Classic com­fort food, great com­bin­a­tion of lamb, mint and potato. Pretty simple to make as well.

Cooking time 1½-2 hours

Serves 2–3

Ingredients:

Mash:

• 4–5 Large potatoes
• 25g Butter
• 100ml Milk
• 2 tsp Hot Mustard
• Parmesan to taste
• Salt to taste

Sauce:

• 250g minced Lamb (If you use beef then it’s Cottage Pie)
• 1 large Onion, roughly chopped
• 1 large Carrot, finely cubed
• 2 sticks cel­ery, finely chopped
• 3–4 cloves Garlic, sliced
• Handful frozen peas
• 1 tbsp Tomato Puree
• Small hand­ful fresh Mint
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 500ml stock (Beef, Lamb or Veg)
• Salt and pep­per to taste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Use a fork to make a few holes in the pota­toes and then bake them in the oven (This is the best way of cook­ing pota­toes for mash, it takes longer but because the pota­toes don’t soak up water as they do if boiled, you get a bet­ter mash)
3. Meanwhile, heat up a thick bot­tomed pan (~2.5l volume)
4. Fry the mince in the pan with a little bit of oil.
5. When the mince is well browned pour it into a sieve set over a mix­ing bowl. (This is because Lamb mince is very fatty and you don’t really want all that fat in your pie)
6. Fry the onion and gar­lic in the pan, there should be enough fat left in the pan that you don’t need to add any oil.
7. If the bot­tom of the pan threatens to burn use a bit of water to loosen the dark build up.
8. Once the onion is trans­lu­cent add the rest of the veget­ables and fry for a fur­ther 5 minutes or so.
9. Return the mince to the pan, add the remain­ing sauce ingredi­ents, except the mint and the peas.
10. Leave to cook on low heat for 30–45 mins
11. Now check on the pota­toes, they prob­ably won’t be done yet but check any­way. You’ll have to check them every now and then until they are soft and drop off a fork eas­ily. The time they take will depend on their size and type.
12. When the pota­toes are done remove them from the oven, set them aside for a while before attempt­ing to peel them.
13. Once the pota­toes have cooled a little peel them and place in a large mix­ing bowl, add all the ingredi­ents for the mash and mash them until you have a smooth even mash. It should be fairly loose and creamy but not runny so that it’s easy to spread on top of the sauce so add more milk if it’s too thick.
14. Once the sauce has cooked for about 30 minutes it should have reduced a bit and be fairly thick. If it’s not then turn the heat up a little and reduce for a fur­ther 10–15 mins.
15. Add the mint, peas, salt and pep­per to the sauce, then pour the sauce into a large cas­ser­ole dish
16. Ladle the mash on top of the sauce, care­fully spead­ing it so that it com­pletely cov­ers the sauce.
17. Use a fork to mark out a raised pat­tern on to the sur­face. (The raised areas will brown in the oven)
18. Bake in 200°C oven until sur­face takes on golden colour.