Bottle gourd stir fry

Filipino cuisine is making waves around the globe which makes me proud.  Just recently, I wrote a post about a pop-up afternoon stand up event in Sydney delighted the palates of the locals with the introduction of classic savoury and sweet Filipino dishes. There's quite a few of these Filipino restaurants now in Sydney and it's getting a good following from locals, not just fellow Filos or Pinoys as we usually called ourselves. 

The well known amongst the community is La Mesa along Goulbourn Street, Haymarket.  It has been around since 2002 and previously located in Dee Why.  In 2012 they moved to Haymarket and have since created a good following of locals and tourists.  The decor is reminiscent of an old fashioned Filipino home - a mix of contemporary and classic Filipiniana decor.  The serving platters are all home-grown Filipino vessels flown from the Philippines. Sizzling Fillo in Lidcombe boasts of authentic Filipino dishes served in big portions enough to share amongst 3-4 people. The place invites locals and those who will travel a few kilometres to partake of the generous servings and Saturday night karaoke.  Eating and singing - two of Filipinos favourite things to do.  Sizzling Fillo also boasts of a regular "boodle feast"- a buffet of selected classics served on "your" table on a bed of banana leaves.



My favourite is Cafe Manila in Kirribilli - a small cozy cafe serving traditional Filipino dishes suited to the western palate - leaning away from traditional starchy dishes and the portions are just right. The interior is very minimalist and the tables are quite small creating an intimate experience for the diners. Chef Ricky Ocampo is always in the house serving up dishes with a smile as if you are a guest at his home. The menu is lean and the food is well presented on the plate.  Chef Ricky is one of local Filipino featured in the SBS Food Safari Filpino Food.


Another one in north shore is Pamana Cafe and Filipino Restaurant in Chatswood.  The place is cafe style with tables for two, up to ten.  The menu is more extensive with a range dishes from breakfast to dinner, entree to desserts -  a variety of traditional Filipino dishes both savoury and sweet.  They also offer "boodle feast" on select days. Although the location is quite away from pedestrian traffic, it has since opening in 2013 gathered a local following.


Now this dish is not something you'd see in any of the menus from these restaurants.  This is a super simple dish that's not worthy of a restaurant feature but definitely worth the 30 minutes that you spend to cook it. The thing with Filipino dishes is, if its easy enough to cook at home, you won't find it at restaurants.  We (Filipinos) when at these restaurants, usually order dishes we seldom cook at home, or not at all.


Bottle gourd is an indigenous vegetable in the East Asian region.  It is commonly called "upo" in the Philippines or calabash in some western countries.  The bottle gourd has a lot of health benefits and in some countries, they juice is used to encourage weight loss.


I love the simplicity of this dish.  Almost pedestrian.  You only need 5 basic ingredients.  And can even make it vegetarian by omitting the pork.


Here goes.

Ingredients

250-300 grams pork, cut into cubes

1 piece bottle gourd, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, sliced

2 tomatoes, sliced

1 cup water

1 tablespoon cooking oil

salt and pepper to taste

fish sauce (optional)

Method

In a medium sized skillet, heat the oil and cook the pork pieces until crispy.  Set aside.

In the same pan, saute the onions and garlic and cook until fragrant, not burned.

Add the tomatoes and stir until soft.

Add the bottle gourd slices and water and bring to boil.

Season with salt and pepper, or fish sauce is using. Season to your taste.

Turn down heat and simmer until the goured is soft and cooked.

Add the crispy pork slices on top.

Disclaimer: The feature on the mentioned restaurants is a simple feedback from the writer's experience dining at these establishments.  Dining at the restaurants were to the writer's own expense.  This is not a paid feature.  The feature is written to assist locals and tourists who may be looking for Filipino restaurants within Sydney metropolitan. 

Asparagus, smoked salmon, lemon and chilli risotto

 

Asparagus is one of the many vegetables I loathed as a child.  I hated the smell.  It doesn't help that it usually came from a can as spears and sometimes as cream of asparagus soup.  You know the brand.  Maybe it was the fact that there was rarely fresh asparagus available where I grew up, or simply because it's another "green" vegetable like brocolli. 

Well, somehow I outgrew that hate.  And these days, when they're available at my local fruit and veg shop or at the markets, they go straight into my market basket.  They're so versatile and so easy to cook. 

