Hello, how are we? I hope the weather isn’t getting you down too much. It’s been a nightmare here in (not so) sunny South Wales. We’ve almost had four seasons in one day at one point this week.
I’ve had a nightmare two months, I know I seem to always moan to you all but I’m sure you don’t mind… or at least I hope you don’t anyway lol. In the last two months my chair has been in for repair for a week, my car has been over a month in for repair because of incompetence by the dealership and work and politics are manic.
So with all that going on, and what seems like a never disappearing headache I decided with the help of one of my carers to cook Beef Burritos. Now I’m not going to lie, I have no flipping clue what a Burrito is, or at least I didn’t have until I wrote this! The thing is see, I didn’t have any when I cooked this recipe hence the Burritoless Beef Burritos title.
My recipe is loosely based on the Easy Beef Burritos recipe from the BBC Good Food Website. It’s an adaptation, you know me I try and make it my own
The Recipe
To make this recipe I used:
- 500g Beef Mince
- 2 Red Onions
- Rapeseed Oil
- Pinch Golden Caster Sugar
- 4 tsp Lazy Garlic
- 2 x heaped tsp Ground Cumin
- 2 x heaped tsp Ground Coriander
- 1 x heaped tsp Dried Oregano
- 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- Red Kidney Beans
- Tinned Tomatoes
- White Balsamic Vinegar (not pictured in shot)
- Salt and Pepper
I didn’t have white wine vinegar or cider vinegar I’m ashamed to say, because I don’t cook (at all) so much these days my pantry supplies have run down… it could be the fact that my mother keeps using stuff!
First thing you need to do is chop the onions, the original recipe calls for one onion but the onions I had were small so I’ve finely chopped two.
Next organise your spices, I used four teaspoons of Lazy Garlic, the original recipe called for four cloves. Again, the original recipe called for a tablespoon each of Ground Coriander and Ground Cum, I’ve used two heaped teaspoons. I’ve used a teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper (or just under) and a teaspoon of Dried Oregano. You know I’m not one for spice but the spices I used were so old I wondered if Noah had them on his Ark! Because I don’t cook now the spices have been sat there doing nothing chilling out on their own… I’m too tight to replace them, plus I don’t like food waste.
Heat the oil in a frying pan, ok you know I didn’t use a frying pan I used my wok… my favourite pan in my kitchen! Once the pan is hot add the onions and fry for, well as long as it takes to soften them, I fried them for around 8 minutes.
Then add the garlic and gave that a stir for a minute or so then add the spices and the Oregano. I cooked them for a couple of minutes, just long enough to make sure they didn’t start to catch.
Add the mince to the pan and break it up, cook on a high heat sitrring regularly until it’s browned. At this point I feel it’s important to keep stirring it so that all the spices and herbs get to know the meat, there’s nothing worse than being at a party where you don’t know all the guests.
This is what it looked like after the mince had browned and all the ingredients had got to know each other… now we’ve got ourselves a party! I will apologise for the guest appearance of my upside-down foot in this picture, I may run a competition “spot the upside-down feet” in the future, who knows! At this point I turned the heat down, two reasons it needed to simmer and I was also flipping hot!
Let’s talk vinegar, the recipe calls for White Wine Vinegar or Cider Vinegar… I had neither! The one bottle I had (pictured in the ingredients photo) was manky because it was 350 years out of date! I did (my carer did) however, find some white balsamic vinegar which I used instead, worked fairly well in my opinion.
Next add the tinned tomatoes (and rinse the can out with some water) and 1 tablespoon of the vinegar. Stir those through thoroughly (that’s alliteration for you there) and let them simmer for 5-8 minutes.
We all have that one friend who arrives late at a party, mine knows who he is… I’m not naming names, I wouldn’t possibly tell you it was Lord Cut-Glass! Add the final latecomer the kidney beans, now I‘ve only added a small tin because… well, I don’t like them! You can add the 400g tin it asks for, stir everything so it all combines, season, then stir again.
You can leave it simmer at this point for 20-30 minutes I checked on it every five minutes.
Keep it on a simmer and stir it regularly, the sauce should end up being a thick gravyesque consistency.
Once you’re happy with it you can serve it in a Burrito with other toppings, as per the original recipe… or you can do like I did!
Let it cool, put it in Tupperware containers and take it to work. I haven’t taken cooked food to work for ages so it was a nice change and there was plenty there for a few meals (well for me anyway!)
I haven’t said when writing this but I do every other recipe… taste as you cook; it’s always important to taste it as you’re going along! I was unsure about the vinegar in it when I was making it but once it was settled and it was ready to eat the vinegar left a slight acidity that I’d never have put into a dish like this, it lifted it almost and added a freshness to it.
I took this to work and had it with some microwaveable rice for my lunch the next day. My office smelt of warming curry spices, it was lovely to have fresh cooked lunch as opposed to a ready meal or a sarnie. I’d cook this again although I wasn’t impressed with the kidney beans, they were Tesco kidney beans and they were like bullets; I may try this with butter beans next time as I prefer them.
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I’ve been watching a lot of Rick Stein again and his shows always show an empty plate shot so here’s mine! I’ve got to say looking at these photographs I really like our red and white spotted cutlery, I know that sounds stupid because Gemma and I bought them! Seeing them in photos makes me appreciate them more.
This recipe is fairly fool proof, the timings I’ve given are guides you can relax when you’re making it. It’s almost like making a chilli, actually it’s pretty much how I make my chilli only with vinegar!
The sauce can be prepared up to 2 days ahead, chilled and reheated with a splash of water or frozen for 6 months.
I really enjoyed this, I’d like to make it again and tweak the spices because I didn’t really follow the guidance in the recipe. That being said there was a nice bit of a kick from the warmth of Cayenne Pepper and the earthy hug of cumin and corriander (two of my favourite spices). I may try this one with Quorn next time and take it to Gemma, I think she’d like it and she is into wraps and tortillas.
I thoroughly enjoyed making this too, big thank you to my carer for helping me I have well and truly missed cooking and I’m going to do it more often.
Sadly time is not my friend these days, I’m flat out in work and politics and community work take so much time. I’m not complaining at all I love what I do but it doesn’t leave a lot of time for cooking, but as you know I usually (not always I admit) find cooking stress releiving so I’d love to get back into it.
Not sure when I’ll be back next, I’ve decided I’m not going to make any promises because it really frustrates me when I can’t meet a deadline. You can get in touch; you can visit our social media pages below, or subscribe to the blog for regular updates.
If you like this recipe you may also like my Sausage Meatballs in a Spicy Tomato Sauce, it’s got similar spices in it and it’s lush. If like Gemma you’re a Quorn fan then you may like my Quorn Keema Masala my vegetarian take on one of my favourite Indian curry dishes. Lastly if you want to make a really quick simple but tasty Chilli Con Carne here’s my #TimeSavingTuesdays Mags Cheats Chilli Con Carne.
I’m currently in the middle of Sober October #GoSober, I did it last year and raised £500 for MacMillan if you feel able to I’d really appreciate it if you could sponsor me, you can find my page here. I’m on £125 with a target of £500 which I reached last year, I’ve found it easier than I did last year despite all the chaos that I’ve got going on… although I can’t wait until the 1st November ?!
See you soon
Richard ?
