Hot Dinners for the Family

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 885, 20 July 1956, Page 22

Hot Dinners for the Family

all to have a good breakfast. A large proportion of our families do not get another really satisfying meal until the day’s work is done, and they gather round the table for the evening meal, So let us think up some tasty, hot, winter dinners, plentiful in quantity and reasonable in price, nourishing in quality, and not involving too much time in preparation, for most of our housewives have busy lives. Often the cutting up of meat can be done at some convenient time early in the day; but one must be prepared to give time and thought to the preparation of a good meal. Bobotie This should be made with fresh meat, ‘but left-over cooked meat ‘may also be used. Two pounds fresh mutton, 1 large slice white bread, 1 cup milk, 2 finelychopped onions, 2 eggs, juice of 1 lemon and 2 tablespoons vinegar, 8 chopped almonds (omit the almonds if the family does not like the flavour), 4 drops almond essence, 1 tablespoon curry, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tablespoons butter or fat, a few bay leaves or lemon leaves, pepper and salt. Mince the meat, soak bread in milk and squeeze, Fry onions \ FEW weeks ago I advised you

in butter till golden brown. Mix all ingredients except 1 egg, Beat this egg, add the cup of milk. Put mixture into a piedish, pour over beaten egg and milk. Stick the leaves into top of meat. Bake till custard is set and meat well done.

Serve with rice. If curry powder is not strong, use more, as the dish must have strong curry flavour, Toad in the Hole One and a half pounds rump steak, 1 sheep’s kidney, 1 large or 2 small onions, pepper and salt to taste. Cut steak and kidney into convenient pieces, roll well in flour, put into deep piedish with sliced onions, and pepper and salt. Cover with water. Place a lid over and simmer gently in oven till about half done. Take out some of the gravy for serving, and cover with the following batter: 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 pint of milk, pinch of salt. Place in a tolerably brisk oven till cooked. Faggots This is a good old Hampshire dish, made with liver and bacon. It is a bit

messy to mince up the liver, but is a good meal. Half a pound raw liver, 2 medium onions, 2 rashers of bacon, 2 or 3 slices of bread, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons flour, milk, seasoning, herbs if liked. Beat eggs and make into batter with flour and milk, add seasoning and herbs. Mince liver, onion and bacon, catching juice; soak bread in the milk. Mix all, blend with batter. Put into greased tins with covers, or in piedish. Cook in oven in pan of water. Serve hot or cold in slices or may be eaten cold in lunches next day, Cheddar Pork Pie This is a Somerset recipe: 14% to 2 lb. lean pork, cut in squares. Roll in seasoned wholemeal, Grease casserole, put in meat, sprinkle with a little sage; put in a layer of sliced apples, a layer of sliced potatoes, and a small layer of sliced onions. Repeat and finish with potatoes. Pour over 1 cup of stock, 1 tablespoon sugar and dots of dripping. Cover with lid, cook in oven about 2 hours. Steak and Kidney Pie Take 1% Ib. of steak, 3 or 4 sheep’s kidneys and an onion if liked. Cut up the steak and skinned kidneys into neat pieces, and dredge with a little flour to which has been added a little salt and pepper, Cut up the onion finely. Braise the meat and onion in a little dripping in a shallow pan, then coyer with hot water and cook with lid on, till the meat is tender. Remove meat to piedish, make sufficient gravy in the pan, thickening a little and add. When cool, cover with

plain or puff pastry, and prick to let out steam. Bake in good oven to cook the pastry. A few mushrooms may be added if liked. Kidney Flan For 5 people, allow 1% Ib. short pastry, 6 sheeps’ kidneys, 3 eggs, 1 oz. butter, chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

Line pie plate with short crust, and bake a nice brown. Skin and halve the 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. Stewed Ox Tail and Kidney This is best made the day before and left to get properly cold so that all the fat sets and can be lifted off. Then just

Devonshire Pie OIL 2 Ib. neck of mutton in a little water fill tender. In another saucepan boil about 8 leeks, with salt. Strain these when cooked. Place meat in a piedish, cover with leeks and some slices of ham or bacon. Skim fat off gravy, and add gravy to dish. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover with pastry. When pie is nicely browned cut out a square in centre of crust and pour in batter-2 eggs well beaten, add about a cup of creamy milk, salt and pepper. Let stand in bottom of oven till batter sets, OP PLL

reheat. One ox tail, 14 Ib. 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 the saucepan, add water or stock and flavourings. Bring to the boil and simmer gently 2 or 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 vegetables cut in strips. Simmer gently about half an hour longer. Dish on hot dish and garnish with cooked vegetables and minced parsley. Veal and Ham Pie One pound fillet of veal, 4% lb. ham or bacon, 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1 teacup good stock (boil veal bones to make this), 1 teaspoon chopped parsley, lemon rind, pepper and salt, pinch herbs if liked, pinch nutmeg. Cut veal into pieces, season. Put in dish layers of veal, then bacon till half full. Put in sliced eggs, and pour on stock. Fill up with veal and bacon, sprinkle chopped parsley. Put on crust, make hole for steam. Bake in hot oven till brown, then reduce heat till meat is cooked, about 2 hours. Quicker to cook the meat first and cool. Irish Stew Two pounds thutton, 1 pint water, 114 Ib. potatoes, 2 or 3 onions, 1 teaspoonful pepper, 2 teaspoonfuls salt. Trim fat off meat, and put into a saucepan with water and seasoning, Bring to boil, and skim well. Then put in the onion sliced thickly, and the potatoes whole, or -halved, if large. Carrots may be added. Simmer gently about 2 hours. Neck of mutton or leg chops are good. Bologna Pudding Line basin with suet crust, Fill centre with mixture of equal parts of bacon, pork, beef and veal, all minced and seasoned with pepper, salt and sage. Moisten with a little stock or water. Put crust top on. Cover and steam 2 to 3 hours. Serve with onion sauce to which chopped parsley has been added just before serving.