Cottage Pie

Cottage pie, in case you're not familiar with it, is a casserole of meat stew with a rich gravy, topped with mashed potatoes and baked. Whereas shepherd's pie is made from lamb, cottage pie is made with beef. In this case, it's made with a mixture of beef and pork, the all-purpose German ready-mixed ground meat, but you can use all beef or pork (or even ground turkey or chicken).

I had some Lilac potatoes from the market to use up, which is why the potato topping is purple, but you can use any good mashing potato. Yukon Golds are one of my favourites for this dish.



Cottage Pie

Serves 6

Stew with gravy

500 grams ground beef and/or pork
1 medium yellow onion, diced medium
2 stalks celery, diced medium
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 large carrot, diced medium
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2-3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
pinch dried thyme leaves
1-2 teaspoons beef stock base
1 1/2 cups water, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup frozen peas (or corn)


Mashed Potato Topping

1 kg potatoes, boiled and peeled
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
pinch ground white pepper
pinch ground nutmeg (optional)

Put the potatoes on to boil or steam first, however you like to do that. I generally simmer my potatoes in an inch of water (starting from cold), for about 25-30 minutes over medium-low heat in a pot with a tight-fitting lid. Then I peel them, add them back into the warm (drained) pot, crush them with a spoon, add the other ingredients, and mash them until smooth with a steel masher. If you make mashed potatoes differently, go ahead and make the however you like them best. It's helpful to make them a bit loose (ie, adding a couple of tablespoons more milk), because if they are too stiff they will be difficult to spread over the gravy.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, and add the ground meat. Stir and fry, breaking it up with wooden spoon or cooking spatula as you go, and giving it a few minutes undisturbed between stirring to brown properly. If you don't allow the meat a chance to fry, rather than simply turning greyish as its moisture boils away, it won't develop a good deep flavour, so make sure you see a bit of golden brown on the meat before you add the other ingredients.

While the meat fries, you can busy yourself dicing the vegetables. Once the meat is properly browned, add the onions, celery, carrot, and garlic. Stir well, add the salt, and stir again. Add the bayleaves, and cook and stir for a few minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato paste and stir through again. Add the Worcestershire sauce, dark soy sauce,
black pepper, and thyme, and stir through. Add the beef stock paste with about half a cup of water, and stir through. Let simmer for a few minutes.

Combine the flour with the final cup of (room-temp) water, and shake it together to create a smooth slurry. Add the slurry to the skillet, and stir it through, watching as it magically thickens the gravy. Add the peas and wait until the temperature returns to a gentle simmer, and then turn the heat to low and let it continue to simmer until the potatoes are ready.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 200°C / 400°F, and have a 28x18cm (7x11") baking dish standing by (you don't need to grease the dish). It's also helpful to have a tray or pizza pan to put under the baking dish, because this recipe has a tendency for a bit of gravy to bubble up and escape the dish.

When the potatoes are ready (by which, I mean mashed and ready to go) it's assembly time: Spoon (or pour) the meat gravy into the bottom of the baking dish, and smooth it out evenly. Use a tablespoon to dollop small mounds of mashed potato evenly over the gravy, and then use a fork to spread the mounds together into a single surface. I like to leave the ridges from the fork tines showing, because it makes for crispy bits of topping once it's baked.

Place the casserole into the oven, and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until the ridges of potato are golden, and everything is satisfactorily bubbling. Depending on how thick your gravy is, you can serve with either a lifter-type spatula or a large serving spoon (or both, as you like).



This is quite a filling dish, so it quite easily serves six people, especially if you have a salad on the side. If the people you are serving are particularly ravenous, it would serve four.

It also reheats well! Be sure to poke some holes in the mashed potato topping for even heating, whether you're using a microwave or conventional oven.