Sloppy Joe

Well, well, well, it's been a very busy week and now I finally get to do a post. Speaking of busy, I thought I'd share a recipe that is easy, quick, child friendly and very yummy. It's Sloppy Joe. It's traditionally an American dish with mince beef, onions, tomato sauce and other seasoning served on a burger bun. Here's my version which has deviated a bit from the original.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

2 tbsp oil

500g beef mince

400g diced tin tomatoes

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 onion diced

2 cloves garlic minced

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp maple syrup or sugar

4 rashers of bacon cut into small pieces

4 red chillies chopped (optional)

2 cups of cooked navy beans (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

4 Burger buns

Method:

1. Heat oil in non stick pan and saute the onion and garlic until soften.
2. Add the bacon pieces and fry until fragrant and almost crispy.
3. Add beef mince and cook until browned making sure you break the mince up
4. Next, you can add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. 
5. Cover with lid and simmer for 20 minutes to let the flavours settle. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. If you used cooked navy beans, 20 minutes will be fine. If you used navy beans that have been soaked overnight but not cooked, you may need to cook for longer until it softens.
7. Half the burger buns and lightly toast and butter them. Serve the mince mix in a separate bowl or over the burger bun as desired.

And there you have the yummy Sloppy Joe. It is rather sloppy to eat. On this occasion I didn't have burger buns so I used English muffins instead with a bit of cheese on the side, life is no fun without cheese!

Hope you enjoy this as much as Mr. Foodie did. He had seconds!