MEAT DISHES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 June 1938, Page 4

MEAT DISHES

PIES AND STEWS. These will be found very acceptable meat dishes: — Meat Pies. These are excellent, hot or cold. Tender, steak should be used, otherwise the meat will not cook quickly enough. Sift twelve ounces of flour into a bowl with a quarter of a teaspoon of salt. Rub in three ounces each of lard and dripping, and make into a paste just stiff enough to roll out easily, with cold water. Roll out about a quarter of an inch thick, and cut into rounds to fit deep patty tins, leaving some paste for the lids. Roll out these also. The meat should be cut into very small dice or chopped roughly. Roll it in flour and season well with pepper and salt. Fill the tins with it, and moisten with water, trying not to wet the pastry. Fasten on the lids, make a hole in the centre, brush with egg or milk and bake for an hour. The oven should be hot for the first ten minutes and then the heat considerably reduced so as not to brown the pastry too much. Ox-tail Stew. Have an ox tail cut into joints. Put into a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Boil for a few minutes, skimming well, then cover the pan closely and simmer gently for two hours. Add pepper, salt, a bay leaf and half a pound each of sliced carrots, turnips and onions. Cook for another hour, or until the vegetables are tender, but not broken. Drain off the liquid, and make into thick sauce as follows: Melt half an ounce of flour to each breakfast cup of liquid. Add the strained liquid gradually stirring well. Cook slowly ifcr ten minutes, then stir in enough browning to make a rich, dark colour. Put the meat and vegetables on a hot dish and pour over the sauce. Stuffed Steak. To a pound or a pound and a-quar-ter of steak, cut about half an inch thick, use half a pound of sausage meat. Beat the steak until flat and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Cover with the sausage meat, roll up, and tie with tape. Dip it in seasoned flour, and brown all over in a little hot dripping; then put into a casserole with a roughly-chopped onion and a diced carrot. Brown a level dessertspoonful of flour in the dripping, add slowly a breakfnstcup of water or stock, and boil up. Season well and pour over the steak. Cook gently for about two hours. An Excellent Dish. This is a good dinner for a cold day. For four people, cut a pound of stewing steak into nice pieces, slice an onion and carrot thinly, and cut up a little celery into tiny pieces. Slice a nound or more of potatoes thickly. Put half the vegetables at the bottom of a casserole, then the meat, which has been browned lightly in a very little dripping. Add the rest of the vegetables and season each layer. Add some tomatoes and a little stock or water, if necessary, to cover the meat. Cover, and cook for two hours. If the gravy is not thick by then stir a little blended cornflour into the dish. Add some cooked dried peas and simmer for a further half hour. This dish should cook very slowly all the time.