Cottage Pie

 A real winter warmer!

Ingredients

1 tbsp Olive oil 

2 sticks celery

2 medium carrots

1 large onion

1 tbsp Thyme (dried) or large sprig of fresh which you can remove later.

1 tbsp oregano (dried)

1 bay leaf

1 large or 2 small garlic cloves

750g mince beef

1 tbsp Bovril 

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 heaped tbsp tomato puree

1/2 glass red wine (optional but adds depth)

1 1/2 tbsp plain flour (optional but if not using be careful and add stock a little at a time so doesn’t loosen too much) 

1tsp sugar

500ml beef stock (or chicken if you don’t have any)

2 extra carrots diced (optional) 

For mash topping:

900g Potatoes (Maris piper) 

75 ml milk (hot)

15g Butter

150g Red Leicester grated 

Salt and pepper

Method

Finely chop the carrot, celery and onion - I use my zyglis  chopper to get them really fine. Heat the oil in a casserole dish and add the veg, stirring and coating with the oil. Turn down the heat pop the lid on and leave to sauté for about 5 mins. Crush the garlic and add stirring a few times before sprinkling over the herbs and adding the bay leaf. 

Add the mince and turn the heat up to brown (some people take the veg out to do this - I don’t).

When browned, add the wine and cook on an high ish heat for a couple of mins. Next, add the bovril, Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and sugar and stir through well. Sprinkle over the flour (if using) and stir through before adding stock and extra diced carrots if using stir. Season to taste. Leave the lid off to simmer very gently for 20 mins, stirring every now and again. Make sure it doesn’t dry out and if starts to just add a little water -  then remove from heat and put on lid until ready for next stage.

While mince is cooking, peel and quarter the potatoes and put into a pan of cold salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for 20 mins until soft enough to mash. Drain, put back on the very low heat to dry out a little. Mix the hot milk and butter to melt then pour over the potatoes as you mash. Season to taste. 

Put the mince in a serving dish or leave in casserole if serving from there and pop the mash on top of the meat using a fork to spread out, evenly. Sprinkle the cheese over and place in the preheated oven for 25 mins or until the cheese is browning and the dish is bubbling. Take out of the oven and leave for 5 mins to cool a little before serving. 

Enjoy!