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Jingsamichty

I work away a lot so am a great fan of simple 'one-pot' quick dinners. The above anchvoy/pilchard dishes sound great, not dissimilar to a regular of mine which I imaginatively call "Rice & Mackerel & Peas"...

One cup of rice
One veggie stock cube
Two cups boiling water

Add the water to the rice and stock cube, leave to simmer with the lid off. Do not stir, just let the water absorb.
Once the rice is cooked, stir it to fluff it up and add a tin of peas or a big handful of frozen peas, allow to warm through.

Flake up 2 peppered mackerel fillets and stir through the rice & peas. You now have Rice & Mackerel & Peas.

Add a big squirt of sriracha sauce to finish, et voila! 10 minutes start to finish.

Millhouse

Jingsamichty

I thought the brief was "quick, midweek, can't-be-bothered-cooking meals..."

scrubbedexpat141

Jamie Oliver made good money out of a 5-ingredient cook book. It's alright too, even though they all use more than 5 because the 'pantry list' is a dozen pages.

It's anything anyone is willing to share with the crowd. I'm not judging anyone who eats tinned fish, that's up to them....but I can replace whatever a pilchard is with chicken or beef or something so the recipes still have great value

Also, anything that has a step containing "a big squirt of Sriracha" is a ****ing winner in my books.

Millhouse

scrubbedexpat141

It's just the greatest.

Spag bol is an all time favourite of mine. Unfortunately the mrs isn't a big fan but when she goes away or I have a clear night it's on the menu without fail.

Millhouse

scrubbedexpat141

You also can't really **** it up and have free reign to go wild. I chuck in all sorts of shit from time to time and have probably never, ever made a real Italian bolognese sauce.....but who cares.

My assistant at work sometimes struggles to articulate certain things to me, which is fine and leads to some amusing conversations. She never fails to understand me though - you clearly aren't employing the louder, shoutier, swearier option enough (caveat: never any of those things at her, she's an angel, but demonstrating upset at another idiot means she focuses double hard).

Millhouse

I really like mine, she is fun and works very hard. Years of being abused by locals mean she has very low expectations and therefore high degrees of happiness in the millhouse household - a specific requirement when we were looking for an FHM (filipina housemaid). She also loves cooking (was initially terrible but since I've laminated the menu cards she has become super confident and great) - she even made a very passable roast with proper potatoes last night. I'm a firm believer in that you catch more flies with honey so am always super nice to her - but she's been warned by my wife that deep down I am actually an asshole so always better to not abuse the kindness.

scrubbedexpat141

Great work. I agree with that attitude too. The girls at work would go way above and beyond if we ever needed and are just a pleasure to be around. Giving them a happy environment, treating them well, ensuring they get good bonuses, buying birthday and Xmas gifts, being polite, being considerate....all that bollocks. It means we get it back in spades.

flies with honey - hadn't heard that in a while. Will keep that in mind a bit more as I'm getting grumpier at work.

IKnowNothing

For Bol sauce, what mince do you use? For me it's pork and chicken, the fattiness of the pork makes up for the non-fatty chicken.

I don't use beef for that, I see it as a waste.

PS, for my supper tonight, I'm having cauli, black pepper and some butter, that's it.

DXBtoDOH

Cooking is pretty easy, isn't it. Waitrose, microwave/pot of boiling water, two minutes later you're done.

Forsu

Use little to NO water, let the lamb stew in its own juice on low heat. Additional liquid will come from the onion, tomatoes and a squeeze of lemon. Taste the difference.

scrubbedexpat141

I use beef generally....however, I'm under the understanding pork is better and have used it a few times, or as a mix with beef. I've even used sausage meat before as a pork mince substitute.

Chicken mince with a shit load of taco seasoning, served with some sweetcorn mix (made at home in minutes: sweetcorn, red onion, peppers, jalapenos, literally anything else you fancy) and some rice. LOVELY.