Hearty cottage pie recipe

This delicious Cottage Pie recipe comes from Lurpak (the guys who make the butter), and I must say it’s the best recipe I’ve found! It’s an easy recipe to make, if a little time-consuming, so it’s a good dish to make at the weekend when you have plenty of time (glass of wine while cooking highly recommended). Here’s a pic of all the ingredients I will be turning into a delicious pie that will serve two people with enough left over for lunch next day (or to freeze for lunch another day).

You will need
– 50g salted butter
– 1 finely chopped onion
– 1 clove of garlic (or a dollop of lazy garlic)
– 1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped (I’m using butternut squash this time instead)
– 1 stick of celery (I left this out cos I hate celery)
– 400g minced beef
– Small glass of red wine
– 2 sprigs of fresh thyme (I used dried)
– 1 bay leaf
– 1 tbsp tomato puree
– 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
– 2 tsp plain flour
– 250ml beef stock
– 750g potatoes for mashing
– 2 tbsp milk

Step 1
Melt some butter in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Fry gently until soft, and then add the carrot (or in this case cubes of butternut squash) and fry for about five minutes to soften it.

Step 2
Turn up the heat and add the minced beef, breaking it up and frying until fully brown. Add the thyme and wine and simmer until the wine has mostly evaporated.

Step 3
Stir in the flour, then add the beef stock, tomato puree, bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper and simmer on a slightly lower heat for 20 minutes until reduced. In the meantime, boil and then mash the potatoes with butter and milk.

Step 4
When the beef mixture is of a creamy consistency, add it to the dish. Note my fantastic Lurpak enamelled dish that I’m using, which appealed to the 1940s side of me.

Step 5
Spoon the mashed potato onto the top and smooth it out evenly. Use a fork to make ridges on top and scatter some small chunks of butter over the top. I also like to put grated cheese on top, as this makes it extra delicious (and let’s face it, there are very few things in life that can’t be improved by adding cheese).