I’ve adapted this to suit my pocket and tastes and reduced the quantities. Serves about 3 with rice or in wraps with cheese, lettuce, sour cream, more ketchup and mustard. It’s also a delight with tortilla chips or actual chips (i.e. fries).

Ingredients

• 500g minced beef. My Sainsbury’s dumps packets of this that have reached their sell-by date cheap on a Saturday afternoon, I buy & freeze.
• 1 beef stock cube (I use Knorr).
• 1 finely-chopped white onion.
• 2 minced cloves of garlic.
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 large can of Sainsbury’s Basics Lager. It’s 2% abv (steady now) and tastes like weak apple juice but it’s only about 50p a can and works brilliantly in this recipe.
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin.
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander.
• 1 teaspoon each of chilli flakes, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika.
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano.
• 1 tablespoon of pickled jalapeños, finely chopped – more to garnish.
• Large squirt of Heinz tomato ketchup – more to garnish.
• Large squirt of French’s American Mustard – more to garnish.
• Salt and pepper.

Method

Fry the onions gently in some vegetable oil, add the garlic and remove when they start to brown. Fry the minced beef with the tomato puree until browned all over. Crumble in the beef stock cube and then deglaze with the beer. Add all of the other ingredients, stir, topping up with hot water if needed. This is a wet chili. Leave to simmer for at least an hour, preferably longer, adding water if it looks like it’s getting too dry. Serve with tortilla chips, wraps, fries, rice, cheese, sour cream, whatever. It is totally amazing.

• 800g beef brisket
• 2 red peppers
• 1 red onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• half tsp smoked paprika
• 2 fresh red chillis
• 1 beef stock cube or pot
• 1 can of cooking beer
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp French’s American mustard
• fresh coriander leaves
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Put the oven on at 200 C. Cut deep slices into the brisket. Rub the spices with salt & pepper into the meat. In a casserole fry the chopped onion until translucent, then add the garlic and sliced peppers and thinly sliced red chillis. Cook for a bit longer on a low heat, then whack the heat up and fry the brisket. Then add the tinned tomatoes, beer, beef stock, ketchup, tomato puree, mustard and bring to the boil. If needed, top up with water. Put a lid on, turn the over down low (I went down to 100C) and leave in there for 3 or 4 hours.

Then remove the meat, put the sauce on the stove and simmer vigorously to thicken, adding the vinegar and chopped coriander. Pull the beef apart with a couple of forks, and re-immerse in the liquid.

Serve in wraps, with rice, grated cheese and sour cream. Delicious!

Whilst cooking this, I also invented Tequila Rice. I can confirm that tequila does not add enough flavour to rice to warrant flambé-ing half your hair off.

Serves 1 adult, 2 teenagers & 1 child.

Ingredients:

• 400g good quality pasta (I used De Cecco miniature penne)
• 23 frozen Ikea meatballs
• 1 tin of plum tomatoes
• splash of Worcestershire sauce
• teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
• half an onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 fat clove of garlic
• heaped teaspoon of sugar
• squirt of Heinz tomato ketchup
• half a bottle of red wine
• half a Knorr beef stockpot thingy
• 1 tablespoon of plain flour
• half teaspoon each of chilli powder, dried oregano, dried thyme
• salt, pepper
• some fresh basil & parmesan to garnish

Put the oven on – 225 degrees C – for the meatballs.

Finely chop the onion and fry on a low heat in the oil. As it starts to colour, add the garlic, chilli powder, thyme and oregano. Fry for another minute or so, taking care the garlic doesn’t burn. Slowly add the wine and then the beef stock cube. Add a can of tomatoes and a can of water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer for 5 or 1o minutes and add the Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, small amount of salt, pepper, sugar. Then add the sieved flour, and when you are happy everything is  cooked, blitz with a hand-blender. Check the seasoning, add ketchup to taste. Simmer and reduce for 15 minutes or so while you cook the pasta on the stove and meatballs in the oven.

You should end up with a thick, rich sauce. When the meatballs are cooked, plop them in the sauce pan (hey, I wonder if that’s where the name comes from…) so they soak up that umami-rich loveliness. Dish up a portion of pasta on each plate, add meatballs & sauce on top, garnish with shaved parmesan and fresh basil. EAT.

Praise be to @ginandting for alerting me to the savoury possibilities of chollah bread. I couldn’t find chollah buns locally, but Waitrose in Beckenham sell delicious big chollah loaves. Chollah is a sweet, soft bread, almost like brioche but a bit finer and firmer.

Tonight we used thickly-sliced chollah for our burgers – home-made, of course, topped with melted cheese, home-made dill pickles, secret sauce*, lettuce, tomato and a sliver of onion. By popular consent – the best burgers I’ve made yet.

@ginandting also tells me, chollah bread is amazing for a bacon sandwich. Not exactly kosher, but it’s got to be tried.

Only one problem – which IPA to wash them down with..?

We also tried making Byron-style courgette fries to this recipe from Domestic Sluttery. They were ok, but not as nice as Byron’s. I think they must use a herb or spice I haven’t yet identified.

