Beef Cobbler Recipe - Beef Mince with Scone Dumplings

At the time of writing this, we're going through the coldest snap for 20 years! So what I needed was a nice and easy comfort food recipe that really filled me up and warmed me through!

Savoury Beef Mince Cobbler is a simple recipe that you can make quite quickly in time for tea.

The word mince is British, the American word is ground beef.

The first time I had beef mince cobbler was when I was at school, it was one of my favourite school dinners - and it's really easy to make, which is always good and I mentioned these in the week to a friend of mine and he hadn't heard of Savoury Beef Cobbler before, so to rectify that I've written this recipe for him - and you of course!

Mince meals have always been seen as budget recipes, with mince you can really find some bargain buys and make it stretch quite far. If you're reading this in the States, then mince is what you call Ground Beef.

Beef mince is the only pricey ingredient, I like to buy it when the Steak Mince is on half price offer, but ANY mince will do!

Savoury Mince Beef Cobbler (or you can use chunks of beef/steak)

Time: 1 hour max

• 400-500g beef - you can use meat or mince (although you can use lamb or any other meat really!)
• 1 large onion
• 0.5Kg carrots (2-3 large carrots, or 3-4 smaller carrots)
• 0.5 tin of garden peas, you can use frozen or fresh if you wish, these are optional but I love peas
• 2 stock or gravy cubes (you can use granules if that's what you've got)
• 6oz self raising flour, sifted so there are no lumps
• 2oz margarine, I like to use Stork margarine, but whatever you've got is fine
• A pinch of salt Water to mix.

1. Grate the carrots and onions (or chop/dice them finely). I find grating is quicker.
2. Heat up a spoon of oil in a frying pan and cook the mince for about 10 minutes, stirring it regularly until it's all brown.
3. Drain off most of the fat from the meat, depending on the quality of your mince, you might want to keep this to add back into the dish later, if your mince was quite fatty you'll just want to get rid of this (I drain it off into a small dish then later I scrape that into an old margarine tub with a lid - ideal for turning into bird feeders in your garden if you chuck in a handful of birdseed)
4. Add the onions to the mince in the pan. Continue to fry for another 5 minutes or so on a medium heat until the onions are cooked, stirring regularly.
5. Once the meat has cooked, pour the meat and onions into an ovenproof dish that has a lid. The larger the better, giving you the largest surface area (to fit more cobblers onto!)
6. Add in the carrots and peas.
7. If the meat juices you drained off aren't too fatty, add these into the mince mix in the casserole dish, I strain it through a tea strainer as by now any fat has cooled and is lumpy.
8. Make up your stock cube with boiling water and add this into the mince mix. You'll want quite a thick gravy.
9. Stir all the ingredients together
10. Place the casserole lid onto the dish and place it in a pre-heated oven (190˚C, 375˚F, Gas Mark 5)

1. Rub the flour, margarine, and salt together, to the consistency of breadcrumbs. (Cheat: You can use a food processor to do this)
2. Mix water slowly into the mix until you have a firm scone-like dough. If you add too much it'll become sticky (add a bit more flour), until you've added enough it won't be binding together.
3. When the dough's in one firm ball/lump, place your cobbler dough onto a floured worktop to roll it out so it is about 1cm thick and cut it into circles. If you have a scone cutter, great, otherwise find something else to use as a cutter that gives you 2-5cm circles.
4. Remove the mince mix from the oven, give it a stir and place your cobblers on top of the mince. They will expand outwards as they cook, so leave some space between them. The gravy needs to be quite thick so the cobblers don't sink, so if your gravy's a bit thin then add in another stock cube or some gravy granules, or a stir in some flour or cornflour to thicken it (I like to mix flour/cornflour up with a spot of cold water first to make sure there are no lumps).
5. Return the casserole to the oven, without the lid (so the cobblers brown).
6. Cook at 190˚C, 375˚F, Gas Mark 5 for 12-18 minutes, until the cobblers have risen and are a lovely golden brown.

Cobblers aren't turned during cooking, they are browned just on the top side.

Serve with your favourite vegetables, experiment!

Once the Savoury Mince Cobbler is cooked, sprinkle cheese on top of the cobblers and return to the oven for a further 5-6 minutes until the cheese has melted and browned.

Add in other vegetables you like: celery, sweetcorn, diced potatoes, a tin of tomatoes or real tomatoes.

Add some mixed herbs to the cobbler mix so you have herby cobblers, which look really lovely.

Add in some mustard or horseradish to the scone topping mix to give this a real bite (only if you know you already like the taste these!)

This is quite a hearty and traditional British school dinners meal, as well as being a popular family meal for the budget conscious!

I hope you enjoy it!