No.92 Beef Olives

In the north east of Scotland beef olives are not the disappointing dry sausage meat filled beef olives that you find in the rest of the UK. Instead, they are filled with mealy puddings (recipe here). This is similar to skirlie but in my opinion much better.

The fat from the mealy puddings is needed because the beef you are using is very lean. The secret is also to ensure your meat is thinly cut, otherwise it will be rather tough. This also works really well if you wanted to make extra and freeze them ready for cooking another day.

Time: 40 minutes

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Straight forward

4x 100g of Minute steaks/Thinly cut steaks

400g of mealy puddings

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Salt & Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Lay the steaks out on a chopping board and cut the mealy pudding into 100g pieces that can be wrapped within the steak.

3. Ensure the beef is thinly cut. Aim for a maximum of 1cm thickness butterflying the beef as needed. Preferably ask your butcher to do this.

4. Wrap the meat around the pudding and pull together the meat to cover the pudding completely. Seal with butchers twine.

5. Place on a baking tray and drizzle with oil. Salt and Pepper.

6. Cook in the oven at for 30 minutes then serve with gravy.