Serves 5–7
Preparation time 20 minutes
Cooking time 1 hour 10 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) floury/starchy or mashing potatoes
200 ml (7 fl oz) hot milk
80 g (2¾ oz) butter
2 large onions
2 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried herbs de Provence or mixed dried herbs
300 g (10½ oz) sausage meat
70 g (2½ oz) tomato paste (concentrated purée)
800 g (1 lb 12 oz) minced (ground) beef
3 tablespoons breadcrumbs (optional)
Special equipment Food mill
METHOD
1 Peel the potatoes, place in a large saucepan of salted water over high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15–20 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking water, and put the potatoes through a food mill. Transfer to a medium bowl and add a little of the cooking water, the hot milk and butter. Season with salt and pepper, stir to combine and set aside.
2 Peel and chop the onions and garlic. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the onion, garlic, dried herbs and sausage meat, reduce the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste and minced beef. Mix together and cook for a further 8–10 minutes.
3 Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Spoon the meat mixture into a large baking dish. Cover with the potato purée. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, if using, and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
4 Serve the cottage pie hot with a green salad dressed with a strong mustard vinaigrette.
Recipes and images from Beef & Potatoes by Jean-Francios Mallet (Murdoch Books) $49.99 available 1 August 2016 in all good bookstores and online
