HOME COOKING

Press, Volume C, Issue 29599, 23 August 1961, Page 3

HOME COOKING

RECIPES ' and IT CHE NCRAFT

Ringing In Changes With Mutton

An appeal has come from a farmer’s wife for recipes for giving wether mutton a lift “Mutton, the main diet of most country folk, keeps the brain ticking for a change,” she says. The main thing is to choose widely different accompaniments, methods of serving and flavouring agents. Then, the fact that all the dishes are made with mutton is hardly detectable.

Make a spring stew, with plenty of ehopped mint and ehive* and nothing else in the way of vegetables; make pasties or little matton pies; combine mutton with prunes or apricots for a chutney-flavoured dish; use ginger or cinnamon and bay leaf for a change of taste. Bobotie Or you can thread cubes of lean and fat muittc® on to wooden skewers and marinade in a well-flavoured spiced fruit vinegar tor 24 hours, drain and grill until tender and browned. Another idea is to simmer in tomato soup and water until almost tender, stand over-night and remove fat, then team up with a whole bunch of celery chopped and sauteed until golden brown in a little butter, and whole raw potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are tender. These ere. but a few general suggestions, but possibilities of change are endless. In South Africa they use raw minced mutton to make a delicious dash called Bobotie. Ingredient*: • 2 onions 2 apples 2oz butter 21b minced mutton 2 average sized slices bread 1 tablespoon curry pow'der 2 tablespoons sweet chut- * ne y ' 1 cup raisins 2 eggs Method: Melt butter and in it saute finely chopped onions and apple for five minutes. Add curry powder, chutney and raisins. Soak bread in milk, squeeze dry and fork in, together with minced raw mutton, a little salt and pepper and about two tablespoons gravy, soup or stock to moisten. Turn into a buttered ovenware dish. Wbisk two eggs with a little salt and pepper Strain in She milk the bread was dipped into, mix and pour over the dish. Bake in a low oven for 1J hours.

Fish And Celery Cream The seasonal crop of influenza and head-cold victims is doubling the number of housewives trying to think up light and interesting ways of serving fish and other invalid dishes. Almost any fish will team up with celery to make this delicately flavoured fish pie. It may be given other toppings such as grated cheese, buttered breadcrumbs, piped ruchings of mashed potatoes, or potato straw’s if desired. This need not be merely an invalid dish. For a luncheon, add a suggestion of grated onion to the fish cream, and arrange neat rings of chopped parsley. , shrimps, chopped hard boiled egg and parsley in from the edge of the dish. Then it looks as gaily delightful as it tastes. Ingredients: IJlb fish cutlets ’j bundle celery 2oz butter 2oz flour 1 cup top milk Salt and pepper l.cup green peas Method: Place fish in an ovenware dish and cover with cream or top milk, salt and pepper and bake slowly until quite tender. Finely chop celery. Melt butter and in it saute celery until golden. Add half a cup of water, cover and simmer until tender. Mix flour with a little milk until smooth and stir in, together with milk and liquid strained from the fish. Season with salt and pepper. Remove all bones and skin from fish and flake roughly. Cook the sauce, stirring for three minutes, then pour over the fish. Bake in a moderate oven until bubbling and speckled with brown. Run cooked green peas round the edge and serve at once.

Chicken Shortcake • To make Chicken Shortcake, you do not really need a chicken. Just go and look critically into the fowl-run and any fat, tough-looking old hen, given this treatment, will turn into the tenderest roast chicken and Chicken Shortcake dinners you ever ate. The magic? Prepare the bird for the oven, then plunge it into a pan of cold water which will immerse it completely, and soak for 12 hours or longer. Drain it well, place an onion and a pinch of herbs inside and simmer with a lid on in a little water, or steam until almost tender. That might take about two hours. Reserve broth. Stuff the fowl. Lay rashers of bacon over the breast and roast in a little dripping until browned and tender, basting frequently. Save one cup full of cut-up pieces for a second chicken dinner and make this shortcake. Ingredients: 1 rounded cup flour 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder. ' 1 teaspoon celery salt i oz butter Dash salt and pepper 1 egg 2 tablespoons milk Topping: 1 small onion 3 stalks celery 3 ozs butter 3 ozs flour 1 cup chicken broth About 1| cups milk Salt and pepper 1 cup roughly-cut chicken pieces. Method: Sift flour, baking powder, seasonings, and rub in butter. Mix with one lightly-beaten egg and milk to a dough. Turn on to a floured board and pat lightly to a neat round the size of a dessert plate. Mark deeply into even segments. Place on a baking tray and bake in a hot oven until golden brown. Finely chop celery and onion and saute in butter until tender without browning. Blend in flour, then stir in chicken stock and stir until thick and smooth and boiling. Stir in milk a little at a time until the sauce is creamy and boiling. Season with salt and pepper and fold chicken through. Allow to heat through. Split the shortcake through and butter lightly. Separate the top section into its segments. Pile the chicken cream on to the lower half and arrange the segments back on to it. Decorate the centre with a sprig of parsley.

Sausage Potato Pie Ingredients: • lib sausages 1 onion 1 cup tomato puree (optional) lib cooked potatoes A little milk ( Butter Salt and pepper Parsley Method: Fry the sausages and let them cool slightly. Skin all but two (for decoration). Slice skinned sausages in half lengthwise and put in ovenware dish. Fry sliced onion. Cream potatoes with milk and a little butter and season well. Put onion and tomato puree over sausages. If you do not use puree replace it by another sliced fried onion. Cover sausages, onion and tomato with the mashed potato. Slice remaining two sausages and place round edge of dish. Place a few onion rings on top and dot with shavings of butter. Bake in a hot oven about 15 minutes to brown the potatoes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving. When tomatoes are in season use Jib of sliced tomatoes instead of ptiree.