WHAT, NO POTATOES?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 171, 2 October 1942, Page 11

WHAT, NO POTATOES?

a dinner may be sadly incomplete without potatoes, we still have such an abundance of good food available in New Zealand that we need not be very gloomy because of the temporary shortage. The gap in the meal caused by the absence of potatoes may be filled up in the following ways; and you will be doing a service to others if you send in to me for publication on this page any little "brain-waves" you yourself have had in this connection, to thousands of people Sussex by the Sea An old custom in Sussex was to serve a plain boiled suet pudding with the roast joint. The idea was to make the meat go further, but it certainly does make up for the absence of potatoes, too. The carver had the pudding on a dish beside him, and slices were cut off and laid beside the serving of meat. Then the good rich gravy was poured over it. Children were often given no meat, only the pudding covered with gravy — the real "dish gravy" being specially reserved for the oldest or most delicate member of the family. Here is a good recipe for the pudding: 14% cups fine wholemeal; 4% cup white flour or breadcrumbs; 1 cup of finely shredded suet; a good pinch of salt; and a good teaspoonful of baking powder. Mix to a paste with water. It should be just dry enough to leave the mixing bowl clean. Boil in a basin or cloth for 2 hours at least. Real Yorkshire Pudding While the plain suet pudding can be served with all roast joints, the Yorkshire pudding is for some reason served only with roast beef. Here is the traditional method of making it, obtained from a Yorkshire farmhouse by Mrs. Webb, who was commissioned, by the BBC to tour the counties of England in search of characteristic dishes. Put 1 cupful of flour with a pinch of salt into a basin. Make a hole in the middle, and pour in a little milk. Break in 2 eggs and beat to a smooth batter; then add 2 tablespoons of cold water. Beat again for a minute or two. Grease very well a meat tin, or better still, some saucers or tiny dishes; make these very hot. Pour in the batter and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The hotter the little dishes and dripping to receive the batter, the lighter the pudding will be. Cornish Stew (Traditional) This is prepared for by first serving the roast of beef underdone. The outer parts will be cooked and juicy; and the inner under-done portion is used for this stew, which makes quite a good dinner served with a green vegetable and perhaps pumpkin, so that potatoes are not missed. Cut up a layer of swedes or turnips and carrots into a saucepan not too small, (The recipe says potatoes instead of carrot.) Cover with slices of beef. Sprinkle with pepper and salt. Repeat this to within two inches of the top, according to the quantity required. Pour over the gravy, which was made extra when the joint was cooked. Place

on top a nice thick piece of suet crust, freshly made, of course. Make a little hole in the middle of it. Put the lid on the sducepan and bring slowly to the boil. Then simmer gently for 1% to 2 hours. To serve, cut the pastry into

six wedge-shaped pieces, from the middle hole outwards. Arrange the pieces around the edge of a large deep dish, and put the stew into the middle. Serve very hot. Sea Pie This is very much like the Cornish Stew, but is made with fresh meat. Cut up about 2 Ibs. of steak into pieces, roughly two inches square, and brown them in the saucepan, in a little dripping. If the pieces are floured, the gravy is nicer. Pour over about a pint of stock, or vegetable-water (or even plain water) and gently simmer for about an hour. If a teaspoon of good gravy salt is added to the water, the flavour and colour

will be improved. After an hour, put sufficient sliced onions, carrots and turnips on top of the meat, and bring to the boil again. (Real Sea Pie has potatoes as well.) Then put a thick round of freshly made suet crust on top of the vegetables, fit the saucepan lid on tightly, and cook for % to % hour. Serve like the Cornish Stew, with the meat, -vegetables and gravy in the middle of a hot dish, with the suet crust arranged in wedge-shaped pieces around the edge. Norfolk Dumplings Dumplings in Norfolk are not a sweet. They are made of ordinary bread dough, and form a very substantial part of what might be the meat course; or they serve as meat substitute. In some villages they are often put into very large pots and boiled on top of "the greens"; then they are called "swimmers". About four ounces of dough usually goes to one dumpling. Each is kneaded and then rolled in a very little flour, until quite round; then slipped into a large saucepan of fast boiling water. The lid of the saucepan is quickly put on again, and 15 minutes’ rapid boiling is allowed from the time the water gets back to thé boil. Each dumpling is then dished on to a very hot plate, and surrounded with hot gravy. Four things are of im-portance-first, the dumplings must be of the same size; secondly, once in the water the lid must not be lifted till the cooking is complete; thirdly, the pan must be sufficiently large to allow of dumplings swelling to their fullest extent; fourthly, they must be dished up on to hot plates with hot gravy, and served at once.