Have you ever been really cold? Like lots-of-minus-degrees cold? You finally come inside; the fireplace is blazing. You have removed the layers of coats and sweaters, scarves and gloves, and you are standing, hands outstretched, close to that roaring fireplace. At some point your body joyously responds and you feel that first shudder, head to toe, ridding your body of the chill and slowly introducing it to warmth.

We have had some pretty chilly weather here of late. Not ice cold but cold-for-us cold. Yesterday the cold spell turned to plus degrees and today´s temperature is not uncommon for a decent spring day. What I feel like doing right now is being bad, so the last month´s vegetable-based dishes are taking a little break. Today´s blog is all about meat: ground meat.

Ground beef is one of our most popular proteins, both here in Norway and abroad. But what the heck´s wrong with people today? We make third-rate tacos, frying ground beef with powdered “Mexican” spices (full of numbingly stupid ingredients). We proceed to fill a taco shell with this concoction, add some grated cheese, canned salsa and maybe throw in some lettuce.

Ground beef (or ground pork or ground lamb) is at best pretty good stuff. Bad ground beef is like bad anything else, but good ground beef has thousands of potentially tasty uses – yes, including a good taco. Revitalize your gound beef-weary days with a couple of American favorites. Both of these dishes will go a long way to warming you up – body and soul!

Chili Dog (aka Coney Island hot dog)

What do you need for a chili dog? A bun, a dog, some mustard, some chili and a topping of grated cheese and/or chopped onions. Here is the recipe for the chili (let´s just call it chili sauce so as not to confuse it with chili con carne, which is also good on a chili dog but requires more time and effort).

Chili Sauce

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 lb. ground beef

1 Tbs tomato purée

1 Tbs hot dog mustard (such as French´s)

2 ts chili powder

1 ts onion powder

1 ts ground cumin

1/2 ts ground black pepper

1/2 ts dried oregano

3/4 c water

salt

hot sauce

1. Fry the meat in the oil until well-browned.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients (but no salt at this point), bring to a bowl, reduce the heat and let simmer until the sauce has thickened.
3. Season the chili sauce with salt as needed during the thickening process.
4. Add some hot sauce if you want a hotter sauce (get it: hot sauce, hotter sauce).

 

Now, in Norwegian

Chilisausen

1 ss matolje

500 g kjøttdeig

1 ss tomatpuré

1 ss sennep (helst amerikansk, men også greit med Dijon)

2 ts worcestershire-saus

2 ts chilipulver (vanlig ”butikk-chilipulver”)

1 ts løkpulver

1 ts malt spisskummen

1/2 ts kvernet sort pepper

1/2 ts tørket oregano

2 dl vann

salt

Tabasco eller liknende saus

1. Stek kjøttdeig i olje til den har fått en fin brun farge.
2. Tilsett resten av ingrediensene, kok opp, reduser varmen og småkok til sausen tykner.
3. Smak til for salt underveis.
4. Tilsett litt tabasco hvis du vil ha en litt sterkere saus

 

More ground beef

Another great use of ground beef is that delicious mess of a sandwich called a Sloppy Joe. Grab a hamburger bun, a pita bread or a piece of baguette, and fill it up with som Joe.

Sloppy Joe

2 Tbs vegetable oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1/4 large red bell pepper, chopped

1/4 large green bell pepper, chopped

1 lb. ground beef

1 small boks of canned tomatoes

1 Tbs red wine vinegar

1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs brown sugar (cut it out if you think you´re on a diet)

hot sauce

1. Heat up the oil in a frying pan.
2. Sauté the onion and peppers (seasoned with a touch of salt and pepper) until soft.
3. Add the ground beef and fry until the meat is browned.
4. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, Worcestershire, brown sugar and a couple of shakes of the hot sauce bottle, og cook for 5 more minutes.
5. Season with salt and pepper and more hot sauce if necessary.

 

Og den norske oppskriften:

Prøv denne deilige sandwichen til lunsj eller som en kur for bakrus. Server kjøttblandingen på hamburgerbrød, inni pitabrød, eller i nystekte baguetter.

Når du først spiser en Sloppy Joe, vil du fort forstå hvorfor den heter – i hvert fall – sloppy. Joe-biten er ikke så farlig, men servietter er et must.

Sloppy Joe

2 ss matolje

1/2 løk, hakket

1/4 rød paprika, hakket

1/4 grønn paprika, hakket

salt og kvernet sort pepper

500 g kvernet kjøtt (aka kjøttdeig …)

1 boks hakkede tomater

1 ss rødvinseddik

1 ss worcestershiresaus

1 ss brunt sukker

Tabascosaus eller annen god hot sauce

1. Varm oljen i en stor stekepanne.
2. Fres løken og paprikaen (med litt salt og pepper på) i oljen i 2 minutter på passe sterk varme.
3. Tilsett kjøttet og stek til kjøttet er brunet.
4. Tilsett tomater, eddik, worcestershiresaus, brunt sukker og litt tabasco, og kok i 5 minutter til.
5. Smak til med salt og pepper, og ev. litt mer tabasco hvis ønskelig.