Fast cars and slow stews

  Though you could easily make the mistake of thinking today's picture was taken in a Formula 1 garage, it is in fact, just my recently acquired car having its wheel alignment checked. This is all it needed to be given a clean bill of health so I can go ahead and forget about it while I get on with important things like eating a minimum of carbs and a load of fat.

  That intro was designed to allow me to post a slightly more interesting picture than a pan of brown sludge, which you might thank me for. However, the brown sludge was exceptionally delicious and is far more relevant so I shall tell you more. As I might need to remind you, the Banting regime asks for more fat to be eaten but not more protein. Apparently this is a trap a lot of folk fall into, we don't need a lot of protein unless we're growing youngsters or bodybuilders, so there's no need to increase the amount we eat.

  The brown sludge I keep mentioning has a lot in common with the filling of a shepherd's pie, a bolognese sauce, the meaty part of a lasagna or a chilli con carne while being none of them specifically. This is a useful point as they are all very similar and hopefully I can encourage you to have a go at making one, whether you're Banting or not.

  Start by frying the meat in oil to brown it and melt some of its fat. Lift the meat out of the liquid, which you then use to fry some veg. I like starting with onions to get them soft and then add an assortment of whatever gets sucked into my path as I hunt around my kitchen. Once all the veg are assembled in the pan, I'll add a sprinkle of salt and cover it with a lid so they sweat for a few minutes over a low flame.

  Then the meat goes back in the pan with some liquid. Sometimes that might be a tin or two of tomatoes, some wine, some homemade stock or a combination of all three. The lid goes back on and it gets left for a good two or three hours for the meat to stew and soften. You'll notice that this is quite a generic recipe. No meat is specified and there's no mention of any flavours here and that's because that's all up to you depending on what you fancy. Feeling brave enough to give it a go?

Excellent, that's the spirit.

Kirk out

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