Slow Cooker Beef Goulash

Ingredients:
550g (19oz.) of Diced Beef or Stewing Steak
2 cans of chopped tomatoes in juice
A few Tbsp. (roughly 1/2 cup) sour cream
1/2 cup diced sweet onion
2 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
2 cloves of garlic (pressed)
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. Smoked Spanish Paprika
1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 Bay leaf
Pink salt and cracked black pepper to taste
A large slow cooker (crockpot)


*Smoked Spanish paprika is definitely the star of this dish and gives it all of the signature flavour.  For the sake bold flavour, I normally insist on using only quality Italian chopped tomatoes, even if they're more expensive.  Cheaper tinned tomatoes can be watery and lacking in flavour, but if you need to skimp and save the money by using less expensive ones, this is one dish where you may just get away with it.  Since the smoked paprika is the most important ingredient, the exact type of tomatoes isn't as important, as long as they taste like tomatoes.  Ordinary sweet paprika doesn't give it the right punch, so be sure to use the good smoked stuff.  Schwartz makes one in addition to their normal paprika.  You can also get it in tins imported from Spain in farmers markets or in good fruit and veg/deli shops like 'Get Fresh.'

Method:
First, prepare your vegetables and mince the garlic cloves.  Split the celery stalks lengthwise and dice into small chunks.  Cut the carrots into small coins at the smaller end and half-coins at the larger end.  Dice the onion.  Place all the veg in the slow cooker, but not the garlic.  Next, prepare the meat.  Mix the 2 tablespoons of flour with the tablespoon of paprika and the raw minced garlic in a large bowl.  Add the meat to the bowl and mix thoroughly around by hand or with a spoon until the meat is coated.  Put the meat mixture into a non-stick pan on a medium heat and toss around for a few moments to seal the meat on all sides if possible.  Put the meat in the slow cooker with the veggies.  De-glaze the pan with a little water and scrape the juices into the slow cooker.  Next, pour in 2 cans of chopped tomatoes with juice, add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and a few dashes of cracked black pepper and pink salt (Go light with it at this stage, as you can taste it when the meat is cooked and add more at that stage.) and a bay leaf.  Stir the mixture well and put the slow cooker on low for roughly 6 hours.  Taste towards the end to judge whether you need to add more salt and pepper.  About half an hour before the end of cooking time, remove the bay leaf, stir in sour cream and re-cover to finish cooking.  Serve over macaroni or rice.  

This amount serves 3 of us for 2 nights with some left over.

Ginger's Chili

Ingredients:

700g (1.5 lbs.) minced beef

½ an onion - diced

1 Tbsp. Mild Chilli Powder

1 Tbsp. Ground Cumin

1 tsp. Onion Granules or Onion Salt

1 tsp. Dried Minced Garlic or 2 cloves of garlic – minced

1 tsp. Dried Oregano

½ tsp. Ground Coriander

1 x 142g (5 oz.) can of tomato puree/paste

1 can of Borlotti or Pinto Beans with juices

A few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce

A few dashes of Tabasco Sauce (original)

Several tablespoons of water
A large slow cooker (crockpot)

I’ve changed my chilli recipe many times over the years, doing it by taste and never really following a recipe.  I’ve often heard that original traditional Texas chilli doesn’t have beans in it and that beans are mainly added in the Northern part of the United States, but never in Texas.  I was born in 1972 and grew up in Texas, even living and spending time in different regions, and had chilli made by many different people and in many different restaurants, etc.  It always had beans in it, so perhaps the tradition of having it without beans is on the decline.  I like it with beans, but you can leave them out if you don’t.  People often use kidney beans, but we like the softer Borlotti or Pinto beans, which are also easier to digest.  My father’s chilli was heavy on the tomato and very very spicy, always leaving us wishing it was milder.  My grandmother’s chilli had no tomato, but lots of onion and was heavy on the Cumin – a spice I adore.  In years past, I tried to marry those two ideas and used to add canned diced tomatoes to my chilli, but between that and liking it mild, I felt it came off like a slightly spicy Bolognese with beans, so I started changing my method.  I came up with this recipe after years of experimentation.  I discovered that it tastes best out of a slow cooker and with plenty of Cumin, just a mild to medium kick of chilli, and with tomato paste, but no diced tomatoes.  I add my spices by taste and instinct, so these measurements are approximate.  Feel free to alter them to make it spicier or milder to your taste. 

