welcome friends welcome back to the kitchen today we're going to make a
cottage pie recipe and if you live on my side of the Atlantic you would probably
call this shepherd's pie mistakenly we're using beef shepherd's pie cottage
pie exactly the same thing except cottage pie made with beef and
shepherd's pie made with lamb so we're gonna start out with some ground beef in
the bottom of this heavy cast-iron pan and we're gonna Brown it off and I've
got enough ground beef that I'm gonna do it in two batches so that it actually
Browns rather than steams so initially I'm just gonna break this
up a little bit in the bottom of the pan to move it around make sure the bottom
of the pan is coated and then I'm gonna leave it alone leave it alone
let it brown on the bottom side I know the tendency for everybody myself
included is to get in there and shake it around and move it all the time let it
brown and then turn it you really want to start creating these deep dark rich
notes okay so this is the last batch of beef and I'm just gonna use a slotted
spoon to take it out and put in a bowl set it aside
got some good browning on the beef and we've built up some nice fond in the
bottom of the pan and there's oil and grease from the beef in the bottom of
the pan if it's excessive drain it off but for the most part you want to leave
it in there to lubricate the pan for the next operation which is to fry off this
pretty much standard mirepoix so I've got diced onion carrot and celery I want
to put that in and just fry it until everything is nice and soft
the veg is starting to soften so the next thing I'm going to put in are some
mushrooms so I've got chopped mushrooms here you've heard me say it before don't
fear the mushrooms get three or four different kinds of mushrooms because
they're each going to bring a different flavor and texture to the bottom end of
this dish to any dish that you put them in so I'm gonna put these in and we're
just gonna continue frying these off until the mushrooms have lost most of
their moisture we're looking good now in this pot I've got some chopped up
potatoes water and salt bringing it up to a boil we're gonna make mashed
potatoes to put on as a topping so that sort of happens at the same time next in
to this pan is going to be some tomato paste and you just want to stir that
into the vegetables and get it cooking it just helps to remove some of that
really acidic taste that you get from tomato paste next in I'm gonna put some
crushed garlic
and some flour stir the flour into the veg and flour is just gonna help thicken
up the sauce make a really nice gravy when we get to that point now once
you've got that sturdy in mostly and you you know spilled your vegetable all over
your stovetop like I have and a port in about a cup of wine red wine a good red
wine the red wine you're gonna have with supper is probably a good place to start
and you just want to use that to pull up some of the Fond on the bottom if you
can there might not be enough to do that job but what the wine does is it's going
to add flavor because it's a red wine but the acids and everything else in the
alcohol are going to release a lot of other flavors if you don't want to use
wine you could use beer and if you don't want to use alcohol don't do it at all
just add a little bit more of the beef stock later so that's pretty much cooked
off at this point all right doesn't take long for the wine to reduce pretty much
right off the pan so next in is beef stock I can hear the potatoes are
boiling pretty nicely some time sticks or two or three twigs of time I've got
some Marmite here that I want to put in the Marmite is going to bring you know
it's not gonna bring its own flavor and I think that's something that a lot of
people worry about is that it will bring its own flavour it's really just going
to help release a lot of the other flavors it's a background player it
really is a background player that helps with everything else just enhance all of
the other flavors so I'm gonna put that in we're gonna bring this back up to a
boil we want to get this bubbling and start to reduce down a little bit now as
this comes back up to a boil there's two more things I want to add to the pan one
is the ground beef you want to put it back in and any juice that's in the
bottom of the bowl as well and the final ingredient is Wurster sauce
so you can use store-bought Worcester sauce Leanne parents would probably be
the you know the best one or the most well-known one you don't want to use
Worcester sauce or you don't have Worcester sauce
you could put in tamari or soy sauce those would be great additions I have
this homemade Worcester sauce that's been brewing in my fridge it's not quite
ready yet but it packs an incredible flavor punch so I'm gonna use that throw
that in and that along with the Marmite is just going to bring a real real nice
flavor to this dish
so we'll stir this in and we just want to simmer this away until we've got a
nice thick sauce you don't want this to be too thin and watery before you put
the potatoes on top we are coming along nicely so I gave it a taste
and I just did the amount of salt and pepper that it needed didn't need too
much salt because there was quite a bit of salt in both the Marmite and the beef
stock so you might not need a whole lot you might not need any now is the point
where you take the time out for no particular reason other than no one
wants to get a stock of time on their plate and in their mouth so pull it out
best you can you can also put a bay leaf in here if you wanted to I know that's
something that a lot of people would do and a lot of people wouldn't do if it's
something that you want to put in there please go ahead and do I know that it
does bring a lot of flavor contrary to a lot of people believe a bay leaf does
bring a lot of flavor next in are some peas and corn and I
just like to sprinkle those on top get them a little bit everywhere I don't put
them on too soon because I don't want them to overcook and these are just
frozen peas and corn lastly the potatoes I've already drained the potatoes and
I've left them in the pot to sort of give off as much steam as possible to
get rid of as much water as possible and I just give them
- ruff mashing I'm not someone who likes my potatoes mashed too much for the most
part when Julie and I are just having potatoes at home
I only just sort of go through them with a fork a little bit but for this dish
you do need mashed potatoes and you could mash them any way you want you
could add anything in them that you want butter cream salt pepper cheese I'm
gonna put in a little bit of butter a little bit of cream and some cheese
today and as you can notice I don't peel the potatoes either a little bit of
cheddar cheese you could use any cheese that you like a lot of people put
parmesan in I think cheddar is more to my liking but you know it's it's your
dish when you make it at home final assembly so so many ways you can put the
potatoes on top you can pipe them on you can put them on in a flat I like to put
them on in mounds so that they Brown a little bit differently so that you get
some craggily bits on top really it's up to you put them on any way that you like
just make sure that you've got potatoes all over the top okay at the last little
bit of potato now this is fully cooked at this point you could take it to the
table and just eat it but it's a great idea to put it in the oven for 35 to 45
minutes just to bring all of the flavors together get it all nice and bubbly and
to brown the potatoes on top Thank You Glenn as per usual we started with the
cake and we've you know we really should eat something other than just cake other
than just cakes so immediately we have this is cottage pie that is gumdrop cake
you can find that on our Sunday morning old cookbooks show okay so I didn't
leave this in the oven long enough one of the things happens when you leave it
in the oven is the solidified it starts to solidify yeah yeah and also potato
becomes a little more solid and I have an internal struggle with how long to
leave it under the boiler broiler how much to brown the potato and I often err
on the side of not enough because I'm notorious for burning stuff if I get
distracted so yeah always fabulous all the flavors there right the fun thing
about cottage pie is that you can make it with the things that you like it well
yeah I mean there is the traditional or classic cottage pie recipe
but you know sometimes that's a little boring to me and it's also one that's
really easy to make with lots and lots of vegetables yeah you can add all kinds
of different you can make a veggie version mmm it's comfort food at it you
know at some of its best and that homemade Wurster sauce I'm digging that
I'm really digging that so coming up there will be another episode where I
take that out of the fridge and finish it but right now even as thick as it is
it just tastes great it's not quite done yet though I think you should I think it
should go a couple more months in the fridge before it's finished so this is
fantastic he could sprinkle some cheese on top and put it under the broiler and
melt that cheese in there's so much to play with here and of course swap out
the beef for lamb and it is shepherd's pie you could also change the flavor of
the profile completely you could do a curry themed curry base you could do a
tonic space taco yeah anything you like yeah it's just a it's just a model yeah
exactly it's it's a method take this as a method and play with the flavors and
make it whatever you want thanks for stopping by
see you again soon
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