I like food.
Eating it, yes very much. Watching food related videos & reading food related articles. And of course preparing it. For a few years I worked in fast food. During that time the idea of working in a food related industry took hold of me.
I started my journey with cooking to try and impress someone. It didn’t work but I did learn valuable skills as I kept looking for interesting recipes to try. By no means do I consider myself more than a hobby cook. This is to relax, to explore and to understand. It pretty much fills the same type of space in my life as my photography does.
It keeps my mind busy. I create something which brings joy to other people. Perhaps even more so than photography. With cooking you can actually consume the end result.
A recipe.
I’ve dabbled with the idea of putting some of the dishes I prepare onto my blog. It’s not what you would find in the “exciting new dishes to try” search. More in the “I have a few ingredients how can I make it taste wow” section. I think so anyway ; )
Without further pomp and circumstance here is a simple recipe for curried ground beef (mince to all the South Africans reading) with potatoes and baked beans. For a side I went with a small loaf of bread. If you are looking for an alternative to the bread I’ve prepared it with rice in the past and also ate it accompanied by some Portuguese rolls. If you add a bit more sauce it works really well with the rolls or bread as it tends to absorb a lot of the sauce.
If you’re interested in trying this I’d like to see the results: my recipe and process below.
Ingredients
- Ground beef (quantity dependent on your appetite)
- Half of an onion
- Baked beans (from a tin because it’s easy)
- Two medium potatoes, cut into pieces (for this attempt I cubed them into roughly 1cm cubes)
- Turmeric
- Paprika
- Spice for the ground beef (I used a chinese 5 spice mix)
- Hot curry (because it’s cold today)
Before preparing the meat I boiled the potatoes until soft. I drained them but kept some of the water; I found it helps to make sauces a bit thicker. Once the potatoes are finished start frying the onions – I dice the onions but not too finely. Add turmeric and paprika to the onions. Fry them for about 5 minutes (you don’t want them to burn).
Add the ground beef and add your chosen meat spice. I fry the beef until it starts to stick to the pan. Two tablespoons of tomato soup mix into half a cup of water, stir well and add into the pan. Once in add about half a cup of the potato water. Now you can stir it for a few minutes or leave it to thicken. To give it more body I also added two tablespoons of double cream yogurt.
When the mixture starts to thicken add the potatoes and mix to coat them. Before serving I will add some ground pepper into the mixture and stir it in. Herbs I have used previously includes rosemary, thyme and basil (I have a small garden that provides these).
The results.
tl;dr
Cook something which you enjoy and share the photos, I’d like to see what you are preparing.
Thanks for reading : )