Method:

Dice half an onion and put it in a large slow cooker.  Next, lightly brown the ground beef in non-stick pan for a few minutes and then put it into the slow cooker.  Keep the meat pan on a low heat and begin adding your dry spices into the pan for toasting.  Toast them for a minute or two until aromatic, stirring around with a wooden spoon.  Dump the toasted spices into the slow cooker with the meat and onions.  Then, de-glaze the pan with a couple of tablespoons of water and pour this liquid into the slow cooker.  Finally, add a few more tablespoons of water, a few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce and a dash of salt to the mixture and stir well.  Place the lid on the slow cooker and set to high.  After 1 hour, turn down to low and stir the mixture.  After another hour, add the tomato paste, a couple more dashes of salt, and a few tablespoons of water and stir.  Place the lid back on and wait a further hour.  Add the beans, stir and taste for spice.  At this point, add any additional spice you think it may need (I like a few dashes of Tabasco, a few more dashes of salt and a dash more of chilli powder and cumin at this stage) and leave to cook for a further 2 to 2 and ½ hours.  This is minimum time – you can cook for longer if it suits your schedule.  As with most meat or stew-type mixtures in a slow cooker, it only improves with time.  If you’re going to cook it for longer, you need not turn it to high for the first hour.  **Please note that this does come out fairly mild with these amounts and types of spice.  My young son likes just a tiny bit of spice, I like a little more and my husband likes a bit more than me.  I find it's easiest to make something relatively mild and then we adults can add Tabasco to our bowl to spice it up a little.  If you prefer, you can use a medium or hot chilli powder instead of mild.

I like to serve mine with scratch-made cornbread and grated cheddar and sour cream to garnish.  It really hits the spot on a cold, wet winter night.  We also carry on my family's tradition:  we cut our cornbread in half and eat half with the chili.  After we've finished our chili, we eat the other half with butter and honey for an after-dinner treat!  My son loves this as much as I did as a child.

Bacon and Eggs Meatloaf

 Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 lbs. (680-700g) Lean Beef Mince
1 small onion, diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small courgette (zucchini), diced
1 raw egg
dash of ketchup
1/2 cup crushed croutons or crackers
1/4 cup milk
dash mild chilli powder
1/2 tsp. salt & black pepper
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic granules
1/2 tsp. celery salt
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
14 oz. (414ml/396g) passata (tomato sauce)
2 hard-boiled eggs (not too hard)

I used to make my meatloaf based on a different family recipe, but although it was good, it was a little plain.  My sister gave me her recipe for meatloaf & it was far superior - full of delicious chunky vegetables & very moist.  I also found that, although I love tomato based dishes (as do my husband & son), the original recipe I used was very tomato heavy & we always seemed to get heartburn after eating it.  My sister's recipe combines brown sugar with the passata & this somehow seems to cut the acidity.  We now use this recipe every time & have been able to enjoy completely heartburn-free meatloaf!  This version is our little twist on my sister's meatloaf.  I have made a few changes (ie changing Cayenne pepper to Mild Chilli Powder, reducing the amounts of some spices & changing the diced celery to diced yellow peppers due to my husband's dislike of celery).  We have also turned it into 'Bacon & Eggs Meatloaf' by putting a layer of halved hard-boiled eggs in the centre.  This was my husband's idea & it is so delicious that we now do it every time.

Method:
For convenience (& to give her due credit for the original recipe), I am linking to my sister's recipe at
http://mariahcooks.blogspot.ie/2013/02/meatloaf.html for the method & directions.  You can choose whether to include my changes or make it her way.  To make it into the bacon & eggs version, simply do as follows:  After completing all the steps for achieving the actual meat mixture, divide it into two equal balls.  Have 2 large hard-boiled eggs ready.  They will need to be just on the softer side of hard-boiled if possible, as they will cook again inside the meatloaf & you don't want them to become too rubbery.  Cut the eggs in half vertically & set aside.  Put one half of the meat mixture into your cooking dish & shape into a sort of flattened loaf shape.  Place the egg halves along the central length on top of the meat.  Place the second half of the meat mixture on top & mould it by hand around the edges & top until it is sealed all around & a solid loaf is formed.  Continue with the recipe's instructions to top with strips of bacon & the tomato & brown sugar sauce.  Bake at 176 Celsius (350 F) for about 1 hour & 20 minutes.  We like to serve with mash, beef gravy & steamed green beans or peas & green cabbage.

