Christiana Aretta writes a journal about food, photography, & toys.

Cottage pie was a cold weather staple growing up. It’s an easy food for kids to like – basically loose hamburger meat with mashed potatoes.

Side note: I never a picky kid. My favorite food as a kid was liver and onions. Seriously.

My grandmother was very picky about what went into her cottage pie – only beef. and only potatoes. and whatever other ingredients were listed in her dogeared copy of Erma Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking. Never lamb nor rosemary, since that was shepherd’s pie, which is another dish entirely.

In my grandmother’s taxonomy, shepherd’s pie and cottage pie were two complete and distinct species who didn’t intermingle or cross-pollinate. In my taxonomy, they’re just different varieties of the same animal Yummy Potaticus Meation.

What I’ve included here is a basic cottage pie recipe that can be baked either in a 9″ round baking dish or 2 small Smarta dishes from IKEA. Consider it a broad canvas on which to paint your own masterpiece, be it a combination of sweet and regular potatoes for the crust, the addition of paprika for more smoky flavor, carrots or parsnips for sweetness, olives and red wine for a spanish twist, etc.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pd ground beef
• 1/2 good sized onion
• 1 big carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 pd brown mushrooms, chopped coarsely
• 1 pound of potatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire or soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• optional and completely non-traditional: finely grated cheese of your cheese

Preparations

1. If you don’t like skin in your mashed potatoes, peel ‘em. Boil the potatoes until tender. Mash with a fork and add whatever you like to add to mashed potatoes – butter, milk, mayonnaise, etc. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°. Chop the onion and saute until semi-translucent. Add ground beef, carrot, rosemary, Worcestershire/soy sauce, salt, pepper, and garlic. Saute until meat is cooked through. If using Smarta dishes, the potatoes will heap quite a bit higher than the edge of the dish itself. You may worry about losing some potato goodness but fret not, it will simply yield a greater surface area for crispy potato goodness.
3. Using a fork, cover the meat with mashed potatoes. For extra fancy, create a hatched pattern on the top of the potatoes with the fork. If you’ve opted for the cheese, sprinkle it on the top of the potatoes.
4. Put the baking dishes on a cookie sheet and place in the oven, not on the topmost rack but the one just beneath it. Bake for 25 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown and meat nice and bubbly. Serve piping hot on a cold, windy day with a nice green salad, red wine and some kind of spiced apple dessert.

Have a favorite Yummy Potaticus Meation recipe? Do share in the comments!

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