Cottage pie

I made this cottage pie again last weekend (1st November) with Jamie Olivers "best whole roasted carrots" and Simon Rimmer's onion marmalade from "Lazy Brunch." This lovely meal was made to proceed Nigella's "children's chocolate mousse" and do please see that new post. As usual, I am replacing all of the old pictures, but keeping the original text the same, apart from where I feel I have something new to add, in which case I'll add this in red.
I have decided to make this recipe on Sunday for dinner. I am very much looking forward to making and eating it, and especially making it. This is because my OH is going to his parents’ house today, and my best friend Louise is coming over for a girlie night in - complete with cottage pie! I am really looking forward to the rare help with the preparation of this recipe. I am sure that my OH would help me out if I asked him, but I, always mindful of the fact that he works much harder and longer hours than I do, never like to.
I must admit that I absolutely adore cottage pie. When I was younger, and the whole family was vegetarian, my dad used to make his own vegetarian version of cottage pie, with lentils to stand in for the minced beef and additional mushrooms. When I started to eat beef later in life, my dad again made a more traditional version, with minced beef and tomato sauce. I remember absolutely loving it, and really looking forward to it all week as we used to have it on Saturdays. There are two recipes for cottage pie in How to Eat - one with leftover cooked meat and one with uncooked meat. I know that traditionally, cottage pie is made with leftover meat, but I have decided to opt for the uncooked version. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, I don’t actually have enough leftover cooked meat to use in this recipe (100-200g). However, this is of little consequence, because if Nigella had said that cottage pie was better with cooked meat, then I certainly would have dutifully cooked a joint of beef, specifically for use in this recipe. However, Nigella explicitly says “…do you know what? It’s better with fresh, raw, minced meat.” I think the reason for this is that Nigella tends to buy organic beef from a trusted butcher, and then gets it freshly minced. Now as you may know, I have discovered a great local butcher, whose quality I trust implicitly, and therefore I am sure that this meal will be a massive success! Another reason that I am looking forward to this recipe is that it appear in the “feeding babies and small children” chapter. The recipes that I have tried from this section have been wonderful and not at all the kiddie-friendly mush that one may have expected, but seriously good and tasty food.
This is of course, a meal in itself. I am serving it with buttered corn-on-the-cob, as we both love that vegetable. Louise also brought over a cheeky Galaxy ripple each for dessert!

Ingredients: All of the ingredients are easily found in any supermarket. Probably the most important ingredient is the minced beef. As mentioned, I brought mine from W. A. Bidder & Sons, and it really did seem lovely - much thicker and meatier than the usual supermarket clingfilm-covered meat. Button mushrooms are specified as optional, and as Louise doesn’t like them I didn’t include them. The recipe also specifies Marsala, which can be replaced by apple juice if one prefers. All of these ingredients though, can be brought in a supermarket.
Again, I brought my minced beef from the butcher and again, I opted to omit the mushrooms.

Price: The potatoes, butter, onion, carrot, celery, minced beef and tinned tomatoes totalled £5.70 – cheap indeed. I did already have a lot of the ingredients for this meal, though, namely the garlic, oil, flour, Marsala and soy sauce.

(Potatoes boiling and ready for mashing)

(Fresh mince from the butchers)

