Mum’s Recipes

Below are Five recipes of my adoptive mother — by far my most favorite Aussie dish is the first listed, being “Sausage Crunch”. So simple to do but so delicious. Imagine the crunch of toasted Weeties and good quality sausage meat & oats with tangy tomato sauce. Divine. I have left Mum’s pricing for the Ingredients in the Recipes too. This goes to show just how long ago that Mum made up these delicious dishes. Enjoy!

Savoury Sausage Crunch

Combine 3lb sausage meat (about 60c) with one big egg and one big cup porridge oats. Spread it evenly in a big roasting tin and cover with tomato sauce or puree. Sprinkle with weeties and bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes. Serves 12.

Cottage Pie

Simmer 3lb beef mince ($1.20) with one or two crumbled oxo cubes and a small amount of salt until cooked (about 30 minutes). Boil 6–7lb potatoes and when soft, mash with butter and milk.

Thicken the mince with some prepared gravy mix, which also makes for more attractive colour, and add extra salt. Pour mince mixture into a big roasting pan and spread one half with two sliced fried onions (this is for the younger contingent who don’t like onions. You may spread them over the whole deal). Pile creamy potatoes over the meat mixture, mash top with a fork and put under the griller to brown. Keep hot in a medium oven “until the mob descends” was Mum’s final tip for this tasty meal which serves from 12–14.

Chicken and Rice

Cover one size 11 or two size six chickens with water and small amount of salt. Bring to the boil and simmer until the meat leaves the bone easily (about 1¼ hours). Remove the chicken from the saucepan. Put the skin on one side for the cat’s delectation and remove the meat from the bones and place in a bowl. Remove some of the stock for soup for the next day and strain the remainder (about three pints).

Put this remaining stock into another saucepan and bring to the boil, adding a packet of chicken noodle soup. Pour in one or two tins evaporated milk and thicken with about six tablespoons cornflour. Add the chicken pieces and simmer while you boil the rice which will accompany your chicken.

This serves 12–14 depending on the sizes and ages and, of course, appetites of your children.

Lamb Breasts a la Patrice

Ask your butcher to roll the lamb breasts after trimming off most of the fat. These are about 18–20 cents a pound.

Crisp on all sides in an electric fry-pan, then transfer to a roasting pan and roast in a slow to medium oven for about three hours, turning occasionally.

The breast rolls come out crisp and crunchy, but the fat has seeped out and the lamb is delicious and very filling.

Roly-Poly Pudding

Roll some pastry out thinly, spread it with golden syrup and sprinkle liberally with sultanas (or dates if preferred). Roll up and seal ends. Place roll in a big roasting pan and make another two rolls in the same manner and place side by side in the pan.

Pour about 2½–3 pints milk (dried or evaporated milk will do equally well) over the rolls and bake in a low to medium oven. Sprinkle with sugar before baking. The milk gradually becomes a creamy sauce by contact with the pastry and is sweetened by any syrup that seeps out. About 12–16 serves.