Cottage pie is a warm, hearty dish packed with savoury minced meat and gravy, and topped with golden, buttery mashed potatoes. A favourite comfort food of mine, a cracking cottage pie is often prepared as a lazy alternative to a Sunday roast in my house.
But as many times as I’ve made it, I can never quite get the consistency of the mince to feel a stodgy as a good bit of pub grub. Having tried many a packet mix, I thought I’d try the Jamie Oliver’s ‘perfect cottage pie’ paste when I saw in in my local Tesco. Described as a “warm and cosy coking paste” I was hoping it would give my pie recipe a bit more pizazz.
As part of the celeb chef’s cooking paste range, Jamie describes it as offering “big flavour fast”. He adds: “My new cooking pastes are a lifesaver. All the hard work has been done for you, so you just need to add your protein. A brilliant shortcut to a great-tasting dish.”
And I certainly hoped it would be a quick fix for sloppy cottage pie filling!
I prepped my meat and chopped veg and added the paste to the pan, allowing it to fry for one min. As per the instructions, I then added a little Worcestershire sauce and a smidge of mustard.
I transferred the meat to the oven proof dish, smothered with mash and a sprinkle of cheese and popped it in the oven for 40 minutes.
While it may not be fancy, or particulalry difficult to cook, the perfect cottage pie is a thing of beauty.
Steaming hot and ready to be served, my big spoon sliced through the meat and potato with ease. The paste had worked it’s magic, making the meat full of flavour without the need for sloppy gravy.
Better still, the paste can be used in other recipes too. According to Jamie it can be stirred into mashed potato with a little butter and black pepper, for a lovely savoury Scottish ‘Stovie’-style mash, adding to a cheese toastie or any dark stew, sauce or soup to take the flavour to the next level.
Apparently, you can even mixing half a jar of paste with four tablespoons of natural yoghurt and some chopped fresh thyme to make a dip to serve with roast new potatoes or pickled veg.
