No Oven Meat

Let's make some "ovenless" grub shall we?!?!

One of the things that tends to come as standard for me with Christmas os the planning of what goes in the oven when because everything but the jollof rice gets cooked in there! This recipe works with any kind of meat. Lamb, beef, goat... go for it and thank me later!

1.2kg meat (I used goat meat)

3 stalks fresh parsley

4 fresh basil leaves

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried marjoram

1 medium red onion

2 spring onions

3" piece ginger

1 clove garlic

3 chillies (optional but use according to tolerance)

4 large button or chestnut muhrooms

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp himalayan pink salt

1tsp black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

2 bouillon cubes or 1 meat stock cube

3 pointy peppers

additional salt and pepper to taste

N.B. If cooking for kids, don't add the chilli until you begin to make the sauce to avoid incidents.

- Clean and prep your meat. A good butcher will trim off the fat and cut into good medium sizes for you. About 2-3 inch pieces works well with the timings I've got here.

- Put all the condiments in a mill and blend until smooth. It's best to put in half first and then add the second half and blend again as the mill won't contain everything. A nutribullet or blender works for this too. You want a nice think pasty consistency which is where the mushrooms are handy.

[If you don't have a mill, roughly chop the parsley, basil, ginger, onions, chilli and garlic and mix together. Reserve 3 tbsp of the mix for your sauce later].

- Add the mix to the meat and mix until the meat is completely coated. I have a habit of slicing in leftover mushrooms, peppers, whatever there's half of left in the fridge...even carrots!

- Place the seasoned meat into a large pot and cook on a medium heat for 20mins.

- Turn off the heat and check the meat. It will have released all it's water and produced the perfect stock for the next step.

- Place a frying pan on a medium heat and add half the stock to the pan.

- Add the pointy peppers to the mill and blend again with the herby mix from earlier. If you don't have a mill, roughly chop the pepper and add to the reserved mix. Add half of this to the frying pan with the additional salt and pepper.

- Once the sauce starts to simmer, add the meat and the rest of the sauce and cover with foil or if your frying pan has a lid, cover with the lid and leave to cook for 7mins (if cooking for children, at this point save half of the meat for them and let it sit in the rest of the stock until the sauce is ready for the adults).