Cottage or Shepherd's Pie
This has to be the ultimate comfort food. Everyone loves their mother's Shepherd's Pie - the gastronomic equivalent of a sticking plaster! See my post Domestic Tensions, Good Intentions & Shepherd's Pie
I don't think it is entirely helpful to give specific quantities here, as like most of my cooking, the emphasis is on what there is left in the fridge and how many hungry people are clamouring for their supper. I try to allow about 500g of meat per 4 adult servings, but this is absolutely not cast in stone! So these measurements are a guide and I positively encourage you to tweak them to your own taste.
500g minced lamb/beef
1 large onion, finely diced
2 sticks celery, finely diced
Dried herbs (a selection of your favourites, perhaps bay leaves, sage, thyme, rosemary)
Handful plain flour
Chicken, beef or lamb stock
Good slug of red or white wine
2 0r 3 carrots, peeled & diced
Redcurrant jelly
Start by sauteeing the finely diced onion and celery in a frying pan, in a little oil on a medium heat for about five minutes or so, or until they are soft and almost transculent. Scoop them out of the pan and set aside in a casserole dish or large saucepan.
Then add a little more oil and the mince to the frying pan - you might have to do this in batches. Brown the mince and break it up with a wooden spatula and then drain it through a seive to remove the excess fat. (If you do this over a bowl, you can chuck the fat away into the dustbin instead of pouring it down the sink where it clog up the drains and does all sorts of environmental damage.)
Add it to the saucepan and put it on a medium heat.
Then take your stock (if there isn't any chicken stock in the fridge made up from the bones of the Sunday roast, then I'll happily use a stock cube or two - I think chicken stock works nicely with beef or lamb mince, but beef stock cubes tend to taste and smell more artificial somehow, so use them sparingly and probably only with beef mince as they don't sit so comfortably with lamb!) and add it slowly stirring all the time. This is the time to add a slug of wine if you would like to, I don't think it matters whether it is red or white.
Add about a desertspoon of redcurrant jelly and season with salt and pepper.
Then clap on the lid, and leave to simmer gently, stirring occasionally, while you do the potatoes. If the consistency is too liquid, take the lid off to let it reduce down a little and thicken. If it is too thick, add a little more wine or stock. You don't want it too runny, or the mashed potato topping will sink! (This has become known as 'Shepherd's Soup' in our house!)
I'm not going to attempt to give you exact quantities for your mashed potato either - it depends on how much mince mixture you have made, how big your serving dish is, and how thick your family like their topping, it's a very personal thing! I don't think you can make too much, so err on the side of caution, because if you don't use it all the leftover mash can go into soups, fish or bacon cakes, bubble and squeak - the possibilities are endless. So get peeling. Boil the potatoes gently until you can prod them with a fork easily. Don't let them disintegrate and fall apart because they make horrible watery mash. Mash with butter and milk until lump-free and creamy.
Now back to our mince mixture. Taste it and add more seasoning if necessary, and then spoon into an ovenproof serving dish. Cover with the potato topping. (If you work around the outside first, using a fork to push the potato firmly up against the edge of the dish, it ensures there are no gaps for the gravy to bubble up through. Also, use the fork to create ridges across the top of the potato topping, which encourages it to brown.)
Plonk into a pre-heated hot oven until the meat mixture is bubbling and the topping is a glorious golden brown.
Variations on a theme
All of these can be useful additions to your mince mixture -
mushrooms
sultanas
bacon
lentils
baked beans
black pudding
apple sauce or ketchup (instead of redcurrant jelly)
And to the potato topping, try adding -
sweet potato
butternut squash
pumpkin
cheese (particularly grated cheddar mixed into the mash or scattered on top, but also try brie and stilton)
cream
mustard
parsley
breadcrumbs or crushed crisps (sprinkled on top)
leeks
I don't think it is entirely helpful to give specific quantities here, as like most of my cooking, the emphasis is on what there is left in the fridge and how many hungry people are clamouring for their supper. I try to allow about 500g of meat per 4 adult servings, but this is absolutely not cast in stone! So these measurements are a guide and I positively encourage you to tweak them to your own taste.
