Cottage Pie

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Plenty of beef on Christmas. This is cottage pie, a sort of shepherd's pie, except it's made with beef instead of lamb. Don't know that mine can be called a truly English recipe, but it was delicious anyway.

2 lbs lean ground beef
carrots, as much as you like
mushrooms, as much as you like
1 large onion
several cloves garlic
frozen peas
frozen corn
1 can tomato paste
pinch dried thyme
splash red wine (had I had good ale or stout I would have used that instead)
olive oil
Worcestershire sauce

The mash:
8 medium yukon golds
cream, as much as you like
butter, as much as you like
parmesan

Heat a little olive oil in a large pan and add the chopped onions. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook long enough for the onions to develop a bit of color. Add the crushed garlic and stir so the garlic releases its perfume.

Open the can of tomato paste and empty its contents into the pan. Cook the paste with the onions until it turns a deeper color and caramelizes a bit. This will lend the dish deeper flavor and a bit of sweetness. Add the mushrooms and carrots. Stir a bit so everything is nicely incorporated. It doesn't matter that everything is fully cooked at this point. Add the ground beef and start stirring. Put some elbow grease into it. Make sure to break down the bigger clumps of meat.

Add a splash of red wine and several dashes of Worcester. Add the dried thyme. Keep stirring. Taste to see if the flavor needs to be improved. Chances are, you need to add more Worcester. At this point, I'd have added lots of fresh chopped parsley, but I forgot.

Add the frozen peas and corn and stir around. Now for the mash.

Mine was the lazy version. Usually, I like to add a lot of garlic very slowly cooked in butter. Didn't do that this time. Just some Yukon Golds, mashed with some heavy cream and salt. Layer the meat mixture in a 9x13 lasagna type pan. Then layer the mash over it. Instead of mashing the potatoes with butter, I simply dotted the potatoes with it, hence the patchy brown marks. I made a herring bone pattern with the tines of a fork, but it doesn't show well in the picture. Finally, I used my Microplane to make very fine shavings of parmesan all over the top. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, until the top browns at bit and everything is bubbling. Be sure to put a baking sheet under the pan to prevent a mess.

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