Tex Mex Cowboy Pie (GF)

based on another recipe from the friendly freezer group

500g potatos, peeled and cut into 4
1 small tub sour cream (low fat)
milk if needed
1 pound (500g) beef mince
1 jar mild salsa (GF if needed)
1 can corn kernels, drained
1 can mexibeans (GF if needed)
1/2 grated low fat cheese of your choice

heat oven to 200'
cook potatoes until soft then mash. add sour cream and mix well. add a little milk if needed to get a smooth but not runny mash.
fry mince until cooked. place in a large oven dish.
add salsa, corn and beans and mix well. top with potato, then sprinkle cheese over.
bake for 15 or so minutes until cheese is done to your liking and the dish bubbling around the edges

Beef Rendang & Vegetables (GF, TMX)

well, this was the best meal i've cooked in months!!!!!

had a craving for a beef curry - was thinking thai red beef curry but then decided to go for a rendang. Used the recipe in the old EDC to cook it, but made changes based on the feedback in this thread and the recipes i had in books here and online...

served with coconut rice (just basmati with the leftover coconut cream & water to required amount of liquid) and a simple vegie dish it was utterly divine - geoff kept telling me it was restaurant standard!!

Simple Sidedish of Vegetables with Roasted Peanuts
1/4 cup whole raw peanuts
3 medium potatoes, chopped into 2" x 1" pieces, and steamed until just soft (I steamed mine over the rice)
1 tab oil
1 handful green beans, topped and tailed (drying them is a good idea)
1 red onion, cut into wedges
2 garlic cloves, peeled & roughly chopped
1 bunch asparagus, woody ends removed, but into 2" pieces
1/4 red capsicum, cut into matchstick pieces
1 tab brown sugar or other brown sweetener (agave, palm sugar etc) *
gluten free soy sauce to taste*
a little water

into a medium size saucepan or frypan place the peanuts and heat to medium. when they start to brown you will need to stir regularly. when brown all over and smelling yummy get a strong potato masher and squash them a bit so you have some smaller pieces. pour into a bowl and when they've cooled for 5 minutes remove any loose bits of skin.

heat oil. when hot add beans, fry, stirring for about 4-5 minutes. add onion and garlic and fry, stirring, for about 3-4 minutes. add the other vegetables and cook, stirring for 5 minutes.

add sugar and soy sauce and enough water to make a bit of sauce in the bottom. leave to cook for around 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.

stir peanuts through and serve top with coriander if you have any!

* if you don't need GF use ketjap manis / sweet soy sauce


Beef Rendang
Paste:
1 large red chilli, cut end off
2.5cm fresh ginger, peeled
3 cloves garlic
1 small red onion, peeled
1 tspn turmeric
20g oil
1 tspn fish sauce

Other:
4 bay leaves
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
3 star anise
5 cardamom pods, squashed with the flat of a knife
ground pepper, to taste
25g brown sugar (or palm sugar etc)
150g coconut cream
30g dessicated coconut, browned (i did it in the same saucepan i cooked the vegies, before starting them)
500g diced beef (i used scotch fillet which worked really well, as i had no chuck etc)

place the paste ingredients EXCEPT fish sauce & oil in the thermomix (don't touch the cut edge of the chilli with your fingers - or if you do wash well and don't put your fingers near your face or eyes!) and chop for 10-15 seconds on speed 6

add oil and saute for 3 minutes at 100'c speed 3

add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl EXCEPT the meat and cook for 5 minutes at 100'c speed soft

add meat and cook for 90 - 120 minutes (you'll need to set it twice or add time as you go) at 100'c reverse speed soft

serve with coconut rice & vegetables. try not to drool too much or make too much of a pig of yourself LOL

Beef, Bacon & Beer Casserole (GF & SC - Slow Cooker)

1 onion, peeled and diced
2 large carrots, diced
6 medium red skinned potatoes, diced
10 slices chopped pancetta or 6 slices bacon, diced (a quick fry would be great if you can be bothered)
600g-1kg diced beef (i used lean but a stewing type would be even better)
2 tspns beef or vegie stock concentrate or 2 stock cubes (gluten free)
2-3 tabs gluten free worcestershire sauce (we use Spring Gully)
approx 3 tabs honey
1 bottle of gluten free beer (we used O'Brien's Premium Lager *)
2 tabs cornflour (i added this later but you could also toss the beef cubes in it before cooking)
optional:
2 handfuls green beans, cut into 1" pieces
thyme and / or garlic


I used a 3L slow cooker, but if you use more meat you will need a bigger cooker

Place ingredients into the bowl in the order listed above.

