Best ever cottage pie?

[Shadyboots23]

Any tips welcome, making one tonight and fancy a change from my usual recipe
Pretty well stocked with stuff if anyone has any secret ingredients

I put finely chopped celery, as well as onions in mine. Plus a tin of drained lentils & a large spoon of tomato puree. A fair amount of carrots plus thyme & sage & a little garlic. I used to use Bisto Best, which tastes fantastic but is full of chemicals 😄. Now I add kallo beef stock cubes, a spoon of miso paste & blitz up some soaked dried Shiitake mushrooms & thicken it with cornflour. A lot more complicated. Plain Maris piper mash on top.

I never add garlic
Cheese in the mash is a given and I usually put some mustard in it too which is probably also a no

My DM makes the best cottage pie. It's encased in shortcrust pastry. SHe got the recipe from a farm we stayed at in Devon when I was tiny.

Fry mince, onion and grated carrot, add Marmite, then gravy made with Bisto. Top with mash and bake until golden.

You might like Felicity Cloake's book 'Completely Perfect' she tests recipes from cook books and puts together what she thinks is the best version of each classic.

So far it's tasting like the best I've made..

It's actually delicious! Even if not the neatest

I did
Minced beef browned hard until it had crispy bits
Finely chopped onion, mushrooms, carrots
Bay leaf, thyme, marmite
Beef stock and a spoon of gravy granules
Tomato purée (tiny bit)
Mash has whole grain mustard, butter and cheese in

I would love to try this if easy to attach the recipe . It sounds a refreshing change.

wow that sounds so yummy Shadyboots23. I am inspired !

I put a big amount of soFrito in the mince plus Worcester sauce and thyme and a lot of cheese on the top (grated)

I also really like the Sophie Dahl lentil one.

This is a fabulous recipe:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/oct/21/make-perfect-cottage-pie

The secret is definitely in the Worcestershire sauce. Or sometimes I use Branston pickle.

OP, that looks and sounds delicious!

I make mine with pork mince. Does that make it a sty pie? Agree that Worcestershire sauce is essential.

Bloody starving now!