergine slices in, the base. Top with half of the meat sauce, add another layer of aubergine, the remainder of meat and finish with aubergine.
7. Stir beaten egg into sauce and spread on top. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake in a moderate oven for one hour. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.
And just look at this relic from the past. Kidneys Turbigo! Where has it been all these years? One of those Cordon Bleu recipes featured in the weekly recipe booklets of the 1970s, a version of the French dish appears in the Constance Spry Cookbook where its unfashionable habit of cooking the kidneys for a long time is explained thus: "There are two generally accepted and opposing degrees in the cooking of kidneys: brown on the outside and a delicate pink within, as when they are perfectly grilled, or, as in the case of at braise or ragout, very well cooked throughout and completely tender."
I was first introduced to the dish by my mother in law, way back in 1976. This version of the classic comes from Mary Berry's enormous Complete Cook Book (Dorling Kindersley, £25).
Kidneys Turbigo
6 lamb's kidneys
60g (2oz) butter
250g (8oz) chipolata sausages
12 button onions, peeled, with roots left intact
250g (8oz) button mushrooms
1 tablespoon plain flour
300ml (1/2 pint) lamb stock or water
1 tablespoon medium sherry teaspoons tomato puree
1 bay leaf salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons hopped parsley and triangle croutons of toast to garnish
1. Slice kidneys in half lengthwise and snip out the small fatty, white core with scissors. Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the kidneys, and cook, stirring, over a high heat for about three minutes until browned. Lift out and drain on paper towels. Add the sausages and cook for three minutes or until browned. Lift out and drain on paper towels.
2. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pan and cook for three five minutes, until browned.
3. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for one minute. Add the stock, sherry and tomato puree, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Adds the bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Slice the sausages thickly and return to the pan with the kidneys.a Cover and simmer gently for 20-25 minutes until tender.
5. Spoon the kidney mixture on to a warmed platter, garnish with the chopped parsley, and serve with croutons.
And here is another old stager. Piccalilli! One of the great pre salsa condiments, it is something that now seems as old as HP sauce. In fact, its history is ancient, and it is a British invention. But, we must confess, this is actually a modern version of the classic - look at that giveaway addition of coriander right at the end. The reason for this is that the recipe comes from Bruno Loubet's book Bistrot Bruno, already much praised on these pages, and Bruno has added some ingredients and left out others, such as gherkin.
Mr Loubet serves it with mackerel kebabs and a potato cake, which is sort of Seventies, if you think about it.
Piccalilli
14 tablespoons olive oil
150g (5oz) carrots, diced
1 red sweet pepper, seeded and diced
150g (5oz) fennel bulb, diced
150g (50z) onions, finely chopped
200g (7oz) tiny cauliflower florets
1 bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) white wine
1 teaspoon sugar
200ml (7 floz) water
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
100g (3 1/2 oz) courgettes, diced
1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon coarse grain mustard
1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the carrots, red pepper, fennel, celery, onions and cauliflower. Stir with a wooden spoon for a few minutes, then add the bay leaf, garlic, ginger, turmeric, curry powder and white wine. Season with salt and pepper and add the sugar. Pour in the water and vinegar and bring to the boil. Simmer for five minutes, then add the courgettes and cook for two minutes longer.
Gradually stir in the cornflour mixture, adding just enough to thicken the liquid to the right consistency. Stir in the mustard and cook for a final two minutes. Add the chopped coriander, mix well and pour on to a plate. Leave to cool.