Cottage Pie

Like its cousin, shepherd's pie, this is a simple, hearty dish combining meat and mashed potatoes. The 2 names are interchangeable, but for traditionalists, shepherd's pie uses lamb meat while cottage pie uses beef. This dish was originally a peasant dish from the UK, and would use left over meat and potatoes from the Sunday roast. These days minced beef is more commonly used.

The beauty of this dish is its simplicity. There are just a few ingredients and the cooking method is very simple.

Ingredients

500g minced beef

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 carrot

2 tsp tomato puree

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

3 tsp English mustard

1 beef stock cube

200ml boiling water

1kg floury potatoes 

100g butter

100g grated cheddar cheese (optional)

dash of Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp sunflower or olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 C.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into equal size pieces. Place into a large pan of cold water and bring to the boil. When the water is boiling, reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are soft but not yet breaking apart. Drain and mash the potatoes, adding the butter to give a smooth yet firm mash.

Peel the onion, garlic and carrot and chop finely. Fry gently in a large pa in a little sunflower or olive oil until soft. This is a variation on mirepoix, the so-called "holy trinity" of French cooking, which is the flavour basis of many dishes and soups. Traditional mirepoix is onion, carrot and celery, but as my kids are not so keen on the sharp taste of celery, I don't use it here. It is also known as soffritto in Italian, where the combination is onion, garlic and celery. 

Dissolve the beef stock cube in 200ml boiling water.

Add the minced beef to the pan and brown this, ensuring that all the meat is cooked well through to kill off any nasty bacteria. Add the tomato puree, paprika, black pepper, mustard, worcestershire sauce, salt and beef stock and stir everything well. Let this simmer on a low heat for about 15-20 minutes.

Have a quick taste and add additional seasoning if desired.

Transfer the beef to a baking tray. The tray should be large enough so that the whole tray can be evenly covered, to a height of about 1.5 cm. A rectangular shaped tray is best.

Top the beef mixture with the mashed potato. You can add the mashed potato one spoon at a time in different places and then use a spatula or knife to spread the potato over the meat. 

Although not required, I always top the mashed potato with a layer of grated cheese for a delicious golden crispy topping.

Place in the oven for about 30 minutes until the mashed potato and cheese topping is crisp and started to go brown. Serve with vegetables such as broccoli, or if you are feeding kids, try baked beans!

Enjoy!