COTTAGE PIE WITH BROWN BUTTER MASH

In many households, cottage pie is a weeknight mainstay. This version, with its brown butter mash, is worthy of a fancy meal shared with good company – and a good bottle of wine!

Serves 8 • Preparation: 2 hours • Cooking time: 1 hour and 45 minutes Oven temperature: 180˚C

• 15ml olive oil

• 500g lean mince

• 500g good quality pork bangers

• 5ml each ground coriander and cumin

• 1 medium-sized onion, chopped

• 2 medium-sized carrots, chopped

• 3 stalks celery, chopped

• 2 turnips, peeled and cubed

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 125ml tomato paste

• 250ml red wine

• 1 tin (400g) cherry tomatoes

• 500ml stock

• 60ml butter

• 250g button mushrooms, sliced

• 5 large potatoes, peeled

• about 125ml fresh buttermilk or cream, hot

• 5ml baking powder

• a pinch of nutmeg

• 5 sage leaves

1 Heat the oil and fry the mince until brown; break up the mince continuously with a spatula. Remove the pork from the sausage casings and add to the mince, along with the spices; fry until browned. Scoop out but reserve any fat in the pan.

2 Top up the oil if necessary and sauté the onion, carrots, celery, turnip and garlic until glossy (at least 5 minutes). Stir in the tomato paste and cook through. Return the meat to the pot and add the wine. Cook rapidly until it reduces by half. Add the tinned tomatoes and stock and simmer gently for 1 hour.

3 Melt half the butter in a pan and sauté the mushrooms until browned. Stir into the meat and season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered until it thickens then spoon into a pretty casserole dish.

4 For the mash, boil the potatoes in salted water until done. Drain and stir in the buttermilk, baking powder, nutmeg and a good sprinkling of sea salt. Then mash with a potato masher – the more you mash, the lighter the potatoes. Judge for yourself whether the texture is right; you can use less liquid or add more as desired. Spoon the mash on top of the meat in the casserole dish. We used a piping bag with a star nozzle to pipe the potato.

5 Preheat the oven. Melt the remaining butter in a small pan and fry the sage leaves. The butter must be light brown in colour and have a nutty flavour without burning. Pour over the mash and bake the pie for about 30 minutes. You can use the grill to brown the potatoes if you like. Serve immediately.