Beef olives: a 70s excuse to use a blender and a freezer

This could also be known as 'beef olive surprise', as there are no olives involved at all. It must have been a popular dish though, as it's in both The Penguin Freezer cookbook (1973) and The Mixer and Blender cookbook (1972). No freezers or blenders needed either - I'm going to have a word with trade descriptions from the 70s...

Ingredients:

Serves 3 (a bit random but my sister was staying...)

3 slices of braising steak

1 onion

2-3 slices white bread or equivalent in breadcrumbs 

1 lemon

1 egg

1 small handful sage leaves

1/2 pint beef stock

2 tsp cornflour (or gravy granules)

Method:

- Bash the steaks flat with a rolling pin or meat mallet until about 1/2 cm thick

- Fry the chopped onion in a little olive oil to soften 

- Blitz the bread in a mixer/blender (!) to make breadcrumbs then add the grated lemon zest and juice, half the softened onion, the egg and the sage. Season and mix together.

- Add a tablespoon of stuffing to each flattened steak and roll up, securing with a cocktail stick

- Brown the 'beef olives' - they look nothing like olives - in the pan the onion were cooked in, adding back to rest of the onions and the stock when browned.

- Cover and simmer for 1-1.5 hours. Chill out for a bit

- Take the beef olives out of the plan and thicken the sauce with a little cornflour in water or some gravy granules (ie cheat).

- Serve the beef olives and gravy with mash or dauphinoise potatoes if feeling posh (I was) and some green veg (again, kale being the posh option)

The verdict?

Sister: yummy; would have been even better with olives in it (cheeky)

Bearded Argentinian: yummy; not sure the meat was the right texture (it was very soft - which I liked but the meat expert wasn't convinced).

And if you're wondering where the freezer came into it, the freezer cookbook says you can use frozen beef, but defrost it first (genius)... There are a lot of tenuous links in that book.