Meatloaf (Well, kind of)

This is sort of a recipe for a sort of meatloaf.
It is hard to actually put a name on this because, well, there is meat in it and it is a loaf shape, but it is definitely not traditional.

That is what I normally put in there. They can be divided into 5 categories.
Meat - minced beef, occasionally I'll put in about 20% pork mince.
Veges - Always onion, almost always capsicum, often cabbage, usually carrot, sometimes mushrooms. All diced or shredded or minced or grated really REALLY fine (especially if you have vege haters in your clan)
Herbies and spices - Always garlic and some other mix of dried herbs, garlic and herb salt
Sauces and other flavourings - Kajup manis, tomato sauce/pizza sauce, BBQ sauce, Kraft parmesan cheese-like product, wostershire sauce
Binders - 1 egg and some bread crumbs (or cornflake crumbs)

You take you selection of ingredients and slop it into a large (I mean, the biggest one you have) mixing bowl, don some food handling gloves and get in there. Give it a really good mix. Squeeze it through your fingers  and make sure all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. If it looks a little sloppy, add some more bread crumbs, if it looks a little dry, a little more tomato sauce is the ticket. When it is ready, it should look like lumpy off-pinky red playdough.

Smoosh that into a loaf pan,, whack it in the oven on 180 for 60-80 mins.At about  50mins in, brush the top with a mix of half kajup manis and half woster. Yum. Take it out of the oven, drain, slice and serve with a big pile of mash potato and some gravy

YUMMMMMM!

Beef Chow Mein

This recipe is highly adaptable. You can add more or less meat, noodles or veges depending on your preferences. You can add more curry powder if you like more zing or more kajup manis if you prefer a sweeter mix. This mix can also be cooled and used as a filling for spring rolls - just wrap in wonton wrappers and bake or deep fry.


Ingredients:
Assorted vegetables sliced thinly or diced -I used cabbage, mushrooms, red capsicum, spring onions and carrots.
500g Beef mince
1 pouch of long life thin hokkien noodles
4 teaspoons curry powder
5 teaspoons hoi sin sauce
6-7 tablespoons Indonesian sweet soy (kajup manis)
Oil or oil spray



Method
1. Heat large deep fry pan. Add a small amount of oil and stir fry the veges for 5minutes.
2. Remove the vegetables from the pan
3. Add another dash of oil and brown the mince, making sure to break it up.


4. Add the curry powder and stir to toast the spices and season the meat. Cook for 1-2minutes
5. Add both sauces, the drained noodles and return the vegetable to the pan


6. Stir to ensure all ingredients are well combined and heated through.
Serving numbers depend on how many veges you use





>< You may notice there is not carrot in the pan, but there is carrot in the bowl - this is because my husband hates carrot, and is colour blind so can't tell the difference between carrot and capsicum when I cut them up the same shape. I left the carrot out for the portion I made him, then added the carrot later for my portion><

Beef Stroganoff

Well, kinda. This recipe has adapted and evolved so much since my mum first made it 15 or so years ago. It is almost nothing like the original and it is probably so far from being traditional that I am probably lying to say it is even a stroganoff at all. But you know what? Who cares! It's damned tasty, whatever it is.


Ingredients:
Oil
2 heaped tbsp of crushed garlic
2 heaped tbsp ground sweet paprika (Can replace half with Smoked Paprika)
250mL sour cream
250g tomato paste
1/4 cup port (Marsala, Madeira or sherry may be substituted)
1/2 cup stock (I used chicken today, but I usually use beef)
350g mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, finely diced

300g sliced stirfry-quality beef steak such as rump
Extra paprika and sour cream to serve

Method:
1. Heat a large frying pan and add a splash of oil. Add the mushrooms, onions and garlic2. Stirfry until the vegetables are soft and the onion is translucent. Remove from pan and set aside.3. Pour the port over the onions and mushrooms.
4. Add another splash of oil to the pan and heat until it just starts to smoke. Add the beef strips and cook very rapidly until just sealed. The beef should be still very rare.
5. Add the tomato paste to the pan and cook until it changes colour slightly and has a toast smell. This should take 2-3 mins, depending on how hot your pan is.
6. Add the paprika and stock and return the vegetables and port to the pan.
7. Stir to combine. Remove from the heat and let stand for 2 minutes.8. Stir through the sour cream and serve with a small dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of paprika.


This dish is quite versatile and goes well with rice, a jacket potato, mash potato, flat Hungarian noodles or just some nice crusty bread. I had mine with brown rice.