First layer with eggs on top

Covered in bacon - just before the tomato sauce goes on...

Here's how we like it.

Best Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:
600-700g (about 1 & 1/3 lbs. to 1 & 1/2 lbs.) diced beef for stewing
300ml (10 oz.)of good beef stock
1 heaped Tablespoon of flour
1/2 an onion - diced
1/2 a red bell pepper (cut into short slivers)
1 clove of garlic - minced
A 150g (5-6 oz.) container of baby button or closed cup mushrooms - sliced
2/3 of a 250g (just under 9oz.) tub of full fat Philly or other brand of cream cheese
3 heaped Tbsp. of sour cream
1 tsp. of paprika
1/2 tsp. onion salt or onion granules
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Dash cracked black pepper
Cornflour or about 2 Tbsp. butter and 1 Tbsp. flour (if needed for thickening)
A large slow cooker (crockpot)

This is my best Stroganoff recipe yet.  I've typically just thrown it together over the years without a recipe and without taking the time to make sure it was as good as it could be, but when I took the time to add a couple of extra things and balance things out better, I came up with my best version.  It was an instant hit.  I tend to do recipes like this in the slow cooker because it makes the meat so much more tender and flavoursome and you can do it in the morning and walk away from it for a few hours.  I also find that the second day leftovers taste even better than on the first day.  For a family of 3, we get a full dinner 2 nights in a row out of this amount.

Method:
First, make 300ml (10 oz.) of beef stock and set aside.  Sprinkle a heaped tablespoon of flour over the diced beef in a large non-stick pan and lightly brown, tossing around, for just a minute or two to seal in the juices.  Dump the meat into the slow cooker and use a little of your stock to deglaze the pan and pour these thick juices into the slow cooker as well, along with the rest of your stock (I use a Knorr gel concentrated Rich Beef stock pot).  Begin your veg prep.  After washing your veg, dice half an onion, slice your mushrooms and cut half a red sweet pepper into short thin slivers.  Mince a clove of garlic and put this, along with the other veg, into the slow cooker. Add a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of ground or cracked black pepper and your onion salt and paprika to the mixture and stir.  Set the slow cooker on high at first and allow it to cook this way for about 4 hours.  Stir or check occasionally.  Two hours before dinner time, add the cream cheese and sour cream, stir again and reduce the setting to low.  Cook for a further 2 hours.  This is the way I do mine, but the beauty of using a slow cooker is that nothing burns or over-cooks, so you can play around with timings.  If you work a 9-5 job, you could throw it in before work and leave it on low the whole time.  You could also add the cream cheese and sour cream in just an hour or even a half-hour before dinner.  As long as it has time to melt and blend in, it will work. 
This can be served with rice or mash or even chunky chips, but our favourite way to have it is with medium egg noodles (which you can find in Polish shops here) or tagliatelle & some garlic bread.
 * TIP - Depending on how much liquid comes from your mushrooms and beef, the thickness of the sauce can change a little each time you make this.  If the sauce seems to thin, simply add a bit of cornflour and water mixture or make a small amount of flour and butter roux and stir that in towards the end.  It should thicken up nicely.

So gorgeous and 'more-ish!'

Cheeseburger Macaroni Bake

Ingredients:

245g (just over 8.5 oz.) Beef mince (ground beef)

¼ of a small onion (diced)

1 clove of garlic (diced)

a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce

200g (7 oz.) of macaroni

3 Tbsp. of diced pimentos

150g (just over 5 oz.) of full fat cream cheese

1 Tbsp. of French’s yellow mustard

90g (just over 3 oz.) of grated cheddar + an additional handful or 2

300ml (just over 10 oz.) of milk

dash of cracked black pepper

18 Ritz crackers (blitzed or crushed)

a medium-sized casserole dish

I needed to use up some pimentos from a large jar I’d opened to make Yellow Jack Chicken & wanted to do something involving pasta & cheese.  My 7 year old son & I discussed what we’d like for dinner & came up with this recipe together.  The whole idea is that it’s like a deconstructed cheeseburger in a casserole, with the pimentos evoking both pickles & grilled peppers & the cracker crumbs representing the bun.  You’ve got the onions, the meat, the mustard – the whole works & pasta to boot!  I think it’s pretty good, so please enjoy.

