Eating The Sky

Nothing says home cooking like cottage pie to me. Such a simple dish but so heart-warming, especially on a chilly evening. It gets right to the ribs... to the soul even. And I love having my soul tickled by some great home cooked comfort food. I can explain this one in no time.

Peel and cut russet potatoes into cubes and boil in salted water until soft when poked with a fork but not falling apart. You'll know because you'll be thinking "I can drain that and still mash them pretty easily." See how that works? Nice!

While that's going carmelize some diced yellow onions. Medium heat, stir often, deglaze with red wine 2-3 times, only when getting kinda dry, to prevent them from burning. Add diced carrots and cut green beans and saute in a little olive oil until softened a bit but not too much. You may want to add some water to the saute after a few minutes to help steam-cook the veggies. Remove veggies from the pan. Cook the lamb about 3/4 done. A little pink will remain and that's a good thing because we are baking this dish when assembled. Mix the veggies and the meat with some herbs and spices like thyme, paprika, cinnamon, salt, pepper or whatever you like. Put in a baking dish and set aside.

Mash the potatoes and add some milk, salt, pepper, dill, chives and butter until smooth enough to spread or pipe onto the veggies in the baking dish. Cover with shredded cheddar cheese and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is golden bubbly on top. Cool for 10 minutes and then, if you are like me, cut carefully into squares, slide a pie spatula under and slide onto the plate with a flat-edged knife or other tool pressed firmly at the bottom of the spatula. It just looks better that way. My family used to just scoop a spoon into it making it a mess of stuff rather than a "pie" which I always hated. Do it your way, but if you come to my house this is how it's done.