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Happy Friday everyone. Today I’ve got yet another war-time inspired recipe and London outing to present to you strangers on the Internet.

Tuesday this week brought us an unexpected warm and sunny day. I always knew that September would be better weather-wise than August – I have many memories of going out celebrating my birthday on the 29th and suffering the dreary weather (and subsequent colds) yet, as we get closer to autumn, we enjoy a wave of Indian summer.

Not that I’m complaining. It meant that I got to take advantage of the welcome change in weather and stroll round the ancient Tower of London, taking the following pictures.

What you see here is a developing art installation called ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’, which sees the Tower moat gradually filling with 888,246 of these beautiful ceramic poppies. Each represents a British life lost at war. What’s great about this commemorative piece is that anyone can get involved in its making, either through donating a poppy for £25 each (proceeds are split equally between six charities) or by volunteering to ‘plant’ them. More info here.

The public can also get involved by nominating a member of the Commonwealth forces killed at war to have their name read out at the Tower. It’s a touching tribute taking place every sunset until Remembrance Day (11th November).

And with that, I went home to make a meal.

Bella’s Rissoles

You may be wondering what a ‘rissole’ is. I too had no idea what it was when I stumbled across it many times in various war-time cook books, which made me wonder if this is in fact a lost British dish.

This was a popular meal during the war because it was a way of using up leftover meat. Any leftovers would be passed through a mincer and mixed with herbs and plenty of seasoning for taste, an egg to bind, and then rolled in flour and fried or baked.

INGREDIENTS

600g mince beef
1 onion diced
A handful of parsley
A clove of garlic
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg
1 egg
Enough flour to roll into meatballs

I got this recipe from a different cook book this time, called ‘The Belgian Cook Book’ by Mrs Brian Luck. I originally found it on the British Library’s online archive dedicated to the centenary (link here) but it seems that the link is now broken. You can still find it anywhere online though with a simple Google search.

This book consists of recipes from Belgian refugees in the UK. The opening preface to the book is hilariously sexist but what else could you expect from a book written as far back as 1915?

STEPS

1. Add the diced onion, chopped parsley, garlic and other seasonings to the bowl of mince with the egg.

2. Mix mix mix

3. Fry on a medium heat for 15 minutes each side.

4. Just to be sure that they were cooked all the way inside, I finished off in the oven for another 10 minutes.

I served this with creamy mash and spinach. As well as being cheap and easy to make, this is delicious, filling and healthy.