Cottage Pie

Posted by Vivian in Beef, Pie, Potatoes

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It has indeed been a while since an entry was made for this blog. Didn't even realise that I had taken such a long break. Too much had happened both at work and at home, zapping all ounces of energy away from me.

The thyroid surgery in October was the biggest culprit. I spent the immediate days following the operation mostly in daze, subsequently the lack of voice projection frustrated me to no end and which left me not in the mood for anything except to get through the days doing the bare necessities. The kitchen was still the place where I spent part of my weekends at. The family continued to get food laid before them but each time after whipping up a storm, I only wanted to get down to the eating part. Hopefully in the days to come I will remember to recreate the dishes that I had some success in for the last few months.

Two months on after the surgery, I thought to myself that it was probably high time for me to build up the momentum again and get back to doing other things that didn't quite fall under the "bare necessities" category. So here I am ready to bring on the the main lead of this post.

Cottage Pie was something that I had wanted to attempt to conquer almost a year ago for Christmas. I was cajoled to give it a go because a colleague of mine claimed that this is a very simple and easy to make pie, and partly because I was so inspired by the yummy Cottage Pie I had during a Christmas luncheon in office. Well, sadly it didn't happen for some unmentionable reason (think procrastination!) and so a year on, I finally cranked my engine and got moving... and I have to disagree with my colleague, because it took me 2 hours to put together the entire thing and I don't know how she could have classified this as simple. Nonetheless it was still very delicious.

Cottage Pie - a beef version of Shepherd's Pie, is typically eaten during Autumn / Winter season. After having fed the entire family with just a small portion and still had another serving left behind, I can understand why that is so. A little does go a long way.

Ingredients:

• 500gm minced beef 
• 1 stick of carrot (cut into small cubes) 
• 10 button mushrooms (sliced thinly) 
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced) 
• 1 medium-sized onion (cut into small cubes) 
• 300ml beef stock (or chicken stock as substitute) 
• 2 teaspoons of worcestershire sauce 
• 1 teaspoon of grounded thyme (can be replaced with other types of herbs) 
• 1 tablespoon of plain flour 
• 5 large-sized potatoes 
• 1 large knob of butter 
• 4 tablespoons of milk 

Preparation:

• Bring a big pot of water to boil and place potatoes in ensuring that all potatoes are covered. 
• Cook potatoes till soft (about 20 minutes). 
• Peel potatoes while still warm and mash potatoes with butter and milk. Set aside once done. 
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in pan and add garlic. 
• Once the garlic turns fragrant, add onion to pan and continue to stir until the onions turn translucent. 
• Add carrot and let cook for about 5 minutes. 
• Add button mushroom to mixture, and follow by minced beef, breaking all lumps. 
• Once the beef is almost done, season with worcestershire sauce and grounded thyme. Stir to mix well. 
• Pour in stock and cover pan to let simmer for 15 minutes. 
• Turn on oven and set to 190 degree Celsius. 
• Season with salt to taste when mixture thickens. 
• Remove from heat and transfer content to a oven-proof deep dish. 
• Top mixture with mashed potatoes and brush top with some melted butter. 
• Using the back of a fork, create lines across mashed potatoes. 
• Shove into oven and let it bake for 30 minutes, until the top browns nicely. 

Number of Servings: 4


"Celery, peas, corn, tomatoes can be added as variations to this dish. Other herbs like oregano, parsley can be used to substitute thyme."