ORIELLE BERRY
One of the most heart-warming dishes on a cold winter’s day is a cottage pie. The aroma of the mix of seasoned and moist mince topped with creamy buttery potato is almost irresistible, and as you plunge a spoon into the pie, it is pure heaven as you spoon a steaming dollop onto your plate. Team with a hearty red wine and you are in business.
Of course you can use beef mince for this dish but I am a great fan of ostrich meat and hence ostrich mince, as it’s so healthy and absorbs flavours absolutely brilliantly.
Ostrich is a wonderful healthy red meat with all the hearty flavour of beef.
It’s extremely high in protein, low in fat, calories and cholesterol but high in iron and here’s some even better news, ostrich meat is even lower in fat grams than skinless chicken or turkey and is easy to digest.
It’s touted as all natural, generally has no preservatives, nor additives, and is free range.
So, what more reason do you need to go and get some ostrich? Available at supermarkets are ostrich steaks; ostrich fillets and sausages; ostrich goulash and ostrich meat.
Ostrich mince cottage pie with sweet potato mash
For four people you’ll need:
Ingredients:
For mash:
4 large potatoes
3 sweet potatoes
olive oil, butter and milk
For ostrich mince mix
500g ostrich mince
2 red or green peppers, diced
2 medium carrots, grated
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tin chopped tomatoes in juice
1 handful fresh herbs
1 tsp ground coriander
1 cup of peas
Method
Get your potatoes on the go – peel and cut them and boil them in salted water until soft. Mashed well with milk and a mix of butter and a few splashes of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper under creamy and smooth and reserve.
For the mince, sauté the onions, garlic and peppers until soft and then add the mince. With a fork work it until it is not lumpy.
Add in the grated carrots and the tomatoes, and the rest of the ingredients. Add in a splash of red wine. Allow the mince to simmer until all the flavours have absorbed.
Put the mince in an oiled baking dish and top with the mash.
Flatten with the back of a fork, pressing down to make a criss cross pattern.
Bake in a medium oven until the mash has browned.
Serve with a fresh salad.
