OXO's Kitchen Magician Cottage Pie with #HerbsandMore

Get your kids cooking with OXO's new Herbs & More Flavour Pots & this easy, classic cottage pie recipe!

Yield: 4 to 6
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour

Disclaimer: The OXO pots are not gluten free at the time of writing this post. 

Rosemary & Thyme Cottage Pie

Parents of toddlers and preschoolers know that their little monsters like nothing more than being a bossy boots. A dozen times a day, I must say to Callum, "Stop being a bossy boots!" or "Oy! Bossy boots; cool it!" or some other admonishment about his slightly overbearing need to be in control. The people at OXO must be all too aware of this phase of development, because their latest campaign, Kitchen Magician, addresses this, fuels it and provides our tiny dictators with just enough space to exercise their authority.

OXO have just launched a range of Herbs & More Flavour Pots to help you get dinner on the table quicker, so you have more time to be bossed about by your children. (Cheers for that, OXO!) In celebration of this seriously delicious, but sadly not gluten-free range, OXO invited bloggers to get in the kitchen with their children and whip up a meal.

I'm working with BritMums and OXO on this project and have been compensated. All opinions and editorial are my own.


Cooking from cleverly written recipe cards that put the little ones in charge and wearing matching aprons that reminds mum and dad of their place in this exercise--my apron said OXO Kitchen Magician's Assistant; my son's apron said OXO Kitchen Magician at Work!--and using their special Kitchen Magician's Wand, the roles were reversed and for one afternoon in our kitchen, my soon-to-be 3 year old called all the shots, with my husband ducking for cover behind the camera lens.

It was great fun, though, and nice to be in the kitchen as a family, preparing a meal together. Because none of the OXO Herbs & More Flavour Pots are gluten free, Callum and my husband chose the meal they wanted to make and I got to eat a takeaway. I will admit, the amazing smells coming out of my oven when the cottage pie was finished cooking was too damn enticing not to take a nibble. It was absolutely delicious!

Ingredients:

For the cottage pie filling
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 medium onion
2 OXO Rosemary & Thyme Herbs & More Flavour Pots
2 tablespoons flour
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 carrots,peeled and sliced
250 ml cooking water from potatoes
500 grams lean beef mince
olive oil
sea salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

 
For the cottage pie topping
900 grams potatoes, peeled and chopped
butter
milk
sea salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
 

OXO's Herbs & More Cottage Pie

Instructions:

Corral your tiny dictator into the kitchen and after washing hands and setting him up at a safe place where he can see everything and rule with an iron fist, place the Kitchen Magician apron around his neck and hand him his magician's wand.

While the Kitchen Magician waves his wand in the air, put a pot of water on to boil. Try not to look too dejected while you put on your apron, which will remind you that you are not in control of this task.

Remove the roots from the onion, slice it in half and hand it to the Kitchen Magician. Instruct him to remove the skin. While the Kitchen Magician is busy peeling the onion, peel and chop the potatoes and add them to the boiling water. Chop the celery, peel the carrots and slice them and dice the peeled onion. Drizzle about a tablespoon or two of oil in a skillet and brown the mince. Preheat the oven to 180c.

Allow the Kitchen Magician to help you carefully add the chopped vegetables to the pan once the meat is beginning to brown. Sprinkle salt over the meat and the vegetables and simmer for about five minutes.

Let the Kitchen Magician help you squeeze in some tomato paste and dump in the flour followed by the Worcestershire sauce.

 Pour off 250 milliliters of the water used to cook the potatoes and pour into the skillet and continue to simmer until the liquid in the skillet is reduced by about half.

Drain the rest of the water from the potatoes and transfer them to a bowl. Arm the Kitchen Magician with a potato masher and let him get to work mashing the potatoes.

Allow the Kitchen Magician to assist you in adding butter and milk, to taste, and continue to mash the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Allow the Kitchen Magician to open the pots of OXO Rosemary & Thyme Herbs & More.

Instruct the Kitchen Magician on how to squeeze the contents of the pots into the piping hot cottage pie filling.Give the filling a good stir to incorporate.

While the Kitchen Magician continually sticks his fingers in the mashed potatoes, pour the cottage pie filling into a casserole dish. Pry the mashed potatoes from the Kitchen Magician with much coaxing and bribing, if necessary.

Spoon the mashed potatoes over top of the cottage pie filling. Return the rest of the mashed potatoes to the Kitchen Magician who will proceed to eat them and occupy himself while you finish off the pie.

Scrape a fork across the top of the mashed potatoes and put the pie in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked through and the mashed potatoes have browned. Serve to one very hungry Kitchen Magician.