Method:

In a non-stick pan, soften the onions & garlic & add the mince (ground beef).  Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce & cook until brown.  While this is going on, you can be boiling the macaroni.  Boil until al dente, then drain & set aside.  To make the ‘instant’ cheese sauce, melt the cream cheese & milk in a small pot.  When the cream cheese is melted in & it has formed a thick liquid, add the mustard, black pepper & grated cheddar & stir until smooth & blended.  Taste a little of the sauce on your finger & see whether you think it needs a dash of salt.  I find this sauce to be more than flavourful, but my husband always feels the dish needs a little salt when I use this sauce.  Everyone’s tastebuds are different & I’m not a fan of salt, so you may feel differently.  (You may notice from my blog that this is the same cheese sauce I use when making a vegetable bake.  It’s quicker than a traditional cheese sauce with a roux base, which I also use frequently, & simply works better with certain things.  You may also notice that I tend to use yellow American hotdog mustard in my cheese or cream-based sauces.  It’s something I discovered many years ago when playing around with flavours.  A little goes a long way toward making something zippy & more flavourful & I find it preferable to using tons of salt.)  In a casserole dish, combine the cooked mince & onion mixture with the macaroni & the pimentos, then stir around until well mixed.  Pour over the cheese sauce & stir a little until well-covered.  Sprinkle a handful or 2 of grated cheddar over the top.  Next, crush the Ritz crackers with a mortar & pestle or in a food processor & sprinkle over the top.  Bake at 200 Celsius (390 F) for about 35 minutes until bubbly & golden brown.

 

before the oven

out of the oven

our 'deconstructed cheeseburger' with roasted butternut squash & sweet potato with pumpkin seeds 

Rustic Beef and Vegetable Pot Pie

Ingredients:

600g (1.3 lbs) diced or cubed stewing beef

½ large onion – roughly chopped

1 large Rooster potato – peeled & cubed

1 very large carrot or 2 medium carrots – cut into rounds (half-rounds at bigger end)

12–14 normal mushrooms – washed & sliced into chunky pieces

1 Knorr Rich Beef concentrated gel stockpot

575ml water (1.2 pints)

45g real butter

26g flour

3g salt

1 Tbsp. dried Thyme

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. Paprika

1 tsp. cracked black pepper

½ tsp. Onion Salt

Jus.Rol Shortcrust (frozen pack of 2 – thawed, but cold)

A deep casserole dish (I use a nearly 14 inch oval dish that’s almost 3 inches deep)

A large slow cooker (crockpot)

This dish is great comfort food – something you’d be happy to get for Sunday dinner in the local pub.  If you want to give it an even more authentic ‘pub grub’ taste, you could also add a few tablespoons of stout or ale to the initial mixture.  I used to make beef pie regularly, but stopped as I was finding it a bit plain.  Last night I decided it was time I tried again, but this time I took my time with it and came up with a new recipe to give it more flavour and richness.  It was a big hit and we’re looking forward to the leftovers.  You can easily feed a family of 5 with this.  As with many of my recipes, I used a slow-cooker.  Although this dish doesn’t stay in the slow-cooker until serving time, it’s essential for softening the meat and making it tender, while keeping the veg from going too mushy. 

Method:

Once you’ve chopped all of your vegetables appropriately, you will need to briefly brown the outside of your pieces of diced beef in a non-stick pan in order to seal the meat on all sides, which holds in the juices while slow-cooking.  Put all the veg, the Worcestershire sauce, the Thyme, Paprika, pepper and onion salt into the slow cooker.  Next, put in the sealed beef, along with any cooking juices from the pan.

