Day Six

Experimental Breakfast

Mock Fried Egg.

I reconstituted some dried egg, cut a hole out of two slices of wholemeal bread, and fried one side in beef dripping. When I turned the bread over, I poured the egg mixture into the hole. All in all, it was rather nice, although not a healthy breakfast by modern standards.

It's funny what you find out. Chatting with neighbours today, the Mock Fried Egg breakfast came up in conversation. We live somewhere pretty rural, and it turns out our neighbour, during the war, was involved in black market eggs. An area near to here was just filled with chicken sheds. Throughout the whole war he never had dried egg. It wasn't until after the war, staying at a hotel in the south of the country, at breakfast he was presented with something he didn't recognise, and had to ask what it was.... dried egg.

Lunch

We had a sandwich when out shopping today. This is the first food we have bought “out” all week. I had a corned beef and onion sandwich, Mark had tuna and onion.

Dinner

Baked Rabbit with carrot and coriander mash, steamed potatoes & onion gravy.

Rabbit was stuffed with a standard sage and onion stuffing, placed on a rack in a baking pan, with its legs folded under the body. The rabbit was then rubbed all over with a Rabbit Seasoning I get when I’m over in Malta. In Malta rabbit is eaten as regularly as chicken is here in Britain… it’s the staple meat really. [Note: if you think WE had it rough during WW2, look up Malta sometime!]

I put a cupful of water in the bottom of the baking pan, because rabbit is quite dry. I then covered the pan with foil, and cooked at about 190/400/mk 5 for an hour. (I removed the foil and cooked the rabbit uncovered for a further 20 minutes)

Meanwhile, I used my steamer and steamed some potatoes (skin on) and carrots. I also gently cooked 2 small onions in a little beef dripping. When the veg was steamed, I mashed the carrots in 2 tablespoons of the vegetable water from the steamer. Vegetable water was never wasted during WW2, as it if full of nutrients (great for gravy or making stock). Adding a tiny knob of butter and a handful of chopped coriander to the carrots finished them off.

I then added the remaining vegetable water to the onions, and with a little Bisto made an onion gravy.

Yum was the verdict.

We weren’t done though. The rabbit carcass was put in a large saucepan of water with the rest of the chopped coriander and some black pepper. That should make a nice stock I can use tomorrow for my chicken and bean casserole. I’ll soak dried split peas (yellow and green) and a handful of dried butter beans tonight to add to the stock and chicken.