Steaks Are Good For Dinner—

Southland Times, Issue 23888, 5 August 1939, Page 17

Steaks Are Good For Dinner —

Ask any “man of the house” for his favourite meat course, and the chances are he will plump for steaks. They are good winter courses, too —hot and nourisning. FRENCH FRIED STEAKS Take IJlb round steak, salt and pepper. . Cut steak in pieces for serving about three inches square. Score both sides with a sharp knife and trim off all connective tissue. Fry in hot, deep oil for about four to six minutes. Drain on unglazed kitchen paper, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve at once on a hot dish with a border of French fried potatoes. FRENCH FRIED POTATOES Wash and pare small potatoes and cut lengthwise into strips about, threeeighths of an inch thick. Soak in cold water for half to one hour. Drain, wipe very dry between towels, and place just enough in the bottom of the frying basket to cover sparsely. Fry in hot, deep fat and cook for three to five minutes or until golden brown, keeping potatoes in motion. Hold basket

over pan for fat to drip, then turn out on absorbent paper to drain. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot. ALPINE STEAK Take ljlb rump steak, 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls flour, 1J cupfuls tinned tomatoes, 1 cupful hot stock or water, 1 cupful cooked peas, little bacon fat, pepper and salt to taste. Dredge a little flour over the steak and beat it in. Fry in smoking-hot bacon fat until browned, then turn into a saucepan. Add tomatoes, stock and cooked peas. Season to taste, cover and simmer until tender from two to two and a-half hours. STEAK BALLS Take lib rump steak, 1 onion, 2 small parsnips, salt and pepper, a pinch mixed dried herbs, loz dripping, loz flour, 1 dessertspoonful Worcester sauce, 1 pint water. Mince the steak and mix it with the finely-chopped onion. Season, and form the mixture into three or four flat cakes. Peel and slice the parsnips and boil them for ten minutes. Put them in a baking tin with an ounce of dripping.

Make this hot in the oven, put in the meat and return the tin to the oven. Bake for thirty minutes in a fairly hot oven, turning the meat over when half done. Dish up the meat and parsnips and keep hot. Then make a thick brown gravy in the same tin by frying the flour brown in the dripping and adding the sauce and water. Strain the gravy round the meat. MOCK FILET MIGNONNE Take Jib minced steak, 4 slices bacon, paprika to taste, 1- teaspoonful of salt, stock or milk, parsley to garnish. Mix the steak, cut from the round, with salt, pepper and paprika, then moisten with just enough stock or milk to hold the mixture together. Shape into four small, round cakes. Wrap a slice of bacon round each cake and fasten ends with tooth picks.

GRILLED POINT STEAK AND MUSHROOMS Take Jib of point end of rump, 6oz mushrooms, butter, stock, seasoning, a little flour. Wipe the steak and season it with pepper and salt. Peel the mushrooms, remove the stalks and trim them. Put both mushrooms and stalks into cold water, sprinkle them with salt, and

soak for a few minutes to clean them. Drain them and fry till tender in a little butter. Heat the griller, put the steak on the bars of the griller-tin and cook under the hot griller for about 10 minutes, keeping it turned frequently. Lift on to a hot dish and pour over it the fat from the steak. Place the mushrooms round the steak, garnish it with the stalks and serve it with gravy. To make the gravy: Dredge a little flour into the mushroom butter, brown it slowly and draw the pan aside. Boil up a little stock in the griller-tin and add it to the mushroom butter. Season, boil up, and strain the gravy. VIENNA STEAKS Take 11b lean rump steak, 1 big onion, 1 egg, l|oz breadcrumbs, 6 slices tomatoes, flour, salt and pepper, a little stock if required, dripping. Peel the onion and slice it thinly, then remove some of the outer rings, being careful to keep them whole. Put the remainder of the onion through the mincer with the steak. Add the breadcrumbs and seasoning to taste and moisten them with the yolk of egg and a spoonful of stock if required. Divide the mixture into six portions, and form them into round, flat cakes. Dredge with flour and fry them gently, turning them over when brown. Serve a slice of tomato, lightly baked in the oven, on each steak. Garnish the dish with fried onion rings and serve it with thick gravy. To prepare the onion rings: Dip them in lightly-beaten white of egg and in flour, then fry them until golden brown in dripping.