I tend to use Auto which cooks on high for 4 hours then switches to low and cook for the rest of the day

* Geoff said it was an OK beer, he wouldn't choose to drink it but if had to be GF he would be happy to drink it.

Variations on a Theme (GF, TMX)

*** Happy Australia Day! ***

today we spent most of the day with good friends, having a BBQ lunch at one house, all bringing food to share. As Rora loves the Asian Noodle Salad i made that but was missing at least half the ingredients lol it was still very nice so I thought I would record the variation in case it was useful to anyone :)

I also did a quick conversion of the Nem Nuong recipe from Taste

both recipes are gluten free :)

Asian Noodle Salad Variation
1/2 chinese cabbage (wom buk) shredded finely
1/8th red onion, sliced very finely
100g roasted cashews
1 pkt chang's gluten free fried rice noodles
approximately 15 leaves (or half a bunch) of vietnamese mint, finely sliced

dressing:
1/4 cup white vinegar
approximately 2-3 tablespoons apple juice concentrate (or any other sweetener)
1 tab gluten free soy sauce
a few tbspns of sesame oil
around 2 tabs sesame seeds

combine all dressing ingredient and shake well
mix all ingredients except the noodles. add the noodles and mix well just before serving.


Nem Nuong variation
35g jasmine rice
4 garlic cloves, peeled
5 green shallots (scallions / green onions), ends trimmed, cut into 2" / 5cm pieces
500g beef or pork mince (tradionally pork but i only had beef)
20g fish sauce
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp caster sugar (I forgot this and they were fine so i guess it's optional ;))
25g rice bran oil (peanut oil or any other mild flavoured oil)

heat rice on varoma for around 6 minutes speed soft until fragrant
grind on speed 10 for 30 seconds
add garlic and chop for around 10-15 seconds speed 6
add shallots and chop on speed 5 1/2 for 10 seconds
add all other ingredients and pulse using turbo / closed lid until well mixed
roll into small balls and chill before cooking if possible.



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

Sate Beef

One of my old favourites, i haven't made it in years, mainly because i don't think the kids would eat it (bit spicy and strong tasting). this was from the old australian womens weekly chinese cookbook from the 80's and was one that mum made regularly. we always used Jimmy's sate sauce (definitely NOT satay sauce) which I think is by far the best.

AWW Sate Beef

500g fillet steak, in one piece
1 1/2 tspns soy sauce
pepper
2 tspns sesame oil
1 tspn cornflour
2 tabs water
2 tabs oil

Sauce:
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion
3 tspns sate sauce
2 tspns dry sherry
1 tspn curry powder
salt
2 tabs water
2 tabs soy sauce
1/2 tspn sugar

1. trim all fat & sinew from meat, cut into 5mm slices
2. gently pound each slice to flatten slightly. put meat in bowl and add marinade ingredients. mix well and stand 20 mins
3. heat oil in wok or pan, saute meat until brown, separating each piece as it goes in. brown on both sides, remove from pan.
4. peel and roughly dice onion, add to pan with crushed garlic and saute gently until onion is transparent. combine sauce ingredients, add to onions in pan. stir until boiling. return beef to pan, cook until beef is tender, around 1 minute. serves 4.
   

Rough & Ready - Beef in Red Wine (GF, SC)

tonight's dinner - yum!

i used to actually have a recipe i used but it disappeared long ago and now i just chuck stuff in hehe

tonight's version went something like this:

about 1-2kg chuck steak / gravy beef etc, 2cm dice
2(?) tabs gluten free flour
1 tspn GF beef stock (we use massel)
little black pepper

toss the meat in the flour / stock / pepper mix and place in slow cooker

1 onion, finely chopped
4-6 rashers / shortcuts bacon, chopped
4-5 carrots, chopped
3-4 zucchinis, finely chopped, optional

I actually chopped all mine in the thermomix on speed 4 (i just have discovered speed 4 for chopping veg & am LOVING it lol). place on top of meat

thyme, around 1-2 tspns
garlic, chopped, optional (i think i missed this today lol)
red wine, around 1/2-3/4 cup (i just use a cheap one)

sprinkle thyme & garlic over, pour wine over

cook on auto for 6-8 hours (auto is high for 2-3 hours then low, and the cooker i used is a 3L one). i stir occasionally toward the end, once it starts smelling good.

we have ours with mash and steamed green beans.

