Simple Bolognaise Sauce

Sous Chef J is keen on foods that "don't take much eating"... by which he means he doesn't have to wield a knife and fork to cut up.  So dishes using mince, slow cooking and pasta are always requested.  This is our take on a pasta sauce - served with spaghetti or other pasta and oodles of cheese. 

Ingredients we used were -

400g mince beef
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2-3 white onions, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped finely
200ml rich beef stock (we used a Knorr stock pot)
1 Tablespoon tomato puree
oil (we used the remainder of the oil from a jar of preserved red peppers - thrifty as ever!)
freshly ground black pepper
grated cheese, to serve (we used mature cheddar today but parmesan or other works well too)

Having chopped the onions, they were cooked in some oil in our wok on a medium heat until they started to turn translucent.  Then the beef was added and cooked for a few minutes until it began to brown.  Next the tomato puree was added, stirred through and the wok lid was placed on and left to cook for about 10 minutes on a low heat.

At this point the carrots, which we'd chopped whilst cooking the mince mix, chopped tomatoes and stock were added to the wok.  The heat was turned up slightly and the sauce was left to cook down for about 25-30 minutes.... the lid left slightly ajar to allow some reduction (boiling off) of the sauce to happen. 

The sauce is served with pasta (today we used Salute spaghetti) and a salad.... and gone in a flash.  The spaghetti was cooked, drained and returned to a buttery pan, then the sauce was mixed through before serving.











We reserved half of the prepared amount, allowed it to cool, bagged and labelled it and froze to use later when time/inclination is lacking and a speedy supper is required.

This could be cooked in a slow cooker but it's supposed to be summer so we did it on the hob!

Bean and Pepper Chilli

Having spotted a tweet linking to this recipe from Sainsbury's, we took a look and decided that, with a very small tweak (using ready made gluten free tortilla chips) this would be a dish we'd like to eat.

It's a speedy supper and is something that could be made with store cupboard/freezer items.

We used a fresh yellow pepper as the recipe suggests but think that Sainsbury's frozen sliced mixed peppers would also be good to use.

What was needed was a jar of Sainsbury's Taste The Difference Cherry Tomato & Chilli Pasta Sauce, a tin/carton of red kidney beans (drained), a yellow pepper (sliced), two cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of smoked paprika and water.

Having sliced the yellow pepper (though, as mentioned before, frozen peppers could be used), it was cooked for a few minutes before the smoked paprika was added and stirred through.

After another couple of minutes the two cloves of garlic were added (we used a couple of black garlic cloves as that's what we had in the cupboard).

Adding the drained kidney beans and the pasta sauce to the pan, it was time to add 300ml of water.

We discovered that, handily, the pasta jar has a capacity of 300ml to just under the shoulder... something that will be useful when we take the 'makings' of this recipe on holiday with us - as it means we won't need to find a measuring jug.

The heat was then turned up and the chilli was left to simmer for 20 minutes until it had thickened slightly.

Finally it was time to serve - Sous Chef J likes Manomasa's Chipotle & Lime Tortilla chips so we used these... adding a green salad and some grated cheese (leave out the cheese and this will be a vegan meal).  A lovely dish for a speedy meat free meal, any day of the week.

Panna Cotta and Coulis

Following the great success of the Sainsbury's Marshmallow Kit, we were asked if we'd like to try out their Panna Cotta Dessert Mix.

As always, we checked the ingredients were gluten free (they are) and decided to give it a go.  Since Sous Chef J is a big fan of Panna Cotta (as well as Creme Brulee and Creme Caramel) this was a good way to see if we could make a suitably 'wobbly' dessert as he's seen made many times on TV cooking shows.

The kit tells you the ingredients required to make the dessert are 250ml each of semi-skimmed milk and double cream



We gathered all of the ingredients and equipment ready to start.


Taking each step at a time, the dessert was made - here's what we did....

SCJ poured the contents of the bag into a pan.

The milk and then the cream were also added to the pan.,

Making sure the milk/cream mix was whisked whilst it was brought up to simmer.

The heated milk/cream mix was ladled into ramekins (we used 8 small ones)

Having filled the ramekins, we put them on a tray to cool slightly before chilling fuly in the fridge for 3 hours.

To accompany the Panna Cotta, we decided to make some 'coulis'... and, having been impressed with the range of frozen fruits on sale in Sainsbury's, Sous Chef J chose a 'smoothie mix' of strawberries and bananas to make ours (he's saving the mango for another day/dish).

As usual, we didn't want to make anything complicated.  Taking a handful of the frozen fruit mix (actually, SCJ only chose to use the strawberries) we left them to defrost as the panna cotta was cooling in the fridge. 



The strawberries were put it in a dish, with a squirt of rice syrup, and pushed through a small seive (we were only making a small amount - suggest using a hand blender if you're making more) 


The finished 'coulis' was looking good.

Turning out the panna cottas, Sous Chef J was delighted to find they had a very satisfying 'wobble' so we topped them with the strawberry coulis ready to serve.

The Panna Cotta desserts were very tasty and Sous Chef J is happy to think he can make them again another day... and is already thinking he'd like to make "one big one".  Another successful make it yourself trial.

Disclosure - we were sent a pack of Panna Cotta mix by Sainsbury's. We did not have to write a positive blog post. All opinions are our own.