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?

I can make it in 50 mins (no simmer use stock) and yes it's a midweek meal as in easy and cheap. Not everyone has swimming and it's the perfect meal to prepare the night before

I'm with you OP. It's something that's good for a weeknight if you have made it at the weekend and bunged it in the freezer. But it's not a weeknight meal in the sense of coming home from work and having to start cooking it from the beginning.

macaroni cheese I will do sometimes though

I kind of agree. It's a 2 component dish requiring 2 or even 3 pans including the oven dish. I like to simmer my mince long and slow which takes 40 mins or so. Not that intensive to cook but lots of washing up and a fair bit of time needed.

Weekdays I work so I am all about the one pot dishes and left overs.

The mince in cottage pie is not cooked the same way as it would be for bolognaise or lasagne. It does not need the long, slow simmer.

I can get it to the table in an hour - I work full time, we eat at 7.30 pm.

Peel potatoes & put on to boil.
While they are cooking, chop onion & garlic & fry off with mince, add red wine, herbs, tomato puree, stock, other stuff (e.g. leftover veg, lentils sometimes) leave to simmer.
Make salad/prep vegetables to go with.
When spuds are cooked, about 20-25 mins, drain & mash.
Add mince to pie dish, top with mash, bung in oven for half an hour.
Relax with glass of wine while it bakes in the oven.

You cook your mince for 50 minutes? I bet it tastes like cardboard

I think it could be a weeknight supper if you are assembling it from leftovers. Not otherwise. Then again I have extreme time-shortage issues in the evening. I batch cook 2x a week when MIL is around to mind the baby--other days we eat batch meals pulled out of the freezer and heated in 5 mins, or I put salmon steaks under the grill etc and dig rice out of the rice cooker while shoving a salad together.

Slow cooked mince is fabulous @spannerintheneck

The texture is much nicer. My ragu is saved for special occasions but takes 4-5 hrs

Don't know what version you are making but that's too long - I can make the base in the time it takes the pots to boil, mash 'em, stick it on top grate of cheese and 5 mins in grill, job done def a weeknight meal and yes make double quantities and freeze - if you freeze mash and meat separately seems to work better

www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/charlie-bighams-cottage-pie/423564-136277-136278 Ta da!

I think any meal can be done mid week (especially cottage pie!) I have even roast a chicken on a weds 🤣

If chopping it all and cooking potatoes yeah I sorta get your point or its atleast a no club day dinner.

Tell you what saves me a massive amount of time, frozen mash. I whack it in the microwave, I whip it whilst the beef and onions are simmering, and throw in some frozen peas.

It takes a good 30 minutes off the prep time.

I make it midweek and work full time but I do cheat with ready made soffrito so I can get it simmering asap and then I might also use frozen or M&S mash if I can't be arsed to peel spuds. It is better if you simmer for longer but if I get in at six supper is still ready around 7.30 or so.

Yanbu.
That's for batch cooking at weekends.

On work days I don't get in until 6:15. It's pasta, McDonalds or a ready meal those days. The dc's usually refuse to eat batch cooked cottage pie or lasagne so I've lowered my standards.

It is time consuming for a weekday meal. There are possible short cuts like freezer mash but really I don't think I could do it in much less than an hour (usually do 30 mins in oven)

If I have time, instead of water with the beefy gravy sort of mixture I whack in a couple of oxo, a jelly beef stock and half an ale and let it simmer slowly. Its amazing.

Definitely a mid week dinner in this house. I peel the wrapper off a Charlie Bigham's one and pop in oven. Add veg (pre chopped of course) and job's a good un

Cottage/shepherd pie started off as a way of using leftover meat from the Sunday roast. On that basis I rarely do the lot from scratch on the same night. Any leftover veg from Sunday dinner go in, I usually have an onion that I roasted with the meat on Sunday and that goes in as does leftover gravy. I always make sure there's enough to do this when I plan cottage pie during the week. Essentially all I do is either brown the steak mince and add to veggies or just use quorn (even faster), boil and mash spuds. Under the grill to brown. Dead easy

Definitely weekday in my house. What would you consider to be a weekday supper?

Cottage pie is a weekday meal in our house, and a weekend one! And I've never simmered mince for 50mins!

Easy quick midweek meal.

40 mins tops.

Brown mince and onions (oven preheated). Add spices and worcestershire sauce. Mix in tin of peas/carrots.
Lay in a dish.
Asda ready made mash - slice it up and lay on top.

Cook.

Plate up. Service with red cabbage & crusty bread.

*open oven after 10 mins to spread the mash a bit after it has started cooking, use a fork to mush in any gaps.

I hate cottage pie, it’s only bearable if you make a bolognese sauce which needs cooking for a couple of hours.

As others have said ready chopped frozen onions, garlic, Waitrose Solfrito are essential for mothers.

When I make Bolgonese I use half and freeze half.

You could rustle up a ‘weekday’ cottage pie from frozen mince and ready mashed potato in a trice.

hmm I think any meal can be done mid week (especially cottage pie!) I have even roast a chicken on a weds 🤣
Of course any meal CAN be done midweek. I too have attained the dizzy heights of roasting a chicken on a Wednesday, yay for us. But by proclaiming it as a midweek meal, I think the implication is that it’s quick (something that’s not borne out by the recipes’ own instructions to simmer for 45 mins, leave 30 mins in oven).

This is why we don't have cottage pie in Scotland, we have Mince and Tatties. Two pans. Mash potato as a pie topping is just a dirty lie anyway.