Beef keema

This is something we have pretty regularly in our house, for a couple of reasons; it's tasty, pretty quick, and we almost always have all the ingredients in the pantry & freezer. And, the recipe came from an Australian Women's Weekly cookbook - you can always count on the AWW to give you a tasty, tried and tested recipe!

Somehow though, it tastes different every time, which is quite strange given that it is one of the few things I cook where I follow the recipe to a tee, every time, especially when you consider how often we have it. It always baffles FH Alphie and I how it can vary so much. Never the less, it is always good. We have gotten to the stage where the 'leftovers' are packed before we eat, to prevent the two of us from eating the whole lot in one go... :shifty:

FH Alphie rates it: 6/10

We also had dessert tonight!! Yay!! FH Alphie volunteered to make something (yes, even with the busted wing - I think he might be getting bored) to compensate for the average day I had at work. He whipped up Ben O'Donoghue's twice-cooked chocolate brownies (delicious. November 2009, pg 51). There is seriously nothing better than coming home to a toasty warm house that smells of brownies, aahhh....

I'm not going to post the recipe for the brownies, FH Alphie claims that he 'just followed the recipe' and didn't do anything special, so doesn't think I should blog about it. So, I'll link to it instead - the brownie recipe is here. I will add this; we cut ours into 15 squares (18 seemed too difficult) and they were waaaay to big, we ended up cutting the rest in half again.

Alphie rates it: 8/10

Beef keema with cumin and currant pulao
AWW Fresh food fast, pg 47
serves 4

• 2 tbs vegetable oil, I use rice bran oil
• 1 small onion, sliced thinly
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 tbs dried currants
• 500g beef mince
• 2 tsp hot curry powder
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tbs sweet chilli sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 green onions, sliced thinly (optional)
• 2/3 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup firmly packed fresh coriander leaves (optional)

I make the rice (pulao), in a rice cooker, because I'm lazy. Heat 1 tbs of the oil in the rice cooker, then, holding the bowl down to 'trigger' the rice cooker, cook brown onion, garlic and spices, stirring, until onion softens. Then add rice; cook, stirring, until rice is coated in spice mixture.


Stir in stock, make sure the rice cooker is on 'cook' (not 'warm') put the lid on, and get on with the keema. Remember, you have to stir the currants into the rice about halfway through.



Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan. Add mince and stir until broken up and cooked through. Add curry powder and ginger; stir until fragrant. Add sauce, the water, green onion (optional) and peas; cook, stirring, until peas are tender. bring to the boil.


Serve keema on pulao, sprinkled with coriander (optional).


You can, of course, cook the rice on the stove. If you do this, follow the instructions above, and once you have added the stock, bring it to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, 12 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in currants and stand, covered, about 5 minutes or until rice is tender.

We usually omit the spring onions and coriander leaves, unless we happen to have them at the time, as they are not items we typically have in the kitchen.

-Alphie

One pot pasta

As promised, dinner tonight was 'one pot pasta'. I got the recipe from taste.com.au, but I think it was in delicious magazine first.

It is kind of reminiscent of a Bolognaise, or at least Bolognaise the way is it generally interpreted in Australia - rich, tomato-ey and meaty. Regardless, it is the perfect thing for a winter night, especially a lazy Sunday, because although it takes a while, you don't have to do much for most of that time, it just bubbles away, making the house smell delicious. Although the recipe says it serves 4, it looks like it would easily serve a small army, or 6 at least - after FH Alphie and I have eaten, there is always a lot more than half left. And, if you are the cook and washer-upper (which is my status, currently), you only dirty one knife, chopping board, pot & spoon. And the cupboards & floor, if, like me, you have an incident with the red wine...
One pot pasta
serves 4-6, see above.

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tbs rosemary leave, finely chopped
• 500g beef mince
• 250ml red wine
• 750ml beef stock
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 500ml tomato passata
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 500g small pasta shapes (shells are best, as they 'hold' the sauce, but any small shapes will do)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
• parmesan, to serve

Heat oil in a large, heavy based saucepan (I used a cast iron Le Chasseur pot), and cook onion until soft (1-2 minutes). Add garlic & rosemary, and cook for 1 minute. Then add beef and cook for 5 minutes, or until browned.

Add the wine, stock, tomato paste, passata, sugar & bay leaf. Season, and bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add pasta and 25oml boiling water, and cook until pasta is al dente. Stir it frequently once the pasta is in because it will stick. Stir in peas and allow to heat through.

Stir through parsley, and serve with parmesan, and a glass of red wine!