Ever since I was a minute and forty seconds old, I’ve been interested in food 🙂 and, for some strange reason, I’ve been interested in it ever since. My first memories centre around my Mum’s home cooking. Both my parents worked long shifts, so it was no surprise they didn’t have time for fancy cooking. I remember two meals we had all the time. Traditional Mince n’ Tatties (potatoes) and Chicken Fricassee with rice. The latter we had so often, I’ve never eaten it again since I was 15 🙂

However, despite having it equally as often, I’ve never stopped eating mince n’ tatties. As a boy, I assumed everyone of the 7 billion people on the planet sat on a Friday night watching The Tube on channel 4 whilst eating mince. I could not have been more wrong than if I’d put a thousand pound bet on Boris Johnson never becoming Prime Minister!! I recently posted the picture below on my Facebook page only for my American friends to ask what it was. My childhood view of every man woman and child in Africa, Asia and America, eating mince of a Friday evening was taken outside and ceremoniously dumped in the trash. 🙂

Mince at first glance is simple. Actually it IS very simple. But (there’s always a but ☺️) Scots make mince in different ways. My other half used to make lumpy mince with not much gravy, whereas my Mum used to break the mince down and use Bisto gravy. Two totally edible but different beasts altogether.

My posting of my leftover cold mince on toast caused a minor stir for several reasons. First of all, as I mentioned earlier, my American friends hadn’t a Scooby what it was. Secondly, even some of my Scottish friends were aghast at me putting cold mince on toast 🥳🥳, and, in breaking news, a minor argument started with relatives comparing Granny Black’s mince to my wife’s. Yes, in the red corner, we had Granny Black’s mince recipe, which she’d taken to her grave without passing it on, and, my Fran’s recipe, which she’s tweaked over the last 20 years to perfection.

As a child Fran used to watch Granny Black on the farm cooking all sorts of things. She used to ask her ‘what’s that you’re putting in Granny?’. Sometimes Granny would spill the secret, at other times she’d quickly finish adding her secret ingredient or method with a knowing smile. Fran’s cousin Stan, was citing Granny Black’s mince as ‘the best’ without having even tasted Fran’s version. I was loving it. A minor tiff over mince recipes on Facebook, brilliant. Luckily there were postings of fluffy cute kittens posted the same afternoon, everyone sighed, smiled and returned to watching Peaky Blinders on Netflix 😀

Mincegate lingered on a bit, with a post Facebook discussion as to why Granny Black’s mince, even in Fran’s opinion I hasten to add, was the best. Fran reckoned Granny Black used the best beef steak shoulder minced, which she’d get from one of the local small butchers in Castle Douglas. Fran’s next mission is to make the next version with the only other known secret Granny Black took with her. 😄 She must be looking down from heaven either laughing or tutting!

So, what is the recipe……..

Melt butter in a pot

chop a large onion and add to pot

brown off onions

chop 3 long sweet Charlotte carrots

add to pot

stir together, turn heat to high and add the mince described above

brown off the mince

once browned off season with salt and pepper

add a little boiling water to nearly cover the mince

add rich beef stock cube

cook on low for 40-50 minutes uncovered

switch off and leave uncovered on the hob for 3-4hrs

re-heat, thicken with a paste made from one tsp of bistogravy powder and 2 tsp of plain flour

bring up to a simmer to cook off the flour

Once ticked, ready to serve with mashed potatoes and veg.

one tip if there is any leftovers is if using peas, add them to the mince overnight. They are lovely next day.

So, there you have it. Granny Black’s (sorry Fran’s 😉) mince recipe.

Moving on to Food Blogging. I’d love to try it but I’m sooooo lazy. I did once tweet ‘I am moving so far away from @nigel_slater ‘s recipe he’ll be banging on the door soon’. An hour later the man himself tweeted the reply ‘knock knock’. Made me smile.

This Sunday morning I managed to make the following classic dish which every food blogger in the world will be rushing to produce…..

Yes, it’s Tesco’s Finest coleslaw on toast with a Tassimo 100% Colombian coffee. Who says I can’t cook.

Our other Food Blogger word shaker today has been removing the dust from the lid of you slow cooker and using it for only the second time since we bought it!!! I’m sure it was in a state of shock when it felt itself being picked up this morning. God knows how it’ll turn out. Maybe I’ll update this once I’ve tried it.

9 hour slow cooked beef brisket. I’m sure it’ll be lovely, especially since I’ve had nothing to do with making it 🥳🥳🥳. Assuming it’s nice I’ll post the recipe next time

Bye for now…….and remember, never take anything too seriously unless it actually is something serious 😀

‘Mincegate’ was brought to you by ©️Dodo Productions 2019 and David Linden @qosfc1919 on Twitter.