What can I cook for dinner?!
Answers: Onhand have pork sausages, stewing beef, onions, only 2 small potatoes, pasta, rice, couscous, carrots, frozen peas, yoghurt, tinned tomatoes, and a range of herbs and spices including chilli, harissa and ginger but no garlic. I feel like something a bit different... Won't be home until late, so needs to be fairly quick to prepare.
When you get home;
While you preheat a heavy bottomed pan; slit the casings on the sausage meat and dice an onion. Add enough oil to the hot pan, turning it so the bottom gets oiled then add the sausage and onion. Use a wooden spoon to break the meat into smaller clumps. Keep stirring as it begins to cook to make sure nothing sticks to the pan.
For natural sweetness and flavour, clean and dice one or two carrots into very small dice (so they cook quickly); add to the pan. Open the tomatoes; drain, but reserve the liquid. (If whole tomatoes, rough chop them before adding to the pan.) If the mixture seems too dry, add the reserved liquid. Bring everything to a simmer and keep cooking till the sausage meat is cooked through and the carrots are beginning to soften.
It will be at this point you choose which direction you want the flavours to go - here are a few examples:
if an Italian dish is to your liking; season with those herbs most associated, i.e. oregano, marjoram, etc. Let the sauce cook down until it's rich and thick and to your taste then serve over pasta with some grated cheese.
if you'd like to go a more Mexican route; season the mixture with a bit of chilli, oregano, a pinch of cinnamon, any kind of pepper you may have to hand, some paprika (smoked sweet would go great - but only a little bit will be needed!), add chopped (or even some ground) almonds to enhance the textures and flavours. Serve the mixture over rice, (cooked with frozen peas right in the rice - trust me, its fantastic!), topped with grated cheese.
if you want more exotic meal; add harissa, chilli, a handfull of raisins (to give a contrasting sweetness and texture), all of which you can serve over couscous - and if you have them, quick toast some chopped, sliced or blanched almonds in a dry frying pan to sprinkle over top for that final contrast of flavour and textures.
Even if you don't use any of the above, if it's helped to get the imagination going, then bravo and I hope you experiment with what you've got to see where it can take you!
Thanks! I hope you had a nice dinner and intend to start "playing with your food" more often - :o) Report It
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