hi play mates!me again.Knowing just how much we all are into food and trying new ideas,but you know that feeling you get sometimes when you just don't want anything fancy for tea tonight but you just need to touch base with a good old fasioned recipe(preferably one that's been handed down through the family).Well mine has got to be tatters & onions.
in a casserole dish put enough water to just cover the base.
slice 2 cooking onoins and cube about 2-3 potatoes,you can vary the amount depending how many you want to serve.
lnto the dish put half of the onions and half of the potatoes and sprinkle on a teasponoeof salt.then do the same again with the remaining tatters & onions and put another teaspoon of salt.(watch the salt you can always add more half way thru rather than over doing it,try it at half time and then see if you need the 2nd teaspoon,again it depends on quantity you are doing)
set your gas to gas mark 6 and before you put the lid on dot some butter on the top of the tatters & onions(about 3/4 dots).
put in the oven and bake for approx an hour or just over depending on how chunky you have cut your tatters(you will know when they are cooked/soft).during the cooking give them a turn/stir about every 15 - 20 mins.
when cooked serve with what ever takes your fancy,our favourites are corned beef,sausages.cheese or lucheon meat the kids like.This was my great nans recipe for the days when you had to make do.Has anybody ever heard of it or cooked it?please try it it's morerish.By the way what are your fav old fashioned or passed down recipes and would you like to share them.jane.xx

I'll definitely try this - onions are my favourite veg (sounds weird that doesn't it?) I eat them cooked any way at all - always put too much in my recipes and weet raw onions are delish. Love spuds too. Moreish eh? No old fashioned favourites that people don't already know the recipe for, apple dumpling made mum's way is one of my all time faves.

For weet read sweet!

hpe you do try this lil'abby!you seem on the same wave length as me as iv'e seen from some of your replies after my conversations.I bet your the sort(if your not a veggie) who just loves to stick whole onions around your sunday roast for that lovely sweet caramelised flavour?jane.x

Drool drool - I put onions in the oven every time it's on! Definitely not a veggie though.

Ruth x

next time im on(prob 2moro aft 8)i will give you my nans recipe for pickled onions.I'm sure Garner av nicked the recipe!? these are just like them if not even better!jane.x

Scrummy - thanks v much - by the way (re: the rum) my husband was in the navy for years.

Ruth x (and my nickname on here comes from my little doggy!)

hi lil'abby.pickled onions.
peel as many button onions or shallots as you need(depends how many jars your aiming for)then put them in a large saucepan of water and add a tablespoon of cooking salt.
leave to soak over night.
next day drain the onions and give them a good rinse with water.
next fill your jars with onions and then add just enough water to cover the bottom of the jars.
fill the rest of the jars up with malt vinegar(sarsons if poss')and make sure the onions are covered with vinegar.
then add a dessert spoon of sugar to each jar put on lid and give them all a little shake to dispperse the sugar.
it is better if you can put a seal between onions and lid if you are using pre use jars to keep them from nasty thing creeping in!or use the posh shop brought one's!don't forget before filling the jars to sterilise them(a good hot wash in the dish washer is best).
then you have to wait unfortunately for 3-4 weeks to try them by then they should be ready,but they are well worth the wait.jane.x

got it little eddie - thanks v much - I'll let you know how they turn out. x

Interesting thread, Little Eddie. I can think of a lot of food I associate with visits to my Grandma and Grandad. My Grandma always made roast onions for Sunday lunch, which I now always do when I make Sunday lunch. Lil' Abby, they're my favourite vegetable too, I put them in almost everything! My Grandma also made a lot of stewed fruit with custard, which I haven't had recently but my mouth waters thinking about it! Another quick, cheap and easy dessert she made was a big jam tart in a pie dish that we had in slices. My grandad would then take the pastry offcuts and wrap them around cheese before baking them and storing for picnics, snacks etc. Superb! My Grandma's white Christmas cake with the Cadbury's Flake decoration is still an annual institution. Before she was diabetic, my Grandma would always have a bottomless pocket of sherberts, Everton mints and toffee eclairs.

One of the best desserts I remember from my childhood is cornflakes stirred into warm golden syrup with apple sauce and whipped cream.

Ooh, you're getting me all nostalgic now!

Favourite food from childhood is sausages casseroled in the oven in onion gravy served with mashed potatoes and peas - I still make it myself, only now with veggie sausages and I tart up the mash with mustard - but it is still a comfort food!

My Great Gran used to put rings of apples on pieces of dowling then suspend them over her old fashioned range until they were all dreid out and leathery and we ate them instead of sweets , lovely,a long forgotten memory.