Sizzling Steak

i think this recipe came out of a very old AWW chinese cooking book, it's delicious!

hmmm interesting, i haven't written down how much meat of what kind! i'd imagine probably around 500-600g of fillet steak, finely sliced!

1/4 cup water
1/4 tspn bicarb soda

mix and mix with meat, stand 1 hour

4 tabs oil

heat 1 tab oil, fry steak over high heat til brown, remove

3 onions, cut into fine wedges

heat 2 tabs oil, fry til browned, remove

1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup sugar

add final tab oil, re-add steak and onion, add sauce ingredients. remove from pan.

1 tab white wine

drizzle wine over the top and serve.

and one last catch up post...

some meals we have had in the past week...

the one with all the vegies was a tofu and vegie green curry. this was attempt #1 for iron rich foods for rora. it was a bit of a disaster, not a terrible disaster but not that nice either. the kids hardly ate any of it (only the rice) and it was too spicy for ryan. i had also put macadamia nuts in it too.

the other picture is of the pizzeria pot pie which wasn't too bad. it won't become #1 favourite but we will probably have it again. i think i would like to do it with more bits and pieces in it. we used the thermomix scone recipe to top it and it was a bit much.

i wanted to cook indian for dinner but am missing too many ingredients, plus i was going to start preparing the dried chickpeas now (at 5pm) oooop - too late!

i'm not in the mood for anything else on the menu...

Hungarian Potato Casserole

thanks to Sharon, an online friend :) (hi sharon!)

you can also use chorizo or i'm guessing most other kinds of salami like sausage

1kg potatoes chopped into bite size chucks...not too small or they go too smooshy
I tub tomato paste
4 rashers of bacon, chopped
I big onion chopped
2 Tbsp sweet paprika
3-4 cups water
250g Polish sausage quartered and sliced...how thick is up to you but I cut mine about 3mm?

I do it in my cast iron pot on the stove, but Mum used the electric frypan or a big saucepan.

Fry onion and bacon, add chopped potatoes and polish sausage.
Mix 3 cups water with paprika and tomato paste in a jug, pour into pan.
Bring it to the boil, turn down low and cover. you might need to add extra water...just check.
It's cooked when the potatoes are soft and kind of smooshy.

Beef and Guiness Pie

just clearing out my crazy collection of recipe links and will be putting some recipes in here.
i'm pretty sure i made this last winter and it was delicious, taken from here. you can easily do the filling in the slow cooker (which i'm sure is what i did)

INGREDIENTS:
6 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
2 onions, halved and sliced
225g medium size chestnut or button mushrooms, cut into quarters
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1kg braising steak/chuck steak/stewing steak/casserole steak ( whatever you want to call it lol ), trimmed of fat and cut into 2.5cm chunks
5 tbsp plain flour seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper
500ml Guinness
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

( 6 strips of bacon is optional ---very tasty though , also optional is a third cup of sultanas )

PREPARATION:
1. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large, oven-proof casserole dish and gently fry the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft. Remove the vegetables from the pan and place in a large bowl.

2. Place the seasoned flour in a bowl and toss the meat in it, a handful at a time. Heat a little more oil in the pan and fry the flour-coated chunks of meat over a medium-high heat until browned on all sides. Do this in batches, coating each new batch of meat in the flour and adding more oil to the pan when needed. Transfer the browned meat to the onion and mushroom bowl while you fry the rest.

3. When all the meat is browned, return everything to the casserole dish and pour over the Guinness. Add the bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer very gently, partially covered for 1� to 2 hours or until the meat is tender and the sauce slightly thickened. Alternatively, you can cook in a 170C/325F/gas mark 3 oven for the same amount of time. Check the liquid level occasionally to make sure it doesn�t become too dry, adding a little water if necessary.

4. When cooked, remove from the heat and tip the mixture into a wide baking dish, at least 5cm deep. Allow to cool to room temperature or store in the fridge.

5. Roll out the pastry and cut out 6 circles, each about 10cm in diameter, and lay them on the beef mixture so they overlap slightly. Brush with the beaten egg.

6. When ready to bake and serve, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 and cook for 30 minutes or until the pastry is risen and golden and the pie heated through.

Sloppy Joes...

In Australia a sloppy joe is a sweatshirt. In America it is a yummy messy food that kids and adults alike enjoy.

