English Cottage Pie

Sometimes I get so frustrated when I go grocery shopping here, because I often can’t find the ingredients I want. Today I went to the store to try and find canned whole tomatoes (this was my second attempt, FYI), a basic ingredient that I would be able to find in any grocery store in America. But alas, I did not find the tomatoes, so the pork Bolognese will just have to wait until I can hit up Carrefour or the expat grocery. I was able to find some other ingredients for a soup I plan on making soon, and also the ingredients to make this English Cottage Pie, so it wasn’t a totally wasted trip. 

An English Cottage Pie is a British pub-food staple, and boy is it good. The bottom layer is ground meat and veggies, and the top layer consists of cheesy mashed potatoes. This is a great use for leftover mashed potatoes, or you can easily make the potatoes while you’re preparing the meat. The original recipe calls for ground beef, but all the ground beef I can find here is virtually half fat, so I went for what I think is ground pork instead. I would’ve also loved to use the mushrooms, but Chris isn’t a huge fan, so I added a bit of celery instead. This dish is definitely comfort food at its best.

English Cottage Pie

Adapted from Cooking Light, October 2010

Ingredients

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon butter, softened

Cooking spray

1 ½ cups chopped onion, about one medium

½ cup chopped carrot

½ cup chopped celery

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound extra-lean ground pork (beef or turkey will also work)

2 tablespoons no salt-added tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

½ teaspoon salt

3 cups mashed potatoes

¾ cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine flour and butter, stir well and set aside. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, carrot, and celery; sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for an additional 2-3 minutes. Remove veggies from the skillet. Add pork to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in tomato paste, and cook 3 minutes. Stir in broth and pepper. Return veggies to pan, and bring to a simmer. Stir in parsley, thyme, and salt. Add flour mixture, and cook for 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly.

Spoon meat mixture into an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray, spreading evenly. Combine the potatoes and half of cheese, and spread the potato mixture evenly over the meat mixture. Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until bubbly. During the last couple of minutes I chose to put it under the broiler to make the top a little crispy.