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sessifetI came home from work after finishing a late shift and nipping past the supermarket on the way, so I only started cooking at around 22:00. I decided to go for the bolognses because while it would take more time then, it would mean lunch today and dinner tonight, rather than having to make fresh dinner from scratch two evenings in a row.
Unless I'm actually cooking from a recipe, I tend to eyeball things and do what feels like whatever it is I'm cooking wants to have/be/taste like.
I used:
* olive oil
* 4 garlic cloves, crushed
* shallots equivalent to one large onion, finely chopped (I had no onions, but Abel and Cole delivered a whole bunch of these last week. Very nice, but absolute bastards to cut.)
* about 500g lean beef mince
* 2 carrots, half grated, half finely chopped
* some tomato puree
* 2 packets of Sainsbury's chopped tomatoes
* One whole green bird's eye chilli.
* Salt to taste
Combined the shallots, garlic and carrots in a frying pan with olive oil and left to soften, occasionally stirring. While that was cooking, I tidied the kitchen some and prepared the mince (pretty much seperating it to avoid the dreaded 'cooked lump of meat' result). Quickly fried the mince in a few stages (didn't want to end up with grey and tasteless meat because of being impatient and all) and added to the shallots, carrot and garlic. Turned the heat up to make sure the meat was cooked through before adding the tomatoes. Added some tomato puree and brought it to a simmer before adding salt to taste and popping in the chilli. And then I had to wait for at least 45 minutes before there could be food.
I didn't add any wine or stock to this and I don't ever tend to. If the mince is off sufficient quality, I find there's no need for beef stock and the downside of using stock is the risk of ending up with something that looks colourful and interesting, but tastes uniformly the same.
After 45 minutes or so had passed, I took the chilli out of the sauce and made the spaghetti. Did my traditional 'trying it too soon'. There's 'al dente' and 'ooh, crunchy'. Fortunately I learnt years ago that you pick out a single strand rather than drain the entire pan to test if it is done.
Put spaghetti in bowl, add sauce, add copious amounts of cheese and eat.
Verdict: I was very impressed with this. The shallots made the entire thing a lot sweeter than regular onion and the Sainsbury's chopped tomatoes are of sufficient quality that in hindsight I needn't have used the tomato puree and I will leave it out in future when using those. The chilli added just the right amount of heat and flavour without overpowering the dish. I tried that because using fresh ground black pepper seems to make my recipe taste somewhat bitter and hey, I had an entire bag of the little blighters.
There's enough left-over to take to work for lunch, and tonight I will make mash and there will be cottage pie for dinner. With chicory salad on the side.
So...Day 1 was a success. It felt like someone had cooked for me and I ate accordingly. And I got to listen to bouncy music all the way through. All in all not a bad start to this month.
Unless I'm actually cooking from a recipe, I tend to eyeball things and do what feels like whatever it is I'm cooking wants to have/be/taste like.
I used:
* olive oil
* 4 garlic cloves, crushed
* shallots equivalent to one large onion, finely chopped (I had no onions, but Abel and Cole delivered a whole bunch of these last week. Very nice, but absolute bastards to cut.)
* about 500g lean beef mince
* 2 carrots, half grated, half finely chopped
* some tomato puree
* 2 packets of Sainsbury's chopped tomatoes
* One whole green bird's eye chilli.
* Salt to taste
Combined the shallots, garlic and carrots in a frying pan with olive oil and left to soften, occasionally stirring. While that was cooking, I tidied the kitchen some and prepared the mince (pretty much seperating it to avoid the dreaded 'cooked lump of meat' result). Quickly fried the mince in a few stages (didn't want to end up with grey and tasteless meat because of being impatient and all) and added to the shallots, carrot and garlic. Turned the heat up to make sure the meat was cooked through before adding the tomatoes. Added some tomato puree and brought it to a simmer before adding salt to taste and popping in the chilli. And then I had to wait for at least 45 minutes before there could be food.
I didn't add any wine or stock to this and I don't ever tend to. If the mince is off sufficient quality, I find there's no need for beef stock and the downside of using stock is the risk of ending up with something that looks colourful and interesting, but tastes uniformly the same.
After 45 minutes or so had passed, I took the chilli out of the sauce and made the spaghetti. Did my traditional 'trying it too soon'. There's 'al dente' and 'ooh, crunchy'. Fortunately I learnt years ago that you pick out a single strand rather than drain the entire pan to test if it is done.
Put spaghetti in bowl, add sauce, add copious amounts of cheese and eat.
Verdict: I was very impressed with this. The shallots made the entire thing a lot sweeter than regular onion and the Sainsbury's chopped tomatoes are of sufficient quality that in hindsight I needn't have used the tomato puree and I will leave it out in future when using those. The chilli added just the right amount of heat and flavour without overpowering the dish. I tried that because using fresh ground black pepper seems to make my recipe taste somewhat bitter and hey, I had an entire bag of the little blighters.
There's enough left-over to take to work for lunch, and tonight I will make mash and there will be cottage pie for dinner. With chicory salad on the side.
So...Day 1 was a success. It felt like someone had cooked for me and I ate accordingly. And I got to listen to bouncy music all the way through. All in all not a bad start to this month.
