Hey guys, Curtis Stone here. I've got a  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth for you, that’s really quite sentimental to me. My granny used to make this one for me and my brother when we were little kids and I can still remember how it would taste. It's my granny's  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, very simple to make. I'm gonna get started because once I cook this for you, you're going to be amazed.
The first job you've got with a cottage pie is to make the  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, so over here, I've got some potatoes, I've cut them into like two or three centimeter pieces and I'm going to pop them into a  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, and then cover them with cold water. Alright, so we'll put that up to a nice high heat with just a little bit of salt. Now you'll see, I've put the water about two and a half centimeters above the potato, so again, no, you don't have to fill the pot all the way to the top. Once that water starts to  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, I'm going to  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth and cook with the  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth slightly tilted for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

While they're cooking, I'm going to get started on the beef filling. Now, I'm using three star Coles mince, that's got a little bit of a fatty content which I love, especially for this dish because what we're going to do, hear that sizzle? That's what you want to hear. Another temptation of course, when you put  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth into a hot pan is stir, stir, stir.. I actually leave it because a little bit of that caramelization starts to happen on the bottom of the pan before I start to  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth it. So let it caramelize a little, get some of that beautiful browning going on, and then turn your beef over, and you'll see, you're getting a really beautiful  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth on the bottom of that pan and that caramelization there is going to give you beautiful  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth.

The next step is to  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth the beef from the pan leaving a little bit of that beef fat in the pan because that's what we're going to  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth our vegetables in, so I'm just going to go ahead and scoop this up, then I go ahead and get my onions, leaving that little bit of fat in the pan and again just slowly developing that flavor in the pan with those frying onions. The room should be filling with beautiful fried onion smell then what you're doing is you get your carrot, as well as a little bit of celery and we give that a couple of minutes, and of course it's an absolute essential, we all know it, in most issues, it’s garlic,  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth.

Now if you have a look at my potatoes, you'll see they're just coming up to the boil, so what I'm going to do is just tilt the pan ever so slightly, to allow a little bit more  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth out and just reduce the heat. Next, I take a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste, add that, we're going to  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth that out for just a minute before we add a little flour. Now the flour is going to help bind it and make a really beautiful  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth sauce. And now for some beautiful stock, I use about two cups of salt reduced  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, so just to help that come up to the boil, I'm going to pop the lid on, that just, you know, always speed things up a little bit because you're just capturing that steam that's going to flow back onto the surface of the liquid, which is going to bring it to the boil a little faster.

Now potatoes are doing great, you want to make sure that they're not  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, so the best way to do that is just pull one out to the surface and just give it a little feel, and if it's not soft, then you need a little bit further to go. So let's take a look, oh yeah perfect, see those little bubbles in the pan, it’s exactly what you're looking for.

Your next step is to get that beef and go ahead and add it back in. So we now just let that simmer away a little bit, make sure you  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth it with a little bit of salt, and a little bit of fresh  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth black pepper. It is beginning to smell just like walking into Granny's kitchen right here, it smells beautiful and guess what, our potatoes, let's take a look, oh yeah, as soon as they give way like that, you pretty much know they're good. Right so what I do is I drain the water off the potatoes and then I take that strainer and pop it back over the hot pan because that's steaminess, that  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth of the hot pan below is going to help to dry those potatoes out, which will give you a really really creamy mash, and just tip these potatoes into the back into my warm pan, get the good old trusty masher, and start going to town, then I'm going to add a little bit of milk, just continue to mash that up, let me have a taste of this, mmm, fantastic, so so rich, and so delicious.

I'm just going to turn that off the heat. Once you're happy with your mash, which I sure am, you have a quick taste of that as well, yeah it doesn't need a little more salt though, so the only thing left to do here is to get our potatoes  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth our cottage pie, so to do that, I'm just going to go ahead and push that vegetable a little down the side,  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, and then directly in this pan, I'm just going to pick up some of my potato, and you see how I'm putting the potato on, just in little pieces but I make sure that I get it all pretty much covered then you can go back in with your spatula and kind of smooth it out a little if you like. And then actually, what I like to do is get a smaller spatula or a spoon and sort of dig into a little bit so you get some some bits that are sort of  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, that are a little crispy.

The last job I've got here is to brush it with just a little bit of butter and we're done. Once you've got that butter on top of the potatoes, all you have to do is stick this under the grill and it's only going to take about 6 minutes, it's going to turn  beef stockcottage piefinely crushedfondfrygoldengroundlidmashminced meaton top ofovercookingpanrecipereduce the heatremoveroastseasonsimmersmooth it outsteamsticking outstirsweetnessthickwarmth, slightly crispy and such so good. Ha ha, the six minute is up, have a look at that. It's so easy to do, I just can't help but I'm going to dig in, I’ve got to get a little taste, yeah nice and hot. I hope you enjoy my granny's cottage pie as much as I do.