Sunday, June 6, 2010

Beef Bolognese Bamboozle

Yup! It's spaghetti bolognese night. Brought back the minced beef left over from the stew I cooked the last time. There was about 200grams left. Since I hadn't have any pasta for a couple of weeks now, I decided to make some. The good thing about pasta is that you don't have to worry about it going bad even if it has been opened for sometime. Don't worry, my spaghetti wasn't the year old opened type, just a couple of weeks. Anyways, I whipped out my olive oil, some tomato paste, garlic, onion, pepper and salt and went straight to work.

Firstly lesson, while chopping up onions, don't bend down and smell it. Boy, I just took one whiff and immediately, POW! I was hit by this stinging sensation in my nose and then also my eyes. Really felt like an idiot for doing that and that shows it's been a long time since I've done any cooking. Whatever you do, please keep your face as far away from the onion when you're chopping it. Also, do smell the onion before you peel or cut it up. Hurts less when done that way.

Secondly, make sure the garlic is properly cooked before putting other ingredients in. Otherwise you're gonna get big uncooked chunks of it in your dish. Not that it's a bad thing...if you're single, alone in the house, no date at night, eating pasta while watching Glee. Yeah, don't go down on the garlic if you've got a life. Them breath mints ain't gonna help much.

Thirdly, make sure ALL the meat has been defrosted. Yeah, I was in a bit of a hurry because my stomach was growling in disapproval of being empty and it was time for it's gastronomical exercise. I may have put a 2/3 defrosted meat into the pan. Yeah, a bit chunk of frozen meat right in the middle of the pan. I had to smack that bad boy into pieces in the pan. Can you imagine that? Using a spatula and smacking a chunk of partially frozen meat. Not a pretty sight. Not going to happen again.

Fourth, the mixed vege has gotta be cooked for longer than 1 minute. Raw mixed vege which are still partially frozen should definitely be cooked for more than a minute. Those raw corn, peas and carrots taste weird. Period. Don't do it! I mean it!

Fifthly, finally something I did right! Mixing the tomato paste and water in a bowl before pouring it into the pan. That help solve the issue of the tomato paste not mixing well with the water in the pan. Hehe! Yeehaa!! On the down side, I add too little water and the whole thing ended up being beef bolognese without the sauce. Hehe! But dang, it still works with spaghetti.

Finally, 2oo grams of mince beef is way, way, way too much for 1 person. Being filled to brim and over the sides is no joking matter. I didn't finish the meat. I think I'll have meat sandwich tomorrow.


3 comments:

ee said...

wah uncle. i'm actually impressed that i seem to have better cooking skills than you :P

Gray Tan said...

haha! that's what happens when you don't cook after 10 years. haha!

§nóflèk said...

ee calls you uncle ka? lol
how come you didn't cook pasta for me when you were still here?? :p