As part of the #huonsalmon challenge, I prepared this dish for a Taste of Harmony celebration at work.  We were to bring a dish (or ingredient) that starts with the first letter of our name.  And I chose A for Asparagus.

Ingredients

3 tablespoon light olive oil

 

1 garlic, finely diced

1 medium onion, finely diced

2 cups arborio rice

200 ml white wine

400 ml vegetable or fish stock (or water) 

250 grams Huon Reserve Selection Blacked Spice Hot Smoked Salmon, shredded 

rind of 1 lemon

400 grams asparagus spears, cut into 1.5 cm

2-3 chillies, chopped

1 cup grated parmesan



Method

In a heavy skillet or enameled cast iron pan, heat the olive oil.

Add the garlic and onions and stir until soft.

Add the arborio rice, and stir to coat the rice.

Add the white wine, stirring and let it simmer for a minute until the sauce is reduced.

Turn the heat to a low simmer, add a cup of stock/water and put lid on and let the rice simmer.

Check after 2-3 minutes and if the sauce is reduced, add more stock/water and let it simmer until rice is almost cooked. (if the rice is getting dry, keep adding half a cup of extra stock or water.  Don't let the rice get dried up and burn the bottom of the pan.)

Add the salmon and asparagus, rind of lemon and the chillis. Stir to balance the ingredients evenly in the pan. 

Add 2/3 of the grated parmesan and stir to coat.

Turn off heat and cover.  Let the risotto sit for awhile before serving.

Serve with extra parmesan on top.

This risotto is something I dish up at home on a weekday, using any ingredient on hand (canned tuna sometimes, or just plain vegetables like mushrooms). But this time, it is with the Huon Reserve Selection Blacked Spice Hot Smoked Salmon.  I love the naturally smoked flavour and the combination of native Australian spices.  And it went well at our office Taste of Harmony lunch.  It also helps that it's a simple dish to whip up during Lent.

Disclaimer: The writer (adobo down under) was invited to take part in the #huonsalmon blogging challenge and Huon Aquaculture has provided the products mentioned in this recipe.

Empanadas (empanaditas)

Heirloom recipes.  Do you have those?  Handed and taught down from generation to generation through family members?  

 

 

I don’t have an image of me growing up with my grandmother on one side and mother on another, dabbling with ingredients in the kitchen or making  a mess with flour and sprinkles.

Inay, my grandmother (mother side), was not so much a kitchen person.  She’ll concoct some traditional Tagalog / Filipino dishes every now and then, effortlessly.  The few times she’s in the kitchen, she can work magic with simple ingredients – from scratch.  And I mean from a live chicken to a dish on the table.  That type of cooking.  Other than those few magic moments, she’s really a Martha-Stewart-recycling-DIY-kinda-gal.  She’ll make a “walis ting-ting” – broom made of sticks from dried coconut palm leaves.  She’ll idle away the time making floor rags from old fabrics and old t-shirts.  She’ll clean the hell out of old coffee, jam, peanut butter jars and reuse them as drinking glasses and tumblers at home, she’ll be happily tinkering away the afternoon in her sewing machine. At the best of times, she’d be making mean "pinais na tulingan" (slow braised tuna in tamarind or kamias), tinolang manok with malunggay (native chicken tinola with moringa leaves).  Her cooking was always simple with fresh ingredients and as organic as would be called now. 


Now my grandmother on my father's side is the all the time cook.  Although I have never spent time with her side by side in the kitchen (she's lived in the US since we were born with a few visits in the Philippines while growing up),  I have gotten to know her through her cooking.  The few times she's visited us was always a lesson in the kitchen.  And this is her recipe. One of the dishes she can throw all together in a bowl without batting an eyelash, without measurements, and it always comes out perfect.    And whenever they make this at my aunt's home in NJ, everyone pitches in and make these.

Now like all recipes, as long as you have the ingredients on hand it's really up to you to adjust the quantities as it suits your taste.  The flavour, feel and texture is entirely up to you.  I have tweaked my grandmother's recipe for the filling to suit our preferene at home.

There are two elements to this recipe - the filling and the dough/pastry.   

