This is my ultimate comfort food. And it’s so easy to make…now. I think I posted this many years ago when I started this food blog for my daughter but now that I’ve grown older and wiser, I’ve discovered shortcuts.
The chilli paste in many Malay home cooking is a blend of dried chillies, onions and garlic. But I’ve discovered bottled ground chillies. It doesn’t have the onions but it doesn’t matter anyway.
This is how I cooked my delicious comforting lunch. It’s spicy and tangy, and that’s how I love it.
In plenty of oil (I used olive oil) cook till the oil separates one heaped teaspoon of chopped garlic, and 1-2 tbsp of ground chilli from the bottle. If you don’t have this, then it won’t taste as good but you can substitute with a bit more of ground chilli flakes. Here, I added a packed of chilli flakes so that I could have more colour.
Then add minced beef. Here, I have 300g of minced beef.
Make sure the meat is well cooked. Then add a packet of chopped tomatoes. I like these form Sainbury’s. Add one heaped tablespoon of ground cumin, 2 Teaspoons of sugar and salt to taste.
Let the mixture simmer nicely till the oil is really bright red and everything looks soft and unctuous.
Then add cooked macaroni.
Mix macaroni well with the sauce. Taste and add more salt if needed.
Sprinkle with spring onions cut to fairly large pieces.
Then serve with a sprinkling of fried shallots. Yummy!
The Occasional Cook 