In-laws gave us a kilo of ground beef, so made some cottage pie
In-laws gave us a kilo of ground beef, so made some cottage pie
by Pawneewafflesarelife
1 Comment
Pawneewafflesarelife
Tasted better than it looked, haha. Didn’t get any serving shots because we were too hungry from smelling it! We ended up freezing the second casserole dish to bake in a week or three, while the leftovers from one are going to be 4 lunches.
This was only my second time making this, but I’m incredibly proud of how delicious this turned out to be.
Didn’t do this the standard way, I think.
First I sauteed all the veg, using salt early and then herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary) midway through. Let it simmer on low for a long time so onions ended up almost caramelized. Onions before carrots was a bold choice, but I’m very happy with results.
Plopped that into casserole dishes and then sauteed ground beef, using a bit of salt and celery salt and divided that between casserole dishes.
Finally, made a gravy using tomato paste (caramelized) and a combo of butter and duck fat (bloomed more herbs in that), turned that into a roux with stock and from that made a thick sauce. Used worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder to season. Stirred it all together in casserole dishes.
I cheated super hard with potatoes – rehydrated potato flakes with stock, stirred in butter and garlic powder. Heated the assembled creation to crisp the potatoes (hence fork lines) and then added shredded cheese to finish.
For next time, I’ll add red wine to the roux. Husband got home with the wine after everything was prepped so all we could do was drink it alongside the meal (oh nooooo :P).
Super proud of this. Veg texture was perfect, with just a hint of crunch from carrots and celery, which was so tricky to figure out when on step 1 because I had to assess how much more they would soften from baking! Flavors were great. I think the combo of simmered herbs with veg and bloomed herbs in gravy worked so well. Making the gravy separate let me really control texture and it held together so well that we could pretty much slice out pieces. Wasn’t too thick, wasn’t too runny, was just so nice.
1 Comment
Tasted better than it looked, haha. Didn’t get any serving shots because we were too hungry from smelling it! We ended up freezing the second casserole dish to bake in a week or three, while the leftovers from one are going to be 4 lunches.
This was only my second time making this, but I’m incredibly proud of how delicious this turned out to be.
Didn’t do this the standard way, I think.
First I sauteed all the veg, using salt early and then herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary) midway through. Let it simmer on low for a long time so onions ended up almost caramelized. Onions before carrots was a bold choice, but I’m very happy with results.
Plopped that into casserole dishes and then sauteed ground beef, using a bit of salt and celery salt and divided that between casserole dishes.
Finally, made a gravy using tomato paste (caramelized) and a combo of butter and duck fat (bloomed more herbs in that), turned that into a roux with stock and from that made a thick sauce. Used worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder to season. Stirred it all together in casserole dishes.
I cheated super hard with potatoes – rehydrated potato flakes with stock, stirred in butter and garlic powder. Heated the assembled creation to crisp the potatoes (hence fork lines) and then added shredded cheese to finish.
For next time, I’ll add red wine to the roux. Husband got home with the wine after everything was prepped so all we could do was drink it alongside the meal (oh nooooo :P).
Super proud of this. Veg texture was perfect, with just a hint of crunch from carrots and celery, which was so tricky to figure out when on step 1 because I had to assess how much more they would soften from baking! Flavors were great. I think the combo of simmered herbs with veg and bloomed herbs in gravy worked so well. Making the gravy separate let me really control texture and it held together so well that we could pretty much slice out pieces. Wasn’t too thick, wasn’t too runny, was just so nice.