Individual and Budget Friendly Cottage Pies with Cheesy Parmesan Mash

 Economical beef mince, vegetables and Worcestershire Sauce are the basis of these Cottage Pies. This is also the perfect recipe for Batch Cooking aimed to stretch a budget and make life easier for us all during the week. By that I mean, doubling the recipe, and cooking up a whole batch of mince on the weekend, and just eating what you need for that night, or serving half to dinner guests as cottage pies, and freezing the rest for later. It's very flexible. Dinner size portions of cooked beef can be frozen in small freezer bags and thawed out quickly. Cooked savoury mince can be used later in a pie maker if you have one to make individual pies, so quick, easy and delicious. A can of tomatoes, and some fresh or dried Italian herbs such as basil and oregano, and a splash of red wine can transform the mince into a delicious Pasta sauce, or you might just like to have it heated up on toast for an easy Sunday night's dinner. The possibilities are endless, and with a little imagination, nobody in your family need realise that they have eaten the same batch of mince a few times over but with a different name. 

I heard an ABC morning breakfast presenter say the other day during their program that preparing the evening meal is the most stressful time of the day for her, and I thought what a shame that was, given what fronting the cameras in the morning in front of Australia must be like. That's what I would call stressful. Batch cooking and a little organisation can help to take the stress out of the daily evening meal preparation. It's also a much more economical way to purchase and cook up ingredients. Your freezer can be your best friend.

A Note about the Ingredients:

Halve the list of ingredients I have given, for 6 servings. The mixture made 13 serves for me. I cooked these Cottage pies in 13 dishes with a 1 1/2 cups capacity to test out the quantities even though I only needed 8 of them. The original recipe said to use six 1 3/4 cup (430 ml) ovenproof dishes. There's not a lot of difference and even a slightly larger ramekin than 1/3/4 cups would be ok, but we find that the 1 1/2 cup capacity is perfect, when the pies are served with additional vegetables such as fresh asparagus and broccoli. I love serving meals in individual serving dishes or ramekins, and it seems to make the meal that bit more special for everyone at the table. However, this cottage pie is also perfect cooked in 1 large ovenproof dish. They make great leftovers the next day.

Ingredients: Minced beef, carrot, celery, onion, sauces to be added

Ingredients:

Makes 13 individual serves

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 large onions (600 g), chopped finely

4 cloves garlic, crushed

4 stalks (600 g) celery trimmed, chopped finely

2 medium sized carrots, very finely chopped

1.5 kilos minced beef (2 x 750 g)

1/2 cup plain flour

2 cups beef stock, or 2 beef stock cubes and 2 cups hot water

5 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

2 tablespoons tomato sauce

3 cups frozen peas

8 large potatoes, boiled and mashed

2 cups finely grated parmesan or cheddar cheese (this can be optional)

Fresh thyme leaves for garnishing the potato mash (optional)

Homemade spicy tomato relish to serve (find my recipe at this link)

Dinner plates with my homemade Spicy Tomato Relish in small dishes ready for the Cottage pies from the oven

Method:

In a large pot, heat up the oil over a high heat, and fry the onion, garlic, celery, carrot and beef altogether. Stir to break up the mince and mix the ingredients together, which will take about 10 minutes. Make sure all the clumps are removed and the mince is nicely browned.

Stir the flour through the mince mixture, and gradually add the stock, the Worcestershire Sauce, and the tomato sauce. Keep stirring until the mixture starts to boil and thicken. This happens quickly.

Remove from the heat, stir in the frozen peas. Season well with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

I cooked my mince in the morning so that it would be cold by the time I needed to add the potato to the dishes, and then I knew it was ready to go. However, it can be prepared before assembly.

Preheat your oven to 220 deg. C (200 deg. C fan forced.) Spoon the beef mixture into 12-13 x 1 1/2  cup ovenproof dishes, or just 6-8 dishes and freeze the rest.

Ready for the oven

Spread the mash onto the pies. The potato needs to be hot so that it spreads well onto the cold mince. I use a fork to draw squiggles onto the surface of the potato, which ensures all of those little peaks will crisp up and brown up. My friends, this is an essential step, and is a tradition going right back with Cottage Pies that I remember as a child. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and some fresh thyme leaves. This is optional but I love how it looks and it gives the potato a beautiful flavour.

 Place the dishes onto an oven tray to catch any overflow. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the potato is golden brown and the pies are heated through. As the ingredients are precooked this only takes half an hour at the most.

Ready to serve

Cook's Notes:

• Mashed potato doesn't freeze well. I wouldn't freeze whole cottage pies with the cooked mashed potato. It doesn't take long to boil some potatoes, and the potato can be added to the cooked mince and browned off in the oven quite quickly.
• Carrots weren't in the original Australian Women's Weekly recipe, so if you don't have them, that will be fine. In my mind though, onion, carrots and celery are the perfect vegetable base for savoury mince. 
• Freshest celery, carrot and onion bring a beautiful flavour to the mince.
• Culinary Magic seems to happen when mashed potato is added to top up minced beef and is then baked to a beautiful golden topping to create a cottage pie. So delicious.
• Serving cottage pies with homemade tomato relish, or good quality bought tomato relish is the perfect accompaniment
• Fresh Asparagus is in season at the moment. Lightly blanched fresh asparagus and fresh blanched broccoli are the perfect vegetables to serve. 

A delicious leftover pie, reheated the next day.

