Traditional recipes from the elders

[Corzhens]

Have you thought of compiling recipes that our grandparents and parents cook? This idea came to my mind when we were eating in a restaurant last Saturday. My mother used to cook the best crispy pork belly in town. And no one seemed to know how to cook it the way my mother did. And since my mother had a stroke and couldn't talk anymore, there is no way to get that recipe anymore.

 

[Morning Glory]

My mum could cook, despite being totally blind and so could my Dad (occasionally), but frankly, the food we ate was so plain that I don't think it would worth asking for recipes! (Sorry, Mum & Dad!)

 

[ReadmeByAmy]

When I got married my grandmother and my mother shared to me their traditional and secret recipes. They are both good cooks and maybe I inherited my passion for cooking from them. I am just lucky that I got the compilations of their recipes which are references and guide in my cooking ever since I had my own family already.

 

[welsh dragon]

I didn't know my grand mother very well. My mother was a very good cook. She worked for around 30 years as a school cook. She used to have a fantastic recipe for meat loaf, but to be honest she is 93 years old now, and probably wouldn't remember all of the ingredients. she does however have boxes of recipes some of which must be 60+ years old and I know she has stipulated to my sister that I can have them.

 

[Berties]

My mum could cook, despite being totally blind and so could my Dad (occasionally), but frankly, the food we ate was so plain that I don't think it would worth asking for recipes! (Sorry, Mum & Dad!)

My mum is a great cook but she has bad cataracts at the moment ,and I have found failed food in her bin as she can't see to measure stuff out,and she literally has her head in the draw to find stuff,it don't help not being able to see

 

[Morning Glory]

My mum is a great cook but she has bad cataracts at the moment ,and I have found failed food in her bin as she can't see to measure stuff out,and she literally has her head in the draw to find stuff,it don't help not being able to see

I understand what you mean, but my Mum went blind at the age of 27, before she had me. I don't think that was the reason for the plain food. She could cook quite well. She made pastry and did apple pie, for example, which was fine. It's just that it was the working class, post-war British diet. Plain and simple. Very nutritious (lots and lots of veg). But virtually no herbs or spices. Garlic and olive oil would have been alien to my parents, and unobtainable!
Nowadays you can get all sorts of gadgets for the blind (talking scales, for example), which might help your mum. My mum didn't have anything like that. God knows how she coped with toddlers, let alone cooking!

 

[Corzhens]

Another dish that is noteworthy is the vegetable spring roll. The sauteed vegetable is composed of string beans, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and bits of pork for flavoring. It is then drained and wrapped in spring roll wrapper with a leaf of lettuce for decoration. For eating, crushed garlic is mixed with the dip (made of corn starch and flavoring). At first bite, the taste of garlic dominates your taste buds but as you eat, the vegetables will gain their spot in your mouth.

There's also another version of spring roll that is called Ubod - the centerpoint of coconut tree. It is soft and tasty that is used in place of vegetables in spring roll. By the way, the local name of spring roll is LUMPIA.

 

[sidevalve]

My mum could cook, despite being totally blind and so could my Dad (occasionally), but frankly, the food we ate was so plain that I don't think it would worth asking for recipes! (Sorry, Mum & Dad!)

Not sure of your parents generation but my parents cooking was also VERY basic. I suspect that it was due to the war years and rationing [which many forget went on into the 50s over here in the UK] experience - any food was good food so long as it was filling and wholesome.
We have much to be thankful for.

 

[Morning Glory]

Not sure of your parents generation but my parents cooking was also VERY basic. I suspect that it was due to the war years and rationing [which many forget went on into the 50s over here in the UK] experience - any food was good food so long as it was filling and wholesome.
We have much to be thankful for.

Yes, I was on a 1950's working-class post-war diet, affected by rationing. I'm not complaining. It was a very healthy diet, especially as my Dad grew lots of vegetables. I have to say though, that when I went to University I met people the same age as me who were not from working class backgrounds who had had much more varied diets. One of my boyfriends had a mother who cooked French style dishes and used garlic! She had cookbooks by Elizabeth David. Looking at my cookbook shelves I have just dug out my copy of Mediterranean Food by Elizabeth David. This was first published in the UK in 1950! It is still a brilliant book, with original recipes for Bouillabaise, Paella, Boeuf en Daube and many, many more.

 

[sidevalve]

Just wondering what decade the food really began to change here in Britain - I suspect it wasn't until the late sixties or even seventies that it seemed to happen in a big way for 'average' people. Children who's parents came from that generation have a lot of weird, wonderful and sometimes brilliant recipes to look back on. I fear we lost almost a whole generation of cooking in the 40s and 50s, recipes from the 30s and before don't seem to suit modern life, and it sort of left a big hole as though we almost started again from scratch.