British Expatriate Network

Here's mine:

3 tbsp of butter
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 large onion
1.5lbs of ground beef (80% lean is good)
worcester sauce (a splash)
ketchup (a splash)
salt/pepper to taste
about a cup of homemade or low sodium beef stock
tspn of cornstarch mixed with one teaspoon of water (as a thickener - you may or may not need this)

For the "cottage"

3 large russet potatoes (you're going to need about 2 cups of mash)
a cup of grated strong cheddar cheese
4oz unsalted butter in chunks
*maybe* a splash of milk or cream
paprika.

To make the meaty bit:

Preheat oven to 400F

In a large sauté pan (9 or 10"), melt the butter and oil and when sizzling add the onion.

Cook the onion until lightly browned and with a slotted spoon remove to a plate and set aside.

Add ground beef to the pan and gently break up the beef with a fork, continue cooking until all water (from the beef) has evaporated and beef is developing a slight crust. (You may have to drain any excess fat that appears, the effect is to create a "fond" or crust in the bottom of the pan).

Remove beef and set aside with the onions.

Add stock (deglaze) and using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape any bits from the bottom of the pan whilst stirring, bring stock to the boil. Add Worcester and ketchup to taste and continue boiling to reduce the sauce to desired consistency (alternatively you can use the "solution" of cornstarch and water if it's not thickening. To add the solution, remove pan from heat, and carefully, whilst stirring, add the solution to the sauce, and return to heat. Watch carefully as it will thicken quite quickly).

Return reserved beef and onions to the pan, continue cooking for about a minute or so and adjust seasonings to taste.

To make the cottage bit:

Peel and chop potatoes into 2" inch dice and add water to cover in a medium saucepan.

Bring to a gentle boil and add salt.

Continue cooking until tender, drain and place back into saucepan. Return pan to the stove over low heat to dry out the potatoes for about a minute or two (watch so that they do not burn.

Good mash comes from "dry" cooked potatoes.

Add butter and half the cheese and mash furiously over a low heat (you want to get this as smooth as possible and this is where a dash of milk or cream may be needed depending on how starchy the potatoes are. You do not want them runny, just malleable).

Remove from heat.

Building the cottage:

You will need an 8cup (or thereabouts) ovenproof flat casserole dish (or whatever you have of course...)

Place cooked beef mixture into the bottom of the pan.

Now, at this point, you can get really fancy with the potatoes or just go the easy route:

Fancy:

Transfer the mashed potato into a piping bag with a large star tip and pipe the potato over the top of the beef mix, then sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and "dust" with a little paprika.

Straightforward:

Using a spatula, gently spread the potato over the beef mix, and then using a large fork make criss-cross pattern on the potato. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and "dust" with a little paprika.

The end result with the ridges is to create little peaks that go crusty. mmmm :smile:

Bake in the pre-heated oven until aforementioned peaks are golden brown and "crunchy"

Hope this helps!

Andrew :wink:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: maczippy on 2001-11-13 18:47 ]</font>

Oh I agree, I always change things around depending on the mood.

Hence, the basic recipe.

Nothing is ever cast in stone, peas (sadly) have an adverse reaction with me :lol: so I tend to avoid them. But I may add some mushrooms (remebering that mushrooms suck up liquid and so you want to cook them before adding them to the sauce.

But, add anything that you like, the trick is to not make it too wet, and so if you were going to add root vegetables you would want to blanch them first (and shock stop them in ice cold water).

Thereby allowing it all to fall into a mush.

Milk in straight up mashed potato is fine (I prefer cream - see above), but remember, that in a cottage pie there's gonna be more steam coming off the meat and could homogonise the topping.

That's why you want to make sure that the potatoes are dry first of all (hence the return to stove in empty saucepan), then add the butter in pats, and cream/milk and so forth. But not to add to much wet stuff for a pie...

Another trick to making groovy mash is to use warm homemade chicken stock (and no butter), just add enough until it's smooth, some ground white pepper and mmmmm.

Andrew

Oops!

Sorry...I have edited the recipe, memory has been a bit flaky today...

Andrew

Anytime mate...

Andrew