Sweet and Savoury Ground Beef

Ingredients

• 3 lb ground beef
• 4 onions, sliced
• Garlic, minced
• Celery, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 to 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 5 to 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 bay leaves
• Oregano or Italian seasoning, to taste
• A splash of sesame oil
• Salt and black pepper

Equipment

• Large pan or skillet
• Wooden spoon or spatula

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large pan. Cook the onions down until they soften and start to colour. Four onions to three pounds of beef is more than looks right, and that is the point.
2. Add the garlic, then the celery and the bell pepper. That is all the vegetables.
3. Add the beef, break it up, and season it hard with salt and black pepper. Brown it.
4. Add the cumin, the soy sauce, the rice vinegar, the fish sauce, the brown sugar and the bay leaves. Cook down until the liquid thickens around the meat.
5. Taste it, then salt again. Finish with oregano or Italian seasoning and a splash of sesame oil.

Notes

• Grace's dish, dictated from a voice note on 2026-10-05. The steps are put in order from how she named them.
• The brown sugar, the cumin, the fish sauce and the soy sauce are the four that carry the dish. The rest could come out without anyone noticing; those four could not.
• Serve it over rice.
• She gave no measure for the garlic or the celery. Use your own.