Welcome to the next instalment all about marvellous mince! This is part 2. If you have not seen part 1, it is here.
If you haven’t tried our meat product called “hearty mince” yet (described in part 1), I encourage you to give it a go. This is our normal premium mince with 5% beef heart mixed through it. The addition of beef heart increases the nutrition of the mince without changing the texture or greatly changing the flavour. I find the mince has a bit more of a savory taste, but most people wouldn’t be able to pick that there is heart added.
Years ago, after coming across dietary information from the Weston A Price Foundation, I started adding minced lamb heart to my mince recipes without my families knowledge. Dishes like spaghetti bolognaise or lasagna. It was eaten without any questions and no one realised what I was doing till I told them – and they still love it!
“Beef heart has 10mg Coenzyme Q10 per 100gm – the highest food source available. CoQ10 is a fat-soluble nutrient that is stored in the mitochondria – creating energy and acting as an antioxidant, repairing cell damage. The body can make this nutrient on its own, but the ability tends to decline with age. It has been shown to have heart, brain and reproductive health benefits,”
The above quote is from this article: “Warm, Hearty Meatball Sub” by Janine Farzin
Consider eating ‘hearty mince’ not just for flavour but for better nutrition too.
Below are another two mince recipes which I wanted to share in this Part 2 blog post series:
- Chilli Con Carne
- Beef Enchiladas
Read on to view each:
The Chilli Con Carne Recipe
This is a favourite recipe from a Family Circle cookbook, with a few tweaks to make it just right for us. A little less chilli powder and I try to use dried beans that I have soaked and cooked previously. As always, I use either beef tallow, lard or chicken fat instead of vegetable/olive oil. I find that I hardly ever have celery available so usually I don’t add that either. I always like to add extra vegetables and this time I added chopped carrot.
As you would know, you can serve Chilli Con Carne traditionally with rice, or change it up and have it on flat breads, or as part of nachos. Leftovers always seem to have a deeper flavour too.
My family enjoyed this dish and there was heaps left over for lunch or dinner the next day, The below video shows how to make it. You can find the recipe in the description of this video on YouTube.
The Beef Enchiladas Recipe
This is a RecipeTin Eats recipe from the cookbook “Dinner” page 207, so I can’t replicate the recipe here on our blog for you.
Never having made enchiladas before, I was interested to see how it would cook and taste. I’m not that much of a fan of beans in mince, and after having Chilli Con Carne, I thought I would use double the mince without the refried or black beans called for in the recipe. (I swear I wasn’t influenced by not having them in the pantry and the one hour round trip to the store to get some… ).
Starting with the sauce, which is made similar to a white sauce but made with tallow, flour and stock with passata and spices added, I moved onto cooking the mince which was very simple. Then I rolled the mince into the tortillas, topped with sauce and a good covering of grated cheese.
It came out of the oven full of cheesy and spicy tomatoey goodness. The mince was flavoursome, moist and created just the right combination with the tortillas.
We have since had this meal another couple of times, using our ‘hearty mince’ and it’s now a definite favourite.
Please view the video here:
Conclusion:
This experiment of creating these meals using our hearty mince has been quite enjoyable and very tasty! None of the mince meals were a disappointment, in fact they were quite the opposite; they were all really great! 🙂
Each of the meals showcased in Part 1 and here in part 2 now have a place on our go-to menu list, plus my son has added a couple more recipes to his own repertoire.
I see now that there are so many more ways to serve up mince than I previously ever thought possible. There are also additional recipes I have now found that I would love to try in the future too! Maybe there will be a Part 3 to this Marvelous Mince blog post series(?). Watch this space!
Don’t forget you can find us at the Mulgowie Farmers Markets at Mulgowie, 30 mins drive south of Laidley on the first Saturday of every month. It is where we sell our chemical-free, grass-fed & finished, locally raised and grown beef – including mince.
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