Spicy Turkey Fajita

A bit of a mish mash sorta meal.
Tastes great (in my opinion),
is relatively easy to cook,
doesn't take long,
doesn't cost much,
can feed many or few, guess that depends how greedy you are :)

Step 1: Wash Up

Argggghhhhhhhh the dreaded washing up. If you're anything like me then the first thing you must do when starting to cook a meal is wash up everything from the last one.

Step 2: Washed Up Yet?

Great now that's out of the way give everything (sideboards, hob etc) a good wipe over and make sure your hands are clean.

Step 3: Pinny?

Whoa this ones turned out a bit surreal. The image was supposed to convey that if you're as messy as me then a pinny/apron might be a wise decision.
The wavy mirrors and poor rotation make it way trippier than I meant though.

Anyway, still head the lesson. Wear a pinny, your clothers will thank you.

Step 4: Serious Stuff

Its a kitchen, so you gotta be safe. Try not to get the floor wet and slip over, or cut your fingers off, or burn yourself to a crisp. See troubleshooting at the end if you can't manage this.

You will need:
Tortillas or bread, could use rice but I always like a saucier meal with rice.
Meat, I use turkey, its cheap. Beef would work equally as well. Mince makes life easy.
Veg:
Pepper,
Onion,
Carrot,
Mushroom,
Kidney Beans.

Bit of cheese is nice too.

Spices and chilis.
This is just my advice, cos this meal is such a mish mash, if you do use beef not turkey, or not have a carrot, or hate onion or something, that's fine. Just put in what you like. If it tastes good then you've succeeded :)

Oh yeh and finally beer, its not for the dish, its for me. I always cook better when I'm relaxed and at the end of a rough day at work a beer is just what you need to chill out.

Step 5: So Blurry, So Sorry

It would appear my camera got a hold of the beer. What you should see is me pooring a generous splodge of oil in the bottom of a large pan and heating it gently. (No oil fires now, keep an eye on it).

Next up get chopping your veg. I always go onion in first, (don't cry) and chilis.
If you get the chilis in good and early the spice spreads throughout the oil and will spice everything up nicely. A bit (teapsoon or less) of curry powder at this point helps too.

Let the onion sizzle away a bit, then add your mushies, pepper and carrots.

Give it a good stir and keep an eye on it untill everythign has softened up a bit, 5-10 mins should do it.

Step 6: MEAT

I love meat, I am somewhat of a carnivore, sorry veggies.

Add the turkey, make sure you pull the paper off the bottom of the mince, why are they always hiding that in there?

Get the heat up a bit. Give it a good stir. Keep stirring to stop it sticking. Stir until the turkey isn't pink anymore, goes sort of brown.
My mince always produces its own juices, into which I then chuck a boulinion cube or OXO, something just to add some flavour. Turkey mince is extremely bland to begin with.
If your mince is high quality it probably wont juice up, so add 3 tablespoons of boiled water (don't burn/scald yourself) if you want to add stock/OXO.

Step 7: Wash Them Beans

No one likes bean sludge.
Kidney beans nearly always come with a quarter tin of mystery sludge at the bottom.
Tip the whole tin in a colander and rinse.
Drain.
Now add to the meat/veg pan

Alas some beans always seem to escape, especially if you're kak handed like me.
Bye beans

At this point, whilst the pan is still plenty juicy, add ground chilis, chili flakes, etc. Keep stirring as you do it. I always add loads of chili flakes, doesn't spice it up much but makes it look pretty.

Step 8: Simmer

Cover the pan with a good lid and turn the heat down to let it simmer without burning.
10 to 20 mins usually does it, but if your paranoid about salmanela or need exceptionally soft bendy food (got false teeth or something) then let it simmer a good half hour.

Should be smelling pretty tastey by now.

Step 9: Cook Off

Get the lid off and inspect your creation.
If its still good and juicy then keep cooking, heat up a bit and leave the lid off. Cook off some juices and keep stirring to stop sticking.

Stick the tortillas in the microwave for 30 secs (I only had two) if you need more increase the time for them.
Quickly while they cook get some cheese grated.

Dish it up, make exciting little torilla fajita sorta rolls out of the cheese and mince/veg concoction.