Recipes Stand the Test of Time

I’m not a good cook.

I once inadvertently tried to ice a chocolate cake using bi-carb soda instead of icing sugar. And don’t get me started on the number of times I’ve burned out the bottom of saucepans.

Cooking is not my favourite thing to do. I find that any recipe with more than four ingredients is stressful. I also often remember that my Grandma would not use recipes that involved more than two eggs. They were rationed during the war and the necessary frugal attitude of those years has remained in my family over the generations.

I will say that when cooking with fruit and vegetables I am often in awe of their designs. Their intricate patterns and vivid colours amaze me, and the variety and intensity of their flavours I find to be astounding.

I have a number of recipes from my lovely mum and grandparents that bring nostalgic memories and I indulge in them perhaps a little too often. Most of them would not receive a tick from the Heart Foundation, but they are very yummy, particularly during the winter months.

One of our family’s recipes we don’t actually have a name for. We just fondly call it “Rice Stuff”. It was a recipe that my Grandad heard on the radio one day, about 40 years ago. The person reading it spoke so quickly that it was all my Grandad could do to write down the ingredients. I’m not sure that he even had time to scribe the method for cooking it, so we just lump together all the ingredients into a casserole dish and cook it until it smells right.

During my university years, long after Grandad died, each weekend I would cook up a large pot of Rice Stuff, along with another casserole. The two staple meals would see me through each week, and I never tired of them. Even today, I turn to this recipe for the occasional pot luck meal with friends.

So, here’s the quick and easy recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does. And if anyone knows the name of it, do let me know. Although I suspect I will always think of it as Grandad’s Rice Stuff.

Nikki

1 cup uncooked white rice

1 tin corn kernals

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 pound beef mince (453.592 grams to be precise 😉)

1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of tomato sauce again. (Don’t ask me why Grandad wrote the recipe this way!)

Mix all ingredients together and bake for 1 and 1/2 hours. (Presumably at a moderate temperature.) Stir half way through.

That’s it. You can add other things. (To my mind bacon goes with everything except blue cheese.😁) If you do add anything, just include a touch more water to keep the casserole from being too dry.

Enjoy