CROQUETTES, RISSOLES, CABBAGE AND GRAVY

Lockdown has made me nostalgic. Being furloughed has given me lots of time to look back.

Food's an important memory and always has been. In the Sixties it was iconic and now forms an essential part of the substrate of my memories of childhood.

But some foods have gone and its only when you stop and think you realise they've gone.

In some cases entire meals have vanished and although there are many lost dishes I want to talk about one in particular.

Potato croquettes, rissoles, cabbage and gravy.

This was one of those classic meals served by my Mum when I was a kid in the late Sixties and early Seventies and I think I can confidently say I haven't had it since nor have I seen it on any restaurant or cafe menu!

Potato croquettes were simply delicious and reminded me of a fish finger with mash inside instead of cod! Shaped like a small toilet roll tube they were basically a solid pipe of mashed potato which was coated in golden bread-crumbs. I think Mum's croquettes - bought frozen I might add - were deep-fried, although they may have been baked or grilled. I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that the combination of the crispy outer shell and the soft fluffy centre was simply delicious.

The second co-stars of the meal were the rissoles. Now rissoles were a sort of burger-like patty combining meat, usually beef mince in our house and maybe some herbs, bread-crumbs and seasoning. The whole concoction was pan-fried like a beef burger but rissoles were smaller and fatter. More that anything they remind me of the meat frikadellen I grew to love when I lived in Europe and now enjoy regularly at home when we make them. We don't make rissoles though as I had completely forgotten about them and have no idea how they were made. My Mum may have even bought them frozen in a packet by someone like Ross or Fray Bentos. Like the wetter faggots [by Brains!] they remain a food mystery to me.

As with all meat and two veg dishes you needed a second vegetable on the plate. I enjoyed all veg as a kid - carrots, peas - both garden and marrowfat, broad beans, runner beans, swedes, sprouts and yes, cabbage. Alas, Sixties cabbage was always pale green and boiled within in inch of its life, usually in a huge pressure cooker worthy of nuclear reactor status. nevertheless, this anemic wet plant had a pleasant taste and seemed to go perfectly with rissoles and croquettes, especially when blathered with gravy.

The gravy, the icing on the plate, was always made with powder inkeeping with the spirit of the space-age-convenience-food late Sixties. The brands were Bisto and well, Bisto! I can't recall any other gravy make at all other than Bisto in the UK and I struggle to think of anything different now. My recollection of the gravy poured over my rissoles was either too thin or sometime lumpy but overall it added that final fluid touch to this classic threesome, which I adored and sorely miss.

Have you a lost meal you fondly remember?