Options
Cottage Pie
![[Deleted User]](https://wb.vanillicon.com/v2/bd98278c66ee09a5358492d16dbca019.svg)
[Deleted User]
Posts: 464 Forum Member
✭
I always thought it was something you could put together pretty quickly. I went looking for a recipe on-line and found this...
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775643/cottage-pie
Surely it's easier than this?! That'll take hours. I'm not a good enough cook to just "wing it" so I'm hoping someone has a tried and true recipe they wouldn't mind sharing?
TIA.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775643/cottage-pie
Surely it's easier than this?! That'll take hours. I'm not a good enough cook to just "wing it" so I'm hoping someone has a tried and true recipe they wouldn't mind sharing?
TIA.
0
Comments
Cook some mince up (beef, lamb would make a shepherd's pie) with onions and a few bits and bobs as you want it.
Cook some mash.
Put mince in oven dish.
Cover with mash.
Make it look pretty by doing nice patterns with a fork
Put it in a hot oven until the mash goes a bit brown and crispy
Serve
Eat
That is basically what the recipe says!
It does take a while to do all of the above. Shepherd's/cottage pie is not particularly quick to make, but it's always worth it in the end.
You can make the base and cook it out for an hour or two, or six if in the slow cooker. And many will say that the long slow cook will make for a better base/ragu (same as bol & chilli).
The other thought is to fry off the mince, add the onions and other veg until it is cooked (20 mins?) then add the mash and brown it. Could all be done in 30-40 minutes.
Both may turn out very nice indeed.
I would agree with that and TBH unless you have gourmets coming to dinner the quick way is absolutely fine. I would add a little cheese on top of the mash is quite nice but not traditional.
make a really big cottage pie and save half for the next day
it's one of those dishes that tastes so much better when it's warmed up in the oven or microwave after maturing for a day
If you want a delicious one, with tender meat, rich gravy and meltingly silky soft onions and carrots it will take about two hours altogether.
Your choice really!
http://www.oxo.co.uk/recipes/cottage-pie
The recipe you quote is for 10 people and It's the recipe I use but scaled down but I'm happy to spend time cooking.
I always like to simmer the meat sauce as long as possible to get a richer flavour.
It's the same with chilli and curry as was mentioned earlier and they definitely improve over a few days.
Rather than freeze what's left over, my married kids will nick it.
Not as good as proper home-made of course but in my experience better than the ones you get ready made.
Yeah the quick mince just doesn't really do it for me personally.
I cook any mince dish for at least two hours, sometimes longer. I cook cottage/ shepherd's pie and lasagne the day before I want to eat them as they set and they just taste so much better too.
It seems fashionable to cook mince quickly, or even just to fry it in a pan but it seems a waste to me as although edible it doesn't taste very nice.
I'm a two hour man myself.
You don't have to be a gourmet to appreciate the difference between slow and quick cooking! Slow cooking intensifies all the flavours massively, plus improves the texture of the mince. I can't stand bits of crunchy onion/celery/carrots in a quickly-cooked pie. It's just not right. Everything should be meltingly tender and soft.
I always add cheese to mine too. Makes it deliciously golden-brown on top.
If I'm cooking something just for myself it's even more reason to make it extra special - but maybe that's just my conviction that I'm worth it!
I find this comment strange. I'm not a gourmet but the difference in the two methods is huge.
I'd be surprised if many people preferred a quick cooked cottage pie to a slow cooked one personally.
I say gourmet because it isn't the way most home cooks and schools taught when I learned to cook. If anyone really thinks a hard working parent would stand making a 2 hour dish mid week they are crazy. Cottage and Shepherds pie is a very quick recipe that was extremely popular using left over roast mince on a Tuesday or Wednesday when I was growing up. The left overs all went into it.
Gourmets would say that is wrong I would predict but most of us who live in a world where recipes that take more than 20 minutes are only made on a weekend and have memories of the 50s 60s and 70s will say that is how it's made.
Rubbery mince has been mentioned only time I ever had that problem was when I bought lean mince, buy it with a bit of fat and drain the fat off after cooking and it will have taste and not be rubbery.
I do but I like stuff I have eaten for years and don't follow fashions and don't have two hours to cook mince on a Wednesday lunch time. I have eaten 2 hour cooked mince and didn't like it seemed to lose it's integrity and mush up too much for my taste buds.
I'm not entirely sure that slow cooking is a 'fashion', but each to their own.
I personally cook my mince beef for at least an hour, and if it goes into a cottage pie or lasagne it's then in the oven another 30-40 minutes. Recipes that state it's ready in 20 minutes annoy me, as it certainly isn't cooked well enough imo.
This is Mrs Beetons Mash recipe:
Boil potatoes till soft
Drain nearly all of the water out but not completely dry.
Season with salt, white pepper and a little grated nutmeg
Add a good knob of butter and mash
Add a little milk or cream and mash with a fork till creamy.
Now, Butter or grease a pie dish. Use a perforated spoon to lift out the meat and veg from the pan. Put in pie dish and cover with mashed potato.
Score the top of the potato and dot with bits of butter or lard, or brush with oil. This will make the top of the pie crusty. I usually just brown it under the grill because it is all still hot. But you can bake it in the oven but it will take longer to brown.
Actually Shepherds Pie is made from lamb mince and Cottage Pie is made from Beef mince.
Delightful answer. Thank you.