You don’t have to worry about bones

I mentioned a rather horrid wartime recipe for kipper pudding the other day. Tastes change, food has fashions even when rations are meagre. I thought about kipper kedgeree which does sound nice but I am yet to buy any kippers! In a book published some twenty years later I found another kipper recipe. It’s from Zena Skinner’s recipe book from the TV series she had. She was one of the first modern TV cooks; she was slightly awkward but at the time her recipes were interesting, practical, and above all economical. Cooking in the 60’s was obviously very different from cooking in the 40’s during and just after the war, and the 50’s where rationing continued until 1954 and the economy was still recovering from the global conflict, but 50’s cookery would still have had that underlying sense of not wasting while being more imaginative, having greater access to different foods and having TV!

This kipper recipe from Zena is cheap, easy, and uses left over mashed potato and ordinary store cupboard ingredients to go with the packet of fillets.

Creamed kipper fillets

(With this recipe you don’t have to worry about bones, as the kippers are already filleted!)

• 8 oz packet of kipper fillets
• small quantity of creamed mashed potato
• 2 oz butter or margarine
• 2 oz plain flour
• ½ pint milk
• ½ level teaspoonful of made mustard
• juice of ½ a lemon

1. fry or grill the fillets, skin side down for approx 5 mins, then flake and mash with a fork
2. melt the butter in a pan, add the flour, and cook for about 2 mins stirring all the time
3. remove from the heat, add the mustard and mix well
4. gradually add the milk to form a smooth sauce
5. return to the pan and cook stirring all the time until it boils
6. add the fillets, lemon juice and when blended pour into a hot serving dish
7. pipe potato round the edge and brown under the grill or in the oven for a few minutes
8. serve really hot

Really it’s just a white sauce with mustard and flaked fish! However, it would make more of a small amount f ingredients – the idea of making something go further!