Meat sauce!

Good morrow haters of chick flicks!

The wife asked if I could make some meat sauce so she could take some to work tomorrow! Perfect excuse for some Bloggeration!

My personal pet peeve about the Malaysian approach to all Italian food is buying bottled sauces. Some taste alright I suppose but you'd still have to get over that off metallic taste and whatever preservatives they put in. These sauces are also not cheap, ranging anywhere from RM8 to RM10++ per bottle. And as I've mentioned before, more often than not, to offset the cost of the sauce people would buy the frozen 'mistery meat' ground beef to cook with.

So I propose we do the opposite, save on the sauce and get better quality beef. This recipe should be able to serve 5-6 people, as you would expect from a bottled version.

So I'm using about 250g of ground chuck, freshly ground at my supermarket. A can of tomatoes (you can't make sauce with fresh tomatoes, they are not plucked ripe), some herbs and pantry stuff.

I thought I bought the whole tomatoes version (cheaper by about 50 cents) but this will do as well. If you got the whole tomatoes version, just get a fork and mash it up in the can after you've opened it. 

First, sweat half an onion in a little butter. I would use olive oil, but we ran out. As soon as the onion is translucent, pour in the tomatoes and chopped garlic.

I don't fry the garlic in the oil because if it burns, you're going to have very bitter sauce. You'd also get a more pronounced garlic flavour this way. 

Next add in the beef and dried herbs. I'm using the classic trio of oregano, basil and parsley. 1 tbspoon each. You can also add bay leaf and I think sage would go with beef very well too. If you can find fresh herbs, then by all means. But dry keeps better and will always be there when you need it. A pinch of salt and 1 tbsp of freshly ground black pepper. Don't over salt because you can still balance it out at the end of the cooking.

Now the wait. Keep your heat as low as possible and cover. You'd want it to cook at low temperature so that the meat doesn't dry and the sauce doesn't burn. Oh before I forget, you must use a heavy base pot. This type is the most suitable for long slow cooking. I'm using an IKEA pot. Dirt cheap for what you get.

Keep stirring every 15-20 minutes or so and taste once in a while. It shouldn't taste 'beefy' like a steak. The meat and sauce must be fully cooked so that the meat tastes like the sauce and the sauce taste like the meat. That's some mantra.

Serve with pasta and enjoy! I love food that can be eaten with one cutlery.