Well if you read People Magazine every week like I do then maybe you see recipe after recipe and think one of these days I will make one for dinner. Well tonight was the night … Royal Wedding style. I tried to make Prince William’s favorite Cottage Pie. It didn’t go so well, I’m going to start by saying I am not the best cook in the world but I can follow a recipe with the best of them. As I started to taste the meat after it has been cooking with the other ingredients. I noticed that it had a very sweet taste to it. Well 2 more pounds of ground beef later and I was back square 1 and still had some not so good tasting sweet beef on my hands. Frustrated I decided to keep on going and used the 2nd batch of meat that I had made. After further reading the recipe I come to find out that they want me to put the mashed potato’s in a pastry bag and squeeze them onto the meat in the baking pan. At this point I felt like I bit off more than I could chew. So I opted for the easy way of spreading the potato’s onto the meat with a good old spatula. It didn’t look as pretty as the picture but I figured it would get the job done lol. Here are some photo’s from my not so pretty adventure. I don’t think I will be trying any new recipe’s anytime soon.
Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try.
1.5 lbs ground beef
2 small yellow onions (finely chopped)
2 tbsps corn oil
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 cups water
2 bouillon cubes
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 or 2 tsp dried thyme
The potato topping
2 lbs (peeled weight) red potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tsps salt
1/8 tsps ground white pepper
1/8 tsps ground nutmeg
1 egg yolk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 In a large saucepan over a high flame, heat the oil and add finely chopped onion. Saute the onion until soft and translucent. Add the ground beef and break up using a wooden spoon. Saute the beef until it has all browned. Gradually stir in flour, thyme water, bouillon cubes and Worcestershire sauce.
2 Reduce heat to low and simmer the meat (so it is just bubbling) for about 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from stove and using a slotted spoon, transfer the beef into an earthenware pie dish. (Using the slotted spoon will ensure the beef is not too wet to hold the potatoes and also leave you some sauce to serve with the finished pie). Leave the beef mix to cool and a skin to form. (Up to this stage can be done several days before and cooled and stored in the refrigerator).
3 Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water (about an inch above the potatoes). Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Lower heat to a simmer until the potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes). Drain the water off the potatoes and return dry potatoes to a low heat for one to two minutes to dry them. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or pass through a ricer.
4 Add the butter, salt, pepper, ground nutmeg, egg yolk and cream and stir into the potato mix. Spoon, or pipe using a wide star tube, on to the top of the beef mix and sprinkle the grated cheddar over the potatoes.
5 Bake in a preheated oven (180C) for about 20 to 30 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown and the pie has heated through.
Peace, Love and Tweeting -Tor
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