Currabinny cooks: Three easy and delicious family dinners with minced beef 

The ultimate cheesy, luxurious cottage pie. Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

We have been going over a lot of old recipes lately looking for things to adapt and improve.

Over the years we have built up quite the catalogue of different experimentations, some successful, some almost successful and others which never really worked out. I keep a scrapbook of sorts with all of our ideas, experiments and tests, scribbled down on pieces of A4 paper. I started to do this a couple of years ago because I found that I was making the same dishes but with completely varying degrees of success.

By scribbling down quantities, cooking times and methods every time I made something, it helped us standardise our recipes. We write down things we can improve, things that worked and things we might want to try in the future. This scrapbook is therefore almost like a living, growing extension of us as home cooks. If you don’t keep your own scrapbook of recipes and ideas, I would urge you to start one, it is never too late to start.

Making and improving our savoury mince recipe has been a bit of an obsession of ours. We make it so often, usually in big batches at the start of a week when we know we won’t be able to spend much time in the kitchen.

Savoury mince, ragu, Bolognese are all basically the same thing and is the perfect thing to make a big batch of for use throughout the week. The best thing being, that it gets better the day or two after you’ve made it.

We recently made possibly our best one yet. It was going to be a very busy week so naturally, we decided a big batch of mince would be the best thing for adapting into different dinners.

On previous attempts we had already discovered, chopping up or blitzing sundried tomatoes was a great way of intensifying the flavour as well as using a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce and good beef stock. This time we decided to add some chorizo, chopped up finely and added with the carrot.

The spicy paprika-laced oil that comes off the chorizo as it cooks gave the ragu a smokey, slightly spicy flavour which proved addictive. I also included a good splash of red wine this time to give the mince a little fruity acidity.

Rich savoury mince with sundried tomatoes

recipe by:Currabinny Cooks

What could be more useful, reassuring, reliable and comforting than a good savoury mince?

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Irish

Ingredients

• 4 medium onions, finely diced

• 4 medium carrots, peeled and diced

• 2 sticks of celery, finely diced

• 4-6 cloves of garlic, finely diced

• 1kg good beef mince

• 125g chorizo, finely chopped

• 100ml of red wine

• 10 sundried tomatoes, finely chopped

• 2 tbsp of tomato purée

• 2 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

• 500ml of beef stock

• 2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce

• Sea salt and black pepper

• Rapeseed or extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. In a large casserole (Dutch oven) heat the oil over medium high heat and add the onions, garlic and celery, seasoning lightly with sea salt. Move around the pan, until the onion starts to soften a little and become translucent.

2. Add the carrot and chorizo and continue cooking for another 10 minutes or so, turning the heat down to medium if you need. Add the mince, sundried tomatoes and a good pinch of salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Move the mince around the casserole, breaking it up with the wooden spoon and letting it brown for around 5 to 6 minutes before adding the tomato purée, red wine and mixed herbs. Cook for a further 5 minutes and add the tinned tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and beef stock.

3. Season lightly and turn the heat down low, letting it simmer gently, uncovered for 40 minutes to an hour, stirring from time to time. The final consistency should be a nice thick sauce, not too liquid and rich in colour and flavour.

Cheesy mince parcels

recipe by:Currabinny Cooks

Store-bought puff pastry is one of my favourite things to have in the fridge or freezer for making something into a quick meal.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 15 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 25 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Irish

Ingredients

• 400g savoury mince

• 100g Cheddar, grated

• 320g sheet of good quality puff pastry

• 1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Cut the sheet of puff pastry into 6 squares. Place a good dollop of mince in the middle. It doesn’t matter too much if a little filling leaks out when you close them over. Place a little cheese on top of the mince and then brush the edges of the pastry with your egg wash. Fold the pastry over on the diagonal creating triangular pockets. Press the pastry edges close with your fingers or a fork. Brush the tops of your turnovers with egg wash.

3. Place the 6 turnovers on a large baking sheet and place in the preheated oven for around 15 minutes until golden and crispy. These should be enjoyed hot from the oven when the cheese is nice and melted.

Cottage pie

You could pipe the mash on top of the mince if you like but we don’t mind it looking a little rustic, so simply spooning it on did fine.

Servings

8

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 30 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 40 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Irish

Ingredients

• 400g of rich savoury mince

• 4 or 5 medium potatoes such as red rooster

• 100g butter

• 2 leeks, cleaned well and green ends removed

• 200g curly kale, stalks removed

• 250ml of full-fat milk

• 175ml of cream

• Sea salt and black pepper

• handful of chopped parsley

• small handful of chopped chives

• 2 spring onions, sliced thinly

• 80g Cais na Tire, or other hard cheese grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C Peel the potatoes and cook in a large pot of water for 30 to 40 minutes until cooked through. Remove and drain.

2. In a large saucepan heat the butter and add the leeks, cooking for around 10 minutes until softened. Add the wild garlic if using. Add the curly kale and cook until wilted. Pour in the milk and cream and bring to a simmer. Add the cooked potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Mash with a potato masher until smooth. Stir through an extra knob of butter for good measure with the herbs and spring onion.

3. Spoon the mince into a medium sized casserole and then top with the colcannon. Sprinkle over the grated cais na tire and place in the oven for around 30 minutes.

4. Take out of the oven when the potato is nice and golden on top and the mince is bubbling up the sides.