Jamie Oliver's Mince and Onions

Of all the Jamie Oliver recipe books I own (and I have many of them!), I think I love his Ministry of Food book the most. My friend (who refers to him as 'Saint Jamie'!) first introduced me to the book in 2010 and some of my all-time favourite dishes I make are from it. One of the recipes is for a 'Classic Mince and Onion Pie', which forms the basis of the meal I made for my family yesterday evening.

I actually had a whole load of new potatoes that needed finishing so instead of doing the pie, I decided to make the mince and onions and serve it with vegetables and the new potatoes that I roasted with garlic and rosemary. It worked out really well, and I suppose it was healthier than using a load of pastry to make it into a pie! So here is the Ministry of Food recipe I followed to make mince and onions...

Recipe: Jamie Oliver's Mince and Onions
Serves 4

Ingredients:

olive oil
3 onions
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
500g beef mince
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 teaspoon Marmite
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoon flour, plus extra for dusting
beef stock cubes

Method:

1. Peel and roughly chop the onions, carrots and celery until fine (I whizzed mine in my Kenwoods mini-chopper, available here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-CH180-Mini-Chopper-Watt/dp/B0000C6WPC)
2. Remove rosemary leaves from their stalks and finely chop.
3. Add 2 glugs of olive oil to a large casserole-style pan and place on a high heat on the stove top. Add the chopped veggies, rosemary and the 2 bay leaves and cook until the vegetables are softened (remember to keep stirring whilst they cook to avoid burning/sticking to the pan)
4. Add the beef mince and cook until browned, before adding the mustard, Marmite, Worcestershire sauce and flour.
5. Make up 1 litre of beef stock using boiling water and the appropriate number of stock cubes (dependent on brand used) - I used 2 Knorr stock cubes. Add this to the pan and bring to the boil.
6. Turn down the heat and bring to a simmer for about an hour until the stock has reduced to form a lovely thick gravy that coats the mince. Jamie recommends keeping it covered whilst cooking, but I find that if I cover the mixture the gravy doesn't reduce and the mixture stays very liquidy. Therefore I like to leave it simmering uncovered, allowing for some of the liquid to evaporate to achieve a thicker consistency. Remember to give it a stir every so often.
7. Before serving remove the bay leaves and season with salt and pepper.

Whilst my mince was cooking I made my roasted new potatoes which was so simple. I halved each potato and popped them into a roasting pan with some olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and 1 garlic clove (minced with a garlic press). This went into the pre-heated oven at 200°C for about 45 minutes until the potatoes were golden. I completed the meal with some broccoli and peas.

Lisa x

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