the monkey trial

Do you ever find yourself full of the urge to feed people you really like? Well, I do. And I frequently find myself full of the urge to feed people who randomly do nice things for me, like creating excellent fanworks and sharing them on the internet free of charge. Which means, flist, that I am frequently full of the urge to feed someone in here something really tasty. And because this is the Internet, I can't, and that's a very frustrating and a difficult thing for me. So as a way of getting this out of my system (and also, perhaps more importantly, as a way of ordering my hopelessly messy index card system), I have decided that from time to time I will post my favourite recipes in here. Nothing I make is very fancy, but I can promise that it will all taste good. Unless otherwise indicated, all of the recipes you'll see here are original.

For those of us living in places which are getting cold weather right now (or for anyone who's just feeling carnivorous today), here is my very favourite meat sauce recipe. If I do say so myself, I think it lives up to its name. 

If you are not from a place which measures paprika using Tablespoons (Tbs), I'm sorry! If it helps you with the spices, 1 tablespoon is about 1/3 the size of a chicken's egg. In any case, the following measurements are very approximate. Smell your spices before you add them, and you should be fine. 

Combine the following in a big pot, using enough oil that everything is coated:

-Plain cooking oil (I used about 4 Tbs olive oil, and a little water so it wouldn't be too greasy)
-1 or 2 onions, chopped
-6-7 cloves garlic, minced 
-1 Tbs black pepper, ground
-2 Tbs whole caraway seed, or 1.5 Tbs ground
-1.5 Tbs whole cumin seed, or 1 Tbs ground
-4-5 Tbs dried oregano, or a little more than that if it's fresh
-2 Tbs whole fennel seeds
-Sweet-hot peppers of some kind: Dutch, etc; or else powdered cayenne. Add to taste, but cautiously! Start small. 
-2 Tbs ground paprika

Cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and sort of translucent. Then add the following and cook on slightly higher heat: 

-Chopped veg: I used 2 medium-sized carrots and 2 medium-sized green bell peppers, but celery would also be good
-Around 3/4 of a pound of ground beef

When the beef is mostly cooked and the veggies are starting to get tender, add in:

-Tomatoes, diced (canned or fresh are fine; I used a can measuring 28 fluid oz) 
-Kalamata-style or other black olives, chopped -- be generous with these, and you won't regret it; I used roughly 1/3 lb. (Also, do yourself a favour and stay away from the gross bland kind that taste like salted clay.)
-Pine nuts, though other nuts might be tasty too; I think next time I'll try this with sunflower seeds or pistachios

Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until everything is soft and the liquid content is just slightly soupier than you want it to be (it will become slightly less so as it cools down). Top with grated parmesan cheese, if you swing that way, or salt if you don't. 
 

Serve on pasta, preferably with some steamed greenstuff or a big salad. Awesome. It also freezes really well, if you're like me and need to put something aside for exam week.