Cheesy Cottage Pie

The humble cottage pie isn't the most glamourous of dishes, but it is the perfect antidote to a miserable Sunday evening. Mash potato is the ultimate comfort food, add melted cheese and juicy beef into the mix and you've got yourself a delicious dinner!

Serves 4-6

500g beef mince

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsps tomato puree

250ml red wine

500ml beef stock

1 tbsp plain flour

A couple of bay leaves

Worcestershire sauce

For the topping:

900g floury potatoes

Butter

Milk

100g cheddar, grated

1. Fry the beef in a little oil for 10 minutes until it has begun to brown. Add the onions, garlic and carrot and cook for a further 10 minutes until softened. Add the flour and fry for a few minutes, next add the red wine. Bubble away until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the beef stock, tomato puree and bay leaves. Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Taste and add the Worcestershire sauce and seasoning
2. At this point you want the sauce to be nice and thick, so that mash can sit on top of it rather than just melting in. If you need to reduce it further, remove the meat & vegetables with a slotted spoon, you can discard the bay leaves at this point. Then put the gravy over a reasonably high heat and simmer until it has thickened
3. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes for 20 minutes or until soft. Mash with the butter and milk and season. Pour the meat and gravy into a large dish and top with the mash - make sure you rough the mash up with a fork so it goes nice and crispy. Grate the cheese over the top and bake for 45 minutes. Serve with your vegetable of choice, I went for stir fried cabbage with caraway seeds

Beef & Mushroom Pie with Parsnip Mash

I made this beef and mushroom pie for our pre-Christmas day, it's one of my favourite recipes as it's easy and doesn't have too many ingredients. The recipe is originally from Good Food, but I made a few changes (mainly more wine, garlic & herbs). It's easily the best pie I've ever made, largely due to the excellent meat I bought from Meat N16. I normally just pick up beef from the supermarket, but it is often a little tough, even when cooked for hours. If you live anywhere near Church Street, I'd definitely recommend heading to Meat N16. Their braising steak is beautifully marbled, when cooked it is perfectly tender and adds an incredibly rich flavour to stews or pies.

I served the pie with parsnip mash; simply boil parsnips in salted water until tender, mash with a little milk, butter and a dollop of horseradish to perk it up. Parsnips can be a little stringy, so I like to add a little potato to improve the consistency. I also served braised leeks, but any greens would be lovely.

Serves 4

500g beef braising steak

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

250g mixed oyster & chestnut mushrooms

A few sprigs of rosemary & thyme

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp flour

250ml red wine

300ml hot beef stock, use one of the Knorr stock pots

350g potatoes, peeled

25g butter, chopped into small pieces

1. Pre-heat the oven to 130 degrees. Cut the beef into cubes a couple of centimetres across. Using a heavy based pan, brown the meat in batches using a little oil. Once all the meat has been browned, remove from the pan
2. Add a little extra oil, turn down the heat and fry the onion until softened. Now add the mushrooms and garlic and soften for a further 5-10 minutes. Mix in the flour and tomato paste, and gently fry for a few minutes
3. Turn the heat up and add the red wine, simmer until most of the liquid has cooked off. Now add the stock, beef, herbs and seasoning, bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook in the oven for 2-3 hours until the meat is tender
4. For the topping, boil the potatoes whole, leave to cool, then grate. Transfer the beef to a pie dish, top with the grated potato, dot with butter and sprinkle over a little paprika if you fancy. Pop in the oven at 170 degrees for 30 minutes. Finish off under the grill to make the topping super crispy

Roast Duck Legs with a Red Wine Sauce

This weeks Sunday night dinner again came from Good Food. I reduced the recipe for just the 2 of us, but kept the same amount of garlic, rosemary and five spice and used 250ml of red wine as I like plenty of sauce. It's a really simple recipe to follow and a good alternative to a roast dinner if there are only a few of you.

I served the duck with sweet potato mash and braised leeks. I put the sweet potatoes in the oven with duck, when the flesh was soft I peeled off the skin and mashed them with a little low fat creme fraiche and seasoning. I softened the leeks in butter, then added some vegetable stock and left them to braise for 10 minutes on a low heat. Yum!

Little duck legs resting before the oven:

Crispy duck & red wine sauce:

Braised leeks & sweet potato mash:

Ready to eat:

Sausages with Red Onion Gravy

Despite the fact that it's June, we've had some pretty awful weather recently. Sunday before last was more like a dreary winters day than mid-summer, so I decided to make my favourite comfort meal; sausages and mash. There's something about smooth, creamy mash with crispy, meaty sausages which tastes so delicious. We added butter, milk and wholegrain mustard to the mash which was a great addition. I also made a red wine and onion gravy to go with the mash and served it with plenty of vegetables on the side, perfect food for a cold and rainy day!

For the gravy:
1 red onion, sliced
Knob of butter
1 heaped tsp plain flour
1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
1 large glass of red wine
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
A few sprigs of rosemary

1. Gently fry the red onion in the melted butter until soft. add the flour to the onion and fry for a further minute.
2. Add the red wine and allow to cook down until the alcohol has burnt off. Add the redcurrant jelly, balsamic vinegar and rosemary and leave to gently simmer for 10 minutes
3. If the mixture gets too thick add a little stock or water to loosen it. Serve poured over plenty of mashed potato

 Lots of gravy:

Coq Au Vin

Whilst cooking is one of my favourite pastimes, lying on the sofa reading my book while someone else cooks for me is just as enjoyable. For Sunday dinner last weekend, Chris cooked an amazing chicken casserole. Coq au vin is great as you use chicken thighs and drumsticks which are not only much cheaper than breast meat, but also don't tend to dry out as much. I like to roast the shallots for half an hour before adding them to the sauce, as they soften and caramelise, making them even more sweet and delicious. Chris used a recipe from Delia Online; Nigel Slater also has some good recommendations for making the 'perfect' coq au vin. Served with plenty of mustard mash to soak up the delicious red wine sauce, it was an extremely tasty, if not particularly healthy meal.

Before adding the vin:

Served with mustard mash & broccoli:

British Pie Week

Well hello to you, and welcome to my food blog. In honour of British Pie Week, I decided to make dinner for my lovely friend Fran (who is turning 24 this week – happy birthday!). 

I’ve always loved traditional English cooking. My mother is a fantastic cook and every Sunday I would help her make our evening meal. Sunday was the one day where the whole family got together and ate dinner, even when my sister and I got older. I learnt to cook during these Sunday afternoon cooking sessions, to start with my madre allowed me to do the easy jobs – chopping onions, frying the meat in batches, etc. As I got older and more proficient I was allowed the honour of making the gravy, which to me is the highlight of any good roast.

I’ve tried to continue this tradition in 2011, so every Sunday this year my boyfriend and I have cooked a ‘proper’ Sunday meal. His fish pie and my Chinese braised lamb being a highlight. 

This Sunday I made steak & roasted shallot pie. It’s a recipe from Good Food, which is my favourite website for cooking inspiration. You can find the recipe here. I served the pie with buttered leeks & peas, braised red cabbage and parsnip & horseradish puree. Overall it was a success, although the meat was a little tough. I often find when the recipe instructs you to cook the filling on the hob, you can’t get the temperature low enough and the meat doesn’t soften. If I make this again, I’ll put it in the oven instead, on a very low heat.

Pie, yum yum!

Zero points for presentation, but it tasted gooood: