There are just the 2 of us so we buy mince from the butcher and I get him to pack it into half pound bags. That’s about 300g I freeze them and defrost them for each meal.

Brown the meat. Make sure you get it nice and brown. This really enriches the flavour so get it nice and brown but be careful not to burn it. My mince is really lean as there is no fat but if you have a fatty mince you might want to drain the fat off at this point.

While the mince is browning chop the onion, leek, carrot and celery. I chop the celery really finely but everything else is in nice big chunks. The celery is there as a flavour enhancer. You don’t get a celery taste you just get a beefier beef and a sweeter carrot.

When the mince is brown add around 600ml of water, leeks, onion, carrot, celery and your stock cube. Season with a bit of salt & pepper, bring to the boil and simmer on a very low heat for about an hour. Long slow cooking brings out the flavour in the beef and the veg infuses into the liquid. Make sure it’s a really low heat though.

This is the tricky bit to judge. The barley REALLY swells up. In my recipe there is only 70g of barley. My wife thought that this was a bit too much so next time I cook it I will probably put just 40g in. Add your pearl barley and bring to the boil again.

The barley cooks in around 40 to 50 minutes start checking after about 40 minutes.

About 20 minutes before the meal is ready to be served cut the potato into 10-15mm cubes and cook separately. If you cook the potatoes separately you can stop cooking when they are just right. If you cook them in the soup they might just end up as a potato mush in the bottom of the bowl.

Just before serving sprinkle in a couple of dessert spoons full of gravy granules. This gives a lovely rich texture and helps with the beefy flavour.

Serve pour into bowls and add as much or as little of the potato as you want. For a touch of luxury ad a knob of butter on top of the potato