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Delicious Cottage Pie. This is a lovely family favorite recipe, using regular budget friendly ingredients and easy to make. Don't forget to make up an extra jug of gravy! | Lovefoodies.com
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East Meets West Cottage Pie
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Total Time
1 hr 10 mins
 
The humble Cottage Pie can be traced back as far as 1791,when the potato was introduced as an edible crop and was made affordable to poor people. It wasn't until nearly 100 years later that the Shepherd's Pie came about. Originally, the cottage pie recipe consisted of using up any leftovers and the pie dish would have a lining inside the dish of mashed potato as well as a mashed potato crust on the top. These days, the most popular is to use the mashed potato only on the top of the pie.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
The mashed potato
  • 3 ½ lbs or 1.5 Kg potatoes fluffy type for mashing
  • 7 oz fl or 200 ml milk
  • ½ g stick or 50 butter
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 Teaspoon mustard powder or jar
The filling
  • 1 Lb or 500 g ground meat of your choice or for vegetarians, ground soya meat
  • 1 large chopped onion
  • 1 Clove garlic crushed / chopped
  • ½ lb or 300 g mushrooms chopped
  • 1 large carrot peeled & sliced
  • 1 ⅓ cups or 200 g frozen peas
  • 1 ⅓ cups or 200 g frozen sweetcorn
  • 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
The flavours
  • 3 Tsp heaped Cornstarch mixed with 1 cup cold water mix well
  • 2 Tsp dried parsley
  • 2 Leaves Bay
  • 1 Teaspoon Tumeric
  • 1 Teaspoon Mild Curry Powder
  • 1 Teaspoon Cumin
  • 1 Stock cube
  • 1 Teaspoon Balsamic vineagar
  • 2 Teaspoons Worcester Sauce
  • Salt & Pepper
  • 10 leaves fresh Basil
Instructions
  1. Switch your oven to 180 C, 350 F, Gas 4
  2. Peel & cut your potatoes into quarters and boil.
  3. Once cooked, drain and mash very well, add butter, mustard, and pinch salt. Add enough milk to get a creamy yet slightly stiff consistency.
  4. Prepare the filling. Chop onion, garlic & mushrooms.
  5. Add 1 Tblsp olive oil to a pan and fry onion, garlic & mushrooms until soft. (don't burn)
  6. Add the meat. Add the vegetables. Add all the spices / sauces from the flavours ingredient list, except the cornstarch & water & Basil leaves
  7. Once the filling is cooked, add the cornstarch & water, stir until the ingredients are all combined. Cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Take off the heat and mix in the fresh Basil leaves. Have a taste to see if you need more salt & pepper.
  8. Transfer the filling to the oven dish and spread evenly.
  9. Build your pie. Now we put the mashed potato on top of the filling. The easiest way I do it is to place it all on the filling and then use a spatula to spread the potato so it is evenly covering the dish. Make sure the filling is completely covered with the mash
  10. You don't need to do this next bit, but I like a bit of a pattern and some crispy bits on the pie, so I take a fork and run lines all over the top of the mash so it looks like the photos here. Once it goes in the oven it will brown and crisp up a little. Make a pattern of your choice!
  11. Place the pie in the oven for 45 minutes. Serve with some extra gravy or on it's own.
Recipe Notes

This is a great dish if you want to make it up before hand, and when you are ready, just put it in the oven.
This will also freeze very nicely. I have made up these pies in those aluminium foil containers, and frozen them at the point BEFORE you place in the oven. When you want one, just place in the oven, from frozen, at a lower temperature and cook for 20 minutes longer. Stick a knife in to see if the center is hot.