While being Scottish and living my whole life in Scotland, I didn’t grow up on the traditional Scottish fare. My parents loved Indian curries, Italian Pizzas and Pastas and by the time I was getting into my teens Mexican. So it wasn’t until my all-to-brief holiday up north to Macduff that I truly appreciated the simplicity and satiating nature of a mince round.
Being in a caravan most of the cooking I did was simply reheating, and sticking a mince pie in the oven is pretty easy. However the amount of effort to make your own is worth it. I like it because I can chose the quality of meat I use (lean Scottish mince) and can limit the amount of salt added. In the pre-made one the predominant flavour was salt.
Scottish Mince Round
A traditional Scottish Mince Round recipe, a puff-pastry pie filled with beef mince
Serves 4. Makes 1 9-inch pie.
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
- 500 grams of lean mince, although I only used around half, and the rest was used next day for a shepherds pie. I used beef mince but it may be more traditional with lamb.
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped or crushed
- 1 beef stock cube, dissolved in 400 ml of hot water
- 1 tablespoon of Worcester sauce
- 425g of Puff pastry (I used 2 pre-rolled sheets, the leftovers made a cherry pie)
- Slug of olive oil
Pre heat your oven to 200oC.
Add the oil and onion into a saucepan and heat for 4 minutes until the onion starts to go translucent. Then add the garlic, make sure it doesn’t burn. Add the mince breaking it up into small pieces, cook for 10 minutes or until the mince is browned, then stir in the beef stock and Worcester sauce.
Cook for another 5 minutes till the liquid has reduce by around half. While the mince is cooking, roll out your puff pastry and cut a circle big enough to fit the bottom of your 9-inch pan and up the sides. Add this to an oven for five minutes. You can either add beans to the bottom to weigh it down, or like me you could just puncture the pastry when it rises up.
Now that your pie bottom is part cooked, and your mince is cooked through, add the mince to your pie.
Now cut a slightly smaller circle for the top of your pie, and place it on top, pressing it down at the edges. I also added 2 holes to the top of mine.
Now put back in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top, and warm in the middle (although if you make it all at once this should be less of an issue).
I served mine with good old fashioned mashed potato and cauliflower, if you think your mince round maybe a little dry some gravy along side will go down a treat.
