SWISS STEAK

I’ve been making this recipe for years. It comes from a booklet put out by the Australian Meat Board in the 70s. The Meat Board printed several of these booklets, which were full of great meat recipes. I don’t think they do them these days, although you can find individual recipes on the counter at the butchers sometimes. This recipe uses round or rump steak. The long cooking time tenderizes it and the result is a very tasty piece of steak with a great sauce.

BROCCOLI & BLUE CHEESE SOUP

This won’t be everyone’s favourite soup, but for those who like broccoli and blue cheese it’s a winner. It’s easy to make, looks and tastes good and is a great dinner party starter. Best to check if they like broccoli and blue cheese before you serve it up though!!!

HERBED SURPRISE EGGS

I haven’t tried these out yet myself, but it’s certainly a different way to cook eggs and rice. It suggests serving them as an entrée or light luncheon, but I think they’d also be an excellent fancy breakfast dish as well – maybe a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day treat.

RICE BUBBLE AND SQUEAK – Gluten Free

Traditional Bubble and Squeak in our household has always been leftover mashed potatoes and vegetables fried up with an egg. This rice version is a little fancier. Although it says to bake the potatoes, kumara and carrots in the oven, I think I’d speed the process up a bit and just microwave them. You might lose a little flavour, but not enough to make much difference and it would be just that bit easier.

ITALIAN MEAT LOAVES

I recently made some gluten free mini meat loaves to take to the track for the Melbourne F1 GP. They had rice and curry in them and tasted quite good, but were a little dry. I wish I’d found this recipe though, as I think they’ll have a lot more flavour and can easily be GF if I use GF cereal. Maybe next year………

RUM ‘N’ RAISIN MOUSSE – Gluten Free

I often make chocolate mousse using Toblerone chocolate, so I really like the idea of using a block of rum and raisin chocolate to make this recipe. Unlike the Toblerone version this one has a little melted butter in it, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same and as long as you check the chocolate, it’s gluten free.

LENTIL COTTAGE PIE – Gluten Free

I always think of lentils as being a fairly recent dietary inclusion, but this recipe was printed in the Herald Sun back in the 1970s, so I’ve obviously gotten that totally wrong. Possibly the big difference these days is that you can by them in tins and don’t have to go through the extra process of cooking them – much quicker and easier altogether.

RICE CRUST VEGETARIAN PIE – Gluten Free adaptable

If you substitute GF plain flour for ordinary plain flour in this recipe you have a pie that works equally well for Vegetarians and Gluten Free eaters. Finding a good pie base that is GF can be a bit of a challenge and while this has a vegetable filling there’s no reason why some bacon or chicken couldn’t be added. The rice crust makes a good alternative to a flour based crust.