Scott Huggins, Executive Chef at Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant shares his cottage pie recipe
Ingredients
Beef cheek
- 3 beef cheeks
- 1 litre beef stock
- 2 star anise
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- Salt
Vegetable mix
- 2 white onions, chopped
- 2 rashers smoked bacon, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 15 brown mushrooms, chopped
- 3 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 200ml red wine
- Salt
- 100g butter
- 2 Tbsp plain flour
Roux
Potato
- 3 Dutch Cream potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 head garlic, roasted
- 1 Tbsp sour cream
- 100g butter
- 1 egg
- Salt
Method
Beef cheek
- Heat oven to 140°C.
- Season beef cheeks with a good pinch of salt
- Seal beef cheeks in a hot pan, cooking for two minutes each side. Place in an oven tray.
- Add beef stock, star anise and soy sauce to the beef cheeks.
- Cover the beef with greaseproof paper and a layer of aluminum foil and cook in the oven for six hours.
- Remove the beef cheeks from the oven and set aside.
- Turn the oven up to 180°C
Roux
- In a separate pan melt the butter, then add flour.
- Using a spoon keep moving the mix until it turns into a thick blonde rouge, set aside.
Vegetables
- While the beef cheeks are braising, sauté onions in a medium pot. Add bacon and cook until golden. Stir in the carrots and celery, add mushrooms, then tomato paste followed by red wine. Once the red wine has been cooked off, add the soy sauce and set aside.
- Add 300ml of the beef cheek juice to the vegetable mix and bring to the boil for two minutes.
- Once boiling, add the roux mixture and stir for a further two minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Carefully transfer the beef cheeks from the cooking tray with a slotted spoon and place into the vegetable mix. Using the slotted spoon, stir and fold in the beef cheeks until they are broken down. Spoon the combined mixture into a baking dish or individual ramekins until 3⁄4 full.
Potato
- Remove the top of the garlic head, exposing the cloves. Place a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt on a piece of foil and roast in the oven at 160 – 180°C until soft.
- Peel and cut potatoes. Place the potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Season the water with salt and bring to the boil until cooked.
- Drain the potatoes and pass them through a sieve. Place the potatoes in a bowl, add roasted garlic cloves and fold through until broken down. Add the butter, stirring until melted. Season with salt to taste and add sour cream.
- Add a whole egg and fold through the mixture.
- Pipe potato mix over the top of the beef cheek mixture and cook in the oven for 10–15 minutes or until golden.