Cottage Pie with Buttery Mash

Ingredients

• 600g beef mince
• 300ml hot beef stock
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 150g frozen peas
• sea salt and black pepper, to taste
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1.2kg potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 120ml milk, warmed
• 50g unsalted butter
• 75g cheddar, grated
• 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
• Dressed green salad, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan. Pat the mince dry and season generously with salt and pepper before it hits the pan — water means steam, and steam means no browning. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium–high heat.
2. Brown the mince in two batches. All at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. You want deep caramel colour and a proper fond on the base of the pan, about 6–8 minutes total. Drain any excess fat and set the meat aside.
3. Drop the heat to medium, add the onion, carrot and celery to the same pan and cook until softened and glossy, about 6 minutes — they should pick up the brown stuck bits as they go. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, 30 seconds, no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter.
4. Stir in the tomato purée and Worcestershire and cook for a full minute, until the purée darkens a shade and smells sweet rather than sharp. Return the mince to the pan with the lentils, then pour in the hot beef stock — the stock breaks the tomato purée down into proper gravy rather than leaving it as a sour paste. Bring to a low simmer.
5. Cook uncovered for 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils have collapsed into the gravy and everything coats the back of a spoon. Fold in the peas. Taste, season, taste again — adjust now, not at the table.
6. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in well-salted water — it should taste like the sea — until a knife slides through with no resistance, 15–18 minutes. Drain thoroughly and return to the hot pan over a low heat for 30 seconds to steam off the last of the moisture. Wet potatoes make gluey mash.
7. Mash with the butter and warmed milk until smooth, then fold in most of the cheddar, holding back a handful for the top. Taste the mash — it should be properly buttery and well seasoned. A bland mash sinks the whole pie.
8. Spoon the filling into an ovenproof dish and level it. Spread the mash over the top, dragging a fork across in rough peaks — those ridges are what catch and crisp. Scatter the reserved cheddar over the surface.
9. Bake for 20–25 minutes until the top is deep golden, the cheese is bubbling, and the gravy is breaking through at the edges. Rest for 5 minutes — straight from the oven it'll collapse on the spoon.
10. Scatter the chopped parsley over the top and finish with a crack of black pepper before bringing the dish to the table.