Images Vegetarian Minced Meat with Mango

Vegetarian Minced Meat with Mango

I had with me an unripe mango...well, not as ripe as I want it to be anyway.

So, I scoured the internet for a recipe and found one for Pork Mango Picadillo from Simply Recipes. It looked fabulous.
 
I didn't have a number of the ingredients on hand so I used whatever I could find in my kitchen. That's how I landed myself with a vegetarian dish. This is how I did it, but do check out the original recipe!

Ingredients:
- 1 slightly unripe mango (cubed)
- 1 large onion (sliced)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 6 baby cut carrots (sliced into threes)
- 4 cherry tomatoes (halved)
- 1 can meatless spaghetti minced sauce
- 4 tbsp tomato puree (from can)
- 1 tbsp blended fresh chilli
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground sweet cinnamon
- A pinch of salt and black pepper
- A pinch of dried rosemary
- Fresh coriander (chopped)
- 2 tbsp cooking oil

How-to:
1) Heat oil in electrical multi cooker. Add onions and garlic. Give it a quick stir-fry and let it brown a little.

2) Then, add carrots, tomatoes and tomato puree, chili, ground coriander and cinnamon. Stir well and simmer with some water until carrots are cooked.

3) Add meatless sauce. Season with black pepper and salt. Stir and once it begins to boil, add in the mango.

4) Leave it to cook for awhile. You're done when the mango is slightly tender.

5) Serve with rice and garnish with coriander.

What I got was a saltish, sour, spicy dish. That hint of sourness hits the tongue only when you bite into a piece of mango. I don't know about you but to me, this is a definite appetite booster!

Cooking carrots in a tomato based sauce

The "pretend" minced meat

In goes the mango

A perfect blend of sour, salty and spicy!

Images Shepherd's Pie - Cream Corn Style

Shepherd's Pie, also known as Cottage Pie, is probably one of the easiest pies to make. It's basically meat pie with a mashed potato crust on top. No flour based pastry required. Like! I know this isn't Facebook but I had to say it.

I was left with half a can of cream corn when I used half to make soup earlier. And I figured I should clear it off before it stays too long in the fridge. I have this habit of keeping too many things in there - waste not, being the motivation.

But I have been keeping track of my fridge hoarding activities! I contain it by making a conscious effort to include leftover cooking ingredients into the pot even though the recipe does not call for it. I've now come to realise that this is good practice and I don't need a bigger fridge after all.

Ingredients:
- 3 large potatoes (more or less, enough to cover the bowl/s, skinned)
- 1 tbsp salted butter
- 3 tbsp milk

- ½ can sweet corn cream style (425g can)
- 1 tbsp whole kernel corn (can)
- 200g minced beef
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 tbsp cooking cream
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- Pinch of salt and pepper

How-to:
Corn Filling
1) Heat cooking oil in pan. Add chopped garlic. Give it a quick stir-fry.
2) Once you can smell the garlicky aroma, pour in sweet cream corn, cooking cream, whole kernel corn and minced beef.
3) Stir until meat is cooked. Don't let it dry out, add water if necessary.
4) Season with salt and pepper and you're done.

Mashed Potato Top
1) Boil potatoes until tender. Then, mash until fine.
2) Stir in butter and milk.

To assemble, pour the filling into a baking dish (not too high - leave some space for the topping). Lay the mash potato on top or pipe it on (I used an icing bag). Bake until lightly browned which took me about 30 minutes at 180c.

Minced meat and corn in cream

Potato piped on - Into the oven it goes!

 

Mmmm..mmm..yum!

Nom nom nom