Howdy folks.
So the week before the 50km run, my family and I would watch Masterchef together at the living room every night after dinner. And at almost every commercial break, they would play this Coles ad where they fed a family of four with Fettucini Bolognese under $10.
And honestly, almost the whole time we were running while in pain and hunger, the stupid ad kept coming to mind. And you could not have chosen a worse time to be craving for that damned Fettucini Bolognese. ARGH.
And I've always loved Spaghetti Bolognese. Simple, tasty, nothing fancy, just COMFORT food. It's just that prior to this, I've ONLY ever made it with the pre-made sauces you get from the supermarket. And after a while, the taste just gets worse and worse until I've stopped trying.
Until after the run, the thought of eating a REALLY yummy plate of Spaghetti Bolognese still would not leave me. So I vowed I would finally take the effort to attempt this precious recipe the way it was meant to be made, and not out of the jar.
And embarrassingly enough, I took this rather seriously. I spent about 10minutes a day for almost a week just looking up as many bolognese recipes I could find, hoping that I would find one that I would like. Googling "best bolognese recipe", "famous bolognese recipe", "tastiest bolognese recipe", etc.
After a while, I found out that I liked bits and parts from different recipes here and there. Immediately, I sat down and compiled all my favourite ingredients and methods into ONE single recipe that I actually liked. This was my first draft. Was so exciting cause the whole time, I had the draft stuck on the fridge with a pen next to it.
This is now the second time that while I was preparing/cooking, I would refer back to the draft to add/change the methods/amounts of the ingredients, just so the recipe would follow almost exactly what I was doing and I can refer back to it again in the future. The first was for my Apple Crumble Recipe. And I love doing this. Cause I know that recipe has been tested and tried and proven successful, so all I have to do is just refer to it again if I ever want to remake/perfect it in the future.
And it felt so good eating this dish cause for the first time in a very very long time, I actually tasted a bolognese pasta sauce that I actually liked!! And it turns out it's not that hard to make. The next detailed recipe post would most probably be my Creamy Butter Prawn recipe. I've made it enough times to know what makes the dish good or bad to share. Looking forward to it.
Anyway here's my slightly modified version of Bolognese Recipe. Also, let me just stress that this is not the most perfect or best recipe out there. But all I can say that every single detail has been tailored to be exactly how I want this dish to taste. Same goes for all the recipes I have ever posted and will post in the future. For instance, I personally do not like pasta sauces to be too wet and runny, that's why I had reduced my sauce under high heat for 25minutes to obtain the taste and consistency I wanted. And anyone is free to make any changes they want to any recipes they come across =)
Bolognese Sauce Recipe
Serves 8
Ingredients:
-250g pork mince
- 250g beef mince
- 150g streak bacon, diced
- 2 x 400g diced tomatoes (from can)
- 2 cups (500ml) beef stock
- 1 cup (250ml) red wine
- 200g (4 pieces) portobello mushrooms
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 celery, diced
- 1 brown onion, diced (use 1/2 if large)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 4 dashes of any dried herbs (from pantry)
Method:
1. Add olive oil into heated wok
2. Add mushrooms, carrot, celery, onion, garlic
3. Push vegetables aside to make room to add bacon
4. Cook bacon until slightly seared and fragrant
5. Stir ingredients in wok, simmer under medium heat for 4min
6. Add minced meats, make sure not lumped together, use spatula to break apart
7. Add beef stock, wine, diced tomatoes
8. Stir before reducing the sauce under high heat for 25min (or slightly half of original volume)
9. Add dashes of your favourite dried herbs, sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
10. Enjoy with your favourite pasta! For bolognese, I like something noodley like spaghetti or angel hair =D
Snapshot of dry ingredients used
MMMMM... Final product topped with some cheddar cheese (that I found in the fridge and shredded).
Mountain of pasta for dinner the next day again. Great to come home to massive amount of your comfort food after a long day of hard work topped with extra extra cheese.
Reason why I made this to serve 8 even though it was for my sister and I, was cause I knew I would eat a lot and would love to eat leftovers of it. Also, I thought I would use the extra to make lasagne if I didn't want to eat it with pasta anymore. Too bad there wasn't enough cause I had so much pasta =(
Anyway, while I was cooking this, I actually decided that I would take my Food Photography more seriously from now on. I admit, I have been very lazy since I started and just focused on getting the technical part right. But honestly, I haven't put it ANY effort at all to make the pictures look more enticing. So from now on, I'm gonna try and take many more while playing around with angles and shooting modes.
Which just means my friends will have to wait longer for me to finish taking my photo before they can eat. Lucky them. It's really challenging cause most of my meals/cooking are at night, where there is no natural light. And my backdrop is very limited, but will try. Hopefully I will get better at this.
Hope everyone is getting set for the upcoming exams! Peace!
Much Love,
Winston.
