Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, January 29. 2016

Cottage Pie

Aka Shepherd's Pie. Big family party tomorrow. I am making the innards tonight because these stew-like things are always better the next day. This recipe, basically, with ground lamb and doubling the recipe. I am adding frozen corn (maize to your furriners) and some wine, gibier sauce, and raspberry jelly to it, to enrich it. I'll simmer it 20 minutes longer to reduce the sauce and mingle the flavors before throwing in the peas and corn.


Winter peasant food.  Moussaka is great too, same idea. A friend served us antelope moussaka a while ago. Delicious.

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink at 16:32 | Comments (11) | Trackbacks (0)

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What? No port or Madeira in the reduction?
#1 gWYNNE on 2016-01-29 17:01 (Reply)
Hey - it's poverty food
#1.1 bd on 2016-01-29 17:58 (Reply)
In the UK, cottage pie is traditionally made with beef whereas, not surprisingly, shepherd's pie is made with lamb.
#2 Clovis Sangrail on 2016-01-29 17:02 (Reply)
I make this often, it's a family favorite. I use beef but lamb is a good idea. Thanks for the enrichment suggestions.

I've been thinking about moussaka a lot lately, haven't gotten around to even looking up the recipe though, it seems like a bigger project than this one, but maybe it's not.
#3 LP on 2016-01-29 18:48 (Reply)
I thought that looked like moussaka. We've never made shepherd's pie, but we make moussaka often.
#4 Texan99 on 2016-01-29 19:21 (Reply)
I happened to be eating shepherd's pie when I opened the page. This one is lamb, but I frequently use venison. Does that have a name like the distinction for beef, or is it just "cottage"? I sometimes call it "deer hunter's pie".
#5 john on 2016-01-29 19:29 (Reply)
Don't know about you, but when I saw that picture I thought "Washington crossing the Delaware".
#6 chuck on 2016-01-29 21:11 (Reply)
Put your glasses on
#6.1 Bird Dog on 2016-01-30 04:11 (Reply)
LOL - my first intinct was to Google "Washington Crossing The Delaware" because I'd never heard of a dish by that name, assumed maybe that was a regional name for a particular recipe. Then I looked at the picture and realized you were right.

My own cheater recipe for "cottage pie" is just meatloaf spread fairly thin in a large casserole dish so it cooks quick, topped by a bag of microwaved mixed vegetables and a fat topping of mashed potatoes sprinkled with cheese. The meatloaf cooks fairly quickly so you can boil the potatoes while the meatloaf is baking and the whole thing can be made in an hour. Some stout winter feed.
#6.2 Jerryskids on 2016-01-30 09:57 (Reply)
Okay, basic swill. Take your beef, brown it with added salt and pepper, and then saute garlic and onions in the same pan. Move to casserole pot. In original pan, pop in a tin of mushroom soup, heat up, add a batch of frozen mixed veg (peas, carrots, beans, corn), and then pour into casserole pot and mix with meat. Boil up a fair few potatoes with salt (and garlic if you like same). When tender, mash with butter and milk. Spread potato mash over meat/veg mixture. Pop in oven at 325 degrees F. When potatoes getting brown on crests and see bubbling up around the edges from the meat/veg portion, you are done. Takes about 1/2 hour after popped in oven. Goes well with coleslaw.

Not fancy, but a good, nutritious, and economical dish for a hard-pressed parent.
#7 Frances on 2016-01-31 00:49 (Reply)
A coworker gushed to a Greek friend how much she liked moussaka.

"Oh. Greek leftovers."
#8 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2016-01-31 01:11 (Reply)

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