Saturday, September 12, 2009

You know you are in Labrador when one morning the temperature is+15 and the next morning it is +3.
After reaching 17 at 1 pm things quickly cooled off yesterday, the house staid nice and warm right through the night though.

Even with the warm trend it has not stopped the ever increasing color change in the landscape.
The reds of the berry bushes and the yellows of the deciduous trees are sweeping the hills with increasing urgency.

Last week sometime I caught a cooking segment on the cooking channel by a new personality chef whose name escapes me. She was blond and moved her
arms and hands a lot while explaining her cooking techniques. She had also spent time in Tuscany where she learnt this Italian method of preparing spaghetti Bolognese.

I made a mental note to give her recipe a try, so yesterday I did just that.
Mind you I had to improvise and change ingredients in some cases; it also takes time and needs paying attention and stirring a lot, but the result I think was worth it.

Basically you pout some carrots/onions/celery in a blender and finely chop them.
In a large pre heated heavy sauce pan you add some olive oil, add the vegetables and cook on medium to low, stirring and attending until brown bits form on the bottom of the pan. This brown bit forming is the secret to this recipe according the blond chef.

Next you add lean ground beef stirring and cooking slowly again until brown bits form on the bottom of the pan.

Then you add a large can of tomato past going through same process as above.

Then comes time to add liquid; in the absence of red wine I added a can of beer and water with chicken bullion cube.
You also add some aromatic ingredients, in the absence of fresh herbs I added dried herbs in a tea infuser, also added was some chopped garlic and several bay leaves.

Cook on low heat adding more liquid as the sauce thickens to a time when the smell overwhelms you and you have to get into it.

Cook spaghetti to just undercooked, drain and in the same pot add some of the sauce to finish of the cooking process.

Serve with fresh grated parmesan and red wine, in the absence of wine beer.


3 comments:

Shammickite said...

Looks good, I'll have to try it. But cooking for one isn't very inspiring, wonder if it would freeze well?

Table Mountains said...

looks delicious from down here brian.

not much change in the colour around the mountains here yet. the ferns are about the only thing and they are a yellowish brown. we had our first frost a few days back.

Brian said...

I am sure the sauce would freeze well ES enhance the flavor too.
Colors are changing fast here Wayne. I was up the hills yesterday, incredibly beautiful at ground level, reds, oranges, yellows.