The "Cook My Dinner" Challenge

aidan_walsh

Hey all,

I have about 75-100g of bolognese beef mince sitting the in the fridge rom last night. Rather than just heat it up and stick on the same old pasta again, I was looking to do something different, but I'm utterly stuck for ideas. Anyone have anything they can share? Bearing in mind that any additional ingredients must be obtainable from a local shop.

I was thinking meatballs, but I'm not sure I have enough meat to make more than one or two medium sized ones. That, and I'm not sure how to go about it

Any takers? The winner gains the respect and admiration of a hungry boardsie

bonkey

Add some mushrooms, peas, celeriac or carrot, perhaps some diced streaky bacon....

...then make up a cheesy bechemel sauce...

...then use both to make a lasagne.

OK...so its still italian...but hey.

bonkey

Alternately, add a tin of kidney beans, some chopped fresh chillis, a goodly dose of cumin, and basically turn it into a sort of a chilli.

You can even chop some spuds into it if you want a one-pot meal.

Make up some guacamole, grate some cheddar, and you're away with it.

The Sweeper

When you said bolognese mince, did you mean you have raw minced beef in your fridge, or a small amount of leftover bolognese sauce?

aidan_walsh

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

When you said bolognese mince, did you mean you have raw minced beef in your fridge, or a small amount of leftover bolognese sauce?

Sorry, my bad. Did a bolognese last night, and had some mince left over in the pan afterwards so threw it in a bowl into the fridge. All cooked. Can you tell I'm pretty new to this lark

bonkey, just did a lasagna at the weekend, so thats out for the time being. The chilli sounded pretty good but I couldn't find a few things (its a bad local shop at times) but definitely on the cards another time.

It'll make do in the fridge another day (taking the easy way out tonight) so keep the ideas coming please.

The Sweeper

Okay, so you got cooked beef mince in the fridge (possibly with some onions in it?)

Try making a fajita-style thing with it. Chuck mince back on pan, and add a couple of chopped, ripe tomatoes. Salt and pepper, and chili powder. The tomatoes will break down and you'll end up with a semi-dry meat sauce. Pile that onto tortillas with grated cheese, and various things - some salsa, if you can get some, some sour cream - if you can get an avacado, mash it down with some lemon juice for guacamole, or sweat a small, finely chopped onion in a pan with a large knob of butter, then take a can of kidney beans, drain them and throw them into the pan with a cup of beef stock. Simmer for a while as you're doing everything else. Every so often mash the beans down with a fork or masher. You can add chilis to this, chili powder, a pinch of cumin - basically it's refried beans and is quite tasty. Combine all these in a fajita with your mince for mexican heart-attack.

Alternatively grab a bag of nachoes, pile them on a plate, reheat your mince and add some chili powder, cover with grated cheese and put into the oven. When the cheese has melted, pile on guacamole, sour cream and salsa and eat.

Little random - buy a pack of vol au vent cases and some mushrooms, some cream - got any brandy? Make a rich sauce with the mince, some finely chopped mushrooms, a little beef stock, cream and brandy. Cook your vol au vent cases, then load up wth the sauce.

Bake some potatoes in their skins in the oven - just wash and salt large potatoes and put them straight on the wire racks. Take out the cooked spud, reheat the mince, cut the spud open, load mince into it, top with grated cheese and return to the oven (this time on a baking tray) until the cheese has melted and gone everywhere. Scoff.

Tree

cut a roll in half, lob on the bolognaise, more melted cheese on top. savage cabbage. works well on top of potato waffles too