500g minced lamb/beef
1 large onion, finely diced
2 sticks celery, finely diced
Dried herbs (a selection of your favourites, perhaps bay leaves, sage, thyme, rosemary)
Handful plain flour
Chicken, beef or lamb stock
Good slug of red or white wine
2 0r 3 carrots, peeled & diced
Redcurrant jelly
Start by sauteeing the finely diced onion and celery in a frying pan, in a little oil on a medium heat for about five minutes or so, or until they are soft and almost transculent. Scoop them out of the pan and set aside in a casserole dish or large saucepan.
Then add a little more oil and the mince to the frying pan - you might have to do this in batches. Brown the mince and break it up with a wooden spatula and then drain it through a seive to remove the excess fat. (If you do this over a bowl, you can chuck the fat away into the dustbin instead of pouring it down the sink where it clog up the drains and does all sorts of environmental damage.)
Add it to the saucepan and put it on a medium heat.
Then add your carrots, and next I chuck in a handful of flour and maybe a big pinch of dried herbs and a bay leaf or two. Stir the flour through the meat and onions and don't panic because it looks horrible!
Then take your stock (if there isn't any chicken stock in the fridge made up from the bones of the Sunday roast, then I'll happily use a stock cube or two - I think chicken stock works nicely with beef or lamb mince, but beef stock cubes tend to taste and smell more artificial somehow, so use them sparingly and probably only with beef mince as they don't sit so comfortably with lamb!) and add it slowly stirring all the time. This is the time to add a slug of wine if you would like to, I don't think it matters whether it is red or white.
Add about a desertspoon of redcurrant jelly and season with salt and pepper.
Then clap on the lid, and leave to simmer gently, stirring occasionally, while you do the potatoes. If the consistency is too liquid, take the lid off to let it reduce down a little and thicken. If it is too thick, add a little more wine or stock. You don't want it too runny, or the mashed potato topping will sink! (This has become known as 'Shepherd's Soup' in our house!)
I'm not going to attempt to give you exact quantities for your mashed potato either - it depends on how much mince mixture you have made, how big your serving dish is, and how thick your family like their topping, it's a very personal thing! I don't think you can make too much, so err on the side of caution, because if you don't use it all the leftover mash can go into soups, fish or bacon cakes, bubble and squeak - the possibilities are endless. So get peeling. Boil the potatoes gently until you can prod them with a fork easily. Don't let them disintegrate and fall apart because they make horrible watery mash. Mash with butter and milk until lump-free and creamy.
Now back to our mince mixture. Taste it and add more seasoning if necessary, and then spoon into an ovenproof serving dish. Cover with the potato topping. (If you work around the outside first, using a fork to push the potato firmly up against the edge of the dish, it ensures there are no gaps for the gravy to bubble up through. Also, use the fork to create ridges across the top of the potato topping, which encourages it to brown.)
Plonk into a pre-heated hot oven until the meat mixture is bubbling and the topping is a glorious golden brown.
Variations on a theme
All of these can be useful additions to your mince mixture -
mushrooms
sultanas
bacon
lentils
baked beans
black pudding
apple sauce or ketchup (instead of redcurrant jelly)
And to the potato topping, try adding -
sweet potato
butternut squash
pumpkin
cheese (particularly grated cheddar mixed into the mash or scattered on top, but also try brie and stilton)
cream
mustard
parsley
breadcrumbs or crushed crisps (sprinkled on top)
leeks
posted by Maeve Bradbury at 10:12 am
4 Comments:
Came through a link to your other recipe but we're going to try this. We've got a couple of boys coming round tomorrow, and we're thinking this is going to be more there thing than the cous-cous. We're students, if you hadn't guessed. We'll come back and let you know the verdict.
The cottage pie went really well, it's the first time either of us has cooked anything like that from fresh. We had to phone Nic's mum for advice on how to do the vegetables, but we managed to avoid frozen ones. Thought we'd made too much, but the boys finished it all off. They're out in the kitchen now, doing the washing-up.
They said they'd bring some drink, but we were not impressed when they arrived with a dozen cans of lager!
Thanks, we'll try it again someday, and maybe go for the cous-cous next.
One of the boys said this morning that it was the best cottage pie he'd had since his gran used to cook it. We think you'll take that as a compliment
Happy Housewife, I let you down with this. No problem with the recipe, just my lack of basic cookery skill. I've got to cook it again on Friday, and I will try to get it right.
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