Cooking with Uri: Bolognese

So, for today's cooking session we will need the following ingredients:

- 1 kg mixed ground meat (beef and pork)
- 2 onions (or 4 if you use the tiny ones like I do)
- 2 carrots
- 2 celery stalks
- 200 ml dry red wine (preferably a Chianti)
- 1–2 cans of tomatos (pelati, pre-pealed)
- 750 ml beef stock
- tomato paste
- 1–10 cloves of garlic (depends on your gusto, I used 5 )
- a single leaf of laurel
- 1/4 of a bunch of flat leaf parsley
- 1/4 of a bunch of marjoram
- 5 thyme sprigs
- basil
- 4 EL of olive oil
- freshly ground pepper
- Salt



Our tools:

- a big pot
- a frying pan
- a cutting board
- a sharp knife

We will start by washing and cutting our vegetables (Carrots, Celery and Onions). We want really small dice so we are going to use the Brunoise technique here. This basically means to make really thin slits (Julienne) and then dice these slits. It's not easy to explain this with words so here are 2 pictures and I've also found 2 little videos showing both techniques.





The vegetables should look like this when you've cut them:



Julienne:
http://www.effilee.de/wissen/Julienne.html
Scroll down to get to the video

Brunoise:
http://www.effilee.de/wissen/Brunoise.html

Well, now that we have diced the carrots, the celery and the onions we open the cans and chop the tomatoes. No need to pay attention to shapes or sizes. Just pour the whole content of the cans in a bowl or something, cut the tomatoes and pour that into the big pot. Add the spicery (garlic, thyme, marjoram, parsley, laurel and basil) and the beef stock to the pot, add salt and pepper and boil it up.

Important:
The good thing about parsley is that you can use both the leaves and the stipe, just cut them up really small. Don't do that with the marjoram though, only use the leaves.
If you are using fresh basil like I do, add a whole stipe (either throw in the whole stipe or just the leaves. Throwing in the whole stipe makes it easier to get it out later, if you want to do that). If you are using dried up basil, use only a teaspoon full.

Now turn the heat under the pot down a little and turn your attention towards the meat. Put the ground meat into a bowl, add salt and pepper and knead it. Repeat that 3 times to make sure that every single gram of the meat is salted and peppered.



Now take the pan, add some olive oil (roughly 3 table spoon full) and heat it up. Now remember: Don't overdo it with the heat! Otherwise you would destroy the antioxidants in the oil (for example vitamin E).

Now add the ground meat, but not all of it at once. Roast it in small portions and put the portions in the big pot when they look like this:



Remember, we are trying to make real Bolognese here. No meat balls.

When you are done with the meat, put the vegetables in the pan and let them sweat for a short time. Then you put them in the pot.



Now put 3 tablespoon full of tomato paste in the pan and let it roast for a moment. Then deglaze it with the wine and let it boil away for a moment. Keep stirring until the wine - tomato paste mixture reaches an even consistency.



Then pour it in the pot and stir well.

Turn the plate down to lowest heat level and put on the lid like this:


Let it simmer for 3 hours, check the 'water-level' every now and then and stir while you are at it. When the sauce get's short on 'water' just add some beef stock (not too much!).
After the three hours remove the laurel, the thyme and any pieces of tomato peel, season the sauce to taste and.. done!



Now all we need is some pasta and a wine glass and we are ready for some awesome tongue and palate pleasure!



See you next time!

Note to self: time to throw that advent wreath away...




Recipe found on www.rezeptewiki.org:
http://www.rezeptewiki.org/wiki/Bolognese

Some minor adjustments made by me.

PS: It is almost impossible to find a kitchen themed anime/manga style drawing that doesn't include inappropriate amounts of female nudity.