Mincing About

My chest freezer is running low and I still have a week to go until my next F&B visit (never fear – my order went in today).  Luckily we’re not at all adverse to eating less meat when the well is running dry.  I’d rather eat ethically raised meat a lot less often than intensively raised meat always.  Meat is a privilege my friends, not a right (step away from the soapbox FBJ!)

So on taking stock I realised there was only mince* left (oh, and maybe some giant mud crabs from when the Wee Girl was in Darwin last and went out crabbing with her grandfather).  So I sat there wondering what new and exciting dishes I could do with mince as I didn’t feel like spag bol or all those other standard mincey type dishes.  Then, a brain wave! What about Mapo Tofu‽‽ I love Mapo Tofu but needed a great recipe.  So many thanks to Not Quite Nigella who supplied the translated Iron Chef Mapo Tofu recipe on her blog.  It was delicious and incredibly simple.  In fact the dish cost $15 for six serves (excluding the meat which I already had) so three serves for dinner and three serves for our lunch boxes.  There was a bit of fiddling at the start, you buy normal (not silken) tofu and gently simmer it for 8 – 10 minutes in a saucepan.  Once it was drained it sat flaccidly in the bottom of the colander like a sulking milky jellyfish, quietly waiting to be added back to the dish as the star of the show.  All of the other ingredients are mixed together in various groups then the whole lot is quickly cooked in the trusty wok.  I won’t go through the whole thing, just pop over to NQN and check out her recipe plus beautiful pictures.  I did however deviate slightly – I added a handful of rehydrated shitake mushrooms to the dish, not entirely traditional, but entirely fabulous.  I also doubled the recipe to ensure there was enough for lunch.

Speaking of beautiful pictures, I have high hopes of soon including pictures in my blogs.  I beggared myself to purchase a lovely Canon Eos for Himself for his birthday so with any luck he’ll turn into some kind of amazing food photographer and I can reach the dizzying heights of more than six followers too…  Currently the camera’s been sitting lonesome like beside the lounge waiting for the Olympics to finish and Himself to have more in his life aside from watching every moment of the sporting action he can possibly fit in to each evening.  But still, I’m eager for good photographic things to come.

Actually, talking about costs and counting down to next pay day, I needed to do an el cheapo week this week.  Including the tofu dish I’ve planned four dishes (including lunch for three of those days) for $55.  That’s right people - $2.60 per person per meal for seven meals (four lunches and three dinners).  Okay so don’t think that’s how much it really costs, I didn’t have to factor in pantry/freezer items but essentially we’re going with two vegetable only dishes (not vegetarian dishes thankyouverymuch!) one meat dish (the divine Mapo) and one dish with tinned tuna (Salad Niçoise).  I planned the salad for Thursday night so I can do a Friday (pay day hooray!) lunch order.  Himself eats out on Thursday lunch but he just carries his lunch over until Friday - it’s a win-win.  Also on the menu is cream of tomato soup (I’m not precious I used tinned tomatoes, not fresh, as I hate peeling tomatoes to be honest) and the family favourite, eggplant pasta from Jamie’s Dinners cookbook…

I’m really counting down to lunch time I have to say. Bring on round two of the Mapo Tofu…

*I love mentioning mince; Himself will mince around the house for about 5 minutes after the word is mentioned… every time… I try to mention it often.