Friday is Pie day!

Featuring a Cottage Pie that may well be taking liberties with that term.

The pie filling.

On New Year`s Eve, while Gina greeted our guests, I set about clearing out the fridge, and constructing the pie filling. The fridge yielded up some left over fore rib of roast beef, and some roasted shoulder of Pork. Both were trimmed and diced, and Pepper helped to dispose of some of the fatty/grisly pieces.

I took a brief trip into the dugout to grab some carrots and a few shallots left over from Christmas eve`s Oysterfest at the shop. I also seized the opportunity to treat myself to a bottle of Anchor Christmas Ale 2021.

For as long as I can remember, this has been the taste of Christmas.

How much filling?

My method for calculating the correct volume of filling for a pie could not be anymore simple. Slice/Dice/Chop/Mince all of the ingredients, throw them into the pie dish, it will either fill the dish sufficiently or it won`t. On this occasion I was facing a shortfall. Another dig about in the fridge and I discovered a pair of Goose wings. Once the wings had been skinned, and diced, and some leftover chestnuts added, we were close enough.

carrots & shallots were sweated off in butter, a combination of leftover Goose & Beef gravy was added, along with the meat & chestnut mixture, once the filling had been gently simmered for 40 minutes it was allowed to cool, awaiting it`s topping.

The topping:

Gina elected to top the `Not quite Cottage Pie` (Cottage Hash anyone?) with a luxurious mash, containing not just spuds & butter, but also Stichelton & Horseradish sauce.

The Beer match:

The finished dish was served with Rodenbach Vintage.

Roasted Beef, Goose and Pork `Cottage Pie/Hash.

The Free Beer Friday question.

Q: Which two ingredients, did Gina add to the potato topping?

Good-Luck Chums!