- Prep time
- 30
- Cook time
- 90
- Skill level
- Low
- Serves
- 8
Home cooking can be as wondrous as restaurant cooking — without breaking the bank.
As a chef, I want others to know the same; that's why I'm joining Maggie Beer's Chef Challenge, with a cottage pie recipe with a mustard cheddar topping, dedicated to my mum.
Chefs from right across Australia have joined Maggie in her mission to improve the quality of life in aged care, by submitting a recipe dedicated to an older loved one in their life.
One of the things we forget in our twilight years is pleasure. If you can look at nourishment and feeding people but you're not getting pleasure, what's the point?
My mother is from the UK and she grew up in post-war Britain, which meant our background didn't have a great food culture.
But Mum taught me that flavour is the most important thing, and from a young age, she showed me that you can take something simple and honest and make it delicious.
Just like this cottage pie recipe: it's a humble dish using ingredients that don't cost a lot but are utterly delicious.
We're big believers in knowing and trusting what you eat, so for us, that means if you can grow it or know the grower then you're going to trust what you're putting in your mouth and the mouths of your family.
And in keeping with Maggie's requirements, you can make this dish to scale, which means aged care homes can also incorporate my recipe on their menus.
Tips:
- The secret with my cottage pie is frying the onion to brown without burning it, and using good-quality beef mince, which doesn't mean lean.
- It's more important to get the onions to brown than the meat in this dish, but if you can do both, even better.
- I don't add tomato paste to my cottage pie, letting the meat speak for itself. If you would like that rich tomato flavour, feel free to add tomato paste, but use it early and fry it for a couple of minutes with the meat.
- Some potatoes may need a little milk, but I usually don't bother with this if the potatoes aren't too starchy.
- You won't need too much salt because of the amount of cheese you're using.
- My mum calls a beef pie topped with mash "a cottage pie", and "a shepherd's pie" would have lamb in it (which makes sense when you think about it).
Australia's food icon, Maggie Beer, leads an ambitious world first social experiment to transform the meals and dining experience at an aged care home. Stream Maggie Beer's Big Mission now on ABC iview.
Ingredients
Method
- 1.
Heat the butter in a large, heavy-based frypan or saucepan over a modest flame and fry the onion until it is starting to brown.
- 2.
Add the celery and carrot and cook another few minutes, stirring often, to soften.
- 3.
Add the meat, perhaps a little at a time, and fry that too. Ideally you want the meat to brown without the onions burning, but usually mince is hard to colour because it sweats and boils before it has a chance to brown.
- 4.
Add the thyme, bay leaf and Worcestershire and cook another minute or two. Pour in the stock and turn right down and simmer, at least 40 minutes, preferably an hour, to soften. Using a lid is a good idea at this point, and add more water if it's getting too dry. Stir it occasionally to stop it sticking.
- 5.
Taste for salt and pepper (remember the cheese in the mash on top) and pour into a 2-litre casserole dish or similar.
- 6.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- 7.
To make the topping, mix the hot mashed spuds with the cheese, butter, mustard and horseradish and stir to combine.
- 8.
Spread this mash all over the mince in the casserole dish and scrape the top with a fork or similar to get lots of peaks and troughs. These will caramelise and add heaps more flavour.
- 9.
Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pie is browned and starting to bubble up from the edges.