COTTAGE PIE WITH VENISON MINCE
The 1 kg fed a family of 5 and still had left overs.
- 1 large onion, chopped
- ¾ punnet mushrooms, chopped
- 1 kg mince (depending on family size)
- 125 – 150 ml cream
- 1 brown onion soup sachet
- 1 Royco or Knorr cottage pie dry cook in sauce
- 5 – 6 potatoes, for mash
- 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
- grated cheese
Heat pan with some olive oil at the base.
Fried onion and garlic then added mushrooms and continued to fry and simmer, you may need to add oil as you go along.
Note:
I also added some water instead of oil all the time when the juices start disappearing then the food is not so oily.
Put potatoes on to boil to get soft for the mash, we boiled our potatoes for about 90 min, you will have to poke with a fork every now and then to check.
Add venison mince to onions and mushrooms once they were browned and fried up nicely, added about 300 ml water and let that cook on a medium heat for about 10 mins or so until mince is browned.
Once mince was browned, added the Royco Cottage Pie cook in sauce which is divine, you can either pre mix the sauce in 250 ml boiling water or u can add it dry to the pan and stir in.
Stirred that all up and let simmer. Added some corn and peas, this is all up to your taste buds on how much you want to add, I just add enough for some colour and extra flavor, some people prefer no veg or maybe something else like carrots is also nice, kept this on medium heat for about 5 – 10 mins until veg semi soft.
After the veggies is soft, added half a pack of brown onion soup (pre mixed in a little boiled water) and about 125-150 ml cream.
Let that all simmer together on very low heat for about 5 mins.
Once potatoes are extremely soft. Let cool, peel, and mash.
Put some mashed potato on the base of the oven dish to start with, flatten with a wooden spoon, then added the mince mixture on top of the mince, and then covered again with the rest of the mash.
Add grated cheese on top.
Oven has been pre-heated to 180ºC, turn to grill, and grill until cheese is a nice golden brown.
Usually about 15 min.
Once ready, leave to stand for about 10-15 min so everything is nicely set.
Recipe and photo: Jaylene Jay Ansley
