The challenge for Week 20 is mince: chicken mince, beef mince, pork mince, lamb mince, fruit mince - you name it, if it can be minced, then it can be included in the challenge. Have fun!

Yay, I'm a big fan of mince. Such a versatile thing no matter what flavour. Ironically my last weeks challenge (the horrid attempt at gnocchi) ended up as mince after I biffed it down the gurgler!!

I was tossing up between two recipes using chicken mince. Both looked quite children friendly so the kids got to try a challenge dish this week. I thought the chicken meatballs one would go down well but, lazy option, thought meatballs take a while so would try the other. So much for saving time! The 15 minute prep time per the recipe was a load of codswollop - more like an hour (including cooking the initial chicken mince sauce). Everything is precooked then layered and finally cooked again in the oven.

The dish was out of a recipe book I have here and was basically giant pasta shells (conchiglie) filled with a cheesy mix then topped with a chicken mince sauce. The cheesy bit had ricotta, mozzarella, parmesen and parsley and a spoon went in the bottom of each precooked shell. Then the chicken sauce had chicken mince, onion, mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes and few other bobs and bits. Throw the cooked sauce over the top, sprinkle with more parmesen and bake. But what a drama to get to there. I couldn't find chicken mince so had to blitz some tenderloins after removing the thready bits. Both supermarkets I went to had no giant pasta shells so made a trip across town to the Mediteranean warehouse. Given the cost of the ingredients and the time to make the dish, don't think I'll be going there again. It was nice, but didn't have the WOW factor I was hoping for. 4/5 from both of us and Miss 5 almost ate all of hers which was a good effort. Leftovers for lunch tomorrow though, it did make quite a lot.

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Hello, hello, hello

Its the echo of one challenger wondering where everyone has gone. Is anyone else going to cook this week?

Being behind on my potato challenge, I was looking for something different to do with the humble spud, and the only thing I could find was the gnocchi, which I have never made before. This recipe, found in a book containing only potato recipes, also included the use of veal mince, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make this for my potato challenge, and for the mince one. Sorry, not very adventurous with the mince, but I was running out of week! All in all the end result was reasonably tasty but quite forgettable, and I doubt that I'll make either the veal sauce or the gnocchi again! Now I'm looking forward to the soup challenge!

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I have done the mince challenge, although I confess to having made the recipe once before. I too however ran out of week to get this done, but thought I would share this idea as it is a nice alternative to a standard pasta dish. (alas no photo as it got eaten too quickly)

I too stuffed pasta shells..... this is getting a little spooky cantabcook! The mince mixture consisted of pork mince, finely chopped celery, carrots and onions. This was all just thrown into the pot and cooked till the mince was no longer pink, then a few tablespoons of marsala (wine not curry spice) were added, this was then cooked till the wine had disappeared. The final addition was a few tablespoons of tomato paste. Lid on, and cook for about 1/2 hour. When cooled, this was stuffed into cooked pasta shells (cannelloni would be fine) then a white sauce poured over the top of the shells and topped with parmesan before baking.

It has a lovely flavour from the pork and marsala, and is a nice change form beef based pasta dishes. It will become a regular meal in our house. I think it would make a nice lasagne too, perhaps layered with grilled veges.

Clearly we are telepathically linked Sharon. SURELY we won't end up doing the same soup/cake topping for next week. Your one sound interesting though and I do have marsala and canneloni in the pantry. Might have to give it a try.

This week I made Ginger & Pork Meatballs with a stir fry from Donna Hay's web site. It was a nice light meatball with plenty of flavour if you like ginger. The stir fry consisted of chinese cabbage, green beans, Hoisin sauce & soy sauce. It was served with flat pasta mixed into it all. Whilst we enjoyed it & gave it a 4/5 I probably wouldn't do it again. Not sure why.

The past few weeks I have been a little minced out so to speak, but still wanted to contribute to the challenge.

I did have a little bit of mince left over so decided to do this after watching a cook show on how to make gratin.
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I cooked a potatoe, peices of Orange Kumuara, parsnip and Chineese Turnip. Then made a layer with cooked minced between each layer. I tried to layered this in a large soup bowl so that it was just 1 meal. I then tried to cut it in half to show the layers and just heat it up to eat.
Have to admit I didn't put enough mince between each layer, but it did turned out much nicer than I expected. I enjoyed the pleasant tastes of the Potatoe, Kumura, Parsnip and Turnip when I had a mouthfull and the Red Cabbage that was in the mince was still quite crunchy.
Might try this again someday from scratch with say adding diferent spices to the mince layers. Need to learn a lot more about flavours etc before I attempt to do this though

John

In the weekend I made "mince on toast" - an Annabelle White recipe from the Sunday Star Times a week ago (perfect timing for the challenge). It was excellent, and I'll definitely make it again. It had 150ml of dark soy sauce, not something I've ever put in mince before. It also contained swede, and it was the first time I've ever cooked with it.

The only thing is I'll allow a lot more time next time - it took a lot longer than I thought to cook. Another late night!

Sorry all for dragging the chain but have now done the mince - made chicken nuggets for my 9YO. I think they as "good" as the fast food variety but obviously far more wholesome. They are made with chicken mince, grated zucchini/carrot, breadcrumbs and seasonings. Tossed them in panko breadcrumbs and I had to freeze them to stop myself nibbling on them. Will wait for the master taste tester to return home (that's the 9YO) to get his verdict.

Lynette, would it be possible to get your recipe for the chicken nuggets? I've been meaning to try these out for some time, but don't have a recipe.

Sure - its from another forum and I have no idea of its origin.

Tasty Chicken Nuggets
---------------------------
350 grams chicken mince
2 slices bread, crumbed
1 medium potato, grated
1 carrot or zucchini, grated
1 egg
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
pepper
1 cup dried breadcrumbs

1. Mix first 8 ingredients until combined. Be sure to grate the veges finely. Alternately blend the mixture in a food processer on pulse.

2. Pat tablespoonfuls into nugget shapes (or balls or fingers). Coat in dried breadcrumbs.

3. Fry in hot oil until golden (don't crowd pan). Drain well and serve with whatever sauce you like.

You can also add other seasonings to taste, e.g herbs (parsley or tarragon), spices (cumin, paprika), etc.

Thank you, Lynette, these sound really lovely. I'll take the recipe with me to Brisbane this week and make them for my daughter and son-in-law - both chicken lovers and always ready for something new and delicious! Could you please give me an idea of how many nuggets the recipe makes?

I'm going to file that one away too Lynette. My kids don't eat processed type chicken nuggets but I reckon they'd eat those. Got a b'day party to do for Miss-soon-to-be-6 in a few weeks. If I'm feeling time happy I may add them to the food list.

Just went and counted them as they were on a tray in the freezer to free-flow freeze them. There were 28 and I have probably eaten 3, maybe 4 of them so it makes 32 nuggets. Enjoy!

Many thanks, Lynette.

Did you free-flow freeze them raw or cooked Lynette? That might be the way to go for the b'day!

Cooked them and then froze them but I guess you could do it the other way around also.

I made another new mince recipe last night - Pork & Parsnip Pot Pies. The flavours were excellent, and another one I'd happily make again. It's been years since I used pork mince, and I'd never have thought to team it up with parsnip.