Old cook books are like old clothes. It's tempting to toss them out when they start looking dated - but keep them long enough and they become vintage - or at least a peep into the past. My second-hand Betty Crocker Cookbook, once used for making children's birthday cakes, survived a recent cookbook cull because of its curiosity value. I swear I only made cakes from this book and never attempted Polynesian Loaf (slice canned pork luncheon meat, place in baking tin, with pineapple and mustard between each slice, sprinkle with brown sugar and bake for 20 minutes.) If there were a vintage clothing equivalent of this dish it would be a polyester safari suit.
But the eye opener in my collection was the 1980s Australian and New Zealand Book of Whole Meals by Marcea Weber. Flicking through its pages for the first time in years made me realise how in some ways our eating has changed for the better. Making dishes from this book - a groundbreaker in its time - once meant a mission to the health food shop for what used to be weird food: tofu, tamari, bulgur and buckwheat noodles. Now these foods are as easily available as frozen pizza in most large supermarkets. That's something to celebrate - there might be plenty of over-processed trash on offer, but if you do want whole foods it's easier to find them too.
Sifting through old cookbooks - along with dog-eared recipes snipped from magazines -turned out to be like reading old diaries. Recipe collections can record events - the family Christmas cake recipe that became a wedding cake, or the frosting recipe for a child's christening cake. But they also track how your cooking style evolves through time and necessity - in my case, fiddly recipes that gave way to dishes you can fix in a flash: hello pesto, goodbye cannelloni.
They're also a reminder of which dishes don't date. In my kitchen, the older recipes still in regular use tend to be Asian and Middle Eastern - traditional cuisines where plant foods can be a star turn, not just an also ran. Madhur Jaffrey's 1987 Indian Cookery is one of them -plenty of stuff for meat lovers, but lots of ways to cook vegetables, pulses and grains too.
I love this tomato and coriander relish that can expand into a salad to go with curries or pilafs.
Tomato, onion and green coriander relish
Double or triple the quantity to make it more of a salad than a relish. All you do is mix the following ingredients together in a bowl.
To roast cumin seeds: put the seeds in a heavy frying pan (with no oil) over a medium flame. Stir them until they turn darker, but without burning - you'll know when they're ready from their distinctive aroma of roast cumin. (Toast a lot of them and store them in an airtight jar for later).
2 medium tomatoes, finely diced.
I small onion, peeled and finely diced (I sometimes snip four or five shallots instead)
4 heaped tblspns chopped fresh coriander
2 tblspns lemon juice
½ tspn paprika (or use a little finely chopped fresh chilli instead)
½ teaspoon ground, roasted cumin seeds.( I usually leave the seeds whole, but you can grind them in a mortar and pestle).
A little salt (but taste the dish before you add any salt - you might not need any).
It would work with this tofu curry based on another kitchen stalwart - 1998's Street Cafe Vietnam
Vegetable Curry
This is comfort food and is a good way of using up bottom of the fridge veg (I 've tossed in leaves of wombok or other Chinese leaves too).
I large potato, cut in chunks
1 cup sweet potato, cut in chunks
I carrot chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
A few button mushrooms, chopped
1 tblspn mild Indian curry powder
5 stalks lemon grass, cut into 2.5cm lengths and crushed (or 3-4 finely chopped kaffir lime leaves)
½ tspn caster sugar
freshly ground black pepper
300ml vegetable stock
360ml light coconut milk
400g firm tofu
Oil for cooking
There are two ways of preparing the tofu for this - the Street Cafe Vietnam version cubes it and browns it in oil, then drains it on kitchen paper. I usually cube and marinate it for half an hour or so drizzled with a little fish sauce and lime juice and maybe some grated ginger).
Heat oil in a saucepan and add the vegetables. Cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add curry powder and the other flavourings and stir to mix. Add stock and 240ml coconut milk; simmer until the vegetables are soft - about 20 minutes. Add the tofu and the remaining coconut milk. Cook for a few more minutes. Serves 4.
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