When I was a child Mum used to do this thing that she called a rissotto. (I now know that it is not a rissotto in the true sense - more a savoury rice dish). It was her way of feeding 7 of us cheaply. She would cook up loads of rice - normal way - boiling, then sweat off a couple of onions and stir them into the rice, open a family sized tin of veg soup and stir that into the rice, chop a large tin of either spam or corned beef into chunks, flour and fry them off briefly and into the pot with the rice they would go, sitrring them in gently. Then the whole lot would go into a huge casserole, a few knobs of butter on top, then into the oven for about half an hour or so. - Yum! I still do this, and when I look at the rissottos I see made on telly, I prefer my Mums!

mmmm…… no offense meant jaybee but WOW you really do have to do yourself a favour and not just look at a risotto on tv but actually have one! They are soooo delicious, and nothing at all like your Moms sounds, as nice as it does.
Give it a go………

You are probably right Dorz, but they always look very moist to me - dare I say sloppy? Its that that puts me off.

Here's another - my Grandmothers this time - bake potatoes in their skins, mince (largest holes possible) or finely chop some left over lamb and cook some frozen peas. Cut spuds in half and scoop flesh out into a large bowl, gently fold in the lamb and peas (trying not to break up the potato flesh too much, then pile back into the skins, pop on a little knob of butter and put back into the oven until the top is browned. Serve with a drizzle of mint sauce and a bit more butter if liked.

Forgot to say - lamb should be cold left over roast lamb.

jaybee, would that be called 'twice baked potatoes'? have never heard of it with cooked lamb, but it sounds sort of like a mini Irish Stew in a Jacket!!

for all the onion-lovers, I too love them, nothing like a good, drippy fresh tomato sandwich on soft, spongy white bread, loaded with mayonaise, with thin slices of raw onion!!! mmmm, a summertime treat

my grammie used to make herself onion sandwiches, with butter on rye bread!

her comfort specialty was chicken and dumplings, the dumplings were the big, soft fluffy type rather than the more 'noodle-like' kind

is this a dish made in England?

Don't know VAgirl - my grandmother just used to call it stuffed baked potatoes - was yummy either way! And, just for the record, I am with you with regard to raw onions! Most delicious! - Many years ago my big brother used to make cheese and raw onion sandwiches, which were somewhat frowned upon. Big, fluffy dumplings are a must in England, but usually with a beef/lamb stew?

on about brothers,one of mine and my bruvs favs when we were growin up was always swedes & tatters(still is).All you do is peel and cube a couple of tatters and peel and cube a medium sized swede.Next put into a saucepan fill with water and salt to your taste(usually level tablespoon of salt does it for me)boil for about half an hour(or till cooked).Then drain and mash you don't need any butter of anything(unless you would like to)and serve with....well we love sausages,pork chops or especially ribs and the gravy made from the juices of the pan/flour/the water from the swedes & tatters and gravy browning,then again you could do the gravy as above but use an onion sliced and boiled and make onion gravy to put over! delish but i personally recommed the first gravy.My brother is so in love with this dish that for his wedding meal he is addament he is having swedes n tatters and pork ribs!(strange family i come from)

oh god iv'e just had another flashback!talking of cheese n onion sarnies when i was little my mom and dad used to take us to a working mens club,you know the sort cheap beer,kids welcome,annual trip to blackpool on the train,bingo every night and those rooms like the blue room that kids were never aloud in!anyway,my lasting memory on a friday night up the club would be when the bingo reached the halfway point and there was always this mad rush for the bar and the rustling of foil and cling film when everybody reached for their cheese n onion crusty cobs and there was a rush of that onion and beer smell!god those cobs tasted great!more so when your dad would make you a shandy with his pint and a bootle of cresta lemonade!arhhhhh them was the days!

oh god iv'e just had another flashback!talking of cheese n onion sarnies when i was little my mom and dad used to take us to a working mens club,you know the sort cheap beer,kids welcome,annual trip to blackpool on the train,bingo every night and those rooms like the blue room that kids were never aloud in!anyway,my lasting memory on a friday night up the club would be when the bingo reached the halfway point and there was always this mad rush for the bar and the rustling of foil and cling film when everybody reached for their cheese n onion crusty cobs and there was a rush of that onion and beer smell!god those cobs tasted great!more so when your dad would make you a shandy with his pint and a bottle of cresta lemonade!arhhhhh them was the days!

hi peeps,
our family love turnip (swede) and carrot mash-exactly like you said little eddie but use carrots instead of potatoes, we finish it off with butter and fresh fround black pepper.... lovely!!

Also try tossing onions and peppers in olive oil and baking in a hot oven til singed-lovely with sausages..