Cottage Pie or Shepherd's Pie?

Cottage Pie or Shepherd's Pie

I recently found out that Cottage Pie is similar to Shepherd’s Pie except that Cottage Pie uses beef. Shepherd’s Pie also known as Poor Man’s Pie requires lamb or mutton in the recipe. When researching the different recipes, I’ve seen variations with the meat and potatoes alone served in a pie dish with the vegetables on the side. From what I gathered, cottage pie possibly originated from one of the British Isles like England or Scotland where people used foods found in their local region. In Canada, French Canadians call this 'Paté Chinois'.  Some vegetable variations are cut up carrots, peas and/or corn within the main dish. This recipe is easily adaptable.  If you have left over vegetables that need to be used up, try out this recipe and be creative

I’ve once again altered the Cottage Pie to what I normally prepare. This past erev Shabbat, I wanted to have our Shabbat meal prepared way ahead of time and therefore used my crockpot to keep it warm until we were ready to eat. To flavor the meat I included my homemade fermented Ketchup along with a lot of garlic and chopped up leeks to the meat.

Ingredients

7 or 8 medium sized potatoes

Some butter

2 cups of organic corn

1 lb grass fed ground beef

3 to 4 garlic cloves or more if you want

1 small onion

1 leek chopped including white and green part

1 cup full of vegetable or beef broth

2 to 3 soup spoons of homemade fermented ketchup

Parsley

Cayenne

Salt and pepper

Other spices

Directions

• I washed the potatoes and diced them. You can peel them if you prefer. Cutting them ahead of time helps the potatoes cook faster. These potatoes were cooked in less than twenty minutes. I try to always steam my vegetables with the pot covered.

• Chop up the onion, the leek and mince the garlic. Sauté the onion and leek for a few minutes and then throw in the ground beef to cook completely. Once the beef is completely cooked, turn down the heat to medium low. Add the beef or vegetable broth and the fermented ketchup. Add whatever desired salt and pepper and other spices you like. Let the meat mixture simmer for at least five minutes or so to make sure everything is mixed in and some of the water is evaporated.

• While the meat is cooking, if your potatoes are ready, simply place them in a big bowl and mash them by hand adding a little bit of butter if desired.

• I decided to layer my potatoes, corn and meat in the Crock-Pot/slow cooker, I had enough to place two layers and finish by adding the potatoes on top. We own a 5 quart Crock-Pot/slow cooker, it was set at setting at 10 hours which I kept for maybe 3 hours and then lowered the setting to ‘warm’. By the time we sat down to eat the Cottage Pie had time to simmer and was hot. 

We are a family of 4 including two teenagers and were able to get two meals . Our dinner meal more often than not include a green salad with lots of chopped up veggies and also include another vegetable dish on top of main dish.


Are you able to find grass-fed beef in your area?  Ask around and be sure to visit the farm so you know first hand that the farm is trust worthy.  I hope to cover more on 'clean meats purchase' in a future post.

Do you know of other names and variations for this recipe here in the U.S. and over seas?

This recipe has been shared at:
Monday Mania with The Healthy Home Economist
Tuesday Twister with GNOWFLINS
Hearth 'n Soul with A Moderate Life
Real Food Wednesday with Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Pennywise Platter with The Nourishing Gourmet