Beanie N Us!

One of my greatest love is cooking. I love cooking as much as I love eating :p so I love to try out new recipes and find myself glued to Masterchef on cable whenever it is on TV.

Before Dumpling came along, I used to cook very frequently but between juggling a full time job and homeschool and weekends being so precious, I admit I have not exactly cooked much for her.

I was thinking about pies recently and incidentally, I saw a recipe in Young Parents for pies. I recalled how much I used to enjoy making cottage pies since it does not require any pastry. So with some potatoes, onions, root vegetables, mushrooms, cheese and minced beef, I was ready.

Here's the recipe to share:
 

What you need:

1. 2 medium to big potatoes, diced

2. 1 to 2 diced black mushrooms (I used the canned types 'cos Chinese mushrooms takes very long to soak well)

3. Minced beef (Pre-marinated with a dash of pepper, corn flour and light soya sauce / oyster sauce / A1 sauce. I used about 150gm of it but it really depends on how much you love your meat!) * you can substitute with minced pork or chicken and marinate accordingly

4. 1 stick of carrot, finely diced

5. Half a rice bowl of chopped pumpkins

(I used root vegetables because these bake well)

6. 1 big onion (I used yellow)

7. 1 slice of cheddar cheese / a handful of shaved mozzarella cheese

Steps:

1. Preheat oven at 210 degrees for about 8-10 mins

2. In the meantime, steam potatoes and carrots and pumpkin till soft

3. While the items are being steamed, heat up about 1 table spoon of oil and add in the chopped onions. Fry till fragrant and lightly caramelized then add in mushrooms and minced beef. Stir fry till cooked

4. Mash the potatoes with a bit of butter (if you prefer richer taste, you can add 1-2 table spoons of cream)

5. Mix the carrots and pumpkin with the minced beef, mushrooms and onions

6. Lay the base of a casserole dish with the mixture above

7. Then lay strips of cheddar cheese / shaved mozzarella cheese (as above picture)

8. Spread the layer of mash potatoes

9. Finally lay some more cheese as the top layer

10. Place in oven for 3 – 5 mins at 210 degrees. As all the ingredients are basically cooked prior, this last step is to melt the cheese so do check to constantly to ensure that the top layer is baked to a light golden brown

11. Serve warm!