Mini Party Cottage Pies

Hi there!

Merry Chrimmy to all! Apologies to everyone for the really orange picture up ahead, it's the only picture we managed to get of the puppies before all 36 were nommed.

The story goes that the cousins gather after christmas (this being boxing day) to have a big old christmas party with lots of drink and food, and to make fairs fair, we all bring a dish or a little something to contribute, made or not.

I decided to make something... And not only that, I wanted to make something DAIRY FREE!
Why? You ask?
One of my cousins is lactose intolerant and I always feel bad that she can't quite punch down as much food as everyone else, so I took advantage of her disadvantage and accepted the challenge. I've also never ever made anything dairy free before.

The mini cottage pies had a dairy free shortcrust pastry shell, filled with all your cottagey goodness of mince, gravy, carrots and peas, and then piped with mash on top (dairy free also!) sprinkled with breadcrumbs and baked in the oven. *drrooooooollll*

These went down an effing STORM!

Ho yes, baby. No one could tell that there wasn't ANY butter in it, infact, it made the whole thing slightly lighter, which meant you could swallow as many as you liked... because it's christmas.

So I'll give you the recipe, but just so you know, the measurements aren't all going to be there as I did most of this by eye...

e.g.
Me: "Does this look like enough potatoes for 36 mini cottage pies?"
Sister: "No."
Me: "Oh."

See? So I suggest you do the same.

And the same with the filling, I basically made a enough for a standard 4 serving cottage pie, and again, I make my cottage pie filling different from, I'm sure, a lot of people. This is just my take on how to make my party cottage pies, extra RAVIN'. I also made it the night before so it was cold enough and had thickened up for filling.

The dairy free pastry recipe I got is from allrecipes.co.uk doubled, it was the only one i could find that was near enough to shortcrust pastry and in metric measures... which helps ya'know?

Mini Cottage Pies
makes approx. 36

You will need: 3 x 12 hole fairy cake pan (or bun pan if you're Northern)

Pastry
- 520g plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 170g margarine (chilled)
- 150g vegetable shortening
- 120ml cold water
- 2 eggs

Filling
- tbsp olive oil
- 500g lean beef mince
- 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
- 1 x onion (chopped)
- 2 x medium carrots (chopped)
- handful of frozen peas
- beef stock cube
- tbsp plain flour
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp of basil & oregano each
- 2 tsp worcestershire sauce
- dash of cayenne pepper
- salt & pepper

Mashed Tatties
- About 6 or 7 big floury potatoes (maris piper?) (chopped into eighths?)
- soya milk
- margarine
- salt & pepper
- small handful of breadcrumbs

Here We Go!

1) So make your filling the night before: Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onions for about 5 mins until soft. Add the garlic and fry for another minute.

2) Add mince. When it's browned and crumbly, add the tomato puree, dried herbs and crumble in the stock cube. Stir. Add the flour and stir again until thick. Pour over some water until it's all just covered and leave to simmer for about 15 mins. Stir occasionally and add more water if it looks like it needs it. You're aiming for a thick gravy sauce, not runny.

3) Add cayenne pepper, worcestershire sauce, carrots and peas and simmer for a further 5 mins. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour the mix into a bowl and leave to cool at room temperature and when cold, put in the fridge until tomorrow.

4) Make the pastry: In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. Cut in the margarine and vegetable shortening until it reaches a breadcrumb-like texture (or rub it together if you're sure you've got very cold hands).

5) Slowly and gradually add the cold water, mixing in until it forms a smooth ball of dough.

6) Form the pastry into a baton shape and wrap tightly in cling film. Put in the fridge for minimum 20 mins.

7) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190C and boil water for the potatoes. Once it's boiled, add some salt and add the potatoes to boil for about 15 mins. Once tender and soft, drain and leave to steam dry for a few mins.

8) Put potatoes back in the pan and add some soya milk (maybe about tbsp?) margarine and salt and pepper to taste. Just do everything by eye. If it looks dry, add more milk, if it tastes like it needs more butteriness. add more marg. Leave to cool.

9) Grease your fairy cake pans. Get the pastry out. Dust surface with flour and roll the pastry out to about 3-5mm thick. Now, I used a cup that was just a bit bigger than the hole in my pan, and used it as a cutter. Cut as many as you can out, and as you go along, press the pastry circles gently into the fairy cake pan. (You can use the offcuts, roll them into a ball and press it into the corners and edges to make sure you don't stab anything with your fingernails!) Prick the bases with a fork.

10) Fill each pastry shell level with cold filling. With a piping bag fitted with a large closed star nozzle, pipe the mashed potatoes on a swirl or in rosettes on top (get creative!) and finish with sprinkled breadcrumbs.

11) Put into the oven for about 50 mins, half way through, turn and switch the trays round so they all bake kind of evenly (keep your eye on them to make sure they don't catch. If they look a little brown, cover the tops with baking paper)

12) If you're brave, tip one pie out and make sure the bottom isn't soggy, if it is, put back in the oven for maybe 5 mins more. Put back in the tin and leave them to cool in the tins.

13) If you get impatient and try and ram them into your mouth when they're hot, there is a large risk you'll burn your tongue. Like i did. Careful yeah?!

Enjoy you party people!