Spicy Beef and Tomato Tagliatelle

This minced beef recipe is similar to a Bolognese dish, but with a spicy kick and more emphasis is on the meat rather than the tomato sauce. Nonetheless it has great Italian flavours and is lovely with olives and tagliatelle sprinkled with chili oil.

Ingredients

500g minced beef
4 to 6 cloves of garlic
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 medium red chili
1 large onion
1 400g tin of plum tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Method

1. I almost always like to brown the mince first and with a pack this size I will usually do this in two batches and then place to one side.
2. Using the same pan add a little vegetable oil and on a high heat cook the chopped onion, garlic and chili for five minutes. Stir regularly.
3. Return the beef to the pan and mix in the dried vegetables and the tomato puree.
4. Cook for five minutes, again stirring often as the dish will stick due to being quite dry.
5. Now add the tin of plum tomatoes and break up the plums. I find this gives thicker consistency than pre-chopped tomatoes. 
6. Cook for a further five minutes, adding a sprinkle of salt and a good amount of freshly cracked black pepper.

Cook the Tagliatelle according to instructions and place on a plate with a drizzle of chili oil. Now spoon on the minced beef mixture and serve with a side of stuffed olives.

Check out other minced beef recipes - I do cook a lot of these, which I guess is rather lazy.

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Chicken and Almond creamy curry - A korma style curry children can enjoy

I am not sure what actually defines a dish as being a curry, but this one resembles that of what is considered a korma. However, this dish is not spicy, oily and is certainly suitable for children. My two-year-old loves it!

This serves three and takes less than 90 minutes from start to finish to reproduced.

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts (or 300g of boneless chicken)
2 large onions
5 cloves of garlic
25g of root ginger
2cm stick of cinnamon
5 green cardamon pods
15 coriander seeds (roughly)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp tumeric
100g of low fat yoghurt
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of caster sugar
25g desiccated coconut (dry fried and soaked in water)
50g ground almonds
25g flaked almonds
knob of butter
75ml of double cream (replace with single if you wish)

There are a lot of ingredients listed above - do not fear if you are missing one or two, the basis of this dish will carry it through regardless.

Method:

Firstly in a dry saucepan heat the stick of cinnamon until it starts to let off a smell. Now add the cardamon pods and coriander seeds and heat until they begin to darken in colour.
Remove the spices from the heat and using a spice grinder reduced to a fine powder. Use a sieve to check the powder is fine.
Blitz the garlic and ginger with a slash of water to form a paste
Mix together the spices, garlic/ginger paste, yoghurt and salt and marinate the chopped chicken (use bite-sized pieces).
Return to the fridge for as long as it takes to prepare the rest of the meal.
Chop the onions and using a hand blender reduce to a puree.
Heat the butter in a saucepan and then cook the pureed onion for five minutes.
Now add the marinated chicken, nutmeg and tumeric and simmer in the pan with the lid on for 20 minutes.
Add the almond powder, flaked almonds and desiccated coconut to the mix and cook for five more minutes.
Now add the double cream and cook for a further two minutes.

Serve with rice and/or peshwari naan bread

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