Cottage Pie and popovers

For our shabbat dinner a month ago my husband wanted shepherd pie or cottage pie. Here is my recipe for cottage pie. I like to make them individual size. Nothing is better on a cold winter or rainy night. 

Meat filling

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb ground beef

1 onion diced small

3 garlic cloves minced

1 carrot diced small

4 oz frozen peas

A1 sauce

8 oz mushrooms

3 T brown sugar

1/4 cup red wine

salt and pepper to taste

1 T basil

Warm olive oil  in large skillet .Brown beef when olive oil sizzles. Drain fat if necessary and set beef aside.

Put carrots in skillet and saute until soft. Add onions and saute  until soft. Add mushrooms and saute till soft.  Place ground beef back in pan with veggies. Add peas and garlic. Saute for a couple more minutes. In a small bowl mix together A1 sauce and brown sugar. Add to skillet and mix thouroughly. Add red wine and seasonings. Bring to a bowl and then cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes.

While meat filling is cooking, prepare mashed potatoes

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MASHED POTATOES

Ingredients

6 medium sized potatoes
salt
·pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
4 oz sour cream
2 oz cream cheese
1 stick butter
finely chopped onion (1/2 small)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup potato water

Preparation

1. Scrub, wash and peel potatoes
2. Chop potatoes into cubes
3. Fill 2 qt pot 2/3 with water. Add 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil
4. Place potatoes in boiling water. Boil for 20 minutes or until tender
5. Drain potatoes saving 1 pint of potato water
6. Mash potatoes with masher
7. In large measuring cup or microwave safe bowl mix sour cream,  cream cheese, butter, milk, garlic powder and  pepper. Microwave for 1 minutes until butter and cream cheese has softened. Mix well.
10. add a small amount of potato water to potatoes and mix with mixer breaking up chunks of potato.

11. Add the sour cream mixture from above to the potatoes and mix again.

12. Taste at this point to see what needs to be added. Add additional salt and pepper or butter.

Putting it all together.

Use 2-4 small casserole dishes depending on size. Place meat mixture on bottom of lightly greased dishes. Top with mashed potatoes. . Place in oven at 350 for 30 minutes until piping hot. 

For extra taste roll out thawed out phyllo dough and cut circles large enough to overlap top edges of dish. Place the dough on top of the potatoes and sealing the edges like you would a pie

 

 Popovers

Makes 6 large or 12 small popovers

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the pan

2 large eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 450°F, and thoroughly grease the pan.

Melt the tablespoon of butter and set it aside to cool slightly.

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk gently. Then stir in the flour, salt, milk and melted butter until just barely blended; a few lumps are fine.

Fill the cups 2/3 to 3/4 full, and bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 350 and bake an additional 20 minutes. (No peeking! Opening the oven door in the first 20 minutes can cause them to collapse.)

When they are brown and crusty, remove them from the oven, and make a small slit in their sides with a sharp knife. Serve immediately, or return to turned-off oven. Makes 6 to 10 popovers.