I’m interested in finding out about making these pies. Can anybody share a good recipe?
The basic recipe is pretty easy - minced lamb/beef, onions, tomatoes, diced carrot + potato on top - but it lends itself to endless variations (mushrooms, leeks, swede can call be added).
My tips are: add Worcestershire sauce to it some body, and make sure you “ruffle” the top of the mashed potato so it goes crispy in the oven.
Made this last night, with beef chunks instead of lamb:
Bit fussy (and too much vegetables for the sauce - cut back to one turnip, 2 leeks, 3 carrots) but very tasty. I made a 9x9 pan, and had an entire 2nd pan to freeze.
I prefer the chunk style to the ground meat style. Both are good though.
When tackling such a traditional home-cooked British dish like this, it’s always good to turn to Delia Smith (who is kind of the British Martha Stewart, for cooking only). She does a lovely one here with a cheesy/leek crispy topping on the potato.
She has another variation here that uses Worcester Sauce and has a herb/cheese crust.
After many years, I’ve finally perfected (to my taste) the cottage pie. Turns out the secret is allspice and vinegar!
1.5 pounds ground beef
2 medium onions, diced
2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
Get the beef warmed in the pan until it lets go of some of its fat, then add the onions and cook until translucent. (This way, you don’t have to add oil or fat to cook the onions in.) Add the garlic and stir it in. Add:
2 Tablespoons flour (or corn starch if you’re making it gluten free)
and stir in the flour until you can’t see it anymore. Add:
1/2 cup beef stock
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground allspice
2 T red wine vinegar
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Add:
**veggies **of your choice.
I like frozen peas and carrots, because they’re easy and don’t require cooking, only heating. But if I don’t have them, I steam some veggies and add them to the meat. And many people don’t like veg at all, preferring an all meat ‘n’ potatoes cottage pie, so you can leave them out entirely if you wish. Put the whole shebang into a casserole and top with:
**
Stiff mashed potatoes**. (Peel, boil, drain and mash with a little milk and butter.)
Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, until the top of the potato layer is golden brown.
Nom nom nom!
Most of the recipes work out well, as long as they have minced lamb (shepherd’s) or beef (cottage) pie, gravy, a little veg, and mash on top. I sometimes add a little red wine to the stock.
If you want to be a purist, then score the mash with the prongs of a fork to make field-like ‘furrows’ for the cottage pie, or, for shepherd’s pie, prick it with a fork for peaks and troughs to look vaguely like a grassy hilltop.
If it has chunks of meat rather than mince, and loads of veg, then I don’t see how it can be called shepherd’s pie. I’m sure it’s lovely, but it’s a different dish.
If you ever have a traditional British recipe enquiry, always check www.bbcgoodfood.com - the recipes there are great, and also consumer tested. Here’s their basic cottage pie recipe, and their shepherd’s pie recipe, both of which have got 5 star feedback.
Jesus. I read the title as “Shepherd’s Pie / Cottage Cheese,” and only came in to see what god-awful concoction you had made…
Joe
Isn’t shepherd’s pie (and cottage pie) traditionally made with whatever leftover roast and veggies you had from the day before? This was my understanding of the dish. It may not be made that way now much anywhere, but I believe those are its humble roots.
I don’t think so - if it were random meat then there wouldn’t even be different names for shepherd’s pie and cottage pie based on what meat they contain. If I were in a restaurant and served chunks of meat and lots of veggies after ordering shepherd’s pie, I’d be very annoyed.
My really quick cottage pie (prepped last night in less than 30 minutes)
500g beef mince
3 onions
4 large carrots
cup peas
chop the onions finely and fry with some minced garlic. Add mince and brown off. Season with 2 beef Oxo cubes and some Worcestershire sauce. Add peas and chopped carrots (I microwaved the carrots for 5 minutes before adding for haste). Cover with water and simmer till mash is ready.
Peel potatoes, chop and boil. Mash with 50g butter, milk and grated mature cheddar cheese to taste.
Thicken meat mix with gravy powder or cornflour to get consistency desired - don’t make it too thick, though, as it will dry a bit in the oven. Add mince to dish, cover with mash, ruffle top with fork, sprinkle with more cheese and place in 180[sup]o[/sup]C oven till hot through and golden crispy on top. Serve and enjoy, enough for 6 adults.
Si
You can certainly make cottage/shepherd’s pie with leftovers and not fresh meat, but the important thing is to mince the beef/mutton/lamb.
No, no leftovers from Sunday roast make Bubble and Squeak and Toad in the Hole.
Do Americans have Toad in the Hole? It is basically sausage meat cooked into pancake batter, super yummy.
I made this last night. There was much eating after the initial (and usual) cries of “I don’t like that!” For the veggies, I used about a cup of frozen mixed vegetables.
Used this recipe many times. Enjoy.
This is how I make it.
Roast a leg of lamb. Use the drippings to make gravy. Serve with mashed potatoes or colcannon. Enjoy.
The next day, or when you get tired of slices of lamb, slice the lamb into manageable sizes and run through the meat grinder. (Mine is a plated cast-iron one with a crank, which attaches to the lip of a counter.) Mix the ground lamb, leftover gravy, and some frozen mixed veg. Add salt to taste. Put the mixture into a baking/casserole dish and top with the leftover mashed potatoes or colcannon. Bake in the oven until the potatoes brown.
You might be thinking of bubble and squeak, which is the leftover veggies and potatoes from a pot roast dinner fried up into sort of a fritter. Shepherd’s pie is not typically made with leftovers.
Yes as to the roast beast, no as to the veggies. I was always told growing up that Shepherd’s Pie was made from minced left over roast lamb.
And if I am cheating and want to bulk it a little and sauce up the gravy, I’ll throw in a can of baked beans. I’d never put peas into a Shepherd’s Pie personally, though would always have them as a side dish.
I didn’t say “typically,” though. I meant “traditionally” as in “historically”. Perhaps I should have clarified that. I’ve only had cottage pie made from fresh meat, and that’s the way I make it myself. I’m just repeating what I read in some Cook’s Illustrated article, and checked with Wikipedia, which seems to agree with this.
Looking through the 19th century recipes for shepherd’s and cottage pie on Google Books, it seems it was normally made with chopped or diced cold (leftover) meat, but I haven’t found any evidence of leftover vegetables being commonly used. Just onions, a gravy of some sort, and top with potatoes. The term “shepherd’s pie” doesn’t seem to be exclusive to lamb pies in the 19th century.