Cottage Pie: Simple, yet I can cook, thats all that matters!

My relationship with cooking is a very strange one. On the surface, I don’t cook that often, instead my boyfriend will take on the large portion of cooking that goes on in our house. It is this part of me that finds cooking too time consuming and inconvenient (which makes no sense when you need food to live).

Its only when I actually have the real drive to cook that I immediately understand why people enjoy it. With a playlist of good songs flowing through my headphones and a simple recipe for me to follow, I find myself getting lost in the moment (very melodramatic I know). It brings about a sense of calm and purpose for me, no matter how much time has past I find myself enjoying it. It is just super annoying that this is a feeling that doesn’t come about that often (I’m definitely working on it though).

We’ll still with the moments when I have fully embraced the cooking bug. During these periods I have a few staple dishes that I’ll lean towards, mainly because I know how to cook them without reading from another recipe. These always involve very simple steps and normally results in just throwing everything into a pot a boom you have a quick meal; my favourite of these dishes being, good ol’ cottage pie!

I’ll start by saying, that the reason I ended up learning how to make a really good cottage pie, is based on the fact that I absolutely love this as a meal myself. It also happened to be the meal my mum cooked more for me and my siblings when we were younger. Like myself, she didn’t enjoy cooking that much either – in fact, she loathed it so much that most of her meals consisted of oven-cooked food rather than actually “creations”. It was as I got older and learned to cook at school, that she showed me how to make cottage pie. Having acquired a great taste for this food I was more than happy to help, as long as I could sneak bits of mashed potato while we cooked.

After making this for so many years its now become the staple dish that everyone who knows me, trusts me to actually cook for them – and then act very surprised still when it tastes good. What else are friends and family for!

Well, that’s enough history of cottage pie and why I make it but lets move onto the how. I’ll try and put the right details in below, but I’ve changed how I make this so often that its become another, if the vegetables are there, they’ll probably go in – so don’t hate me if there is something that shouldn’t belong or is missing…

Ingredients…

• Mince Meat
• Potatoes (which ones you like best as long as they can be mashed)
• Vegetables (change by preference): Onions , Carrots , Spinach , Peas/Sweetcorn
• Herbs and Spices: salt/pepper, paprika (if you’re feeling adventurous), garlic, basil & thyme
• Cheese

How to…

1. Turn oven to 270˚ and leave to warm up.
2. Throw peeled potatoes in boiling salted water, but throw carefully – lets not burn ourselves. Keep an eye on these, once they’re soft enough to mash remove water and leave until the meat is ready.
3. Dice vegetables into very small cubes
4. Add onions, salt/pepper and garlic to a pan of boiling oil. Allow to simmer to gather the flavours together (thank you to my boyfriend for teaching me that one).
5. Add in mince beef and stir together. Leave until the meat is no longer pink.
6. Add in carrots, spinach, sweetcorn (heck whatever veg takes your fancy at this point). Stir together.
7. Mash potatoes with butter (how ever much butter you enjoy, I like quite buttery)
8. Spoon finished meat/veg mix into the bottom of a Pyrex dish. Add the mash to the top, ensuring the meat is fully covered.
9. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top
10. Place in oven and leave for 20 minutes, or until cheese/potato is starting to brown and crisp (not burning, but basically looking tasty and delicious).
11. ENJOY!