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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Eat Your Veggies Cottage Pie

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Long time, no blogging. Though it was loooots of knitting, in the midst of all the chaos typical for moving house-situation. But knitting has to wait a bit, since most of the things are unblocked (perfectionist as I am, the project is a WIP until it has been blocked. I even weave in ends first time after blocking).

To get myself into a blogging modus after such a long hiatus, I’ll start with a recipe, kids- and adult friendly to boot – enter Cottage Pie. There are loads of recipes for it on the internet, in books and everywhere else, but I’d like to share my (highly unique?) version of it, packed with vegetables and pretty light. It was tested today by a 16-months old guy, and the verdict was – ya, Mum, you can do it again some time (well, that’s my free translation anyway).

Cottage pie as I know it is nothing else than a meat sauce covered with mashed potatoes and baked in the oven. Let’s start with the meat sauce:

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500 g minced meat (I prefer beef only)

veggies: 1 onion, 2 carrots,1 zucchini,a celery stick

up to 0,5 l vegetable or beef broth

2-3 tbsp tomato puree

I start with sautéing the onion, then add the diced carrots and celery and let them melt a bit together, then tip the zucchini in. Add the meat, broth and tomato puree. Let the sauce boil up, then reduce the heat and leave it simmer gently for half an hour or so. (I use a similar sauce for lasagna too, often with some aubergines as well – yam!)

In the meanwhile, peel 1 kg potatoes and boil them until soft, then mash with a slab of butter and a few spoons of warm milk – just remember it shouldn’t get as creamy as regular mashed potatoes.

Get your oven warm, 180 °C.

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Now the assembly: put the meat sauce at the bottom of an ovenproof dish and top with the mashed potatoes (in my case there was a certain mingling of meat and potatoes, but it didn’t spoil anything in the end; it helps to use the back of the spoon here). Pop your creation in the oven for some 20 min – pronto!

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