Make 575 ml of stock with 1 Knorr Rich Beef concentrated gel stockpot.  (It’s supposed to make 500, but the extra 75ml will not over-weaken it, as we will be using cooking juices from the meat and veg with it).  Pour 475ml of this stock into the slow cooker mixture (setting aside the remaining 100ml for later use), stir everything around, put the lid on and cook on high for 4 hours.  It will initially look low on liquid, but within half an hour, as the mushrooms, etc break down a little, more liquid will be produced. 

About 15 minutes before the 4 hours is up, you can begin preparing your crusts and thick gravy for the pie.  I tend to use a Jus.Rol 2-pack of frozen pre-rolled shortcrust sheets for convenience, but you can make your own and refrigerate ahead of time if you prefer.  For the gravy, you will need use the 100ml of beef stock that you had leftover, along with 375ml worth of juices and stock from the slow cooker mixture, which you can remove with a large spoon and put into the measuring jug.  To make your thickening roux, melt 45g of real butter on a medium heat.  When the butter is melted, reduce to a low heat and add 26g of flour and 3g of salt.  Stir constantly with a small whisk for 1 full minute to bind it all and cook out any floury taste (I use a flat oval ‘Wonder Whisk’ which is usually used for single eggs or small portions of liquid.  It makes the smoothest roux.).  You should have a thick glossy yellow mixture after 1 minute.  Add the 475ml of stock and juices to this roux and stir on a medium heat with a spoon until it thickens into beef gravy.  You can also add a little more pepper at this stage.  Next, you can make the crusts.  Roll your pre-rolled crusts out just a little more on all sides so that it’s nice and thin and will fully line your dish.  Line your deep casserole dish with crust dough, pressing it up the sides to the top.  Roll the next sheet a little more to thin and stretch it as well.  Cut 2 knife slits in the middle of this sheet and set aside while you fill the pie.  Remove all meat and veg from any remaining juices in the slow cooker with a slotted or perforated spoon, as too much liquid will make the filling watery.  Place the meat and veg into the crust-lined casserole dish (it should fill it almost all the way, but leave a little room at the top).  Pour the thick beef gravy over the meat and veg, covering it all.  You can then gently place the top crust on.  There should be some over-hanging pastry.  Fold this all over until it no longer over-hangs in order to make a nice double-crust edge all the way around.  Go around the edges, pinching together the top folded crust with any of the bottom crust that meets it around the top of the dish.  After this, go around again, pressing a fork gently into the crust to make it look nice and add to the crispiness of the edge crust.  You can brush the crust with a little milk at this stage if you like it extra browned.  

Put into an oven at 200 Celsius (just over 390 F) and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown with gravy visibly bubbling through slits.  I served this with some creamy cheddar mashed potato and an extra portion of rich beef gravy that I made with the remaining slow cooker juices, some black pepper and another roux.

the mixture during the first half of slow-cooking

the crust-lined dish ready for filling (it need not look perfect)

making the roux for the gravy

 the gravy-covered filling

just before the oven

fresh out of the oven and ready to serve

'Pie and Mash' - Morris style (excuse the blurry pic!)     

Zippy Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:

700g (1.5 lbs) good lean beef or pork mince (ground beef, ground pork)
1/2 a carrot (grated) 

1/2 an onion (diced)

1/2 any colour of bell pepper (diced)

1 ½ cups ketchup

6 Tablespoons water

3 Tablespoons light packed brown sugar

3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 ½ Tablespoons malt vinegar (white vinegar is also fine)

3 teaspoons yellow American mustard

¾ teaspoon garlic powder or garlic granules

¾ teaspoon onion powder or onion granules

¾ teaspoon salt

Hamburger buns

I started making these a couple of years ago & have made them hundreds of times.  I wanted to learn to make them from scratch since we don’t have canned or packet Sloppy Joe mix here in Ireland.  On occasion, friends or relations would post or bring me the dry packet variety of mix, but I always felt it fell flat & lacked in zip & zing compared to the old canned Manwich variety.  I decided to make my own & started out by finding a recipe online that sounded very close to the type of Sloppy Joes I was looking for.  I played around with it the first few times, reducing & increasing the amount of certain ingredients & adding a few things of my own to give it the flavour I desired.  I guess I finally got it right, because friends & family alike all love these & always want seconds.  Kiddos really love it too, so it’s great for when you’re having a party or a sleepover, etc.  It’s also an easy & fun one for the kids to help make.  My 7 year old practically has the recipe memorized & always wants to help make them.