Elise on Simply Recipes just posted a recipe for sloppy joes which i went on to my mum as a suggestion for Thursday night dinners (my sister and nephew eat there every thursday. we only go every month or two but it makes it a bit more complex trying to find something everyone will eat!). as we were chatting i remembered that i had a different version that was served with wedges and sour cream that was really yummy and went in search of it. It's originally from an Australian Women's Weekly cookbook.


potato wedges with sloppy joe topping
4 medium potatoes (or a packet of frozen wedges)
2 tabs olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 large brown onion, chopped finely
1 small green capsicum, chopped finely
1 trimmed celery stick, chopped finely (i usually add more as it gets wasted otherwise!)
150g beef mince
2 tabs mild american mustard
2 tabs cider vinegar
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup coarsely grated cheddar cheese
2 green onions, sliced thinly

1. preheat oven to hot
2. cut each potatoes in 8 wedges, place in shallow baking dish, drizzled with half of the oil
3. roast, uncovered, in hot oven 30 mins or until tender
4. meanwhile, heat remaining oil in fryin gpan; cook garlic, onion, capsicum and celcery, stirring, until vegies soften. add mince, cook, stirring, until changed in colour. stir in mustard, vinegar and sauce, bring to a boil. reduce heat, cook, stirring, until sloppy joe is cooked through and slightly thickened.
5. serve wedges topped with sloppy joe mix, top with cheese and green onion.

when i do it in the slow cooker i fry the mince and onion ** and then put it all in the slow cooker to cook. takes 2-4 hours.


** when i'm organised i will fry up several kilos of mince and chopped onions and freeze into 500g portions, great for quick meals

Links - Meat Dishes

Beef Chimichangas

broccoli beef

chicken bean & tomato soup

chicken enchilada throwdown

chicken poppers

Costa Vida Chicken (good for entertaining)

garlic chicken with white wine

Greek Chicken (thanks susana ;) and chris lol)

kerala style chicken curry

Old Fashioned Fried Chicken - want to try this for chicken nuggets for the kids

Spicy Shredded Pork - for enchiladas etc

taco soup

NEW Wednesday Night Chicken Delicious

An old favourite!

This recipe is really yummy, despite coming from a 1960's Sunrise cooking booklet my mother had ;) (I left out the very politically incorrect salt to taste in the recipe btw)

Bavarian Beef Crust Pie

Beef Crust
500g lean beef mince
3 tabs tomato sauce
1/2 cup day old breadcrumbs (boiled rice can be used)
1 onion, chopped
1 tab chopped parsley
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch mixed herbs

Rice Filling
2/3 cup white rice
1/4 cup chopped green capsicum
3 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or a tin, drained and chopped)
250g shredded cheese
pinch cayenne pepper

Method
Combine all crust ingredients. press onto bottom of a 9" (22-24cm?) pie plate. bake in moderate over 30 minutes. Remove from oven and drain any excess fat.

cook rice in boiling water for 12 minutes, adding capsicum for the last 5 minutes, drain. add tomatoes, half the cheese and cayenne pepper. mix well.

spoon rice mix into meat crust and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

return to oven and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Curried Sausages, Thermomix (first draft)

this is going to be such a rough recipe - i wasn't paying attention when i was making it, it was very hap hazard lol...

curried snags are one of G's favourite meals. we didn't really have them growing up so i'm not really all that good at cooking them. but he RAVED about these tonight (i thought they were okish and the kids wouldn't eat them lol) so he actually requested that i write this down.

they were a last minute thing with leftover sausages in the fridge and still no choku bai jo shop.

1 onion, quartered
olive oil, about 20g i guess
1-2 garlic cloves
curry powder to your taste, i used about 3-4 tspns maybe? (half aldi curry mix and half keens curry powder, plus some cumin and coriander to add more flavour without spice for ryan)
flour or cornflour, quite a lot, maybe 1/3 cup?
around 600ml water
about 1/4 cup sweet soy sauce (or some beef stock powder and a little sugar OR mango chutney)
about 1/4 cup tomato sauce (ketchup)
about 8 or so sausages, precooked (boiled or fried) and skinned, sliced
1-2 packets frozen vegies (or fresh diced mixed veg)

chop onion and garlic, spped 6 for about 5 seconds
add curry powder and flour and cook for 3 mintues on 100' reverse speed 2-4
add water and soy sauce, cook for 10 minutes on 100' reverse speed 2
add sausages and vegies, cook for 5 minutes on 100' reverse speed 2 *
serve with steamed rice

* i actually had to cook mine longer to thicken the sauce but i had used a LOT more water and a lot less flour so you may need to adjust the time if this isn't long enough. by the time the sauce was done half the vegies had disintegrated :(

not sure when i'll get around to refining this recipe as it's not my favourite meal ;) so if you try it please report any changes!

