Fish & Quips: Cottage Pie

I love English desserts. When I think of English food, it's not blandness that springs to mind (of course, Finnish cuisine is the only one inferior to the English, so my opinion shouldn't count for very much), but an abundance of hearty, unfussy sweets, laden with fruits and especially berries - take a look at summer pudding as a prime example. Not to mention trifles, and fools, and crumbles. (I've even tried to make my own clotted cream, with, erm, interesting results.) Oh, and custards. Homemade custard is so good... In fact, I think I've solved my what about Sunday's dessert problem, or rather, replaced it with its opposite: how to choose from all of those...

With all this love for English desserts, it may be a bit of a surprise that the dish I'm presenting for the English food isn't a joke-event, hosted by Sam of Becks & Posh, is a savory one, and it's not even an English breakfast (mmm, fried tomatoes and rashers and eggs and baked beans). And there's nothing funny about cottage pie other than the name - that the lamb version is a shepherd's pie is quite understandable, if you overlook the fact that it is in fact not the least pie-like, but rather a casserole. A layer-deficient casserole. But what's so cottage-y about beef mince?


Anyway, we all know how I like my casseroles, and the weather is obliging me by being very English (pouring rain and 10°C), so we're going to tuck into this hearty and comforting dish RIGHT NOW.

Cottage Pie

I don't really have a recipe for you: I made a mince sauce out of finely chopped onions, celery and carrots, half a package of bacon and about 800 g of minced beef, a can of crushed tomatoes and a squeeze of tomato puree, a bay leaf, some beef stock, and salt and pepper. (I let the sauce simmer gently for about half an hour, while preparing the mash topping and heating the oven.)

Then made a mash out of four medium-large potatoes and two parsnips by boiling them, peeled and cut into chunks, in salted water and mashing them together with an, ahem, generous amount of butter and some finely grated cheddar (not exactly kosher, but good), seasoning with freshly ground pepper and nutmeg.

Transferred the meat sauce to a large ovenproof casserole (plus some portion-sized ones) and topped with the mashed root veg, dotted the whole thing with butter, and baked at 175°C until it got a nice color, about 45 minutes.

And, erm. If you fill your baking dishes very full, make sure to have a piece of foil or something at the bottom of your oven catching drips.

Just saying.

Recipe after the jump!

Sweet Potato and Bacon Temptation

OK, so strictly speaking, it's probably not traditional enough to be a temptation: the ur-temptation, Jansson's frestelse (Janssonin kiusaus) consists of layers of julienned potatoes and anchovies (which that wiki article just told me I should be calling sprats - I had no idea!) drenched in cream, and I'd have no qualms about calling a potato-and-ham casserole a temptation, but this? It doesn't even look very tempting (I hate it when that happens), even though I made a few portions in those snazzy little cups, which is so not How It's Done.

Yes, whatever. It's another mushy casserole. I love them. This one involved bacon and cheese, so of course it was yummy. Enough said.

Sweet Potato and Bacon Temptation
based on two different temptations from an old issue of Ruoka & Viini

about a kg (2 medium/large) sweet potatoes
1 medium potato
170 g bacon
3 large onions
3 cloves garlic
a big bunch of basil
350 ml cream (or milk, or a mixture of both)
100 g feta, crumbled
salt & pepper
butter

Julienne the potatoes. Cut the bacon in bite-size pieces and fry until slightly crisp; drain on kitchen paper to get rid of excess fat.

Chop the onions and mince the garlic and mix together in a bowl. Mix with the (coarsely chopped) basil.

Arrange layers of potatoes, onions, feta and bacon in a pan (or several), salting and peppering between layers. Pour over the cream, dot with a bit of butter, and bake at 200°C for about an hour, until the surface of the dish is slightly crispy and the inner parts very very soft.

Recipe after the jump!

Carrot Casserole

(Porkkanalaatikko in Finnish, morotslåda in Swedish)

This is really a Christmas dish, and about as traditional as you can get. I started thinking about it when I read about the Finnish food blog challenge for this month and just couldn't let go, because I've never made it myself - my grandmother and aunt both bring their own versions to Christmas Eve dinner, so there hasn't been any need. It's filling, slightly sweet (to go with the salty ham that people usually have for Christmas), a bit mushy and ultimately just a great comfort food.


We had ours with sauteed brussels sprouts and bacon. (Mmm, bacon.) I could also have gone for (don't laugh) canned petits pois and some sort of gravy, but I got voted down. It made me miss all the snow, not that we had any last Christmas.


There are some variations to what I consider the basic recipe, as presented here: sometimes the carrot isn't boiled and pureed but finely grated, and sometimes other grains, namely barley, are used instead of the rice. Obviously those are healthier versions, and I do like the nuttiness and texture of barley, but for me the rice-and-puree edition is The One.



Carrot Casserole
150 ml (5 fl oz) short grain rice
150 ml (5 fl oz) water
600 ml (2½ cups) milk (I used 1.5%, but you could go for whole)
1 kg (2 lb) carrots
1½ tsp salt
200 ml (scant 7 fl oz) whipping cream
3 tbsp dark syrup (or molasses, I guess)
2 eggs
ground white pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
breadcrumbs
butter

Bring the water to a boil in a large-ish pan. Add the rice and stir until the water dissolves. Pour in the milk and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Boil on a very low heat, covered, until the rice has been absorbed and a thick, smooth porridge has formed. (This takes quite a while, maybe 45 minutes or so.)

Meanwhile, chop the carrots coarsely and boil in a bit of water until they're very soft. Drain and return the pan to the stove until the carrots are completely dry. Puree and mix with the rice, syrup and spices.

Once the rice and carrots have cooled enough that they won't cook the eggs on contact, add those and stir to blend. Whip the cream and fold it in gently. Transfer to one or two buttered, oven-proof casserole dishes. (Ramekins are cuter, but I think it's better made in a large dish.) Sprinkle with enough breadcrumbs to cover and dot with butter. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for about an hour and a half, until it's set, puffed and golden.

Recipe after the jump!