At Lincoln's request - Pepper Cottage Pie

I wasn't planning to blog this one, as it was an experiment, but Lincoln has requested I do. I think part of the reason why he made this request is because then he gets to find out all the vegetables I'm sneaking him.

When you live with someone who won't eat any vegetables aside from: mushrooms; onions; tomatoes; potatoes; and corn, you tend to be somewhat creative when cooking.

And a grater will be your best friend.

So, this recipe was originally going to be my version of shepherds/cottage pie, which involves lots of garlic and chilli (common theme in most of my savoury cooking), then 2 pots, one gets vegetables and the other doesn't, potato on top, in the oven.

But Lincoln wasn't home...

This probably makes enough for 4 - 6 people?

So, ingredients:
500G mince (Barossa Fine Foods organic mince)
2 onions, chopped
1 carrot, grated
1 zucchini, grated
2C sliced mushrooms (ish? I just kept slicing till I had what looked to be enough, then after they were in the pot realised not enough, so sliced more...)
1T whole mixed peppercorns
2 cloves of garlic
1/2C hot & spicy V8 juice
1 sachet McCormicks pepper gravy
5 large potatoes
butter/milk/garlic salt/onion salt to taste, for mashing the above
cheese to go on top
bacon/pancetta to go on top (this was new for me, as were pepper corns, but hey...)

Fry the onions & garlic in a large pan, till the onions are translucent.
Crush peppercorns with mortar & pestle until cracked but not powder (yes, you could use a pepper grinder for this, if you happened to have one spare. Mine is full of normal pepper).
Add mince & peppercorns, continue stirring until mince is brown.
Add grated vegetables, v8 juice and mushrooms. Place lid on pot & allow to simmer for approximately 10 minutes (this was the point I realised I needed more mushrooms).
Add pepper gravy sachet + 1C water, and continue simmering until you can no longer see that there's grated carrot & zucchini in there (about 15 minutes).

While that's simmering, cut up potatoes & boil them for about 5-10 minutes (I don't really know time frames, I just keep poking them until they fall apart).
Drain potatoes, return to heat so the last bit of water evaporates - no more than a couple of minutes.
Mash potatoes, then add some milk (or cream, but hey, milk) and butter. I hide the butter in the mashed potatoes, so it melts while I'm adding onion salt & garlic salt. Normally I'd add white pepper as well, but I was a little hesitant, considering the amount of pepper in meat dish.
Get out whisk & whisk potatoes until smooth. I'm a mashed potato addict, though I haven't found any meetings for it yet. If you don't like mashed potatoes, or haven't yet garnered an addiction to them, you can use less potatoes.

Pour meat mixture in to large dish, add the mashed potatoes on top of that, spreading it fairly evenly. If you're concerned about whether it will spread properly, I've found that leaving the meat mixture to cool for a bit generally gets it to thicken up, so potatoes don't fall in to the liquid. Sprinkle grated cheese & bacon or pancetta bits on top.

Put in oven @ 140 for 30 minutes (ok, all right, you could do a higher temperature for shorter, but I'd misjudged timeframes and it was going to be ready before Lincoln got home, if I cooked it at a higher temperature).

When cheese is melted, it's done.

Next time: I'd probably add a little bit of beef stock powder, and 1T(ish) of cornflour, as the mixture was a smidge runny/watery. I'd probably use more pepper, too, and a whole red chilli, but I understand that not everyone has the same pepper addiction I do.

If I were making it for just me, I'd have peas and green beans in there as well.

So, voila, hidden veges in a pepper cottage pie.

Lincoln will probably never forgive me *laughs*