Last week I found three lots of frozen mince in my freezer. Stupidly small amounts in each package – buy mince, not use it all, bung the remainder in the freezer - but together offering quite a sensible dinner promise. What to do with it?
Endless possibilities; provided you can identify what sort of meat you have (label things BEFORE you freeze them; the thinking ‘I’ll stick a label on it later’ doesn’t work). But even if you can’t, as I couldn’t (grey-looking, must be lamb), not all is lost. Meatloaf or meatballs actually benefit from a mix of, ideally, pork and beef, but a little lamb won’t harm anybody either. My meatloaf recipe is actually a work of art: it should be AOP-ed.
If you’re sure you have beef, go for it in either Mexican or Italian style. Chilli con carne is only different from ragu Bolognese in spicing flavour and inclusion of beans. Both rather to die for, in my opinion. For a super tasty but not so healthy dinner make beef chilli nachos; for deeply satisfying pasta supper go for conchiglioni stuffed with beef. And if it’s lamb you’re positive you have, make a stupid amount (double the ingredients) of moussaka and freeze it in portions - #mealplan.
Have noodles one night this week, that’s an easy, veggie option after all that ground meat. Sesame noodles, takeaway style, or chicken chow mein – except you might want to swap chicken for tofu – that works too.
This could be a good week to make sauerkraut, fermented shredded cabbage. A modest cousin to kimchi, it’s really easy to make and I promise it doesn’t stink the house out. A healthier and tastier snack, garnish, side, salad, everything, is hard to imagine.
If you’re already planning some spooky treats, take a look at my Halloween page. If not – bake a banana cake. You can’t beat a good banana cake-bread-loaf, and mine is a VERY good one. And don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter – some good new recipes will be popping up on CuisineFiend.