Spicy Mince

The last Tuesday in November was a cold damp day that followed on immediately after a freezing, fraught, tiring and wet meeting in the bar of a local hotel the night before. By the end of the meeting almost all the participants looked in need of some tea and sympathy.

I was still pretty tired the following day so much so that I had an afternoon nap as the combination of chairing the meeting and several months' working hard in the exciting and enjoyable day job finally caught up on me. By the time I woke up the weak winter daylight had given way to an unatural dusk illuminated by the streetlights and an electric full moon.

I pushed myself to my feet and decided that tea needed to consist of something that wasn't too demanding to make. I settled on a traditional dish with a modern twist; mince and mash which in Scotland is known as, which my Scottish Grandad will confirm too, mince and tatties. The twist I put on the dish involved some different flavourings from usual in the ingredients and using vegetarian mince instead of traditional mince.

As I was off work the soundtrack was an album that was mellow, atmospheric and introspective rather than energetic and agressive and I chose Camel's well-played 1978 live offering "A Live Record".

I first prepared the potatoes by peeling and then slicing them into small squares. I then simmered them lightly in a pan of water on the hob until they were soft enough to mash with some dried sage and melted margarine.

While the potatoes were simmering I prepared the mince mixture. I first topped and tailed a large white onion and then diced it up. I put it in my trusty wok and fried it with around twelve ounces of quorn mince and two carrots that I had earlier sliced up into very small cubes to ensure they cooked more quickly.

The oil I fried the ingredients in was a rapeseed oil which I find gives earthy traditional English dishes like this one a better taste than if they are fried in olive oil. The flavourings that I added at this point were a small pinch of powdered mustard, half a teaspoon of liquid mustard, a hint of black pepper and a tablespoon of Barbecue Sauce. After frying the mince mixture lightly for about fifteen minutes, by which time the onions began to go translucent, I added a teaspoon of dried sage and half a pint of vegetable stock.

Once the stock was added I simmered vigorously the mixture for about twenty minutes until a lot of the stock had been absorbed and the carrots had softened. Once the carrots were in this state the dish was ready to serve.

I added some of the mince mixture to a plate that already had on it the potatoes which were now mashed with a mixture of melted margarine and dried sage.

The taste was one that made this usually bland meal something different as the Barbecue Sauce and two types of mustard gave the dish a smokey and mature taste that the mince would have otherwise lacked while the sage in the potatoes lent a warm richness to the meal.

It may look traditional but the taste of this dish gives it a flavour that makes it more interesting than your average mince a mash dish