Cottage Pie

Equipment

• 1 medium casserole (I use pyrex one)
• 1 largish frying pan (10" is good)
• 1 medium saucepan
• 1 potato masher/ricer, or a strong fork at a pinch

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion
• 500g mince (lean preferred)
• 1 tsp marmite
• 3 medium potatoes
• 200ml/ 1/3 pt hot water
• 55g/2 oz butter
• 30ml/2 tbs oil

Slice the onion and soften it in some oil. Brown the mince and mix with the onion. Put in the casserole and add the water mixed with marmite. Boil and mash the potatoes with 1 oz butter, cover the meat mixture with it and dot with remaining butter. Cook in a medium oven for 40 minutes at 350C.

Method

Clean the potatoes and cut out any bad bits. Cut into chunks and put into cold, salted water in the saucepan and bring to the boil. There is no need to peel them if the skins and in good condition.

Wile the potatoes are coming to the boil, slice the onion; I like vertical slices, as it makes for more interesting bits of onion than horizontal rings that most people seem to do. Put into the frying pan with a little oil over a low to medium heat. Don’t use butter, as it is more likely to burn. Allow to soften, without browning or burning, which will take 5 to 10 minutes. Put into the casserole.

You might want to open a window or disable smoke detectors at this point. Turn up the heat to medium to high (under the frying pan), and brown the mince in batches - 3 or 4 batches should be about right for a 10" pan. Flatten out the mince as you put it in; you should aim for a sort of lacy pancake. The mince is ready when most of the pink/red has been replaced by brown. If the mince is grey, you put too much in the pan or used too low a heat - don’t worry, take some out and/or turn up the heat and it will sort itself out. You want about 50% of the surface of the mince to be a deep brown, not to far off from plain chocolate. If the mince isn’t “lean”, there may well be a lot of fat given off; try to drain this off as much as possible so that it doesn’t end up the the casserole with the mince. As each batch finishes, add it to the onions. When all is done, mix it up and season lightly (you probably don’t want to add any salt, as the marmite will take care of that). Browning the mince will probably take about 10 minutes.

By this time the potatoes will be done. Test them as you go by prodding with a fork; when ready the fork will penetrate easily, and the density will be roughly the same from the outside to the centre of the potato. Mash with 1 oz of butter. Depending on the potatoes, you could add a little more butter, milk or cream to soften up - but thy will be fine without.

Dissolve the marmite in a cup of warm/hot water, and pour over the mince. Aim to add enough water to not quite cover the mince; a small cup full should be fine. Top with the mashed potatoes, and smooth the surface with a fork to join up any gaps between spoonfuls of potato. Run the back of the fork over the mash to give a roughened surface. Then dot the top with the remaining butter in pea sized lumps - this will brown the top and make it look more attractive.

Cook in an oven for about 40 minutes.

Variations

• Use stock instead of marmite, although this may not be an improvement for some people.
• Add cream to the mash as well as butter.
• Instead of just onions, soften a mix of finely chopped onion, carrot and celery - which will take a lot longer; allow at least 20 minutes.
• Top with a little grated cheese, cheddar works well for this.
• Use lamb/mutton mince instead of beef to make shepherd’s pie.
• After pouring off the fat from the last batch of mince, deglaze the pan with a small wineglass of red wine (pour in the wine while the pan is on the heat); let it bubble fiercely and reduce down to a tablespoon full while you scrape up any sticky brown meat residues from the bottom of the pan, then add to the mix.
• Add a drained tin of carrots (or a quantity of cooked carrots) to the mince mix.

Total price should be around £3/£3.50 (late 2008).

Improved Cottage Pie, based on the above:

• 1 glass red wine (or white)
• 1 tbs tomato puree
• stock or stock cube instead of the marmite
• a few carrots
• 2 tbs plain flour

Add the carrots to the onion to soften. When they are ready, add the tomato puree with the browned mince. Deglaze the frying pan with the wine and add to the casserole/saucepan. If you are very careful, brown the flour in the dry frying pan; or just add it to the casserole. You will need to keep the pan on the heat for an extra 30-40 minutes to allow the ingredients to combine after adding the stock. Then assemble the cottage pie as normal.