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

Pasta Liguria with pesto, new potatoes, and green beans

With this recipe we are travelling in the kitchen to Liguria, in northwestern Italy, where it's Mediterranean coastline is known as the Italian Riviera. Liguria's most famous specialities are pesto and focaccia, which can be served plain, or with tasty variations like onion, olives, sage, cheese etc. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Cottage fame in his veg everyday cookbook, says that this is a traditional pasta dish from Liguria using a delicious homemade pesto. Making your own pesto takes this dish to a whole new level. I am still to find a bought one that I like, but they must be available somewhere I suppose. 

For this recipe I used Hugh's recipe for pesto and combined basil and parsley, however just basil or just parsley would be fine. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a lot of fresh coriander, use that for an equally delicious pesto. This recipe can be prepared in two stages which saves a lot of time at the time of cooking. I made the pesto a few days ago and kept it in the refrigerator, and if you missed the recipe on my In My Kitchen November post here it is. If the pesto is already made, this recipe is cooked up in a jiffy. Another good thing is that this is a one pot dish after the pesto is made. I should also add that I only used the bowtie pasta for this recipe because that is what I had in the pantry. It's a fun pasta to use though.

It also makes a delicious meat free Monday dish that the whole family will love.

Pesto recipe:

Basil Pesto ingredients:

50 g pine nuts or walnuts, lightly toasted (I used pine nuts this time)

A large bunch of basil (about 30 g), leaves only

1 large bunch of parsley (about 30 g), leaves only

A few mint leaves (optional)

1 garlic clove, chopped

50 g Parmesan, hard goats cheese, or other well flavoured hard cheese, finely grated

 (I use parmesan)

 Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

100-150 ml extra virgin olive oil

A good squeeze of lemon juice

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To Serve:

Extra virgin olive oil, to trickle over the top (optional)

Method:

Put the toasted pine nuts into the food processor along with the herbs, garlic, grated cheese and lemon zest. Blitz to a paste, then, with the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil until you have a thick, sloppy puree. Scrape the pesto into a bowl and season with salt, pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice. This will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. Sometimes I make a  pasta dish using this pesto with new potatoes, and green beans. Delicious!

Lets cook some Pasta. 

Serves 4 generously

Pasta with Pesto, New Potatoes and Green beans Ingredients:

300g new potatoes, I used "baby spud lite" potatoes from Woolworths (no promo intended)

300g pasta, such as farfalle (bowtie shape) or any pasta shape,  or penne, trofie, orecchiette 

200g green or French beans

50g stoned green olives, roughly sliced or chopped

Salt

Method:

Put a very large pan of well salted water onto the boil. Salting the water heavily (2 tablespoons), is believed to help maintain the bright colour of the beans, and keep the potatoes firm. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into thick matchsticks (like thin chips).

Add the potatoes and pasta to the pan and cook until the pasta is al dente - Probably 10-12 minutes. This should be the right amount of time for the potatoes as well, however I wasn't quite sure and so I added the pasta, cooked it for 2 minutes, then added the potatoes, cooked it all for 5 minutes and then added the green beans for 4 minutes. Perfect timing! The most important thing here is to keep the integrity of the potatoes so that they don't cook too long and break up. If the pasta is the type that cooks very quickly, put the potatoes in a few minutes before you add the pasta. 

Carefully drain off the pasta and vegetables, and let them steam off for a minute or two, then add the pesto and mix thoroughly but gently. Check to see if more salt or pepper is needed, I added a good grinding of pepper.

(If you are worried about the timing though, cook each element separately in the same pot of boiling water.  First the potatoes, when almost done take them out, then the green beans, take them out when almost done, keep the water going and add the pasta until done. Then gently mix everything together.)

Divide between 4 serving bowls, and scatter over the green olives. Grate some parmesan cheese over each bowl and add  an extra trickle of olive oil if you like. Serve with an extra bowl of grated cheese on the table. Mr. HRK and I are having leftovers for lunch today. Yum, can't wait.

I really hope you try this recipe as it is absolutely delicious and so simple to make.

As always your comments will make my day, so please let me know what you think in the comments box.

Happy eating,

 Pauline

Potatoes and Deconstructed Pesto

Basil is such a great herb to have growing in the garden and fortunately I have heaps of it. At this time of year, it is challenging to maintain a vegetable garden in the hot tropics, so I think that herbs are the way to go.