Scottish Mince and Tatties

This Britlander has stepped over the border into Scotland.  We've had a chilly few days and this played perfectly to the contents of my fridge.  Mince and Tatties, cooked on the hob and served with mash.  A 30 minute dish and great weekday supper. 

The mash, here,  is 1/3rd parsnip and 2/3rds potato.  

We have a host of vegetables.  Onion and celery, lightly coloured and softened.  Then, beef mince, diced carrot and sweet potato.  Cooked flour and tomato puree add more umami and will thicken our sauce as it gently simmers with the liquids.  Beef stock, ale, worcestershire sauce and mustard finish the dish. 

Finally, some frozen peas can be added a couple of minutes before serving.  These will cook quickly.

Tip: make extra and there's a good pastry topped pie filling or even a cottage pie filling from this mixture.

Ingredients (4):

Beef and vegetables:

1 onion, diced

1/2 tsp smoked salt

1 or 2 stalks of celery, finely sliced

1 TBSP beef fat or oil

500g beef mince (12 or 15 % fat)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 TBSP plain flour

1 TBSP tomato puree

Liquids:

250ml dark ale

250ml beef stock

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Method:

Fry onion and celery, with salt, in fat until soft and lightly golden.  Around 5 minutes.

Add beef, turn up heat and brown.

Coloured mince is flavour!  Fat from the mince also works in our favour for frying it.

Then thyme, tomato puree and flour.

See those brown bits on the pan? Perfect.

In with the carrot, sweet potato, stock, black pepper, worcestershire sauce, mustard and ale.  Scrape the bottom of the pan (to clean it)!  Plus all those lovely brown bits we admired earlier are now flavouring the sauce/gravy.

Simmer for 20 minutes, partly covered over a medium heat then stir in peas.

The finished result should be mince and veges coated in a beautiful, rich and tasty brown gravy.

More minced beef:

Cottage Pie Hot Pot

Or minced beef, Loïc's way:

Romanian Shepherds Platter

Extra minced beef filling?  Try a pastry topped pie:

A Thistle on my Scottish Mince Pie