Sugo d'Arrosto

So I read about this sauce in a book I have and was drooling through the whole chapter. I made some tortellini recently and decided to pair the two, it was filled with chicken and covered in a beefy sauce which I thought might be a bad pairing but it was seriously delicious. I regret nothing!

I changed a couple of things around from the original recipe but I'll just write the original and add my changes in brackets.

Sugo d'Arrosto (Sage and Meat Sauce)

1 tbsp butter
6 large fresh sage leaves
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 (scant) cup grated parmesan

This will make enough for 500g of dried pasta or 4 generous serves of fresh.

Melt butter in a pan, add sage leaves and garlic clove (I used 2 cloves and more sage), brown lightly.

Add broth and simmer for a moment then remove from heat (I added some salt and pepper also and removed the garlic before the next step).

Toss through pasta and parmesan cheese. Enjoy!


Tip: Because the sauce only coats lightly make sure its well seasoned otherwise it will be bland. Also of course home made beef stock is going to be the best but if you want something super easy and quick you could substitute for a good quality store bought liquid stock.

Murtabak

I've been watching lots of masterchef this season and this one dish that was made early on in the competition gave me crazy cravings all the time even though I hadn't eaten it before, it just looked sooo good!

So it's called murtabak and it's a Malaysian street food that consists of a flaky crunchy pastry outside filled with a seasoned mince and egg. I read a few different recipes and adapted one to my needs (what I had in the fridge) and personal preferences.

I'm really excited about how easy this was to make because I always get stuck with what to do with beef mince and end up just using it for bolognese or  chili con carne.

 

Murtabak

Serves 4

Pastry

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup water
2tbsp vegetable oil or ghee
a nice pinch of salt

Filling

vegetable oil
500g beef mince (you could use any kind really)
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 small knob of ginger
1 red chili
3 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
 2 eggs
1 cup bean shoots (I had none)


For the dough, combine oil/ghee and flour in a bowl, mix and gradually add water until you form a smooth but firm dough. Don't add all the water at once as you might not need it all (I didn't). Set the dough aside to rest in the bowl covering with a damp tea towel for at least half an hour (make the filling while you wait).

Tip: It says to rest in a warm area and it was a cold night so I turned my oven on the lowest temp briefly to mimic a hot day, turned it off and left the bowl in there with the door shut while I made the filling. Worked a treat!

For the filling, finely chop onion, garlic, chili and ginger and sweat in vegetable oil, add mince and saute breaking up the pieces until browned. Add ground spices, soy, salt and pepper and toss through. Set aside.

Cut pastry dough in to 4 even portions and lightly oil each portion, roll each piece out as thin as you can and stretch out further if necessary. You want it nearly as thin as filo, don't worry if there are some small holes either, just patch them up.

Crack eggs in to a bowl and beat, set aside.

Place pastry sheet in a hot oiled low sided pan (grill, crepe or just a large frying pan will do) and pile with a quarter of the mince mixture and pour on a quarter of the egg. Fold it up like an envelope and fry for 1-2mins on the first side and a 3-4 on the next.

Cut in half an enjoy with a side salad or on its own with a cold beer!