Method:

Grate about half a small carrot & place in a large non-stick pan.  *(This is an old cooks’ tip I learned years ago.  I put grated carrot in to soften before cooking mince for anything.  The juices from the carrot help to break down the meat & keep it velvety & loose, so you avoid those big stuck-together clumps. You still need to break it up initially, but it falls apart more easily & you don’t need to break & stir it as much. It’s also a great way of getting extra vegetables & colour in & it adds to the flavour & moistness.)  With the carrot, add the diced onion & pepper & a few tablespoons of water.  When these have all softened, add your mince & cook until browned.  Add all other ingredients & stir well.  Place a lid or plate loosely over the pan & allow mixture to simmer on a low heat for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring periodically.  Serve on warm buns.

This amount will feed 3 people for 2 nights with a little left to freeze or eat for lunch, or you can feed about 6 people with it.  We like to serve ours with grated cheese, a touch of mayo & alfalfa sprouts & with a pickle & crisps on the side.  It’s the only time I allow crisps at dinner, so it’s a real treat!

Kids love to help with this one!

Almost ready...

Nom nom nom.

Autumn Cottage Pie

Ingredients:

2 very large or 5 smaller sweet potatoes

Small (220g or U.S. equivalent) tub Philadelphia Cream Cheese with chives

Salt

Cracked Black Pepper

Worcestershire Sauce

700g (1.5 lbs.) of good quality beef mince

1 small carrot

Half an onion

1 Knorr Beef or Rich Beef Stockpot

Half a jar of pasta sauce

2/3 cup of frozen peas (Petit Pois or Garden Peas work best)

A few handfuls of grated cheddar cheese

A large deep non-stick pan

A 9”x9” square casserole dish (or close enough)

This is ‘Autumn Cottage Pie’ – my take on a traditional cottage pie with a yummier twist.  Despite the name I gave it, it’s delicious comfort food for any time of year.  It never fails to be a hit among friends & family & is often requested by my hubby & 7 year old son.  This amount makes more than enough to feed myself, my hubby & my son for 2 nights in a row & could easily feed a family of 4 or 5 for one night.

To prepare, first peel & cut 2 large or 5 small sweet potatoes for boiling & mashing.  Boil these while you prepare the meat mixture.  You will also need to blanch your peas in boiling water for a minute or 2, drain & set aside.  Next, grate a small carrot or half a large carrot & dice half an onion.  Place them in the non-stick pan with a splash of water & a splash of Worcestershire & allow them to soften for a couple of minutes.  Then add your beef mince & cook until browned, stirring & breaking up constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula to get rid of any clumps & make a fine texture.  When browned, stir in the pre-blanched peas.  At this point, you can add in roughly half of a normal-sized (around 454g size) jar of your favourite pasta sauce & a Knorr beef or rich beef gel stockpot with just a couple of tablespoons of water.  Mix well until stock pot fully melts & is blended in.  Allow the mixture to simmer while you prepare the mash topping.  For the mash topping, just drain & mash the sweet potatoes until smooth, then stir in about a teaspoon of salt, a dash of cracked black pepper & about half of a 200g tub of Philadelphia cream cheese with chives.  Stir for a minute or 2 until creamy & blended well.  Pour the meat mixture into a casserole dish & spread out evenly, then top with a light layer of grated cheddar cheese.  Top this with the mashed sweet potato.  To do this, spoon the mash on & spread out gently in a smooth thick layer.  Next, gently line the mash with a fork.  Make sure to do it lightly so as not to go deep & expose the meat.  The best way is to turn the fork back-side-up & make the lines going towards you long ways.  This is my son’s favourite task when he’s helping me make this.  These lines not only make it look pretty when it’s cooked, they also allow for little bits of it to brown, making the texture & taste better.  Put the whole dish into an oven at 180 Celsius (350 F) for about 30 minutes or until lines of mash are browning & meat sauce is bubbling up around edges. 

Serve with steamed green veggies & buttered bread rolls such as petit pain or individual ciabattas.

 This is just before the oven.

Just out of the oven.  The rich sauce & meat bubbling up is what you want to see.

This is how we like it.