I only recently learnt that one of my favourite satisfying dishes which is essentially just meat and potatoes is not called shephard’s pie (unless the meat part is made of lamb) but cottage pie. Seriously, almost everybody likes potatoes, especially when pulverised into a creamy consistency, and I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like meat in tomato sauce.
With this knowledge, and the fact that I have minced beef in the freezer waiting for me to get an inspiration to cook it, I made cottage pie last Saturday. For the potatoes part, I boiled them till tender and then mashed them with cream, salt, black pepper. The meat part, I used my handy bottled pasta tomato sauce, added mixed vegetables (for the childrens’ sake) and when the meat sauce is cooked, poured them into a baking dish and topped that with my creamy potatoes. Oh, I forgot to mention that when I boiled the potatoes in salted water, I also added two bay leaves for flavour. ;p My key word when I’m cooking now is ‘flavour’. Anyway, before putting the dish into the oven, I laced the dish with breadcrumbs first.
The Occasional Cook 