Venison (or Beef) Cottage Pie

Name: Venison (or Beef) Cottage Pie
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 3 tbsp sunflower or light olive oil; 700 g venison or beef mince; 800 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2–3cm chunks; 400 g celeriac, peeled and cut into 2–3cm chunks; 200 ml beef stock (or water); 1 heaped tsp cornflour; salt and black pepper; 1 large onion, finely chopped; 2 carrots, peeled and diced; 2 smoked streaky bacon rashers, finely chopped; ½ tsp dried thyme or leaves from 2 thyme sprigs; splash of Worcestershire sauce; about 175 ml red wine; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 4 mushrooms, chopped into small pieces; 2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped; about 125 ml milk or cream (you may need less depending on the potato variety); 75 g butter

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Autumn and Winter Cooking with a Veg Box (Riverford Companions)

By Guy Watson

Published 2015

About

This requires a few preparatory steps, but they’re all easy and the results are really sumptuous. Use venison or beef and any mix of root veg for the topping in place of celeriac and potatoes: parsnip, swede, carrot and/or beetroot (though you’ll get pink mash!). Good with piles of buttery cabbage or kale.

Ingredients

800 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2–3cm chunks
400 g celeriac, peeled and cut into 2–3cm chunks
75</

Method

For the mash, put the potatoes and celeriac in a large pan of cold salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 12 minutes, or until very tender. Drain, return to the hot pan for 2 minutes to allow excess water to evaporate, then mash with the butter and as much of the milk or cream as you need to give you a firmish consistency, seasoning well with salt and pepper.