Method: This is actually very easy to make. A lot of this process actually involves stirring, covering and leaving, thus allowing me and Louise to play on the playstation! Firstly, one peels, chunks and cooks the potatoes and then mashes them with butter. This amount of butter really makes the creamiest, most lovely mash in the world. Both Louise and I love mashed potato and could have quite easily eaten the whole contents of the saucepan right then and there. One note of caution, though. Nigella says that after one has cooked and drained the potatoes, one should “…put them back in the pan over the heat for 1 minute to dry off.” This actually results in a burned saucepan with bits of potatoes sticking to the bottom - thanks a lot Nigella. This wasn’t the disaster it may sound, as I simply removed the few burned bits and carried on as normal.
One then blitzes the onion, carrot, garlic and celery in the food processor, cooks them over the heat for 10 minutes until soft, adds the minced beef, flour, Marsala, tomatoes and soy sauce and then covers and simmers for 20 minutes. To be perfectly honest with you, I barely checked it all in that time. It seemed perfectly happy to simmer gently away, and I didn’t want to detract from its natural progression. After that, Nigella says that the sauce should be cooked and not too liquid. She talks about techniques for thickening said sauce if it is too thin, but mine unquestionably didn’t need them. And again, I didn't need to thicken the sauce. It was quite thick enough after 20 minutes cooking.
One then simply assembles the cottage pie, by spooning the mixture into a dish and then spooning the mashed potato on top. You can dot the buttery mash with yet more butter and grated cheese and pop under the grill to melt and crisp, if the mood so takes you. You can be sure that the mood certainly took us! I found that it didn’t need more than 5 minutes to become beautifully melting and buttery.

(Onion, carrot, celery and garlic blitzed in a food processor)

(Lovely, creamy mash)

Result: WOW! This was absolutely lovely. I would honestly say that it is the best cottage pie that I have ever eaten (no offence dad, it was just *that* good!). I absolutely loved this meal. You couldn’t hear a word when Louise and I were stuffing our faces – just contented munching! It looked so comforting and homely in its potato-topped dish and one of the reasons why I liked it so much was the fact that it was not runny whatsoever – when I sliced it to serve, the “layers” stayed in one rich and reassuring piece.
The sauce was absolutely gorgeous and to be honest, would have made a fantastic pasta sauce, purely on its own merits. In fact, I think Nigella does mention that she, as often as not, uses this as a sauce to add to pasta. The sauce was thick and rich with a certain sweetness to it, which was absolutely delectable. I think that the sweetness came from the Marsala, which does add a certain aromatic kick. The beef and tomatoes were gorgeous and were complimented perfectly by the sweet Marsala. Perhaps what I liked the most about the sauce was that the vegetables gave it a certain robustness which provided a fantastic base for the rest of the flavours, but the vegetables were not chunky and unpalatable, due to their previous blitzing in the food processor. I think that this is such a great way to treat vegetables. Not only does it reduce cooking time tremendously, but it also means that one gets all of the goodness and heartiness of the vegetables, without womanfully tacking massive unpalatable chunks of indigestible carrots, so reminiscent of traditional cottage pie. In fact, maybe that is why this recipe is so good for children. The vegetables are certainly present, but are not presented in a disagreeable form. As precocious as I was when I was a child, I’m sure I would have preferred it this way.
The mashed potato was absolutely heavenly. The amount of butter in the dish was extravagant, but it made for the most wonderful, creamy mashed potato. I am so glad I added the cheese at the end, as it was great with the mashed potato - very soothing and creamy. The cottage pie was also fantastic with the buttery corn-on-the-cob. Louise was surprised when I said that Nigella didn’t specify the corn-on-the-cob as an accompaniment - it was purely preference-driven - as she thought it was such a perfect pairing. All in all, this was a winning meal. There really is nothing to add here. I think I've said it all.

(Gently cooking the vegetable mixture)

(With the added browned minced beef)




(With the tomatoes, soy sauce etc., added)

(After 20 minutes simmering)

Other person’s perspective: Louise said, and I quote; “Honest to God, this is the best cottage pie that I have ever had. It is absolutely gorgeous.” Like me, she said it tasted sweet, and also like me, theorised that this may be due to the Marsala. She said that the sauce was juicy, moist and very tender. The mashed potato was creamy and yummy. All in all, the meal was delicious! And Nigella's recipe for cottage pie has *another* convert in Chris.

(Assembling pie - part 1).

Future changes: I cannot think of a single one. I asked Louise and she said that she wouldn’t change anything - the recipe doesn’t need it. Except, she added, bigger portions would be advisable!

(Assembling pie - part 2).




(My plate - Nigella's cottage pie, Jamie's carrots and Simon's marmalade!)

Rating: 5/5. This was delicious and will certainly become a regular addition to my cooking repertoire.