Recipe: Cottage pie with Irish stout for St Patrick's Day

Terry’s version of the classic cottage pie uses traditional Irish ingredients: sustainable Irish Beef, Irish stout and a Colcannon mash topping, making it the perfect St. Patrick’s Day dish.

COLCANNON FOR THE TOP

500g Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

150ml full fat milk

150g cold butter, diced

200g savoy cabbage, thinly sliced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD

1. Place the potatoes in a large pan of salted water and bring to the boil. Cook for about 15–20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife.

2. Drain the potatoes and squeeze them through a potato ricer back into the pan.

3. In a separate pan, bring the milk to the boil and add the finely sliced cabbage. Cook for a couple of minutes until the cabbage is tender.

4. Place the pan of potatoes over a medium heat and gradually beat in the butter until smooth, then add milk and cabbage into the potatoes and mix thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper (if you like spice – give it a really good hit of black pepper to spice it up).

PIE FILLING

750g of lean minced Irish beef

1 tbls of plain flour

2 finely chopped onions

2 medium carrots diced

200g peas

1 tsp chopped garlic

750ml dark beef stock

750ml Irish Stout

good pinch of picked thyme leaves

splash of rapeseed oil

METHOD

1. In a large heavy based pan over a high heat add your oil and fry your Irish beef mince until golden brown then add your garlic, onion and carrot and cook for a further 5 minutes

2. Add your flour and stir well for 1 minute before adding your stock and stout and allowing to cook for 2 hours over a low heat.

3. Once cooked and thickened add your peas, stir well and transfer into a suitable roasting pie tin before adding the colcannon mash topping and popping into a preheated oven until crispy on top.