A Keeper!

Cottage Pie

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large yellow onion, diced medium
2 large carrots, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 pound ground beef or lamb
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 cup dark (porter) beer (I used beef broth)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup frozen peas
1 large russet potato (3/4 pound), very thinly sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high. Add onion and carrots and cook, stirring often, until onion is soft, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and stir in tomato paste. Add meat and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until almost cooked through, 3 minutes. Add thyme and beer (or beef broth) and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring frequently, until slightly reduced, 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir to combine. Add 1 cup water and cook until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes. Stir in peas and season with salt and pepper.

Transfer mixture to a 2-quart baking dish. Top with potatoes, overlapping slices. Season potatoes with salt and pepper and drizzle with 2 tablespoons butter. Bake until potatoes are browned around edges and tender when pierced with a knife, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Source: Martha Stewart, Everyday Food, November 2010. You can find it here.

Notes: I didn't change a thing except that I only had small potatoes, not a large potato...so, I ended up using about 3 small potatoes to cover the top of the pie. The sliced potatoes was a nice change of pace from the mashed potatoes on top. The flavor of the beef/vegetable mixture was so yummy. This is definitely a great recipe. A keeper! The recipe says it makes 6 servings. I would say it is 6 small servings (that would work if you had some good side dishes or a hearty salad. Otherwise, I would say that it makes 4 filling servings.

Oh, and thanks, Mom for the mandolin you gave me a few years back for my birthday. It is a must for this recipe!