This recipe comes from an Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Pies without Pastry’ liftout dated August 1994. I love the first paragraph explaining what couscous is and where you can buy it. It was obviously a very new ingredient back then, quite a contrast to how easy it is to find in every supermarket now.
This could be a good one for the vegetarians. If you cheated and used store bought pastry instead of making your own, this would be a really quick and easy pie to make.
There was a time when racks of lamb were a lot cheaper than they are now, so using them in a casserole was probably OK, but with the price they are now I think I’d make this recipe with a cheaper lamb cut – chump chops would work just as well.
You can tell this an 80s recipe by the lovely wooden bowl and spoon in the picture. Not convinced that the spoon would be much good for getting the casserole out of the bowl though. Think a more modern metal one would do a far better job.
This casserole base makes two portions and is a great way to pre-prepare a couple of nights dinners. You can make the base, divide in half and then freeze it. It’s easy enough then to defrost it and add the extra ingredients on the night you want to use it.
Vegetarian recipes weren’t something Mum would have been looking for on the pages of the Herald Sun. Growing up I can’t remember anyone among our family or friends who didn’t eat meat, so cooking vegetable only dishes just wasn’t necessary. This recipe is on a page Mum kept from the paper that had pork, lamb, sausage and fish casseroles on it, so the recipes were around, they just weren’t something Mum made.
Seafood at Christmas and Easter has always been expensive not that it’s something Mum would have bought then or any other time. Dad was a very enthusiastic fisherman so we mainly had fish that he’s caught or tinned fish. Tuna Mornay was a family favourite, completely out of fashion these days of course, but still a tasty meal – if you like tinned tuna or salmon that is.
Everyone has a quick pasta recipe these days and at first glance this one doesn’t seem all that unusual, but back when Mum cut this one out it was a fairly new idea for her. At that time the only pasta dish she made spaghetti bolognese.
I don’t imagine that Mum ever made these as the spicy red curry paste wasn’t something she or Dad would have liked, but for those who don’t feel that way this recipe sounds like a great way to jazz up the humble rissole.
This starts off as a classic Scotch Egg recipe – hard boiled eggs, covered in sausage mince, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. That’s the way I’ve always made them mostly to take on picnics. The twist here is that you put them in a tomato sauce and bake them. Certainly different – maybe worth a try!
