Cottage pie

Credit and permission to share: Lifestyle with Sharon

It is with enormous pleasure to share this recipe from the lovely Sharon, the below intro made me laugh as growing up we interchanged cottage pie and shepherd’s pie regardless of the meat and I’m sure the meat was always beef mince and we always added cheese.

You will need:

Cottage pie is one the favourites in my house. The family loved the smell as it was cooking in the kitchen, making their appetite come alive. This cottage pie recipe is really simple to make and yet so full of delicious flavour. This recipe is ideal for a large family or a dinner party. It is also perfect if you live alone or two of you in your household, because this dinner can be dished out into individual portion and frozen. This recipe I have shared with you is made with beef to represent a traditional cottage pie, however if you wanted to change up the recipe by using lamb, this changes it to shepherd’s pie.

Portions: 6

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 25 – 30 minutes

Ingredients

800g minced beef

12 medium sized potatoes

2 medium sized onions

1 large carrot

1 to 1 & half litres water

1 tsp salt

Pinch of pepper

1 beef stock cube

2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 tbsp gravy granules

20g butter

100 ml milk

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Method

Pre heat the oven at Gas 6 / 200°C.

Dice onions and carrots.

Place minced beef into a large pot along with the diced onion and carrots.

Add boiling water with salt & pepper, along with mixed herbs and turmeric.

To the mince add tomato puree and beef stock cube.

Cover the ingredients with boiling water.

Mix well then bring the water to the boil on a high heat, with a lid on the pot.

Once water is boiling, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove a cup of juice from the pot and add some gravy granules until thick.

Place the thick gravy back into the pot of mince and vegetables.

While the mince and vegetables are cooking, cook the potatoes.

Once the potatoes are cooked, give them a mash while adding butter and milk to the potatoes and season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.

You can add grated cheese to your mashed potato if you wished.

When the mince is cooked, transfer into a deep dish, with mince being about 2 – 3 inches deep.

Let the mince cool.

Once the mince has cooled then place the mashed potato on top, roughly 3 inched deep of mash.

Spread the mashed potato with a knife.

You can them make a pattern with a fork, starting on the outside going all the way around and the working your way into the centre.

Place in the oven at Gas 6 / 200°C for 25 – 30 minutes.