Britain was hit by high winds today and here in the north-west they reached 100 miles per hour. I’ve lived on the 8th floor for more than seven years and have never felt the building shake in the wind the way it did today.

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Don’t believe the big fibs that are put around by commercial vested interests today. They make out that Manchester was some kind of gay wasteland before Canal Street took off in the early 1990′s.

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Delicious! Make it with minced (ground) beef or lamb. I used lamb here…

I start off by frying the minced lamb (about 8oz/250g) in a little olive oil. I always get the really lean meat but I like to see how much fat comes off and drain it away if necessary. But don’t brown it completely.

Put a tablespoon of olive oil in another pan. Add a rasher of bacon that you’ve chopped into small pieces. This flavours the oil nicely.

Put in two small onions, chopped (I used red onions here), and two cloves of garlic also finely chopped. Keep stirring. After a couple of minutes put in a stick of celery and a small carrot, both chopped. You could also add a couple of sliced mushrooms (I didn’t this time). Cook and stir for another minute or two.

Add the minced lamb, stir for a minute (or longer if you didn’t pre-cook it a little before). Then put in a deseeded and chopped red pepper, a can of tomatoes with juice, a tablespoon of tomato puree, some black pepper, a stock cube, a bay leaf, fresh basil or a teaspoon of dried basil, a teaspoon of dried oregano and a pinch of chilli powder. Once this is bubbling, put on the lid and turn the heat right down so it is just simmering. Leave it like that for an hour.

Now watch the video to see how it turned out:

Download: Windows Media (wmv) | Quicktime/iPod

Serve with spaghetti or other pasta. Sprinkle some grated cheese on top (should be parmesan I suppose but cheddar is just fine!). I get my pasta from Marks and Spencer. They do several varieties that are made with free range eggs.

This is plenty for two people. If you cook up a triple quantity you can freeze it. Giving you several quick meals. Anyway, these things are always better at least kept overnight in the fridge, as it lets the flavours mingle.