Mince Mexicane

The evening before New Year's Eve I was getting myself in the zone for nipping into the city to do some urgent work despite my employer's offices being closed for the Christmas Break. Although I did not have to go to the city for long it was still work, even though I was on holiday for most of the Christmas Period.

When it's the evening before work I have a certain way of preparing which often involves cooking specific types of dishes, listening to particular types of music and if I have time having a good soak in the bath. That way I feel I am in tip-top condition to do my best at work.

The music of choice was arguably Bob Marley's best album being 1977's laid back, motivational and deliberate sounding offering "Exodus."

As had not been in work now for over a week I decided to cook something simple that was one of my favourite meals as a sort of comfort food.

I therefore cut up one orange pepper, a red onion and a clove of garlic and fried them steadily in my wok on the hob for about fifteen minutes until the pepper began to soften and onion became translucent. In order to be sure the mixture did not burn I stirred it regularly. To give the vegetables some flavour I added a tablespoon of paprika to them and then added a pack of frozen quorn mince straight out of the freezer. I enjoy using normal mince in cooking as it has a special taste and texture all of its own but quorn mince does cook more quickly when you are in a rush and it does contain a lot of protein.

It took around another fifteen minutes for the quorn mince to cook through and while this was happening I boiled up eight ounces of white rice in a pan on the hob to have as a side dish.

After the mince was cooked through I added a can of mixed chilli beans in sauce from a can to the vegetables and the quorn mince. After warming the food through for another five minutes it was ready to serve with the rice.

I first discovered this meal as a youngster when I was at Primary School as my mum used to make the same recipe but used turkey mince instead of quorn mince. It's a dish that has many virtues ranging from the protein found in the rice, quorn and beans to sweet and spicy taste also.

Lots of bright colours and an even brighter taste in this dish