Layered Cottage Pie

Posted 2015-01-17 by Lindsay Law ⇒ follow

I was short of pans in a new kitchen so I had to improvise and turn a mashed potato cottage pie into a sliced potato cottage pie. To make it a bit more interesting I layered it with cheese. It really works well - lots of textures in the pie, and a crispy, savoury topping to finish off.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 kg lean beef mince
500 ml beef stock
2 carrots
100g frozen peas
700g potatoes
125g grated cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Chop the onion and crush the garlic and add to the oil. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until soft.

Turn the heat up to high. Add the mince, stirring well to break it up and cook for about 10 minutes until the mince is browned.

Add the stock and carrot and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the peas.

Slice the potatoes into thin rounds a few millimetres thick.

In a bowl, toss the potatoes with 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper.

Grease a large baking dish and then spoon in a layer on mince.

Arrange a third of the potatoes over the mince mixture, and then sprinkle with half of the grated cheese.

Continue to build up the layers of mince and potato. *The final layer should be potato, sprinkled with the rest of the cheese and a grinding of salt and pepper.