As a family who, admittedly, are not great about making sure all food is used up I was interested to take part.
Food waste is something Jon is often telling me off about, and something I do feel a lot of guilt about as so often vegetables and fruit end up not being used in time and thrown out in our house.
We spent our £40 on the same kinds of meals we'd usually have - roast dinners with vegetables, pasta bake, spaghetti bolognese and cod mornay with carrots and potatoes.
Toward the end of the week I checked our vegetable drawer and noticed we had some unused carrots, sprouts, potatoes and swede from our roast dinner and some unused onion from the bolognese - so I decided to use them in a dinner to ensure nothing was thrown out.
I considered making bubble & squeak but sprouts and swede didn't seem like they would work that well in that dish, so instead I decided to make scouse!
If you're not from Liverpool you may well not be familiar with the dish - though it is pretty famous!
There's a long backstory to how Scouse came in to existence which you can read here if it interests you - but basically it was a recipe from the 19th century which was popular with sailors and so found its way to the port of Liverpool where it remains popular to this day.
Generations of Liverpudlians were brought up on scouse - it is such a thrifty meal as it is basically a stew which can feed a whole family and any old veg can be thrown in!
Every Scouse family has their own Scouse recipe - you will never find one Liverpool families Scouse recipe the same as their next door neighbours!
Some people use lamb, some people use stewing steak....the veg is always changing....but one thing never changes...Scouse is the ULTIMATE comfort food for any true Liverpudlian!
So on with the McLean Family Scouse recipe!
Ingredients: *One medium pack of minced beef *One onion - sliced *One swede - diced *4 or 5 carrots - Sliced *Handful of brussel sprouts *5 or 6 good sized potatoes - Quartered *2 oxo cubes *Beef gravy powder *Water
Method:
1) Put mince into a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil until mince changes color. Drain mince, and transfer to slow cooker.
2) Add all of the veg, raw.
3) Pour in water until all veg and meat is well covered, sprinkle in two oxo cubes and stir well.
4) Cover and cook on low for 5/6 hours or on high for 2/3 hours. Stir well, and sprinkle in gravy powder to thicken until it reaches a consistency you like.
And there you have it! McLean Family Scouse!
I sometimes change the dish up a bit by sprinkling in some curry powder once its cooked - but this is the standard traditional version.
Scouse should ALWAYS be served with crusty bread, pickled beetroot and lots of pepper!!
On this occasion we also had Yorkshire puddings with it, but that's not a requirement (The crusty bread, beetroot and pepper are!!!)
Tyne tucked right in, and after his first taste said "Nice!"...so there you have it, straight from the horses mouth!
I was so delighted not to have to waste any food and we all enjoyed the dinner very much!
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