Sometimes you just know when comfort food is going to be required. A couple of weeks ago, England had their last chance to qualify for the European Championships--lest there be confusion, I'm talking about football (or soccer)--and I knew that it was going to be a tense game to say the least.
Before you go thinking that I've suddenly turned into a football fan. Fear not, I haven't. I quite like Chelsea--much to my father-in-law's despair--and I have a healthy appreciation for various sets of well-honed legs, but that's as far as it goes. On this occasion, I was thinking purely of Dave's potential need for comfort food.
Cottage pie has never been my thing. Whenever I've had it, the mince has been watery and completely lacking flavour, reminding me unpleasantly of the mince and tatties I grew up on. Sorry mum! However, Dave loves it and as I love Dave--awwww--I wanted to make him something that he'd truly enjoy.
The nice thing about cottage pie is that it doesn't mind if you throw it together in 15 minutes--if you're fast with a knife, that is--or if you slave over it all day long. In this case, I suppose I did spend all day on it, albeit in very small bursts of active time.
These days, I try to fit as much prep work as possible into Lucas' nap times so that I can pull dinner together fast once he's in bed. So, by the time lunch rolled around, I had the meat filling done, in the dish, and chilling down in the fridge. And by mid-afternoon, the potatoes were peeled and sitting in a pan of water and the leek was sliced.
Once the game started, I made the mash, spooned it around the edges of the dish and then splodged spoonfuls over the centre. A quick run-over with a palate knife and it was done without any of the filling being ripped out of place or mingling with the mash. It's possible that I might be a bit anal about this, but if I'm going to the trouble to make something with layers, then I want defined layers. By the way, the tip of putting hot mash onto chilled filling comes courtesy of Gary Rhodes. I saw him do it years ago on New British Classics (I think) and it obviously stuck.
When I plated up the football wasn't going so well. Dave dug his fork mournfully into the mash and gave a small smile of approval at the crunch I'd managed to get on the topping. His smile got wider when he tasted a proper mouthful. Apparently it was good cottage pie, if a little posh. At this point another goal went in, and not on the English side, so I decided to concentrate solely on my own plate.
Crispy golden mashed potato gave way to a green-speckled mash underneath and then... the beef. The sage gave the sauce tremendous punch, and the mushrooms soaked up so much flavour from the tomato puree and garlic. I was very pleased with my decision to thicken the sauce; it didn't spill out all over the plate and actually coated the meat nicely.
Unfortunately, England did lose, but at least we had a very good dinner as partial compensation.
Cottage Pie
Serves 4
Estimated WW (UK) points: 7.5
500g extra-lean beef mince
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
150g mushrooms, thickly sliced
300ml beef stock
3 tablespoons tomato puree
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
6 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 1tbsp water
salt and pepper
1kg floury potatoes, peeled
1 leek, cleaned and finely sliced
50g extra-light cream cheese (I used Philly Extra-Light)
2-3 tablespoons skimmed milk
salt
Brown beef and onion together over medium-high heat in a large frying pan. Break up the meat well with a wooden spoon--you don't want any large chunks.
Add the carrot, celery and garlic; fry together for another 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes.
Pour over the stock, puree, Worcestershire sauce and season lightly. Give it a good stir, put the lid on and simmer for 15 minutes.
Set a colander or large sieve over a bowl and tip the contents of the frying pan into it. Drain well. Put the beef and vegetables into a large pie dish. Re-boil the sauce and check for seasoning. Thicken the sauce with a little of the cornflour mixture, stirring well to avoid lumps. When sauce is as thick as you'd like it, spoon it over the beef. You should have just enough to moisten it.
You can now either leave the beef to cool or go straight on and make the mash. I favour leaving the beef to go cold and topping with mash later on--it makes it slightly easier to apply the mash. If you're as keen as mustard, you could have the potatoes boiling while you make the filling. At any rate, the oven should be preheated to 180C.
Boil the potatoes until tender in plenty of salted water. Add the sliced leeks for the last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain, return to the pan over a low heat and give them a bit of a shake around to drive off any lingering water.
Add the soft cheese and mash well. Beat in enough skimmed milk to make a soft mash. Season to taste.
Spoon the mash onto the beef mixture and gently spread out to cover evenly. Run a fork over the top to create some decorative lines--these will crisp up nicely in the oven.
Bake in preheated oven (180C) for about 45 minutes until the top of the pie is crispy and lightly golden. Leave to sit for about 10 minutes before cutting into portions. (This allows the pie to firm up a bit meaning that you'll get out nice clean slices.)
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This would have to be one of my favourites. There is nothing better than a serving of cottage pie (or shepherds pie for that matter) on a cold winters day.
1. Posted by Paula from Only Cookware on December 14, 2007