to say that cottage pie is NOT a “weekday meal”

[RiddleMeThis2018]

Cottage pie is delicious. I know how to make it, but sometimes I like to look at a recipe online, to make sure I don’t put too much tomato in by mistake (disappointing, not to be recommended). Almost ALL the recipes say “delicious week-night supper” or similar. This is NOT a weeknight supper!! I couldn’t do it yesterday because the DCs and I got back from swimming too late. I’m not even working today and I had to psych myself up to it. The mince takes 50 mins to simmer, and that’s after all the chopping. Then there’s 20 mins in the oven assuming you time the potatoes right. And then the washing up!

I don’t blame cottage pie. I blame the website writers who want to make me think I should just whip this up on a Thursday when I get in from work. AIBU?

Oh - and fish pie lovers, I buy bent bargain fish-it’s usually incredibly cheap at the end of the day in Morrison’s, chip it up and freeze it to make my own, because I don’t like it with salmon in it. Any skin off filleted fish will do.

This is the most ridiculous thread I have read in ages. How can there be 375 (and counting) messages about a bloody shepherds pie?

Either cook it the day before and freeze or stick in the fridge, or make it on top of the hob when it will be a quick/easy one (which IMO doesn't work as bought mince is meant to be cooked slowly so it is tender and gives a good gravy.)

"supper' as an evening meal concept was, I think, introduced to us by Nigella, I think

My parents always called the evening meal "supper". They married in 1954, possibly before Nigella was born!

”Is it really too hard to get home at 6:30 pm have a cup of tea and chat to the dcs while frying off some mince and onions , cutting up some spuds , adding some carrots .. or peas to mince - mashing the pots and bunging in the oven. All ready by 7:30!
Hardly 'duck a la fucking range' !!
I despair!”

Not too hard at all if you have nothing else to do, no. Brilliant. If all you have to do for your kids in the evening is “chat” to them, of course you can make a leisurely cottage pie, knock yourself out!

Is it really too hard to imagine some people have other things they need to do of an evening? I despair!

This is the most ridiculous thread I have read in ages. How can there be 375 (and counting) messages about a bloody shepherds pie?
jingling I’ve got to agree with you there. I seem to have captured some weird zeitgeist.

Who started calling Yorkshire puddings yorkies ? It's awful, really grates, isn't natural and even spell check hates it.

All the PPs who can get a mince based dish on the table in less than hour (or even less than 3 hours in my book) are responsible for giving British food a bad name. Watery, tasteless slop (not envy) And those adding gravy granules or whatever - You realise you have to do that because you can't cook properly?!

10/15 mins start to finish, cook mince and freeze it . On the grand day reheat and thicken mince in pan ,spuds cut small 7 mins max in pressure cooker then mince in dish potato on top grate cheese and brown under grill.

We often eat cottage pie on a weekday evening, but I only cook it at the weekend or on a day when I'm not at work.

I think it's interesting how we are all prepared to spend different amounts of time in the kitchen. For me, from starting chopping the veg and simmering the meat, to having cooked and mashed the potatoes and cooked in oven, it is an hours job. I'm personally not prepared to spend that hour in the kitchen after a day at work. Therefore I cook it on a day when I'm not at work. I make 2 big pies - one will do us 2 or 3 days and the other gets frozen.

Eating good food is the key thing, not whether it was cooked on the day you are it or not.

In my book there is also no merit in spending lengthy times in the kitchen after school or work if you don't enjoy it. Fine if you get home with kids at 4pm or home from work at 6.30 and don't mind being in the kitchen for an hour and have the time to do that, but also fine if you have other stuff to do such as more detailed supervision of homework than is possible whilst also cooking, or driving to activities, or simply don't want to spend that time in the kitchen.

For me, on work days, my rule is that I want a meal that can either be shoved in oven and ready in 30 mins (the pre-prepared shepherds pie fits this) or involves no more than 15 mins of work in the kitchen. I find that by bulk cooking on my day off or at the weekend and having some very fast pasta type meals, we can all eat really well without any need for me to spend lots of time in the kitchen on work days. Fine for those who want to, but I don't and I don't think we eat poorly as a result of it.

Only by simmering for a good length of time will your gravy be flavoursome and rich and your mince tender and melting in the mouth. The flavour from the onions, carrots and mushrooms (if you add them) does not have time to be released into the stock in 20 minutes- they will barely be cooked in that time. Making a cottage pie is much like making a stew- and that takes a good couple of hours to taste right. I simmer my mince for 50 minutes to an hour. The pie is only in the oven for sufficient time to brown the top and make sure it's piping hot throughout. The 20 minutes or so that this takes does not add significantly to the cooking of the meat.

A bolognese sauce or a chilli require much the same principles- the longer you cook it, the richer and tastier the sauce. An under simmered chilli is just watery and bitty!

Of course it’s still parenting. It just gives you more time to make the evening meal when they can wait till 9pm to be fed.

Yes, exactly. Which means that this strict definition of "weeknight meals for families" as meals which can be on the table at 6.30pm precisely isn't true for a lot of families

I think there's far more posters on this thread assuming family = kids under 10, than there are people forgetting what's like to have younger children.

@Political

Mine certainly isn't watery or tasteless! I use 5% fat "steak" mince, so don't need to to hang around for the fat to render, use olive oil, garlic, a dash of dark soy sauce, few drops of Worcester sauce and a splosh of mushroom ketchup, plus 2 red Oxo, black pepper and celery salt. Then I add my secret ingredient - a teaspoon of black treacle and a dash of balsamic (tip from a chef friend , who picked it up from a chef de partie at the Dorchester - it gives beefy things a lovely piquancy).

I don't add any liquid apart from that. It's wet enough with the liquid from the meat, onions, carrots and the seasonings.

I'm with you on this one OP.

Too much prep and time involved midweek after working all day and then having to cook for 2 School kids after.

I cook minute steaks or thin pork medallions with frozen microwaved veg and mash. Quick healthy and yummy. Or a stir fry. Or pasta /rice with batch booked frozen bolognaise / chilli con carne.

Depends entirely on her w it’s made. If you want the onions beautifully caramelised first its going to take ages for just that!

I made this today. Peeled the potatoes and chopped veg last night while DC ate tea, 10 mins or so (tedious), then made this eve, 45 mins or so, in between doing other things. Was home early today, would be too long for an evening when we get in at 6pm.

DC would prefer lasagne but it’s a PITA to make

Buy a thermomix, it'll change your life!!

Wait.. who puts tomatoes in cottage pie?!

Stockpot cubes instead of normal oxo etc has made a massive difference to mine.

Some folk are actually getting defensive and annoyed. Over a cottage pie. Only on MN . 😂

I batch cook mince then can make a range of meals including cottage pie and lasagne on a weeknight. Just take mince out to defrost in the morning and make mash when i get home. I usually add a tin of beans to boost the protein content.

Its not a freezer meal as only the mince is cooked in advance.

Charlie Bigham also do a delicious fish pie for two...

I do get where you’re coming from OP. After a day in work the last thing I’d want to cook is a cottage pie. All the bloody peeling, chopping etc. We do have it mid week but I’ll have batch cooked it over the weekend and frozen it. Lasagne/moussaka is much the same for us. I tend to batch cook and freeze a lot!

Just buy the ready made one from the supermarket that you shove in the oven. Serve with veg. Easy and just as good.

Defo a cottage pie takes nowhere near that long.

No idea what happened there meant to say -

Defo have cottage pie week nights, takes nowhere near that long.