Lord Woolton Pie

Marguerite Patten says there were other, more luxurious variations of Lord Woolton's signature dish, but I stuck to the recipe as given; diced vegetables (I used swede, carrot, celery and leek) simmered in water with a little Marmite, thickened with oatmeal, topped with pastry and baked.

The result was cheap, filling and probably pretty healthy (since the pastry contained a minimum of fat) but bland in flavour and discouraging in appearance - the oatmeal gave the sauce a distinctly grey look. I've given it a 2 because it served its purpose at the time, but I doubt I'll ever make it again - if I do, I'll certainly be adding a little cheese or bacon.

I haven't defined it as "British cuisine" as that seems a bit unfair, given the circumstances in which it was devised ...

Woolton Pie Revisited and Improved: I decided to have another go, within the spirit of rationing. I used similar vegetables to the previous version, but substituting cabbage for swede and adding a heaped tablespoon of cooked butter beans. I included a couple of sprigs of thyme whilst cooking the veg, and flavoured the sauce with quite a lot of parsley and mustard. Topped the pie with mashed potato instead of pastry, thereby saving flour and butter - though I did put a little butter and a splash of milk in the mash, plus what would, in the most stringent rationing periods, have been most of my week's cheese ration (about 25g). Result was still economical and pretty healthy, but also tasted fine. I have upped the star rating slightly.