Savoury teddy scones with beef and mash

Serves:

Ingredients

• 5 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 tspn butter or margarine
• 2 tbsn milk
• 1 tbsn olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 large or 2 small onions
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 310g minced beef
• 2 field mushrooms, diced
• 2 tbsn instant gravy powder
• 1 tbsn stock powder (vegetable or beef)
• 1 cup water

For the Teddy scones:

• 1 cup Self Raising Flour
• 2 tbsn chilled butter or margarine, cubed
• 2 tbsn cold water
• 3 tbsn grated cheese
• 1 tbsnn parmesan cheese
• A little extra flour for rolling out

Method

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the potatoes and leave until soft cooked.

Meanwhile, put a large fry pan on the stove on high heat. Drizzle in the oil when hot.

Add the garlic and onions and fry until clear, stirring so they don’t stick.

Add the mince, stirring until browned. Stir in the carrot, mushrooms, zucchini and leave on a low heat. After a few minutes, stir in the gravy and stock powder, then pour in the water. Leave on low heat, stirring occasionally. A gravy will begin to form after a few minutes. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.

While the gravy thickens and the mince cooks through, test the potatoes in the saucepan to check cooked. They should feel soft when poked with a knife.

Strain potatoes to drain the water then add back to the saucepan. Mash thoroughly until smooth. Mix in butter or margarine and milk. An easy way to do this is with a whisk as it ensures really fluffy mash.

Pour the mince and gravy mix into a casserole dish. Spoon out your mashed potatoes in a ‘mountain’ on top.

For the teddy scones, sift the SR flour into a large bowl. Massage in butter or margarine with your hands. You want the mixture to resemble breadcrumbs. The Teddy stage is a great way to get the kids involved. Stir in the cheese.

Use a dinner knife to mix in the water, stirring until the mixture turns into dough. Sprinkle some flour on the bench, and turn out the dough onto it. Sprinkle a bit more flour on the dough. Roll out to about 1 centimetre thick and cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. This dish is called Teddies on the Mountain as we always use a teddy bear shaped cookie cutter, but you can easily substitute it for any shape. The kids can have great fun cutting out shapes.

Continue rolling out and cutting shapes until all the dough is gone. Place your ‘Teddies’ on top of the pile of mash, spread out so the don’t touch. They will rise a bit while baking.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes depending on your oven. It’s done when the scones are risen and golden brown.

Spoon into bowls, making sure everyone gets a few teddy scones (or whatever other shape you’ve chosen).

Notes

• Though a bit fiddly, this recipe is a great way to get the kids involved in making the cute teddies appear on the mountain.
• You can change the shape of the teddies to anything that might please the kid’s stars, crowns, angels, whatever!
• It’s a great way to sneak in some extra veggies. The carrot, zucchini and mushroom can easily be substituted for any left over veggies.
• Can easily be converted to dairy free by using soy milk instead of milk and replacing cheese with herbs and stock powder.
• Can be converted to vegetarian by using more vegetables or soy mince if preferred.
• This recipe was created by Lauren Rowland for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder

Serving Suggestions

Note