Looking back over the newsletters I realise that I have often mentioned the humble cottage pie but never ever given a recipe. Perhaps because we all have our own way of making it and why would you want do it differently? Well of course a change is as good as a rest, and if you spend just a little more time you can turn cottage pie into a a much more exciting dish.This pie has its usual rich minced beef base, topped with a layer of sweet, tender leeks, and finally its buttery potato and cheese topping. Now you either go down the route of scooping this out of one large bake, or you can make individual pies - if you have suitable oven proof dishes. I have lion bowls and they look great in those.

Ingredients - serves 6

800g minced beef
1 large onion, chopped
50g butter
150g button mushrooms
3 carrots, peeled, halved, sliced
150ml red wine
200ml beef stock
1 tbsp tomato purée
2-3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 large leeks, washed, trimmed and thinly sliced
25g butter
salt, pepper
800g peeled potatoes
butter & milk
75g grated strong cheddar cheese
salt
chopped parsley

Method

1 Melt the butter in a large frying pan and fry off the onion, mushrooms and carrot until turning golden, remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Break up the minced beef and add to the pan, frying over a higher heat to brown it, season well, and make sure that the meat doesn’t ‘clump’ together. Once browned add the red wine and cook until almost totally evaporated then lower the heat and add stock, Worcestershire sauce and tomato purée. Return the vegetables to the pan also and cook for a further 15 minutes over a low heat.
In more butter, and a clean frying pan, sauté the sliced leeks over a low heat until they begin to wilt, this will only take a few minutes, season and reserve.

2 Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water, drain and mash with plenty of butter and milk to smooth and creamy, fold in half of the cheese. Now make the pie by spooning the meat sauce into a baking dish, spread the leeks over, top completely with the potato and sprinkle over the remaining cheddar. Bake in a 180° C oven for about 30 minutes to browning, on removing from the oven scatter with finely chopped parsley and serve.