Cooking is like extracting 
Using the right ratios and taking into consideration how long things take to react, you can end up with a nice nutrition yielding product, so here is the dish i am most proud of. and best of all, anyone can cook it.
Equipment:
Electric Wok (full size)------------------------------FEEDS 8-10+
Strong wooden spoon or spatula of some sort----COOKING TIME - 1HR
Serving spoon (dont forget that lovely juice)
Large saucepan (for pasta)
Kitchen knife
big chopping board
Salad bowl
Ingredients: (in order used)
4 Onions -Diced
250-500 grams of mushrooms -Sliced
(Optional)small amount of Chilli -Diced finely
6 cloves of garlic -Diced finely
1-2 Capsicum (more variety of color = better))
3 stalks of french onion -sliced (the leafy parts you keep for later)
2KG of mince
Herbs and spices of your choosing
(i like sage, cummin, paprika at the start and Basil towards the end)
4 or 5 big Celery stalks -Diced (and leafy parts of the french onion)
5-10 tomatos -Diced
1 big zuchini -Grated
2 carrots -Grated
Lots of Basil
Pasta sauce (around 1-1.5L)
hopefully i havent forgot anything
Now the trick to this recipe is lots of heat, no overcooking - so lots of stiring and love+attention
Step 1.
Cut up all the ingredients for the later part of your recipe (once you start cooking, its game on and no time for cutting). So celery, clean ALL of your ingredients in cold water and proceeed to cut the white parts off the celery, slice them in half down the centre and dice them all as a big bunch (1cmx2cm pieces roughly) and slice all the tomatos then dice them however you see fit. Throw all of this into your salad bowl
Step 2.
Dice your onions and put them into the wok (dont turn it on yet) and slice the mushrooms and put it back into the box they came in or onto a plate along with diced chillis and garlic. Finally, cut your capsicum into flat pieces which you can then slice and Dice in a big bunch, slice the french onion stalks right down to the roots. keep all your scraps for lovely compost or chook food
Step 3.
Turn the wok to max heat and stir the onions frequently until they you see the first bit of brown somewhere (using small amounts of oil when necessary). Add the garlic, Chilli and mushrooms, oh and dont forget the butter, mushrooms love butter, and plenty off it. just dont let it get soggy (turn up the heat, dont be afraid).
Step 4.
Once the mushrooms have shrunken to about half size or less, add your sliced french onion stalks and diced capsicum, fry for a minute or 2 extra then add all of your meat and turn the wok to about half heat and break it up with your wooden spatula, stiring everything into each other and not spilling everything everywhere (its messy, but fun). also add herbs and spices that smell good, anything and everything goes, and there is no such thing as too much spice
Step 5.
So, you have been stiring that like crazy, keeping the heat up and not leaving the kitchen and the meat is now mostly browned cept a few pink bits here and there. add your basil (again, dont hold out, a good handfull of dried basil, or 3 handfuls of fresh basil leaves) stir the basil in, then add your salid bowl ingredients consisting of your diced celery, tomatos and french onion leaves). cook till you see no pink meat.. it is all browned, and some more - turn the heat down a touch
Step 5A.
Pasta. boil 5-10L of water and cook as much pasta as your pot will hold, you will be needing it. adding salt and a dash of oil will stop it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Step 6.
Add the coarsely grated zuchini and carrot then add the pasta sauce ONLY when you are confident the meat is well cooked and its smelling nice, at this stage you could add a bit more fresh very finely diced chilli if you do like a nice curry at times.. turn the heat down so the pasta sauce is just bubbling lightly and simmer for 10 minutes to reduce some of that liquid. Also, red wine is a very nice addition at this stage, 1 cup or so (use it ti rinse out the pasta sauce jars)
Step 7.
Simmer, simmer, simmer. once you are happy with the liquid/meat ratio, put the lid on and turn the heat down some more. just bubbling, no ferocious cooking noises. and stir it well every 4 or 5 minutes. 20 minutes of simmering is about what i usually go with, but up to an hour at low low heat can bring out more flavors.
THIS WILL FEED at-least 8 very hungry people +seconds with no complaints of not enough, and will always please with minimal time/effort. I cooked this in about an hour and a half. from the time i opened the fridge to serving.
The pictures were taken after 4 meals had been taken. (we freeze the rest for work meals) If by the end you haven't spilt anything off the side of the wok. you didnt use enough ingredients.
