Sunday, 8 January 2012

Cottage pie


An economical Sunday lunch! A cottage pie used to be made from left-overs but it's usually made from scratch these days. I use a quarter pork mince to three quarters beef mince - I just find it tastier. We had our first Riverford organic vegbox delivery this week for 3.5 years - it was delicious! I really appreciate the reasonably-local (Devon) seasonal veg delivered to our door and that's what I used in the pie. To make it even more economical I used the slow cooker for both parts of the pie. We recently got a gadget from the electricity company that shows how much we're using - it's scarily high when the oven's on! I'm shopping for a slow cooker on Amazon right now ... if only I hadn't car-booted ours years ago!

You will need:
  • mince
  • a chopped onion
  • a clove of garlic (chopped)
  • optional: root veg (a parsnip and a carrot or two adds flavour and vits)
  • potatoes (mashed)
  • worcester sauce (check it's gluten free - I use Life's)
  • a thickener such as arrowroot (see Thickeners page)
  1. Put the mince, onion, garlic and root veg into the pressure cooker. Add enough water to make a paste. Cook on low for 10-15 minutes.
  2. When cooked, season the mix with worcester sauce, salt and pepper to taste and thicken it with arrowroot or cornflour (dissolved first in a little water).
  3. Pour the mix into a casserole dish, top with the mashed potato (and I like some grated cheese on top) and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes.
  4. Serve with a green vegetable - we're having broccoli.

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