Base for any meat dish

Put a teaspoon of oil in a medium saucepan and turn on a low heat. Chop an onion and a garlic clove. Add to pan, and while cooking cut lamb or pork or beef into pieces and roll in seasoned flour. Add meat and leave to brown, stirring. Chop mushroom, carrots, red pepper to a dice and add to pan. Add a jar of tomato based sauce and rinse out jar with hot water and a slug of wine and add to pan. Season, add a couple of bay leaves and bring to boil. Turn down and leave to simmer (covered) until meat is tender. You can add potatoes, spaghetti or rice to the pan for a one dish meal.

I also do this with mince, but I always put the mince into a dry pan and heat slowly until brown. I then put several layers of kitchen towel on a large plate and tip mince on to it. I cover with more kitchen towel and blot mince. This absorbs a lot of excess fat. I wash out pan before using it again.

I usually make this meal in advance and leave to cool and put in fridge. This improves the flavour and means I can lift off the excess fat which rises to the top.