*secret sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise, Heinz tomato ketchup and French’s American Mustard. It’s the business on burgers. But don’t tell anyone – IT’S A SECRET.

• 500g brisket
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika – must be smoked, this is a key ingredient
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• veg stock powder
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• small amount of chopped fresh coriander

Put the oven on – about 150 degrees C, or lower perhaps.

Score lines in the brisket. Season with salt & pepper and rub in the cinnamon, cumin, paprika and oregano. Brown the meat in a slug of olive oil a hot casserole on the hob. While it’s searing, in a small saucepan boil the chopped red pepper, bay leaf, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and stock made up with some boiling water – you need enough liquid to cover the meat.

Then add the onion to the meat and cook for about 5 minutes on the hob until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato sauce from your other pan to the meat, and put the casserole in that low oven – or on a low heat on the hob if you like. I cooked mine in the oven at 150 C for about 2 hours, then I cooked it for another half an hour on the hob with the lid off to thicken it up a bit. You could probably cook it for longer at a lower heat and get even better results.

When the meat is ready, pull it apart with a pair of forks. It should just fall apart. Adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and a small amount of red wine vinegar to taste. Remove the bay leaf. Add chopped fresh coriander and serve on warm tortilla wraps with grated cheese, lettuce, rice &c.

The orginal recipe uses fresh red chillis, but I find the spices, especially the smoked paprika, give it enough kick. My middle son loves heat, so we let him add Barefoot Kitchen Habanero sauce to taste – you won’t need much!

This is a great, easy, delicious stew – just fry some onions and sage in a casserole, bung in some diced stewing beef, root vegetables (I use parsnips, swede, carrots, potatoes), red wine and beef stock. Cook for an hour ar 160C, then leave in the oven for a few hours on a low heat, say just over 100C. Melty meat, warms the soul. I make a veggie version too – replace the meat with some beans, and the beef stock with veggie stock.

Serves 4.

• 500g best quality minced beef
• salt & pepper
• 4 good quality buns – I used Sainsbury’s Pain Rustique rolls.
• 2 large green chillis
• butter
• Heinz tomato ketchup
• French’s mild American mustard
• cheese – I used Gruyère
• shredded lettuce
• some dill pickles – preferably home-made.
• chips, if you like

Finely chop the deseeded green chillis, and fry in butter. Set aside.

To make the burgers, simply combine the minced beef with salt and freshly ground pepper. Shape into patties. Fry on the hot, flat frying pan you cooked the chillis on. Try to ensure there’s some pinkness left inside. Melt the cheese on the burger as it cooks.

Split the buns and lightly toast on a hot griddle. Butter the halves with ketchup and mustard, add the burger, the cooked green chillis, lettuce and dill pickle.

This was better than BK. It was better than GBK. It was better than my Buzz Burger. I have no idea if it was better than Meateasy, but it was the best beef burger I have ever had, bar none. It’s a revelation that a burger made with 100% beef can taste so good – all down to the alchemy of the ketchup, American mustard and those fried chillis.

(C doesn’t eat meat, so I made her these veggie burgers instead).

We made veggie ones and steak ones. Both use the sneaky salsa (below) though this time we left out the ketchup and used lime juice instead of lemon.

Veggie burrito filling:
Get a carton of black beans from Sainsbury’s. Fry an onion, garlic and finely chopped fresh red chilli until the onion is translucent. Add the beans with the juice. Simmer for 20 mins. I can’t begin to explain how tasty these simple ingredients are – this is culinary alchemy of which Frank Bath would be proud (Georgina knows what this means even if no-one else does!)

Carnivore burrito filling:
Fry a chopped onion. Thinly slice steak, garlic, fresh chilli and chuck them in, fry until brown. Add a dash of Worcester sauce, Tabasco sauce and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Assemblage
Warm some soft tortilla wraps in a dry pan. Add sliced lettuce, your filling of choice, grated cheese, sneaky salsa, sour cream, rice, whatever you fancy. Enjoy. We did.

Lancashire Hotpot is traditionally made with lamb, but this hotpot variation calls for beef.

- Some diced stewing steak. About 500g.
- Potatoes – loads.
- One onion.
- Half a pint of red wine.
- Veggie stock cube (optional).

Preheat the oven to 170c.

Peel the spuds and cut them into chunks about the same size as the pieces of your meat.

Coarsely chop the onion.

Throw the meat, potatoes and onion into a large pot.

Pour in the wine and top up with boiling water. Add the stock cube if you want.

Put the lid on the pot and leave in the oven for three hours. I usually take it out and give it a stir once an hour, but there’s really no need to!

Serve while piping hot. You can garnish with beetroot, and it’s also really good with some biscuits of shortcrust pastry to help mop up the juice.

I think it’s a great dish for this time of year. It’s lovely to put on before going to see a fireworks display. When you come back home the delicious smell will meet you at the front door, and the meal will warm you all up again. If there are any left-overs it’s just as good reheated in a saucepan the next day!