I’m currently trawling through my grandmothers’ notebooks of recipes for ideas and have found a bunch that my lovely Nanny Flo had which are from rationing, I think probably after the war though.  I’m going to see which ones are most relevant and then try to penetrate her scrawl and convert them from imperial to metric!  Not sure all of them will be suitable for today’s tastes though – certainly going to give Mustard Herring Pie a miss and I’m not sure I want to know how to draw and truss a chicken.

But this Onion Toast is the first of those ration book recipes.  We’re going to be getting some bread on Monday (I know that sounds so odd but these are the times we live in).  So I haven’t tried this one yet but I do like the sound of it.  It would probably be enhanced by a splash of Worcestershire sauce too – but that’s a bit of a Marmite thing.

As requested by Pat – this is a recipe for one.

Ingredients

2 slices of bread

2 spring onions

10g butter (my Nan said or Marg but who uses that anymore? What won’t work is any of the diet stuff – they make that by whisking in water and you need the fat)

Blob of Dijon mustard (Nan used English but I think that might be a bit strong)

Enough thin slices of cheddar to cover the bread.

Method

• Put the grill on to high.
• Chop up the spring onion into thin rounds (use the green too)
• Melt the butter in a pan and fry off the onion until it starts to go a little brown.
• Whilst the onion is frying toast the bread (both sides Nigel!)
• Spread the Dijon thinly over the toast then spread the onions on top of that.
• Place the cheese slices over the top of the onions and place under the grill until it starts to melt and bubble.
• Serve – I think it would be fantastic with a tin of tomato soup.