Delicious as it is (or can be) minced beef really isn't that glamorous. Give me beef ribs any day. This update on the cottage pie is altogether a different beast. I'm really into the enriched mash given a bit of structure and extra richness with some eggs and piped on in an easy but impressive way.
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Season the beef ribs liberally with sea salt and heat the vegetable oil in a large non stick frying pan. Fry the ribs in batches on all sides until they are really nicely browned, then set aside.
Heat a wide dutch oven or heavy bottomed cooking pot over a medium flame and add the carrots, celery and onion. Cook this veggie medley until it softens, roughly 10 minutes. Add the tomato puree and stir it through then deglaze with the port. Celebrate your success so far by drinking the rest of the port.
Add the beef stock and pop those ribs back in. Top tip: if you like your stew nice and thick, at this point stir through a slurry of 100g flour mixed with 100g water. Bring to a simmer and season liberally with salt and pepper.
Cover the pot with a tightly fitting lid and leave to cook for around 5 hours in the oven, skimming off the fat that rises to the surface occasionally (do leave some though as fat is nice). The beef will hopefully now be very tender. Skim off a bit more fat and shred the beef. Reduce the liquid if necessary to make a thick gravy.
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in shit loads of salted water until they are soft. Put them through a ricer or mash them if you don't have a ricer. Then buy a ricer. While the steaming mound of tatties is hot, stir through the comte.
Meanwhile, heat the butter in a small saucepan and gently fry the garlic. Pour this into the mash as well, then the whole egg and egg yolks. Season with more salt.
Spoon the mash mixture into a large piping bag with a star nozzle. Pipe the mash on in a fun way - it'll look so snazzy and great!
Crank the oven up to 200°C and bake the pie for another 30 minutes or until the mash has started to get some colour. Enjoy!
