I MADE MINCE!
Recently, the thoroughly wonderful @MissWhiplash (follow her on twitter now, she’s aces) made me dinner. It was a fabulous affair – lots of booze, more bloody onglet than you can shake your hat at and the most incredible tarte tatin – she only made her own puff pastry!! Anyway, while I was there, Whippy and I got talking about her Kitchen Aid. She was telling me all about it and all the wonderful things that you can do with it, including making your own mince.
This excited me. I’d been thinking for a while that I wanted to make my own mince, largely because I’ve realised that extra lean beef mince is a bit pants and I could probably make tastier mince from lean cuts of pork or chicken or whatever. I mentioned this to Whippy who jumped out of her chair, rooted around in a cupboard for a bit and produced a vintage Spong mincer (photo to follow of the glorious item) for me to take home (darling Whippy, you’re never getting it back.)
So yesterday, I made mince. While I was extremely drunk on Saturday evening, I took a pork fillet out of the freezer to mince the following day. Lookie look!!
How freaking cool is that? And so quick and easy. Seriously kidz, BUY ONE NOW.
I then retired to my bed for a nap (so hungover) and when I woke up, groaned at the mince and the effort involved in making anything at all for dinner, but decided to go simple with a version of the also-freaking-awesome @ShedLikesFood’s vietnamese pork patties.
These should be made with minced pork, a little bit of sugar, minced up spring onions and a load of fish sauce. I didn’t have any spring onions so I just grated in a regular onion and they were still good. Last night I had them with a squeeze of lemon juice over the top, some egg noodles and some broccoli. Clean food after my unclean living over the rest of the weekend. I made them for another friend recently and we wrapped them in lettuce leaves and had them with a dipping sauce (recipe for the dipping sauce in the comments below) – they were AWESOME.
Today I had the leftovers for lunch. This is what they look like cold:
Not wildly appealing, so I decided to stuff them in a wrap with some salad, a little bit of low fat mayonnaise and a squeeze of lemon. And it was yummy. And I still have the two above left for tomorrow. WIN.
I think it is safe to say, FatFran loves mincing.
FatFranGetsFin 
I've been thinking about getting a mincer today (that sounds so dodgy) and then I read this. It was obviously meant to be
DO IT. Favourite Toy Ever.
Mincing!! I might have to come around and experiment. I want to make faggots.
What else can you mince?
@Shed – what's in a faggot? I've had them but not sure what's in them.@Mel – dunno. Fish? Any meat? Breadcrumbs apparently.
"FatFran loves mincing" – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA – this has Made My Day :-)Am very glad that you love Spong – and your patties look deeeeelicious! I also wish to make 'em…
@Miss W – make them! They're DELICIOUS. And this is Shed's dipping sauce:"Vietnamese dressing (measurements are approximate – adjust to taste once it’s assembled)This makes a lot, and will keep very happily in the fridge for a couple of weeks.150ml white wine vinegar100ml water2-3tbsp caster sugar50ml fish sauce1 shallot, very, very finely diced½ clove garlic, minced really finely3 inches cucumber, very, very finely diced Bring the vinegar and water to the boil and add the sugar. Boil for a minute or so, then remove from the heat. Once cold, add everything else and taste – adjust as per your whims and fancies (but don’t, like, add butter or anything silly)."
Fabulous. I must have this. Soonly.Oh – and thank you for saying (entirely unjustified) Nice Things about me, too… I am all blushing…
TOTALLY justified Nice Things. x
Strip the fat off duck breast and mince that, then make Sang Choi Bau with it – utterly lovely!
@Nicky – do you have a recipe for that? There are lots on the internet but all a bit different. I love that kind of food.
There are a myriad! This is my favourite, it's adapted from AWW Fast Healthy, makes 2 servings:1tsp sesame oil250g lean minced meat (I've used chicken, pork or duck)1 small onion/2 shallots, chopped finely1 small crushed clove garlic1 cm piece ginger, grated1 tbsp water50g shitake mushrooms, chopped (optional)1 tbsp light soy1 tbsp oyster sauce1/2-1 tbsp lime juice1 cup beansprouts or julienned water chestnuts2 spring onions sliced thinly2 tbsp chopped corianderseveral lettuce leaves (soft work best)Heat the oil in a wok, stir-fry the meat, onion, garlic and ginger until the meat has changed colour. Add the water, mushrooms, sauces and juice. Stir-fry until the mushrooms are just tender. Remove from the heat and add the beansprouts/water chestnuts, spring onion and coriander. Mix gently. Divide the lettuce leaves onto a plate and spoon the meat mixture onto each leaf.[I do a bit of steamed rice on the side and have it as a main]Hope you enjoy it 🙂
That sounds amazing and really easy. Will definitely try and report back. Also, I LOVE water chestnuts. Good call.
I can vouch for these patties, they are SCRUMPTIOUS, especially with the dipping sauce.