Cottage pie is one of Britain’s most popular and traditional dishes, but there is an easy cooking method to make it even more delicious.
Mary Berry has shared she has a secret ingredient to elevate cottage pie, which is to add two tablespoons of brown muscovado sugar to your cottage pie filling.
Adding muscovado sugar helps enhance the flavour of savoury dishes as it balances out the more acidic ingredients in the recipe and also adds to the richness of the meaty flavour.
After sharing this on her BBC television series ‘Mary Berry Cooks’, Mary explained that her easy recipe “elevates” the cottage pie to “new luxury levels.”
She said: This is so much smarter than your usual cottage pie and is perfect for casual supper pastries too.”
READ MORE: Cheesy pork and mash gratin is easy to make – takes just 12 minutes to prepare
Instructions
First, heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and add the beef mince. Cook on a high heat and stir using a wooden spoon to break up the beef. Cook until the beef is a golden brown colour.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the mince from the pan and set it aside. Add the onions and celery until they soften, then add the beef mince to the pan.
In a mixing bowl, add the flour and red wine and mix together until you have a smooth paste. Then, stir in the beef stock and Worcestershire sauce and add it to the pan.
Next, add in the muscovado sugar and thyme to the pan, then bring the mixture to a boil. Continue to stir until the sauce has thickened.
Add in the mushrooms and then season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan with a lid and leave to simmer for 45 minutes or until the mince is cooked and tender.
Around five minutes before the beef mixture is done shimmering, add the potato slices to a pot of boiling salted water. Cook for roughly four to five minutes until the potatoes are soft, then swain the water and leave to cool.
Once cooked, pour the minced beef mixture into a shallow oven dish, then preheat the oven to 220C or Gas Mark 7.
Carefully arrange half the potato slices on top and pour half of the cream into the dish, then add the remaining potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, pour the remaining cream over the dish then add the grated cheese on top.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubblings.
Your delicious and cheesy cottage pie is now ready to serve.
