Lou's Old English Cottage Pie

Cottage Pie is one of the simplest dishes you can do – but for ages I didn’t seem to get the quantities right: too much sauce, or too much milk, so the mashed potato melted into a sort of soup. So I experimented a bit, and decided I should really just write it down. My key advice here, is just keep an eye on the liquid. If you decide on a large glass of wine, or use a few more vegetables, it might just need a little longer to cook before assembling. And keep the mash on the drier side than you might if you were just making it as a side. If you’re making it for kids and/or prefer to omit the wine, that’s fine. If you don’t have enough beef stock, you can always top it up with a little vegetable bouillon, or just a splash of water. I add peas and sweetcorn to mine (they seem to come up a lot in my cooking!) but you could experiment with other veg you like – some butternut squash, or mushrooms. I often make double quantities, and then we’ll eat it with rice instead of potato. Easy, hearty, winter food.

Good

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Add a splash of olive oil to your pan and add the beef mince. Brown it for 10 mins or so while you prepare your veg.

Step 2

Chop the onion, celery and carrots to your liking – I like mine fairly chunky so it adds a bit of texture to the dish.

Step 3

Once the beef looks nice and browned (a little crispy around some of the edges is no bad thing!), reserve it in a separate bowl. Add a little more olive oil to the pan and add the onion, celery and carrots. Gently fry it on a low/medium heat to soften it all down, then crush and add the garlic.

Step 4

Squirt in a heaped (approximate) tablespoon of tomato puree, and add a heaped tablespoon of sauce flour (plain flour is fine if you don’t have it). Stir it all around and cook for a minute or so to bind the flour to the veg.

Step 5

Add your glass of wine and give it all a stir, making sure nothing has stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the beef stock, the soy, the thyme and the bay leaf, give it a season and another stir. Simmer it all on a low to medium heat for 35-50 minutes. How long you need to cook it for will depend on how much liquid there is – if you’ve used a large glass of wine, or very large carrots with a bit more water content, you’ll need to give it a little longer. You’ll know it’s about ready when the liquid has reduced and there is a nice gravy clinging to the meat and vegetables when you stir it around.

Step 6

While the sauce is cooking, rinse, peel and chop the potatoes and put them in a pan with some salted cold water. Bring it to the boil and cook them until you can easily stick a fork into them – this may take about 15-20 minutes.

Step 7

Preheat the oven to 200C fan. When the potatoes are cooked, drain them and mash with the butter, nutmeg and milk. Season the mash to taste, fold in about half the grated cheese, and put it to one side.

Step 8

Taste the meat sauce and add a little more seasoning if required. Fold in the peas and sweetcorn – it doesn’t matter that they are frozen, as they’ll cook in the oven. When it’s all ready to go, spoon the sauce into your dish, leaving a bit of space for the potato (especially important if you’re using a dish with straight sides, rather than for example an enamel pie dish). Spoon or pipe the potato on top of the sauce, and sprinkle on the rest of the grated cheese.

Step 9

Put the dish on a tray lined with foil (as it will probably bubble over and leak while cooking) and cook in the preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Step 10

Eat with a lovely glass of the red wine you opened earlier, and perhaps a nice green salad!