Please: if you cook this, let me know how it goes.
update 12/09/2014: if you do the initial fry up, remove it, then half cooking the meat (and loading up on lots of spices) before re-adding it this can result in a less mushy end product and takes less time (can stew with the sauce longer at the end instead)
Using the right ratios and taking into consideration how long things take to react, you can end up with a nice nutrition yielding product, so here is the dish i am most proud of. and best of all, anyone can cook it.Equipment:
Electric Wok (full size)------------------------------FEEDS 8-10+
Strong wooden spoon or spatula of some sort----COOKING TIME - 1HR
Serving spoon (dont forget that lovely juice)
Large saucepan (for pasta)
Kitchen knife
big chopping board
Salad bowl
Ingredients: (in order used)
4 Onions -Diced
250-500 grams of mushrooms -Sliced
(Optional)small amount of Chilli -Diced finely
6 cloves of garlic -Diced finely
1-2 Capsicum (more variety of color = better))
3 stalks of french onion -sliced (the leafy parts you keep for later)
2KG of mince
Herbs and spices of your choosing
(i like sage, cummin, paprika at the start and Basil towards the end)
4 or 5 big Celery stalks -Diced (and leafy parts of the french onion)
5-10 tomatos -Diced
1 big zuchini -Grated
2 carrots -Grated
Lots of Basil
Pasta sauce (around 1-1.5L)
hopefully i havent forgot anything
Now the trick to this recipe is lots of heat, no overcooking - so lots of stiring and love+attention
Step 1.
Cut up all the ingredients for the later part of your recipe (once you start cooking, its game on and no time for cutting). So celery, clean ALL of your ingredients in cold water and proceeed to cut the white parts off the celery, slice them in half down the centre and dice them all as a big bunch (1cmx2cm pieces roughly) and slice all the tomatos then dice them however you see fit. Throw all of this into your salad bowl
Step 2.
Dice your onions and put them into the wok (dont turn it on yet) and slice the mushrooms and put it back into the box they came in or onto a plate along with diced chillis and garlic. Finally, cut your capsicum into flat pieces which you can then slice and Dice in a big bunch, slice the french onion stalks right down to the roots. keep all your scraps for lovely compost or chook food
Step 3.
Turn the wok to max heat and stir the onions frequently until they you see the first bit of brown somewhere (using small amounts of oil when necessary). Add the garlic, Chilli and mushrooms, oh and dont forget the butter, mushrooms love butter, and plenty off it. just dont let it get soggy (turn up the heat, dont be afraid).
Step 4.
Once the mushrooms have shrunken to about half size or less, add your sliced french onion stalks and diced capsicum, fry for a minute or 2 extra then add all of your meat and turn the wok to about half heat and break it up with your wooden spatula, stiring everything into each other and not spilling everything everywhere (its messy, but fun). also add herbs and spices that smell good, anything and everything goes, and there is no such thing as too much spice
Step 5.
So, you have been stiring that like crazy, keeping the heat up and not leaving the kitchen and the meat is now mostly browned cept a few pink bits here and there. add your basil (again, dont hold out, a good handfull of dried basil, or 3 handfuls of fresh basil leaves) stir the basil in, then add your salid bowl ingredients consisting of your diced celery, tomatos and french onion leaves). cook till you see no pink meat.. it is all browned, and some more - turn the heat down a touch
Step 5A.
Pasta. boil 5-10L of water and cook as much pasta as your pot will hold, you will be needing it. adding salt and a dash of oil will stop it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Step 6.
Add the coarsely grated zuchini and carrot then add the pasta sauce ONLY when you are confident the meat is well cooked and its smelling nice, at this stage you could add a bit more fresh very finely diced chilli if you do like a nice curry at times.. turn the heat down so the pasta sauce is just bubbling lightly and simmer for 10 minutes to reduce some of that liquid. Also, red wine is a very nice addition at this stage, 1 cup or so (use it ti rinse out the pasta sauce jars)
Step 7.
Simmer, simmer, simmer. once you are happy with the liquid/meat ratio, put the lid on and turn the heat down some more. just bubbling, no ferocious cooking noises. and stir it well every 4 or 5 minutes. 20 minutes of simmering is about what i usually go with, but up to an hour at low low heat can bring out more flavors.
THIS WILL FEED at-least 8 very hungry people +seconds with no complaints of not enough, and will always please with minimal time/effort. I cooked this in about an hour and a half. from the time i opened the fridge to serving.
The pictures were taken after 4 meals had been taken. (we freeze the rest for work meals) If by the end you haven't spilt anything off the side of the wok. you didnt use enough ingredients.
Please: if you cook this, let me know how it goes.
update 12/09/2014: if you do the initial fry up, remove it, then half cooking the meat (and loading up on lots of spices) before re-adding it this can result in a less mushy end product and takes less time (can stew with the sauce longer at the end instead)
