Receta Cottage Pie
Growing up in Canada, the Sunday
Roast was a tradition in our house. An enormous piece of beef would appear on the dinner table and our extended family
would dig in. And it was almost always
beef because my parents had no great affection for lamb or, heaven forbid, pork which could cause a disease called "Trichinosis", the very sound of which sent shivers up our spines. So beef it was. In the week after the roast, my mother
anonymous writer’s cookbook in 1737 called “The Whole Duty of a Woman”. (Can you
imagine the response that title would arouse today? ) Shepherd’s Pie has evolved since then. In
the Victorian era, the hand-cranked meat grinder was introduced so that turning
the leftover roast into minced meat was infinitely easier. Mixed with onions and, sometimes,
leftover vegetables, the filling was then topped with mashed potatoes and
reheated in the oven. I loved it. And it was a good thing because it was a
weekly staple in our house for years and years. But when Andrew and I got together he cringed
at the very thought of Shepherd’s Pie.
Apparently when he was in school in England, in his own words, ‘you can
just imagine how badly it could be made’.
But having already made hash with some leftover prime rib, I still had
leftovers. I decided to prove him wrong.
But first I had to correct something wrong about my mother’s Shepherd’s
Pie.
"Shepherd’s Pie" refers only to the
version that uses lamb. What my mother
made was "Cottage Pie", the version made with beef. When I started my search for a recipe for the
dish, I was awfully glad I stumbled upon one offered up by Tamasin Day-Lewis in
Saveur magazine. If her surname sounds
familiar, it is likely because her brother is the actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Ms. Day-Lewis
is no slouch herself. She is the author of at least 10 cookbooks including “Food You Can’t Say No To”
(Quadrille 2012). What particularly
appealed to me is Ms. Day-Lewis belief that the dish “needs a little savory
enhancement”. To her recipe, she adds
Worcestershire sauce, some tomato paste and, in lieu of leftover vegetables, the
simple holy trinity of onion, celery and carrots plus some tomatoes. Other recipes I saw added mushrooms, cooked
the dish with Madeira and added cheese to the potato topping. But Ms. Day-Lewis’s version was a
triumph. The filling was full of flavor
and potato topping-- so full of cream and butter, it was frightening—looked and
tasted just beautiful. It is traditionally
served with green peas and I saw no need to change that side dish. I am almost certain that if you have no leftover roast beef on hand, you could likely substitute ground sirloin. So here’s to our old English roots and to a
pie that Andrew pronounced splendid.
Here’s the recipe:
Recipe for Cottage Pie from Tamasin
Day-Lewis in Saveur Magazine
Serves 6.
Prep and Cooking Filling 40 mins. Cooking Time 45 mins.
- 1½ lb. cooked
- roast beef, cut into ¼″ cubes
- 2 ribs
- celery, finely chopped
- 2 cloves
- garlic, finely chopped
- 1 large
- carrot, finely chopped
- 1 large
- yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp.
- Worcestershire sauce
- 1 15-oz.
- can whole peeled tomatoes in juice, crushed by hand
- Kosher
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 lb. Yukon
- Gold Potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1. Heat
- oil in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Add beef, and cook, stirring,
- until all traces of pink are gone, 10 to 12 minutes. Using a slotted spoon,
transfer to a bowl and set aside.
2. Add celery, garlic, carrot, and onion the food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until they are finely chopped.
3. Put the vegetable mixture into the saucepan and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste, and cook, stirring,
until lightly caramelized, about 2 minutes. Add wine, and cook, stirring to
scrape bottom of pan, until wine evaporates, about 8 minutes Add reserved beef,
stock, Worcestershire, bay leaves, and tomatoes, and cook, stirring, until
slightly reduced, about 6 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, season with salt and
pepper, and transfer to a 9″ deep-dish pie plate, or other casserole; set
aside.
5. Heat
oven to 400°. Place potatoes in a 4-qt. saucepan, and cover with water by 1″;
bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until tender, about 30 minutes; drain.
Meanwhile, bring cream and butter to simmer in a 1-qt. saucepan; keep warm.
Transfer potatoes to a food mill or potato ricer, and process into a bowl; add
hot cream and butter, season with salt and pepper, and whisk until smooth and
fluffy.
6. Spoon potatoes over meat filling in dish, spreading to cover to the
edge; drag tines of fork lightly over potatoes to create ridges all over.
(Alternatively, fill a piping bag with the potatoes and pipe them in rows over
the filling.)
7. Bake until potatoes are golden brown and filling is heated
through, about 45 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes; serve with peas.