Ingredients and method for the filling:

 500 grams minced pork (or beef or chicken)

 1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, finely diced

1 large potato, diced

2 medium sized carrots, diced

1 red capsicum, diced

1 stick celery, diced

1 cup frozen green peas

2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

salt and pepper, to taste

vegetable oil

2 teaspoon of chilli flakes (optional) 

In a large skillet or wok, pour about two tablespoons of vegetable oil and heat the pan.

Saute the onions and garlic until soft and fragrant.

Add the minced meat and cook stirring until almost brown, 5-10 minutes

Add the potatoes, carrots, capsicum, celery and cook stirring to coat all the ingredients.

Add soy sauce and season with salt and pepper.

Turn the heat to medium and simmer until meat and vegetables are cooked through, 10-15 minutes.

Add the frozen green peas and sprinkel the chilli flakes if using.

Simmer for another5 minutes then turn off heat.

Spoon onto a large bowl and let it cool.  

Make sure the filling is completely cool before making the empanada/empanaditas.

Ingredientes and method for the  dough:

170 grams butter, cold cut into cubes

3 and 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup cold water

1 beaten egg + 1 tablespoon of water for the egg wash

2 tablespoon milk or water for sealing

Combine all the  dry ingredients in a bowl and rub the ingredients with your hands until it resembles fine crumbs.  Slowly add the water (a little at a time) and continue to mix with your hands until it forms into a ball.

* Alternatively, you can process the butter, flour and sugar in a processor, then slowly pour the cold water until the mixture forms into a ball.

Flatten the dough slightly and chill in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.

Place the dough on a flat surface, and using a rolling pin flatten the dough to abou 1-2 cm thick.  

Cut the dough with a cookie cutter (your desired size - can be bigger or smaller).

Filling the dough:   (see photo below).   

Press on the sides of the dough to slightly thin them out.  Seal one side with milk.

Fill the dough with a tablespoon of the filling.

Slowly pinch the sides to seal the empanada.

Place on the flat surface and using your thumb/finger, press the sides of the empanada.

Further seal the edges with a fork.  Place all finished empanadas on a lined baking tray.

Continue with the other dough/filling.  

Baking the empanadas/empanaditas

Before baking, preheat oven to 180*C.

Brush the empanadas/empanaditas with egg wash.

Bake in the oven until golden, 30-40 minutes. 

 

Tips and tricks

* The butter needs to be cold when making the dough, not softened or melting;

* When making the filling, you can add other ingredients to suit your preference.  You can make it entirely vegetarian too.

* Alternatively, you can also deep fry the empanadas until golden, then drain on paper towels.

* Create small air pockets on the empanadas prior to baking so they don't inflat too much leaving a space between the dough and the filling.  I usually use a small knife or a fork to do this.

* This dough which my grandmother uses does not have the flaky texture when baked.  If you prefer a flaky dough, you will need to roll until thin, fold, then roll, and fold and roll.  The layers from rolling and folding several times creates the layers which results in a flaky dough.

* Some empanada recipes calls for lard and butter combined, which also helps in creating a flaky texture when baked.  Trissalicious shares in her blog a secret for a flaky empanada. 

* Store-bought puff pastry can also be used to make these empanadas.

* They are called empanadas when they are bigger, like the palm of one's hands.  This recipe for empanaditas are bite-sized and a little fiddly to make (photos show scale).  You can always adjust the size to suit your preference.

From Inay Mercedes and lola/grandmother Antonia, this is my heirloom - memories of good old fashion, no-nonsence cooking.  No fancy antique jewelries here, or grand estates. 


And this family recipe, I'll recreate a tradition at home when making this - as these are bite-sized pieces, I'll gather the girls around the table, pinch away dough and seams and filling and sharing stories and creating new memories.

 

Barbecued pork belly cooked in capsicum paste

 

I love a good make ahead recipe.  Especially when it's something that can be used for grilled dishes (like my version of chermoula chicken)  and when it takes me outside of my (Filipino) comfort zone - where the usual marinades consists of soy sauce, vinegar and garlic.  This one caught my eye from the get-go - the small photo in the October 2013 issue of The Sydney Magazine of Mark Jensen's barbecued pork spare ribs was enough to leave me drooling and craving for this dish!  And when that happens, off to kitchen I go.

