This isn’t your mother’s cottage pie, this is an epic two and a half hour culinary quest to conjure the most tastiest comfort humanity has discovered so far.

The pie is layered with beef or veggie mince, then crispy onions soaked with garlic, tomato, and chilli puree, butter soaked mixed vegetables, slathered in a vegetable and red wine gravy, and topped with a cheesy and creamy smooth potato and carrot mash.

My aunt and uncle now lie in a food coma whilst I have shed a single solitary manly tear as I fear this might be my peak, though I will never stop climbing to greater heights of taste!

Title picture shows a large beef mince portion for myself and my uncle. The picture in the body text below shows a small meat-free portion for my aunt.

  • ThePyroPython@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 days ago

    Oh and for any Americans saying that “British people still eat like the Germans are flying overhead”: please, I beg you, come over here and try this. I GUARANTEE that you’ll stuff yourself so full on my food, you’ll have no room left to eat your words!

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      Oh I LOVE cooking for others so much more than cooking for myself.

      It’s one of the things I’d love to do if I find a partner, I would love cooking for them. Heck, between my love for cooking, my need to keep places clean when I focus my hyper-fixation on tidying up, and enjoy doing DIY, I’d be so happy to be a house husband.

      • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Relatable. Cooking for others? Pulling out all the stops, all ingredients are the best I can find.

        Cooking for me? Hot pockets, lol

      • atx_aquarian@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I think you’re the kind of person I imagine when I wonder how the world would really work if we got to a kind of utopia thing where money didn’t need to exist anymore and everyone just did whatever they wanted. Star Trek portrays one of the captain’s dad as running a restaurant in Louisiana, for example, and I just thought how cool it’d be to have access to so much abundance of resources that you just cook big batches of food for whomever wants some.

        But then someone challenged me to think about the other aspects of a restaurant, like serving and cleaning, managing access, etc. So once in a while I wonder about that–what it would take to really make restaurants work (as in, really work as places that celebrate great food) in a world with no money.

        Maybe no money just means no need to limit basic resources. Maybe it doesn’t mean no other incentive system, which might just still be money, after all. I don’t know, just something I wonder about in a way to try to better understand economics and the evolution of society.

  • Protoknuckles@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Good God. That looks glorious. Cottage pie is one of my favorite meals, but mine is much simpler. I’d love to try yours.

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      Yeah I can’t help myself I’m an engineer so I overcomplicate and push the tolerances to the absolute limit and the same applies to my cooking.

      I also maybe overcompensating for lackluster tasting (but still made with love with what little resources they had, I’m not trying to be ungrateful just honest) food growing up my parents made.

      Also if you’re up Manchester way drop me a DM and come on over for dinner, my aunt and uncle love hosting people (I will ask first though).

    • ThePyroPython@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      Dinner is served. Unfortunately it collapses in on itself as I haven’t quite nailed the presentation yet so it’s not the most photogenic.

      • ummthatguy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        That sort of thing never sets up properly until after everyone’s done scarfing and it’s finally cooled off.

      • Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk
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        2 days ago

        Oh no, it looks like one of your enemies may have snuck in some peas when you weren’t looking!

      • ToriborA
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        2 days ago

        I add a little corn starch to help the base thicken and hold together a little bit so it doesn’t collapse as much. I also use a smaller glass pan and make two of them (I usually freeze one for my future lazy self).

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Could I recommend crumbling some feta on top of the mash when you bake it? It really makes it something special.

  • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Looks great! I’ve done this with both lentils and with beyond beef, came out great both times, just in case you ever have guests with dietary restrictions. Keep on keepin’ on!