Cottage Pie

Ingredients

• 500 g extra lean steak mince
• 1 onion
• 500 g root vegetables (My favourites to use are two large carrots and half a small swede but you can mix and match your favourites)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp ruby port
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 800 ml beef stock (or 2 beef stock cubes and 800ml water)
• 2 bay leaves
• a few sprigs of thyme
• salt and pepper
• 500 g potatoes
• 75 ml milk
• 30 g butter
• 40 g cheddar cheese
• salt

Instructions

1. 1

   Chop the vegetables - Peel the root vegetables (500g) and chop into small chunks. Finely chop the onion (1 onion) and garlic (2 cloves).

2. 2

   Heat half the olive oil (½ tbsp) in a large pan. Fry the mince (500g) until it browns. Remove from the pan and set aside.

3. 3

   Add the rest of the olive oil to the pan (½ tbsp). Add the chopped root vegetables and onion (not the garlic) and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure that they don't burn.

4. 4

   Add the garlic, flour (1 tbsp) and tomato purée (1 tbsp) and cook for a couple of minutes.

5. 5

   Return the beef to the pan and add the port (2 tbsp), worcestershire sauce (1 tbsp), beef stock (800ml), bay leaves (2 leaves) and thyme (a few sprigs). Bring to the boil and cook uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally - You want the gravy to be quite thick, if there's a lot of liquid in the pan towards the end of the cooking time then turn up the heat a little. Similarly, if it's becoming too thick, then add a little more water to ensure it doesn't burn

6. 6

   Season with salt and pepper - I prefer to season towards the end of the cooking time once the sauce has reduced

7. 7

   Once cooked, remove the bay leaves and thyme stalks

8. 8

   --- Make the mashed potato ---

9. 9

   Peel and chop the potatoes

10. 10

    Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the potatoes for about 20 minutes, until soft

11. 11

    Drain the potatoes and return to the pan

12. 12

    Add the milk (75ml) and butter (30g) and mash until smooth

13. 13

    Season with salt

14. 14

    --- Make the pie ---

15. 15

    Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC/200ºC fan

16. 16

    Grate the cheese (40g)

17. 17

    Fill the base of an oven-proof dish with the beef filling and spread evenly

18. 18

    Evenly spread the mashed potato onto of the beef filling

19. 19

    Sprinkle over the grated cheese

20. 20

    Cook for 25 minutes, then serve