Description (Some HTML is OK)
Cottage Pie - It's a warming winter dose of comfort food...
Ingredients
Makes 4 servings
- For the filling
- 50gs of Unsalted Butter
- 1 Large White Onion
- 3 Large Carrots
- Olive Oil for frying the mince
- Tablespoon of Plain White Flour
- Large-ish Glass of Red Wine
- Tablespoon of Tomato Puree
- Half Tablespoon of Tomato Ketchup
- Half Tablespoon of Red Pesto
- 4 shakes of Worcester Sauce
- A few sprigs of fresh Thyme
- A small bunch of fresh Basil leaves
- 500ml of Chicken/Vegetable Stock
- 500g of Minced Beef
- A Bay Leaf
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- For the Topping
- 6 Medium sized peeled Maris Pipers
- 50g Unsalted Butter
- Drop of Milk
- Sea Salt and Black Pepper to Season
- Enough Parmesan to grate over the top of the Pie
Preparation
Melt 50g of unsalted butter In a large frying pan over a low heat. Whilst the butter is melting, peel a large onion, cut in half and then cut each half of the onion into strips just thinner than the width of a pound-coin.
When the butters melted throw the strips of onion into the pan and stir them round to coat with the contents. Add a little sea salt and then cover the pan. The idea is to caramelise, without burning them, so just leave them to do their thing while preparing the other ingredients. Providing the heat is low enough they won't give you any gip. Just attend to them every 5-10 minutes, giving them a good stir every now and again.
As the onions are browning heat some olive oil in a seperate pan over a medium heat. Divide the mince into two halves. When the oil is hot, add one half of the mince to it, and brown it. Empty the coooked mince into a collander and brown the other half of the mince, adding it to the collander to drain off the fat.
Wash and peel the carrots, then cut into fairly chunky discs. They can be added to the pan when the onions are soft enough to crush with your fingers, golden in colour and sweet tasting. Increase the heat on the veg and add a tablespoon of plain flour and stir it through the carrots and onions, cooking it for 30 seconds or so. Pour a glass of red wine in in three parts, allowing each lug to bubble away. Reduce the heat, add the Tomato Ketchup, Puree and Red Pesto and shake in the Worcester Sauce. Throw the stock in, season, add the thyme bay leaf and basil and give it a good stir after adding the drained mince. Season and leave the mix to simmer for 15 minutes.
Heat the oven to 200c. Boil the peeled Maris Pipers for 15-20 minutes in salted water. Drain, add the butter and milk, season and mash.
Pour the filling into a large oven proof dish, top with the mash and grate over some parmesan. Put the Pie in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden...
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