ETA - forgot the tomato sauce!

"comfort food" recipes from New Idea magazine

all 3 use the same basic principles for making, will convert to slow cooker soon.

beef, bean and bacon casserole
olive oil
1kg diced chuck steak
1 clove garlic
1 onion, chopped
6 bacon rashers, diced
150g tomato paste
2 cups (500ml) beef stock
1 tab chopped fresh thyme
500g chat potatoes, quartered
420g red kidney beans, drained
steamed silverbeet to serve

sticky beef casserole
olive oil
1kg diced gravy beef
1 clove garlic
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 tab brown sugar
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/3 cup sweet orange marmalade
2 cups (500ml) beef stock
2 tab cornflour
2 tab water
1 long red chilli, finely sliced
200g sugar snap peas
basmati rice to serve

rolled beef brisket
olive oil
1kg rolled beef brisket
100g sliced pancetta, chopped
2 clove garlic
1 stick celery, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
400g pickling onion, peeled
1 tspn mixed herbs
200g cup mushies, quartered
1 cups (250ml) beef stock
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tab cornflour
2 tab water
mashed potato to serve

Method
heat oil, brown meat - in batches for diced meat
fry onion / garlic / bacon (plus pnacetta + carrot + celery)
add sauces, stock (plus mushrooms), etc bring to boil, replace beef and cover
cook in 160-180 oven for 1 1/4, 2, 3 hours
transfer to stovetop and add cornflour and water (and potatoes), cook til thickened
add extra veg and cook
serve

Mussamun curry, thermomix style

ok, so this went down VERY well with the family, but i wasn't impressed. i will probably do it again, because it went down well, and the thermomix does make it easy to do, but i prefer it done in the slow cooker to be honest.

i kind of followed one of the curry recipes in the thermomix book to make it.

1 large onion
lots of garlic (especially if you're sick like me, i think i used about 8 small ones)

* chop finely on speed 7, probably just around 5 seconds

Valcom Mussamun Paste, around 4 tabs or more if you aren't cooking for mr wimpy tongue ;p

* add paste and cook 90 secs on varoma speed 1

1 tin reduced fat coconut milk

* cook 90 secs on varoma speed 1

around 400-500g of beef or other meat (i used scotch fillet as that's all i had)
2 large potatoes, diced into 1 cm pieces
1/2 - 1 sweet potato, diced into 1 cm pieces (if you need more in your thermo, i definitely didn't have enough)
vegetable or beef stock, enough to top up the liquid to just below the level of the meat and veg

* cook for 16-20 minutes, temp 100' (please do not forget the temp, i guarantee it does not cook without it *sigh* hey, i'm sick right???!!!) and reverse speed 1 (i know the book says soft but mine was really struggling on soft)

* serve on jasmine rice. top with some chopped coriander if you have any (which i didn't)

* sit back in amazement when mr wimpy tongue eats seconds and then all his sisters' (plural) leftovers :-0

and still more...

yes i had a very busy afternoon.

reduced fat and healthier sausage rolls (i dont' think they can ever be really low fat lol)

i made a HUGE batch of meat mix, so will halve it here, but it will still make a lot, just put them in your freezer and warm through when needed :)

4 sheets reduced fat puff pastry

250g pork and veal mince
350g premium beef mince
oatmeal, maybe about 1 cup
mixed or italian herbs, or any fresh herbs finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped or grated
1 zucchini finely chopped or grated
1 large onion finely chopped or grated
1 egg

mix very very well until the meat starts to get a bit lighter in colour (i did mine in my thermomix but pre-thermo days i did it by taking handfuls and squeezing them through my fingers)

take handfuls and form into a sausage on a sheet of puff pastry - you want it to be around 1.5-2" high. roll pastry up and gently cut through into 6-8 pieces. stab the top of each roll a few times

put on baking tray lined with baking paper. if you aren't lazy like me brush the tops with milk or beaten egg.

