[Chris]

Bhan Thai's on Rose Street.

I had a couple of superb cajun beef skewers from the butchers on chattan place last night. Grilled them, then served with some spicy mash. Awesome.

Made some spaghetti and meatballs earlier in the week that would have been awesome if I hadn't left it on too high and burnt it. I blame Fallout 3 for distracting me.

Anyway the secret to that dish was the sauce, which is basically the same basic sauce I use for bolognese and chilli dishes but with additions depending on the specific dish. It's pretty simple, easy to customise to your own tastes and much better than the stuff you buy in jars:

1 onion diced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, smashed/ground so they're a juicy mess
heaps of salt, pepper and oregano. Don't skimp on the pepper!
Ideally half a jar of Passata, but Asda are shit and only sell their own jars now which are full of garlic and herbs that I don't want. So a tin of chopped tomatoes will do.
1 beef oxo cube
pinch or two of sugar
tomato paste
small glass of red wine, port or some balsamic vinegar (depends what I've got in the flat)

In a large pan on a high heat, brown off the meat, chuck in the onion and garlic until soft (don't burn the garlic).
Add a decent squeeze of tomato paste and stir it in so it cooks off for a few minutes.
Throw in the seasoning and any spices if you're doing a hot dish. Also crumble in the oxo cube at this point (purists may not like this, it's a total cheat but I don't care).
Add the sugar then the wine/port/vinegar and give it all a god stir round.
Finally add the passata/tomatoes, give it one final stir and then turn the heat right down as low as you can get it and put the lid on the pan.
Go and do something else for at least an hour, stirring occasionally is ok but shouldn't be necessary as long as the heat isn't too high.
If I'm cooking chilli I'll add some rinsed kidney beans half an hour before serving. Just before it's ready I'll also stir in a good load of basil.

Once it's ready the sauce should be nice and rich and meat will be soft and tender. If not just leave it on the heat until it is then serve with your spaghetti, rice or whatever.