Week 3 dinner meals

Homemade lasagna

Hello everyone! Welcoming back to my cooking blog. This week I am going to be focusing on dinner-based meals not only and some mealsI will be making the dinner-based part of the meal and also a side. For this meal I will not be making a side because it is going to be lasagna, and typically that is the only thing you make when making lasagna.

Your ingredients you will need,

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 brown onion, halved, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 750g Coles beef mince regular
• 2 x 400g cans Italian diced tomatoes
• 125ml (1/2 cup) dry red wine
• 55g (1/4 cup) tomato paste
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil, extra, to grease
• 4 fresh lasagne sheets
• 55g (1/2 cup) coarsely grated Devondale Mozzarella Cheese Block (500g)
• Mixed salad leaves, to serve

CHEESE SAUCE

• 1L (4 cups) milk
• 1 brown onion, halved, coarsely chopped
• 8 fresh parsley stalks
• 8 whole black peppercorns
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 60g butter
• 50g (1/3 cup) plain flour
• 70g (1 cup) finely grated parmesan
• Pinch ground nutmeg
• Salt & ground white pepper

No everybody can cook lasagna a little bit different and add different ingredients but this is the method that I followed making this recipe. I did get this recipe from https://cafedelites.com/best-lasagna/. I like to try and expand my choices each week and retrieve my recipes for all different kinds of websites.

• Step 1 Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion softens. Add the mince and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up any lumps, for 5 minutes or until mince changes colour. Add the tomato, wine and tomato paste, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

• Step 2 Meanwhile, to make the cheese sauce, combine the milk, onion, parsley stalks, peppercorns, cloves and bay leaves in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and set aside for 15 minutes to infuse.

• Step 3 Strain the milk mixture through a fine sieve into a large jug. Discard solids. Step 4 Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until foaming. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until mixture bubbles and begins to come away from the side of the pan. Remove from heat.

• Step 5 Gradually pour in half the milk, whisking constantly with a balloon whisk, until mixture is smooth. Gradually add the remaining milk, whisking until smooth and combined.

• Step 6 Place saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat. Add the parmesan and stir until cheese melts. Taste and season with nutmeg, salt and white pepper.

• Step 7 Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a rectangular 3L (12 cup) capacity ovenproof dish with oil to lightly grease. Spread one-quarter of the bechamel sauce over the base of the prepared dish. Arrange 1 lasagne sheet over the sauce. Top with one-third of the mince mixture and one-third of the remaining bechamel sauce. Continue layering with the remaining lasagne sheets, mince mixture and bechamel, finishing with a layer of bechamel. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Place on a baking tray. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until cheese melts, is golden brown, and the edges are bubbling. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes to set. And finally you want to cut your lasagna into 8 slices. And you have your homemade lasagna.

Taste test: for my finals taste test as usual, the family ate dinner and it turned out great! My brother and I really didn’t enjoy the cheese sauce too much. We are used to my moms homemade lasagna so is was different. I did struggle a little bit with the cheese sauce just because i never made something like that from scratch. My step dad did jump in a bit and showed off his cooking skills to save me! This recipe was very delicious and again I recommend it. If you’re not comfortable with the cheese sauce like I was, you’re always able to make it a different way! It’s always really up to your discretion, you’re the chief! Stay tuned tomorrow for my 2nd meal I’ll be making! Thank you for reading hungry hippos 😁