MEAT STRETCHING

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 23 April 1927, Page 17

MEAT STRETCHING

MAKING FOOD GO FURTHER. This term —a recent American addition to our English language—is neater, more illuminative, and more compact than our “making meat go further.” Many housewives have to do it; indeed, it is good for people s 'health that ti has to be. done, hut it must not 'be confused with lecooking health that it has to be done, but in the “Sydney Mox-ning Herald’ ) recooking .should be avoided. Of course we have all practised meat-stretching in various ways. Meat puddings, pies, curries, rolls, and sausages occur ah once to all of us. Then there are ■toad-in-the-hole, fritters, and] beagnets, though in these last the stretching is of the slightest description. The following recipes introduce some novelties into our rather hackneyed choice':

Vegetable and Meat Stew. —To one cupful of any kind of uncooked meat cut in inch cubes allow one cup of potatoes cut the same size as the meat, half-cup of diced carrots, quar-ter-cup of sliced bqio'nS, one and a half cups of cold water, three' tablespoonsful of dripping, salt ' and cayenne; to taste. Brown the meat in dripping, 'add the chopped vegetables, except the onion, one and half cups of water, cook till tender. Fry the onions in dripping, and add to the .stew with tone cup of bpiling water; oook, stirring frequently, until the liquid is reduced sufficiently for the stew to be folded over like an omelet, browned on both sides. Serve on a very hot dish, garnished with parsley and 1 tippets Of toast.

Tomato Mince.—Peel and slice sufficient tomatoes to make one cupful. Sliee about -a third' of' the quantity of onions, and brown in a little olive oil. Cook the tomatoes slowly for 10 minutes, drain,' ‘ and' save the liquor. Brown one cupful of raw (of cooked) minced meat- in olive oil, add the onions, tomatoes, and one cupful of rice, previously blanched for five minutes, arid cook the whole slowly till the rice is tender, stirring frequently with a fork. When, done turn’. the mixture into a: 'serving dish, sprinkle it with grated cheese and crushed Parsley. Brown in ai quick oven. If liked, * either the meat or the cheese may be opiitted. In the latter case cover with bread crumbs 'and dot with 'butter. •

Mince in a- Nest. —Boil one and a half cups of" rice in plenty of salted ’water with an onion .stuck with three cloves. When done, remove, the onion 'and strain and dry the idee in a Colander. ’ Grease a plain, oval mould with a hollow in the centre. Cook , together half-cup of chopped turnips, half-cup .sliced onions, on© tableispoonful of chopped green peppers, and a. cup of minced meat, three cups of water, or stock of any kind. When ’done strain, off the Jiquqr, melt two tablespoons of butter with two taible•spoons of flour, all the vegetable liquor, pour over the vegetables and meat, and 1 oook slowly for 10 minutes. Turn the rice opt of the mould on to a hot dish, -and fill the centre. iyith the stew. If liked, the mould when 511 ay he dusted with finely, chopped parsley and chillies, which will add to its appearance >vhen turned out of the mould. ’ " •" "

Australian and English tastes do not appreciate macaroni as iVellras it deserves. Possibly the reason is tfaajb potatoes usually accompany Qig maca'roni and meat dishes, thus giving a superfluous amount of starch to weary the palate and overtax the digestion. Roman pudding, if accompanied' by ai 'generous supply of green vegetables, such as cabbage, spinach, or a salad* is an appetising way of serving the 'humble rabbit, or the more elegant ancient fowl. First boil the macaroni till tender, but not ‘quite done, boil the rabbit or fowl till tender, season.’ both plentifully, and cut into small joints. Grease a round mould or pudding basin, and. line very carefully with the macaroni, laid round and round till the mould looks like an inverted beehive. Fill it with the joints of chicken and rabbit packed very tightly, to keep the macaroni' in place. Coyer, with a layer of macaroni curled round and round. Tie in a floured pudding cloth, and boil for an hour and “a half, yarn opt on a hot dish, and serve a good brown sauce, or a sauce ‘ tartare.

Possibly there is no more appetising form of meat-stretching than a. good curry. The best or the humblest of meats may be used. Of the first, pork cut in F} inch slices from the leg, or loin chops is to be recommended; of the second, again rabbit, or old fowl, or tripe may be made' into a dish fit for any table. If the meat required' is small in quantity, the other'ingrediends required make curry aJ rather expensive dish, for, besides the actual! ingredients required, curry—to be curry—requires Bombay duck, diced' fresh cocoanut, and. chutney to be handed round with it, in addition to the rice with which it is Served.

With expensive or inexpensive, meat the curry sauce requires two peeled and chopped apples, two peeled andi sliced 'onions, half' at dozen' raisins, stoned find chopped., half a cupful of any .available fresh fruit, and some finely chopped chillies or herbs. These must be fried till tender in butter. A 1 taibfespoonful of curry powder must be qiixed to a smooth paste and' added! to the mixture, and 1 the whole boiled up. The meat after being rolled in browned, seasoned flour must be added to the sauce, when it lias cooled)' to the same .temperature as the meat. It should be left to soak several hours, tlie fat when it rises to" the .surface being skimmed off. It should simmer very, very ’.slowly for at least three hours before serving, and should be sent to table in a' wall of well-cooked rice/ additional rice being available in a. vegetable dish, the above-mentioned! additions being handed pound. In all cases it; must he home in mind that curry is a slow-cooked dishj and if cold' cooked meat is used it is’ simply not a curry; nor is that pale yellovr concoction we frequently encounter, made' apparently of flopr, curry . ponder and mutton chops, a; curry either. Bones of any kind are no part tof curry. 1 -

Lastly, we must not forget that best-known' and popular of . meatstretchers, Irish istew. "'ln this also we do not a,s aJ rule get the real thing. The essential points of Irish ffcew is that It consists only of mutton chops, onions, potatoes, salt and pepper. That it should'be cookedi in a! covered earthenware ’ vessel—in fact, a! casserole —.whose cover must neyey be lifted from’ the time it is put on the fire till it is lifted at the table;’ The dish we generally meet of st§w cooked in a saucepan and served on another dish may be' « mutton,' oriiopT'apd potato ’ stew, but it is not *afn...lrish! stew.