Man, siggy, I think you have one there. Consumme (just short of gravy, schu...like a concentrated beef broth) mixed in with the starchy rice and pork meat. INSTANT meat/gravy/rice. Just add some peas or something on the side!
ok, here's how I make lasagne (which hopefully will ilustrate why I won't be posting many more of my recipes here....)
Take the usual quantity of minced or ground beef, and cook it in a pan.
Whle that's doing, chop an onion, put it in a small microwave-able bowl, dribble a bit of oil on it, and microwave for a minute or so.
While it's microwaving, chop a clove or two of garlic, and then mix the garlic in with the onion, and microwave for a further minute or for as long as it takes to cook.
Then add the onion and garlic to the meat, which should be just about cooked by now.
Then take one of those little jars of ready-made pasta sauce (such as the Ragu or Dolmio brands in the UK), the smallest size on the market, and add about half of it to the meat. The rest can go in the fridge till next time you do pasta.
Stir the pasta sauce, meat and onion mixture, and add a teaspoon or so of whole-grain mustard (not the vile yellow goo you yanks put on hot dogs).
Add also whatever other seasonings you like: black pepper, etc.
Let that simmer gently while you're doing the next bit.
The next bit is the cheese sause. This can be done either in a pan on the hob, or in the microwave. If you're cunning, you can reduce the washing-up by using the same bowl you used for the onions.
Pour some milk into the bowl. Just a little bit. Then add a couple of teaspoonsful of cornflour (which you Yanks may know as cornstarch, I'm nor sure). Stir till lumpless, then add more milk. Guesstimate somewhere between half a pint and a pint.
Heat the milk & cornflour mix in either microwave or pan, stirring frequently. While that's doing, take a generous lump of strong cheese (I use cheddar, but whatever you got is fine), and cut it into pieces as small as you have patience for. If you have any blue cheese such as stilton, a slightly smaller amount of this (in addition to the cheddar) can make all the difference.
Mix these in with the milk as it gets hot, so the cheese melts and mixes in just as the cornflour makes the milk thicken up.
Once that's all done, you can make the lasagne.
Pour half of the meat sauce into a big enough dish.
Add a layer of dried lasagne, breaking up sheets of it to be able to build a mosaic covering the meat.
Pour on half of the cheese sauce.
Add another layer of pasta.
Pour on the rest of the meat sauce.
Add another layer of pasta.
Pour on the remaining cheese sauce.
Optionally add a sprinkling of grated cheese (doesn't matter what kind, it's only decoration).
Bake in a medium oven till the pasta's cooked.
Eat.
The serets are: use garlic; let the meat sauce simmer for a good half hour before eating; use stilton in the cheese sauce; get the quantities of everything just right.
The last of these is especially difficult when you don't measure anything, like me.
Some lasagnes forego the cheese sauce in favour of unadulterated melted cheese. I never have enough cheese to try this, but I reckon it'd be pretty good.
Last edited by Devil's Advocate on Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.