Minced Beef Cobbler- comfort food for cold evenings
Despite the fact it's nearly midsummer, the weather here in Birmingham has been appalling, and my usual summer fare of fish, salad and fruit has begun to pall.
It's cold, wet and miserable outside, and my partner and I have been craving some good old-fashioned English comfort food. Tonight was the final straw. We'd both been rained on, and the Mister was already dreaming dreams of a supermarket pie and oven chips. I had other ideas, and decided that perhaps tonight was worth more effort than just opening the freezer. Oh my, was it worth it!
Rich, flavoursome steak mince cooked with onions and garlic and flecked with herbs. Light, fluffy, cheesy scones, and to help it all along, achingly fresh tenderstem broccoli and sugar snap peas. It was just what we needed, and my gods, it was fabulous.
The recipe is adapted from an old cookbook. Following it exactly produced bicarbonate-flavoured biscuits instead of fluffy scones, so I chopped and changed, and came out with a result that left us scrapping for the final piece.
This takes just under an hour start to finish, and cooks at about 200c. It feeds 4 normal people, or two starved gannets.
Brown 1 lb of lean steak mince in a pan with a finely chopped onion and some chopped garlic. Add a generous helping of thyme, oregano and parsley (if you have any fresh). Stir in a squirt of dark soy sauce or worcester sauce, half a cup of water and a teaspoon of gravy granules. You can add chopped tomatoes if you wish, but we prefer it without. Once the mince is fully cooked, spread the mixture in the bottom of a shallow oven dish.
Sift 8 oz self-raising flour with a pinch of salt, and rub in 2 oz of butter until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in 3 oz of grated cheese (we use strong cheddar), then mix to a soft dough using 1/4 pint milk.
Flatten the dough out roughly (to about 1 1/1 inches thick) on a floured surface, and cut out small circles. place them side by side on the mince until the surface is covered, rerolling the trimmings to make more if necessary. Any extras can be baked on their own and make good lunches.
Brush with beaten egg and bake for about 20 minutes, and serve with simply boiled or steamed green veg.
If you eat too much of this you will be unable to leave the sofa, but in our current climate this can only be a good thing!
It's cold, wet and miserable outside, and my partner and I have been craving some good old-fashioned English comfort food. Tonight was the final straw. We'd both been rained on, and the Mister was already dreaming dreams of a supermarket pie and oven chips. I had other ideas, and decided that perhaps tonight was worth more effort than just opening the freezer. Oh my, was it worth it!
Rich, flavoursome steak mince cooked with onions and garlic and flecked with herbs. Light, fluffy, cheesy scones, and to help it all along, achingly fresh tenderstem broccoli and sugar snap peas. It was just what we needed, and my gods, it was fabulous.
The recipe is adapted from an old cookbook. Following it exactly produced bicarbonate-flavoured biscuits instead of fluffy scones, so I chopped and changed, and came out with a result that left us scrapping for the final piece.
This takes just under an hour start to finish, and cooks at about 200c. It feeds 4 normal people, or two starved gannets.
Brown 1 lb of lean steak mince in a pan with a finely chopped onion and some chopped garlic. Add a generous helping of thyme, oregano and parsley (if you have any fresh). Stir in a squirt of dark soy sauce or worcester sauce, half a cup of water and a teaspoon of gravy granules. You can add chopped tomatoes if you wish, but we prefer it without. Once the mince is fully cooked, spread the mixture in the bottom of a shallow oven dish.
Sift 8 oz self-raising flour with a pinch of salt, and rub in 2 oz of butter until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in 3 oz of grated cheese (we use strong cheddar), then mix to a soft dough using 1/4 pint milk.
Flatten the dough out roughly (to about 1 1/1 inches thick) on a floured surface, and cut out small circles. place them side by side on the mince until the surface is covered, rerolling the trimmings to make more if necessary. Any extras can be baked on their own and make good lunches.
Brush with beaten egg and bake for about 20 minutes, and serve with simply boiled or steamed green veg.
If you eat too much of this you will be unable to leave the sofa, but in our current climate this can only be a good thing!