In the grips of a depression, times were tough. Recipes published in the Weekly’s first issues were designed to be budget-conscious. “When the Hens are Laying Well” was one article which focused on the fact that eggs were cheap, or even free if you had them out the back. Kiwi women in the 1930s and right through to the 1950s were good at making the most of every single food item, such as organ meats, old bones and leftovers. They were not afraid to forage for their food either. What better way to feed a hungry family when times were tough than to feed them a totally free meal?
Eighty years later, we are slowly starting to realise that the way our nanas lived in the early 1930s was not only cheaper, but better for us. They didn’t have supermarkets full of processed food – they just had the butcher, grocer and baker to shop at, not to mention that they grew a lot of their own food. I think Nana’s Pantry is a popular column in the Weekly because it gives us some fresh ideas for foods which are cheap, taste great when you cook them Nana’s way and most importantly are nutritious.
Having said that, my family has refused to eat many of the foods I’ve cooked for Nana’s Pantry, including beef heart, kidneys, liver and other organ meats – and sometimes they’ve eaten my nana food with relish, but only because I “forgot” to tell them what I took out of it (for example, fish heads).
The most popular recipe I have shared so far in Nana’s Pantry was a recipe for chokos. If you missed it, chokos are green prickly things which look a bit like a pear and grow abundantly over people’s fences and back sheds, so they are a free source of nutrition during hard times. It turns out, there are still choko fans out there and they eagerly sent me all their recipes. This was my favourite, sent in by Shirley Thomson of New Plymouth. I hope you enjoy cooking it as much as I did.
Choko pickle
6 medium-sized chokos
2 large onions
3 cups sugar
1 medium tin crushed pineapple
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp turmeric
3 tbsp mustard
Vinegar
1¼ cups flour
Peel chokos if needed, cut up very fine or mince. Add chopped onions. Sprinkle sugar over and stand a while. If liquid forms, drain off, but keep in case it is needed later.
Add pineapple, salt, turmeric and mustard with vinegar to almost cover. Boil slowly 1 hour.
Remove about 3 cups vinegar and set aside to cool. Mix the vinegar with the flour and pour slowly back into the pot while stirring to thicken the pickle, adding other liquid if needed.
Bottle while hot and seal with wax when cold.
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