Food ‘n Drink

It’s been a while since I posted up a recipe. I realised I’ve never posted this up and after having it sunday night I figured it was a worthwhile post.

First off, let me just state one thing here. Beef Olives have nothing to do with Olives! Everyone I’ve spoken to about them assumes this. I don’t know why they’re called ‘Olives’ but they just are! This is a great recipe for Sunday dinner, especially in the winter, but to be honest is wasn’t too heavy for a slightly warm (lukewarm I’d say!) evening such as last sunday night.

You need:
1 thin slice of steak per person, ideally rump or sirloin - ask your Butcher for thin steaks for Beef Olives, they should know what you mean
Sausagemeat or 1 sausage with the skin removed per person/steak
Beef Oxo Cube dissolved in 3/4 pint of boiling water (about 450ml of water)
Gravy Powder such as Sainsburys own
Cornflower for thickening
Cocktail sticks or cooking string to hold the ‘olives’ together

Method:
Take each steak, cut off any excess fat around the edge. If it’s not very thin then give it a bash with a meat mallet. Lay the steak out flat and spread a thin layer of sausagemeat over the steak. Then roll the steak up from one end to the other, creating a small cylindrical shape. Use a couple of cocktail sticks (or some string ideal for cooking with) and use these to hold the olive in place so that it doesn’t unroll. Do this with all the olives.

Heat a frying pan, add a little oil or butter, and add each olive, one at a time, and quickly seal the olive on all sides. Then put into a pyrex dish. Once all of these have been sealed, pour the stock over the olives, cover and cook in an oven at 160 deg C for 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, make up a little paste with a couple of teaspoons of gravy powder and a teaspoon of Cornflower. Once this is dissolved, mix a little of the hot stock from the Olives dish and then pour it all back in the dish. Cover and cook for a further 30 minutes (same temperature).

Serve with mashed potato and vegetables.

Note, you can also use bread stuffing, such as what you would use with Chicken, if you wanted to. In fact that usually helps to thicken the gravy and you may not need the cornflower, however sausagemeat gives a richer taste.