My Culinary Adventures: Ground Beef with Veggies

It is difficult to think of a name for the dishes I make that are a combination of random ingredients.  This lack of creativity is not cool man, not cool.  At least it's clear what the dish is :).

I almost never buy meat here because it's expensive in terms of Lempiras.  Ground beef costs about $2 (38 Lempiras) for a pound, which doesn't seem like much at all but I would much rather buy bananas (about 2 Lempiras each), broccoli (12 Lemps), or other fruits and vegetables and eat those instead.  Save my money for other things!  

One night my site-mate invited our host family (we have the same one) and me to his house for dinner.  We were having hamburgers.  When the burgers came out, the meat tasted odd and it was kind of purple and I asked what kind of meat it was, and both he and my host dad said it was horse, to which my eyes widened in disbelief and I wasn't sure whether to spit out my food or even take them seriously.  Eventually they did tell me it was beef and I was relieved.  I don't know how I would feel or what I would do if it really was horse.  The meat flavoring was different from regular ground beef because it comes prepackaged with spices in it already.  Anyway, that was an interesting night and I learned not to be so gullible, but people still get me all the time.  *Sigh*

I bought the ground beef one day since I was cooking pasta and wanted meat sauce.  Turns out I had some leftover meat so I made this impromptu dish with a pataste that my coworker gave me.  Pataste is almost like potato but more watery.  That evening as I was cooking, I had some surprise guests.  The two nieces of my host mom stopped by to give something to me and I invited them to sit and eat with me.  I wasn't sure how the dish would taste since it was my first time making it but they really seemed to enjoy it and asked for seconds!

Recipe

Original Recipe

Ingredients

Pataste

Green Beans

Ground Beef

Tomato

Peas

Milk

Water

Flour

A billion spices, much more than needed I think: Black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic and onion salts, sage, chives, dried basil, ground bayleaf, curry powder, turmeric, and maybe other stuff I don't remember.  I kind of put the whole kitchen sink of spices in there.

1. Steam pataste and green beans until tender.
2. In deep dish frying pan, cook ground beef until done.  Add tomatoes and peas and simmer on low heat until soft.
3. Strain steamed vegetables and transfer to frying pan.
4. Stir in milk, water, flour to thicken the sauce to your liking, and spices.
5. Simmer on low heat until sauce is thickened and spices are absorbed.