Red capsicums are a plenty at my local green grocer and they're cheap as! Although they came in different sizes.  But size and shape does not matter that this was on our table for a weenight dinner. It helps that I only work 3 days a week and Mondays and Tuesdays are quiet days to ponder and domesticate myself while the kids are at school and hubby at work. So I prepared the paste a day ahead.

Vibrant red!  They're so pretty!

Oh. The. Smell!  It was divine!!

Now the hero of this dish is the capsicum paste.   You make it a day ahead and it keeps in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (according to the recipe). 

Ingredients:

125g of red capsicum, washed

2 heads garlic

2-3 pieces red chillis

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method

 Preheat oven to 220*C.  

Place capsicums and garlic on a baking tray and roast for 20-30 minutes or until the capsicum skins have blackened.  

Place a rack and leave to cool.

Peel the garlic skins off and place the flesh in the food processor.

Peel and seed the capsicums and add to the food processor with the chillies, salt and pepper.

Process to a smooth paste.

Spoon into sterilised jars and top with olive oil.

Keep in the fridge until ready to use. 

Poured into a sterilised jar and topped with olive oil!

On the ready - to brush onto the pork pieces!

To make the barbecued pork ribs or belly:

1.5 kg of pork belly, sliced 1/2 inch thick strips

Generously rub on pork pieces and leave to marinade in a glass bowl, covered with cling wrap in the fridge - minimum 1 hour (or up to 4 hours)

Heat the BBQ grill or pan-grill and cook away.

Chop into small bite size pieces.

Enjoy with some coriander for garnish.  Serve with a slice of lemon or lime.  Best eaten with lots of rice.

Tips:

* In the recipe, Mark suggested to place the roasted capsicums in a plastic bag for 15-20 minutes.  I guess this makes the skins peel off easily.

* The recipe called for julienned ginger and chilli slices for garnish.

Chicken liver adobo (pate)

This week is another chicken dish, but one that drives close to home - it is an adobo dish.  And involves a favourite of mine - chicken livers.  It's not one though that I always make at home as I'm the only person who eats it.  When my parents were visiting last month, we made this as my father is just a huge fan as I am.  I guess being of the offal category, chicken livers take a bit of effort to like, to love even.  Some get squeamish at the thought, and it was one of the reasons why I never thought of sharing the recipe in the blog.   It is quite an effort to make the photos attractive, so I have discounted the photos from the preparation to the cooking.  Even the cooked dish was not likeable no matter what angle.  So I thought I'd reinvent it a bit and make it pretty.

And I'm sharing the recipe as guest post at Debra's blog The Saffron Girl.

I first met (virtually) Debra through Instragram, following each other's food creations and me drooling at her travel photos.  I now stalk her on Facebook , Pinterest and Twitter. Hahaha!  Debra posts a lot of paleo and gluten-free dishes and I admire the passion she puts into each dish - she does a lot of research and tweaking and reinventing to adapt to her readers. 

I was first drawn to Debra's blog for the Spanish dishes which she makes as ode to her roots.  Why am I drawn to Spanish dishes?  Well, its because (and I have mentioned this in many many posts), it is my dream to travel to Spain and eat and drink and eat and drink and ......  Where did this come from?  I supposed from the history of the Philippines where I grew up and probably because I believe I may be a Spanish senorita in my previous life.  But that's just me. 

When Debra first asked if I'm interested to do a guest post, I was filled with excitement and nervous fear.  As it's something I have never done before, it was kind of daunting like sitting for a finals exam.  It took awhile for this to materialise, but it was actually fun and every bit worth it.

So, hop on down to The Saffron Girl and have a taste of this classic Filipino dish.  Reinvented and prepared for Debra's readers.

Coq au Verdelho (chicken with mushrooms in white wine sauce)

There will be a trend here for the next couple of weeks.  As I have 2 other chicken dishes to post including this one so it shall be declared that chicken shall be the theme!  

Chicken is the easiest poultry and game meat to cook and prepare.  When we were doing the the Poultry and Game module at TAFE,  working with chicken was my least favourite.  Because no matter how many times we have prepped a whole chicken in class, I still can't get my chicken portoins right when at home.  When in class, I amaze myself.  When at home, it seems like a struggle.  I guess the pressure that there is a chef/teacher breathin down my neck helps in the process of making it right the first time. While at home, who cares how the portions look?!  Hahaha!

