Pork Goulash with Herby Dumplings

Much as I love cooking, I often don't have the time or the energy to waste in the kitchen every night so recipes which offer bulk - ie enough for tea for the three of us for two nights - particularly appeal. This dish from the BBC Good Food website serves ten so I adapted it to include less meat (1kg instead of 1.5kg), and garlic (half) and fewer peppers (two instead of three - green is the best colour as the sauce is a deep red). I kept the other quantities the same to ensure there was plenty of thick sauce to go with what can be a dry meat.

The pork was from Marks and Spencer and was lean and ready diced.

The garlic was from the Waitrose frozen Cooks' Ingredients range which has transformed the way I cook. Since discovering these packets - which are a snip at £1.49 or two for £2.50 - I have not wasted money on garlic bulbs which I never manage to use up or growing herbs which I forget to water. The garlic is chopped so you simply grab the bag out of the freezer, open the resealable pouch and tip in the amount you need. As it is frozen, there is none of the added oil you get with the ready to use jarred variety which I think impairs the flavour. I have a packet of garlic, ginger, basil and parsley in my freezer and intend to add the Thai spice mix, red jalapenos, mint, coriander and shallots to my collection the next time I shop there.

The recipe itself is very straight forward, a simple case of browning the meat, frying the onions, garlic and spice (smoked paprika - and you really must use the smoked variety, the plain stuff just won't cut it) then adding the pork back to the pan with the rest of the ingredients.

As I was pushed for time, I used a new dumpling mix from Marks which you just add water too. I also added some dried Italian mix herbs and as the ingredients in the packet match exactly those used when making them from scratch, they tasted just the same as if I'd had to mess about weighing out flour and buying a pack of suet which I would only need about half of.

In the end, the three of us had it for tea one night, with Kasper eating it again the following evening. The rest was frozen for another day.

If you are making the recipe for ten, I should add that my trusty Le Creuset casserole (size 22) was just big enough to take the quantities as per my amended recipe. Anymore, and it would have been too much to fit in.