Cottage Pie

Cottage pie is British comfort food: a spiced minced beef ragout, topped with creamy mashed potato baked golden.

Meat base

1. Dice the onion and the carrot finely and sweat them in the cooking oil.

2. Add the minced beef and fry it until it whitens and its liquid evaporates.

3. Sprinkle over the flour, stir it in, then add the tomato purée and the Worcestershire sauce.

4. Pour in the meat stock, add the green peas, season with salt and pepper, and cook it thick.

Mashed potato

5. Peel the potatoes, cook them tender in salted water, drain them, then mash them into a creamy purée with the butter and the milk.

6. Smooth the meat base into an ovenproof dish, cover the top with the mashed potato, and pattern it with a fork.

7. Bake in an oven preheated to 200 °C until golden.

Tip: The fork-drawn pattern on top of the mash is not just pretty, it also crisps up more.