What's cookin': Cottage Pie

Hey all... if I might first direct your attention to the sections at the far right, you'll see that I've added an "Occasional Labels" section. Frankly, most of what I write here I expect to be of brief interest, if that, to anybody stopping by, so I'm not about to start meticulously labeling every post I make here. However, there are a few that somebody might want to look up later, like the recipe I'm about to share, so now you should be able to find it without too much hassle... of course, if recipes aren't your thing, feel free to give this a skip.

Oh, and another warning for you all... when I bother to cook, I don't make any attempt at "healthy", "low-fat", "low-sodium" or the like... if those things are important to you, you can experiment from the base I provide. Now, on to the recipe...

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb. potatoes (about 4 "normal" sized russets, for example)
• 6T butter (like I said, low-fat ain't my thing... and butter's damn tasty. Also, keep it refrigerated until you're ready to use it, it'll make handling that much easier.)
• 1/2 c. milk
  
• 1 medium onion
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 carrot
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1T flour (unless I specify otherwise, All-Purpose flour is the standard)
• 3/4 c. Flavorful Liquid (I used a reconstituted beef bouillon cube, the recipe I worked from called for beef or vegetable stock... I'd suspect tomato juice or semi-dark beer might do, too)
• 1t dried thyme
• 1t dried rosemary
• "a pinch" of nutmeg (if you're buying for this recipe, then, by all that's good, get the whole nuts and a grinder or tiny grater... compared to the pre-ground stuff, well, there's no comparison.)
• salt & pepper

Equipment

• a pot big enough to hold your potatoes (medium saucepan worked for me)
• a mid-sized mixing bowl
• a masher (yes, you could make do with a fork... but it's more trouble than it's worth)
• a wooden spoon
• a mid-sized skillet (note, not frypan... you'll be doing a fair bit of stirring, so having a pan with high sides is a Good Thing)
• a 9" pie plate

Procedure

• Preheat oven to 400F
• Peel and quarter your potatoes and put them in the pot. Cover with water, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.
• While your potatoes are cooking, you can prepare for the "filling" portion of your pie by: preheating your skillet over med-low heat, peeling the carrot, then chopping the carrot, the celery, and the onion. You could start cooking them at this point, but the time you'll save versus the stress of having multiple items coming up "ready" at about the same time isn't worth it, in my opinion.
• Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and dump them in the mixing bowl, followed by 1T of the butter, and mash them. Add the milk, then beat with your wooden spoon until fluffy/smooth, then set aside.
• Add 3T of butter to your skillet. Once it melts, add the chopped veggies. Cook and stir occasionally until the veggies are softened, about 15 minutes. By the way, if anything's getting browned, the heat's too high... what you're after is what "real" cooks call a sweat.
• Turn up the heat to medium, and add the ground beef. Cook and stir for about 5 more minutes, to brown and break up the ground beef. Once this is done, there will be more fat in the pan than even I am comfortable with, so feel free to spoon the majority of it out and discard.
• Add the flour and stir to combine - the goal here is no visible flour in the mix.
• Add the Flavorful Liquid, thyme, rosemary, nutmeg... then salt and pepper "to taste" (I skipped the salt because, well, bouillon cubes are in large part salt... for pepper, a light sprinkling over the skillet should do). Drop the heat to simmer, and stir occasionally while the flour does its job and thickens the sauce (about 5 minutes)
• Dump the meat mix into the pie plate, cover with the potatoes (even coverage is what you're after), then cut up the last 2T of butter and distribute on top of the potatoes.
• Pop the pie into the oven for about 30 minutes... that should melt the butter into the potatoes, brown the top a bit, and heat the whole to an even, tasty meal, suitable for 3-4.

It's a tasty treat on its own... I might recommend some crusty bread or a roll to go with, mainly for textural variety. For those of you that need more veggies, well... maybe steam up some broccoli to go with, I'm thinking. There just won't be room for anything more in the pie itself.