The Minced Meat Project

I'm no meat lover. If I can have my way, it'll be seafood and chicken most of the days. I gladly skip meat as I don't recall many favourite dishes with it. But I live with a carnivore with middle eastern origin. When I know he'll be in town, I will then get down to the market to get some real meat, with bones and all. Lamb or Beef, doesn't matter. The boss needs his meat. Now I make him sound like a caveman.

But minced meat, is another thing altogether. I favour this better because :

1. Quite often, I find meat overcooked and becomes too hard to chew, especially in Malay cuisines like rendang and even kari. High blazing heat is certainly not the correct way of cooking meat. Minced meat on the other hand cooks easily. Yup no need for long waiting time to slow cook or pressure cook to get edible food. Minced meat cooks as soon as you put it in a pan, and it turns from pink to brown. Khalas!

2. It is versatile. With minced meat in the freezer, I can think of endless possibilities and many types of cuisines. Depending on what I have in hand, my minced meat can be a quick meatloaf today and kofta tomorrow. And depending on how much time I have, a dish can often be whipped in 15mins if I'm feeling lazy or 1hr if its meant to baked for a little while.

3. Hey, it's still protein. Thrown in with a little bit of love (fat), it gives a great taste to your dishes. If you are more health conscious, go for the fat free or lean meat minced. That'll give you a peace of mind (and off my back).

4. It's cheeeeeeeaaap! Compared to a whole chicken of the same weight, I can get more minced meat for the same price. It's a great choice for party food!

So this is my attempt to put all the minced meat recipes that I love to make, from western to Mediterranean, Arabic and Malay, etc. Some of these recipes are the ones I found from the internet, which I improvised from comparing several recipes online. Some are classics that needed tweaking (I really wanted to say "twerking") now and then. While some are inherited from the good ol' mamas and friends.

I hope you will try some of these and let me know how it turns out. :) This is mainly my own collections for future reference. You don't want to see how eeky my handwritten cookbook looks like. When Life gives you internet, make an online recipe book.