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| Cottage pie Idea and photo courtesy Mary Kleiner Dulle the recipe is mine. |
My dad loved his afternoon tea with milk, which is the British way. The tea had to be loose leaf, steeped in a proper pot, and preferably presented on a silver service. Tea was always accompanied with a small sweet, although I never saw a scone on the tea tray at home. Today, Dad’s tea has become ultra-fashionable: high tea is a late afternoon luxury, most often served in an upscale hotel. The menu, such as it is, usually consists of scones, fruit, dainty finger sandwiches filled with cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon, egg salad, chicken salad, pate, etc.—you can use your imagination. The sandwiches are often cut into fancy shapes and must be crustless. And several varieties of tea are offered.
One
story is that as fashionable dinners were served later and later in the
evening, ladies needed something to tide them over, lest they suffer a fainting
spell from hunger. This light meal was just perfect.
But it
was not always so. High tea was first served in seventeenth-century England,
and it was a hearty meal for the working class when they got off duty. The menu
would been hearty, such fare as stew, meat pies, cottage or shepherd’s pie, and
Welsh rarebit.
Recently
my neighbor Mary Dulle made a cottage pie and posted a picture on Facebook. It
looked scrumptious and reminded me that I haven’t it for a long time. It’s one
of those dishes, like meatloaf or tuna casserole, that is scorned by food snobs
today, but my family and I love it. So I got out the recipe and have put the
ingredients on my next shopping list. One note: cottage pie is made with ground
beef; shepherd’s pie is the same dish made with ground lamb. Otherwise, there
is no difference.
Cottage pie
Ingredients
Mashed potatoes, made of about 1⅓ lbs. red potatoes (you
don’t have to skin them first, though some people prefer that.
½ cup shredded sharp cheddar
Milk, cream, or sour cream – as much
as needed to make stiff potatoes
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 Tbsp. flour
4 c. frozen mixed vegetables (I prefer corn, green beans,
and sweet peas but packaged mixed vegetables with carrots and lima beans work
fine)
¾ c. beef broth
2 Tbsp. ketchup
¼ c. shredded sharp cheddar
Heat oven to 375°.
Cook
potatoes. You might add a cut clove of garlic or two to the boiling water to
flavor the potatoes. Instead of milk, trying using cream or even sour cream for
added richness. Stir half cup cheese in until melted. Set mashed potatoes
aside.
Brown meat in nonstick skillet. Stir
in flour and cook briefly. Add remaining ingredients and cook, stirring, for
five minutes. Spoon into eight-inch square baking dish. Cover with mashed
potatoes.
Bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle remaining
cheddar over the top and bake another 3-4 minutes, until cheese melts and
casserole is bubbly. Serve six, but only if they’re not hearty eaters.
Welsh rarebit
Welsh rarebit (not, it’s not rabbit)
is another overlooked dish today. The name “rarebit” comes from the Welsh caws pobi, which literally means rare
(barely cooked) and bit (as in a
small serving.) This meatless dish may come in small servings, but it is rich
in flavor.
Ingredients
1½ cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 Tbsp. beer
1 tsp. dried mustard
Pepper to taste
Melt cheese and beer in saucepan,
add pepper and mustard. Most recipes call for serving it over buttered toast
and running it under the broiler to brown it. My mom served it on saltine
crackers, and I don’t recall that she broiled it. I have also seen a version—called
Scotch woodcock, I think—that added tomatoes. It is a light supper, so much so
that when I served it on crackers one night and Colin said, “This is dinner?”
That was before he ate it. These days, I broil it and serve it on good, thick
artisan bread. Great with a good green salad.
Enjoy high tea—one evening for supper.
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