Ah memories of Kitchen 10, 8 and Kitchen 1.  And since that's all history now, time to move and get planning.     I've learned so much all those times in the TAFE kitchen but somehow in the process, lost my creativity.  When prior to cooking school I would experiment in the kitchen, during the course I was inclined to be more technical.  You know, following recipes to the very detail and focused more on the technical processes and result rather than having a fun time and just letting ingredients flow.  Thankfully, I've regained it all back - being creative in the kitchen when cooking and baking afterall, is the fun part of it all. 

So what to do after a 2.5 years in a culinary school?  Initially, the goal was just to supplement my knowledge of food and cooking at home, and in blogging.  But then, it has pointed me to a different path and so hopefully a food-related business to materialise soon.

In the meantime and in order to get the ball rolling, I have started lunch box delivery to co-workers and hubby's office.  Not a regular market, but a few tubs of lunch a week gets me busy researching and experimenting on what's best to serve my clientele.  I'm focusing more on Asian cuisine, but once in while serve them familiar dishes and classic favourites.  And this one was raved about most. Served with slices of sour dough bread, it was such a hit they have been asking for the recipe.     

And what luck that I found this on Pinterest!  A Nigel Slater recipe posted on Alida Ryder's blog which will make your family and friends happy to lick their plates clean.  Seriously.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large brown onion, finely diced

4-5 pieces rasher bacon, diced

4 garlic cloves, chopped finely

8-9 pieces chicken thighs, on the bone

250 grams button mushrooms, sliced

300 ml Verdelho (or any white wine)

300 ml thickened cream

salt and pepper, to taste

1 bunch flat leaf parsley, coursely chopped

 Method

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and set aside.

Using a large skillet or pan (I used a 30cm large cast iron pan with handles), heat the olive oil.

When oil is hot, brown the chicken pieces in batches.  This will create some caramelisation in the pan.

Once all chicken pieces are browned, set aside on a plate.

Add the onions and bacon to the pan and cook to render fat from the bacon and until the onions are soft.  

Add the garlic and cook for about a minute or until the garlic is fragrant.  Remove the onion-garlic-bacon mixture from the pan and set aside.

 Pour the wine and using a wooden spoon, release some of the caramelisation on the pan.  Let this come to a boil.

Add the chicken pieces into the pan making sure they are spaced out evenly.

Add the onion-garlic-bacon mixture and the mushrooms.

Let this come to a boil, then turn down heat, cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, add the cream and mix it around the pan using your wooden spoon to evenly distribute the cream into the sauce.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and reduced a little.

Add a handful of chopped parsley and stir to combine the greens into the sauce.

Serve portions topped with more chopped parsley, with rice or slices of sour dough bread.

Tips and tricks:

* I omitted the butter from the original recipe as a personal choice.  Also because I was going to keep the tubs in the fridge for the next day's lunch box, I wanted to avoid the buttery residue on the plastic tubs while the dish is cold.

* I used Lucy's Run Verdelho from my sister's trip to the Hunter Valley a week before and was the white wine I had at home at the time.  Nigel recommends any kind of dry white wine.

* You can use any kind of mushroom.  I actually added more as we love mushrooms at home.

 

Now when I said people will lick their plates clean with this one, I'm not kidding.  So if you make this, make sure you have enough sour dough bread or rice (or even mash) to help them clean their plates.   It's really that good!

Spinach balls

After all the Christmas trimmings and tidying up happened there appears to be what now seems to be an empty space in the lounge room.  There was the tree and all the presents underneath.  A tub full of Christmas cards and trimmings.  A box of wrappers and sticky tapes.  Lots of toys scattered about and shoes and lollies if you may.  What used to be a corner full of excitement and chaos and cheer and colour is now empty.  Ah the holidays.  It brings so much excitement that its always bittersweet to part with the spirit and get on back to routine.  When's the next holiday again?

So.  Its the new year and tidying up the trimmings also meant tidying up some electronic backlog.  Photos untouched and recipes left unwritten.  And this post is one of those! I've been meaning to share after meeting the maestro of Italian cooking last October - the other half of the two greedy Italians Antonio Carluccio.

The Maestro is how he is in person as he is on television.  Jolly, unpredictable and full of laughs. He shares a joke or two through out the Sydney World Chef Showcase session I attended and was just as funny as he on stage and face to face, when I had my book signed.  This recipe which he shared and prepared on stage was something he created for a book 25 years ago, but has since used it for many other dishes, including as a vegetarian pasta dish or even layered in a vegetarian lasagna.