Savoury Mince isn't difficult to cook, so I figure why not double the batch which is economical on your time and on your pocket. Batch cooking is a very economical way to cook and eat. The first Australian budget for the Labour Party came down today, it was the budget that had to happen. I don't want to be political, but a lot of people and families are doing it tough and according to the financial experts the two areas which are hurting people's wallets the most are food and fuel. Families need to eat good quality food to keep healthy, not cheap take away, and I think a meal like this isn't overly expensive and will go a long way to feed you or a family a few times.

Warm wishes

Pauline

Hungry for a batch of Hearty Beef Goulash

There was a cool weather change coming through, possibly the last before the onset of summer so I decided to appease my craving for beef and cook a goulash, the process for this one being very similar to cooking a casserole. There aren't many unusual ingredients in this dish, which is a factor I look for now as I keep a good stockpile in my pantry which I hope will serve as the basis of a lot of the things that I cook. Green capsicums, tomato puree and  Blade steak were all I needed to purchase. I had everything else on hand which was great. Winner! This goulash recipe was originally written for 4 people, and I had cooked it for four and loved it, so this time I decided to do some batch cooking. The Hungarian word for goulash is gulyas meaning 'herdsman', and the dish originated in Medieval Hungary. I am taking a lead from this and if serving this to family and friends, a very rustic presentation of this dish is perfectly acceptable.



Thankfully, I have the time now to cook food in large batches. I'm telling you nothing new when I say how expensive it can be to buy and cook healthy food, however it is the only way to go. There are ways around this such as shopping at local farmer's markets whenever possible, and also doubling the quantities in dishes such as stews, casseroles, lasagnes, and goulashes and freezing half of what you have cooked. How many times do you find that a recipe calls for 3 tablespoons out of a can of tomato puree, or coconut milk for example, and then you are left wondering how to use up the rest of the ingredient, or it stays in the Refrigerator unused and ends up being tossed out.  It was easy to increase the quantities to feed 8 people for this recipe,  however it is easily halved to quantities for four people if you wish. I cooked it three days ago, and I have frozen half of it. On a regular basis if I cook more than we need to eat I freeze it in portions for those "no cooking" nights when the kitchen is closed, which we all need occasionally, or eat it during the week as leftovers. A dish like this definitely improves in flavour when it sits for a day or two in the refrigerator before being eaten. It is an economical way to eat and stretch the budget these days. As we head into summer, it will be nice some nights to enjoy the convenience of taking a cooked meal out of the freezer and defrosting it, without having to cook in a hot kitchen. However, I do enjoy a good barbecue as well, don't you?

I love that this recipe uses live Apple Cider Vinegar which is great for our healthy gut, and also tempts the blade steak to braise well and provide a lot of rich flavour. This is such a Dr. Michael Mosley trademark, which you will recognise if you have read any of his books on how to live with a healthy gut. A traditional Hungarian Goulash is a soup and stew combined so there will be more liquid in this casserole than the traditional kind, all the better to mop up with some nice bread I say. Traditionally, flour isn't used to thicken Hungarian stews.

Let's Cook:

Ingredients:

Serves 8

8 tablespoons olive oil
2 large white onions, chopped
4 large carrots, cut into batons
2 large green capsicums, deseeded and sliced
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 kg diced braising steak, I used grass fed blade steak, diced for me by the butcher
2 tablespoons paprika
6 tablespoons tomato puree
6 bay leaves
800 ml organic beef stock, or a bone broth you have made yourself
2 x 400 g tins chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons live (raw) apple cider vinegar

Let's Cook:

Preheat the oven to 160 deg. C.

Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a large stove top casserole dish or Scanpan frying pan with a well fitting lid and fry the onions gently for 5-7 minutes. Add the carrots, capsicum and garlic and cook for a few more minutes. I used my Scanpan for this dish.




Dry your meat with some kitchen paper or a chux to avoid excess splattering. Place 2 tablespoons of oil in another pan over a high heat and brown the meat on all sides in batches adding more olive oil as you need it. I cooked the beef in four batches in my favourite cast iron frying pan on a high heat.



I seasoned each browned batch of meat  and added it to the vegetables in my Scanpan, along with the paprika, tomato puree and bay leaves.



Pour the stock or broth into the pan used for browning the meat and stir for a minute or so, scraping the bottom, to incorporate all of the brownings and juices from the meat.



Add the juices to the casserole dish, along with the tomatoes and the vinegar. Bring the goulash to a simmer, then either transfer the  mixture to a large casserole dish for the oven or cover the one you are using, and place it in the middle of the oven for  2 1/2 - 3 hours, taking it out occasionally to give it a stir, and adding more water if it is drying out. My Scanpan was perfect for slow cooking this dish in the oven. It will look like there is a lot of liquid, but trust me it will thicken up beautifully over the cooking time.

Serve your goulash with a bowl of full-fat organic Greek yoghurt or sour cream, a generous serving of green vegetables and a bowl of reheated new potatoes and butter sprinkled with parsley. As we are conscious of our carbohydrate intake now, I often cook potatoes and pasta in advance and let them cool, as reheating previously cooked potatoes increases the amount of healthy resistant starch in them, which is much better for us.  Any condiments such as good quality sauerkraut, pickled cabbage, or pickled fennel could also be served as a vegetable side to compliment Goulash as is customary in Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland.

Thanks for dropping by, 

Best wishes,

Pauline