TASTY HOT DINNERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 788, 27 August 1954, Page 32

TASTY HOT DINNERS

ERE are some suggestions for inexpensive and tasty hot dinners. They have all been sent in by practical housewives, and will be found useful. Some of them will use "left-overs"; some use liver, which is very good if not cooked too long. Liver should be cooked quickly and be soft and juicy. Ham and Rabbit Pie Roll out pastry thinly and line deep pie plate. Fill with sliced ham, and cold cooked rabbit. Pour over 3-4 beaten eggs, with a teaspoon of made mustard added. Put thin lid of pastry on top and make 2 small slits in centre. Bake. A little milk may be added to beaten eggs. Lancashire Dish Two pounds rump steak, 2 lb. apples, 2-3 onions, pepper and salt. Cut steak in small pieces, peel apples and onions. Arrange steak, apples and onions in layers in casserole. Season each layer. Do not add water. Cook about 3 hours very slowly in oven-put lid on dish, and do not disturb. Kidney Flan For 5 people allow %2 Ib. short pastry, 6 sheeps’ kidneys, 3 eggs, 1 oz. butter, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Line pie plate ;with short pastry, and bake attractive brown. Skin and halve kidneys, roll in flour, pepper and salt. Stew slowly with small amount of water till tender. Flavour well. Melt 1 oz. butter in frying-pan, break in eggs and scramble them. Fill pastry case with stewed kidneys, cover with scrambled eges. A few fried tomatoes may be placed on top. Serve very hot. Quick-cooked Liver Rub seasoned flour into slices of liver. Heat butter in saucepan, and when very hot, put in liver slices. Turn with wooden spoon. Cook quickly till brown all over. Should not take more than about 5 minutes. Should be soft and tender right through, Steak and Kidney Pudding One and a half pounds steak, 3-4 kidneys (sheeps’), 1 teaspoon baking powder, salt and pepper, 4% Ib. suet, %4 lb. flour, 4% 1b. fine breadcrumbs, 1 small onion. Make a suet paste of the flour, breadcrumbs, baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix with about 1 cup of water and rolk out. Grease a basin with dripping. Cut out a cover for it from paste. Line the basin with paste. Have the steak and kidney trimmed and cut into small pieces, and dredged with a mixture of flour, salt and pepper (1 tablespoon flour, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper). Cut the onion fine. Fill the basin with meat and onions, pour in %4 cup cold water, Put on the paste cover, wetting the edges and pinching them together. Tie a floured cloth over, tying the ends to lift it with. Plunge into a pot of boiling water, and boil from 242 to 3 hours. Keep the pot lid on. Have a hot dish ready, turn the pudding basin upside down on it, leave a few minutes, then draw off basin. May also be served from the basin, which in that case should have a napkin tied around it. It is a good idea to cover the pudding with a_ buttered paper under the cloth. Many people do not use a cloth at all. Macaroni Scramble Boil some macaroni till soft. Line piedish with this. Mince left-over cold mut-

ton, chicken or veal, season with pepper and salt and parsley. Almost fill dish with meat, and cover with fresh mashed

potatoes. Bake till hot through. Turn out on to dish, and serve with gravy. Stewed Ox Tail and Kidney One ox tail, 1% lb. ox kidney, 3 pints water or stock, 6 peppercorns, a pinch of mace, 1 bay leaf, a little thyme, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, about an ounce of dripping, 1 oz. flour, 1 dessertspoonful minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Cut tail into joints, remove fat. Peel onion and slice into thin rings. Put fat in saucepan, make hot and fry pieces of tail and kidney cut small; when brown lift out and add onion to fat, brown thoroughly, then drain away the fat. Return tail and kidney to saucepan, add water or stock and flavourings. Bring to the boil and simmer gently 2-3 hours or till tender. Lift tail.and kidney into basin, strain gravy over and when perfectly cold remove fat. Reheat gravy and thicken with moistened flour. Add pieces of tail and kidney and vegetable cut in strips. Simmer gently about half an hour longer. Dish on hot plate and garnish with cooked vegetables and minced parsley. Poor Man’s Goose Slice thickly a lamb or sheep fry. Make plenty of sage and onion stuffing, with 8 oz. breadcrumbs, 2 chopped parboiled onions, 2 oz. butter, about 12 sage leaves chopped finely (or 1 teaspoon dried powdered sage), a pinch of ginger, pepper and salt to taste. Mix with beaten egg, or milk if no egg. In greased casserole put a double layer of sliced parboiled potatoes, then a layer of liver slices, then of stuffing. Repeat till dish is full, finishing with potatoes. Add chopped bacon if liked. Pour over a small teacup of water or gravy, cover with greased paper, bake moderate oven about 112 hours. Serve with apple sauce. Layers of sliced apples may be included in the dish, instead of making apple sauce.