To make these spinach balls, I've halved the recipe to make 12 spinach balls. 

You can make 24 balls simply by doubling the ingredient quantities.

(Print the recipe)

250g spinach, washed

1 egg, beaten

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1 clove garlic, finely diced

50g breadcrumbs

25g grated parmesan

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil for shallow frying

Blanch the spinach in a pan of salted boiling water for 2 minutes.  Drain using a colander.

Using your hands, squeeze out the water from blanched spinach.  Then chop the spinach finely.

Place the chopped spinach in a bowl and stir in the rest of the ingredients: salt, pepper, eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan, garlic.  

Mix well until you get a binding consistency - the ingredients are binding together. If the mixture is too wet, add a tablespoon of breadcrumbs.

Roll the mixture into little balls.

Prepare and heat a shallow pan and cover the base with enough olive oil for frying.

Shallow fry the spinach balls in the hot olive oil until golden, 3-4 minutes per side.

Drain on kitchen paper and serve warm (or cold).

These little spinach balls are so good and healthy too! Eaten by themselves or dipped into your favourite sauce (mayo, catsup, sweet chilli sauce, etc) I reckon they're great as appetizers especially during this summer for those backyard parties!  Also a great dish to bring to any party.  Hot or cold, they are divine!  After all, they were created by none other than one of the greatest cooks in this century.

So when's the next holiday again?  How about Australia Day!  These would be great in that picnic basket, don't you think?

Filipino-style spaghetti

Most Filipino dishes are generally a bold mix (or pair) of any two of these: sweet, salty, spicy, sour.   The combination of flavours in a dish extract these basic tastes from the food and then onto your taste buds, and the fusion becomes the standard.  The way it should taste.  Take for example, the sweet rice cupcakes or puto.  They are topped with cheese or salted egg and then served with pork dinuguan (pork black pudding). Pork adobo also becomes an example as the braised pork becomes sweeter as the pork is caramelised with the addition of sugar.  The sweet champorado (chocolate rice pudding) is paired with the salty dried herring There are heaps of dishes that are contrasting in flavour and yet complements each other as a whole. 


Filipino cuisine is unique.  Although the influence on food comes from the different countries who came to occupy the Philippines before  and after the country's independence in 1898.  From Spanish to American dishes, influences from neighbouring Asian countries - Chinese, Thai, Malay, Indian and Japanese.  And the result, is a culinary fusion that sets it apart from any other.  Filipino dishes while sometimes can taste similar to several cuisines, there's always that one ingredient that will make it stand out from the rest. 

Now this spaghetti is unique too.  It has catsup!  And not just ordinary catsup.  It's banana catsup.  It's as Filipino as it can get.  Prepared with pork or beef mince, plus slices of hotdogs, banana ketsup/catsup and some sugar.  It is sweet kind of spaghetti with the  sauce thinned out with some water and further sweetened with the addition of sugar. 

We don't usually prepare this at home, as I find making the classic meat based ragu or bolognese easier and more convenient with common ingredients, i.e. don't have to take a trip to the Filipino shop to get some banana ketsup/catsup.  But this is something common back home.  Why it's even served at the local fastfood chain Jollibee.  And even McDonald's in the Philippines has this kind of spaghetti.    

To make this Filipino style spaghetti: 

(Print the recipe)

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

1 medium sized onion, finely diced

500g beef mince (or pork mince)

4-5 pieces cocktail hotdogs, sliced

140g tomato paste

560g bottle of Jufran or UFC banana catsup

700g bottle of passata (tomato sauce)

4-5 tablespoons of raw sugar

1 cup water

salt and pepper to taste

vegetable oil

Using a large saucepan on medium heat, add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil and then cook the onions and garlic until soft.  

Add the minced meat and cook until brown.  

Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the meat.  

Add the banana catsup, passata (tomato sauce) and the hotdogs and stir. Bring to a boil.

Add the sugar and water and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with spaghetti noodles and top with grated cheese.

I've made this specially for this month's theme at the Kulinarya Cooking Club.  Its not our usual spaghetti dish, but its familiar.  And it strikes close to home.