bake at around 200' until golden brown and meat cooked through (this will take longer if they are thicker)

serve with tomato sauce

foodly update

yes i know foodly is not a real word lol i have been too flat out this week to blog at all...

so let me see - on thursday geoff stayed home with rory (who has a chest infection) and i asked him to make this soup - i was really in the mood for checkpeas for some reason! while it was nice it was not quite what i was after - i think another tin or two of chickpeas and it might have been right. as it was it seemed really quite similar to this soup of mine. (though maybe my memory of the second is faulty, the recipes seem quite different lol)

last night of course was the maccas birthday dinner (gosh their burgers are pathetic, i have only eaten the deli choices rolls for the past years and the chicken burger i had was so tiny and shockingly bad!)

tonight i am going to make Dani's Javanese Beef Curry in the slow cooker. i'll still do the beans one night but probably slot it into the end of the week's plans.

yesterday of course involved making birthday cakes (yes, multiple). first thing in the morning i realised i hadn't made anything for ryan to take to preschool (i had also forgotten it was his birthday til mum reminded me but that's another story lol). so i whipped up a batch of carrot cup cakes (last time we did a big aldi shop i stocked up on cooking butter but g froze it all - aaagh! so i went for the butter free carrot cakes). they were literally straight out of the oven into a container to preschool so no frosting lol

then in the afternoon i made his birthday cake which was pretty much a disaster...
if you have a look at the picture here, the story is underneath


plus... i remembered this mroning that i had planned to put blue and green sparkly sprinkles all over it too and totally forgot - but i guess that's what happens when you have less than an hour to decorate a cake from scratch as well as getting 3 children and yourself dressed, picking up your mother (who thankfully helped with the dressing children part) and drive to the maccas of choice!

PS: thank goodness it wasn't a party, just 2 of his friends for dinner (their families also tagged along ;)b)

i also have some soups to make this weekend after my choku bai jo shop on thursday - i bought a 6kg pumpkin to cook up (i'm hoping for a recipe where i can roast the pumpkin mostly whole to save the effort of cutting it up LOL and parsnips which i'm thinking i might use in this recipe, it sounds delish!

Deb's Bodacious chili

from an american friend who was living here for a while

Here's mine, except I usually used cooked chicken and cook it all day in a crock pot. I also tried to translate it from American to Aussie.

BODACIOUS CHILI.

1 kilo boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 large onions, chopped
1 large green capsicum, coarsely chopped
1 large sweet red capiscum, coarsely chopped
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons chili powder (mexican chili powder)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup Burgundy or other dry red wine
2 410 gram cans whole tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 410 gram can tomato puree
1 420 gram can kidney beans, drained
1 420 gram can chick-peas (garbanzo beans), drained
Spicy Sour Cream Topping
Shredded Cheddar cheese

• Cook first 7 ingredients in olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until meatbrowns. Drain and return meat mixture to Dutch oven.

• Stir in cocoa and next 13 ingredients.Bring mixture to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally. Serve with Spicy Sour Cream Topping and shredded cheese

SPICY SOUR CREAM TOPPING

1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup salsa
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon chili powder (mexican chili powder)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (sweet curry powder)
Dash of ground red pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Combine all ingredients; cover and chill

Wicked Sandwich of the West

this will be tonight's dinner - means i have to cut up the whole scotch fillet though, ugh, i hate that job lOL

cool name huh?! *lol* this is a fantastic recipe from an online friend in Hawaii

1 pound (450g) sirloin tip steak, trimmed of fat and sliced thin
1/2 tspn paprika
1/4 tspn each salt, pepper, garlic powder
1 tab plain flour
1 1/4 cup water or beef stock (i find 1 more than enough)
2 tabs bbq sauce
2 tspn brown sugar
1/2 tspn dried thyme
1 large green capsicum, seeded and sliced into rings
1 medium onion, sliced into rings
4 large soft bread rolls

* place steak in a medium bowl and sprinkle with paprika, S&P, and garlic powder. Add flour and toss to coat all sides.
* spray a large non stick pan with cooking spray. add steak and cook over medium high heat until lightly browned and no longer pink. add broth, bbq sauce, brown sugar and thyme. stir and bring to the boil. reduce heat to low. cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
* add capsicum and onion, cover and simmer for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally (I find i need to leave the lid off to thicken the sauce)
* if mixture is too saucy, continue to simmer, uncovered, util most of the liquid has evaporated.
* serve on warm rolls. serves 4