'Dismantled Cottage Pie' by Paula
Leading busy lives can be challenging to remember to plan to make wholesome food. I have found so over the years of bringing up twins mostly by myself with a little help along the way from friends and family.
The first experience that I had of this, was, when I was weaning the boys onto solid food, and the youngest one eventually spat out the pureed carrot after a ten day stint of them. He eats them now though, so the early experience did not put him off.
I was surrounded by information advising us that in an ideal world we would pre make lots of different purees for the babies to taste but that’s in an ideal world.
I am sure a lot of busy carers and new parents feel that they are failing in some way because of the pressure of getting things right.
…and to eat enough veg and drink plenty of water right?
I lived off tea and soya milk until I invested in a water filter this year so that I could hydrate myself a little every now and again. It was the best thing that I have done. I bought a zero water one and it is great! It makes my tea taste even better! I do have the odd glass of water when I feel dehydrated however which was so amazing tasting filtered water!
After the carrot puree experience, I went onto an organic brand of baby food and fed them out of the jar…needs must at the time. I couldn’t cope with doing everything right…
but it all works out in the end.
..and I am getting better at it…
I hope.
2 or 3 years ago my Mum bought me a cast iron enamelled cooking pot as a gift as she had one herself and was really pleased with it. My cooking methods did not involve pots going in the oven, but suddenly over time I had this bright idea of cooking my usual dishes in the pot. The recipes of which I have come up with I will share with you here. I find this method invaluable as it saves me time watching over the stove top, I can be catching up with other tasks at the same time.
So, this is a recipe for dismantled cottage pie, as I literally ran out of time to add the mashed potatoes to the top and rebake, and the boys had asked if they could have a chicken pie out of the freezer, so I agreed as long as one of them peels and chops the potatoes, as I can bake the pies with the cottage pie mix already being in the oven.
This of course isn’t strictly a one pot as you have to cook and mash the potatoes separately but, you do add them on top of the pie base without having to change the pie contents to another dish from it’s cooking pan, and then rebake with the potato topping, so it saves on the washing up at least.
So here’s the recipe and method…
would serve 4 easily.
1 pack of minced beef usually about 450g in Britain.
1 onion sliced or chopped fresh or frozen.
2 cups of frozen veg
2 tbs rapeseed oil or other mild flavoured cooking oil
1 stock cube of choice
onion, beef or veg gravy granules
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
salt and pepper.
potatoes for mashing 2 small/medium or 1 large one per person
Turn on the oven to 140 C fan/160 C/284 F/ Gas Mark 1 if you need time to do things whilst it cooks or if you need it to cook quicker turn up the heat to 160 C fan/ 180 C/320 F/ Gas Mark 4 or a little higher but the higher it goes the quicker it will cook and potentially burn at first
Take (ideally) a cast iron enamelled small (mine is 9 inches in diameter) pot with a lid but I am sure other casserole dishes are fine. Obviously this can be doubled into a larger pot for more people.
Add the beef to the bottom of the pot and add the onions frozen or fresh on top.
Drizzle the oil on top and add the herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Add the pot to the oven and check back in 10-15 mins for the hottest temp and 20-25 for the lowest temp.
The meat should be browning and the onions soft. At this point I start to break up the meat a little as it maybe a solid block at this point. You can decide if you want to keep it chunky or not.
Add the frozen veg of your choice - literally anything, to cover a layer on top.
Then cover the meat and frozen veg with boiling water to just covering by 1 cm and crumble in the stock cube.
Place the pot back in the oven whilst you cook the potatoes for the mash. which is peel & dice into 2in chunks and boil until soft; drain and mash with plenty of butter, salt and pepper.
Check the beef mix after 15-20 mins - it will be hot and maybe bubbling away, by this time, you can thicken the soupy like constituency with the gravy granules adding a tablespoon at a time, stirring, until it is thickened.
I now added the mash to the plates individually as the boys were having pie, mash and peas; followed by a couple of large spoonful’s of the delicious cottage pie mix on top for the non pie eaters!
If this was to be a real cottage pie then spoon carefully the mash potatoes on top of the meat mixture and even them all out with a fork, and pop back in the oven until golden on top.
