Today I was cooking for a friend and so could do a bigger meal (I’m normally just cooking for myself and then having the leftovers for lunch the next day!). I decided to try a cottage pie as I’d never done one before.
Ingredients
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 560g/1¼ lb beef mince
• 400g/14oz can tomatoes
• Frozen peas
• Thyme
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1kg potatoes
• Butter
• Milk
Put the oven on at 190 degrees C or gas mark 5 whilst you do the prep. Chop up the potatoes into cubes for quicker cooking and easier mashing. Heat a large pan up and add a little oil followed by the onions and carrots and cook for 3-5 minutes until softened. Then add in the mince and cook until brown. Then you can add in the tinned tomatoes, puree, dash (or a few leaves) of thyme and salt and pepper to season. Allow this to simmer whilst you boil the potatoes until soft. Add the peas in and mix them in after the sauce has been simmering for about 5 minutes. Drain off the water from the potatoes and return them to the pan and add some butter and milk (or cream as a treat). Mash until perfectly smooth!
Pour the mince mixture into a large oven proof dish evenly and then top with the mashed potato. Make sure the potato is spread evenly and that it covers all of the sauce. Now put it into the oven and check after around 25 minutes. Keep checking it every few minutes until the mash has just started to go golden brown on the surface.
Remove from the oven and serve up straight away; watch out as it’ll be super hot due to the potato trapping the heat in! You can serve it with some fresh bread on the side if you like or some extra veg but it is perfectly fine being served on it’s own.
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