Mini Cuban-Inspired Cottage Pies for Thanksgiving

When I was road-tripping in Maine about 4 years ago, I stumbled upon a delicious pizzeria that had a shepherd’s pie pizza. It may sound strange but it was actually super delicious with the ground beef, potatoes, and corn toppings. I’ve actually never had a proper cottage (made with beef) or shepherd’s (made with lamb) pie before but ever since then, I’ve wanted to make mini versions of it because mini versions of everything are always so cute.

With the onset of the pandemic and being in lockdown, I finally felt motivated to make my first cottage pie. But when I started researching recipes, the ingredients and spices didn’t sound that exciting to me. Then I remembered the amazing papas rellenas (fried stuffed potatoes) I’ve had at Porto’s Bakery and thought maybe I can somehow combine the two, especially since I didn’t have a real point of reference for the cottage pies.

I made these mini cottage pies for the first time in June using phyllo dough to hold the filling. I thought they were pretty good but could use a few tweaks. I attempted the recipe again with my tweaks for Thanksgiving but I actually think that my first batch was better. So here is the recipe from my first attempt. You can tweak it to your preference. I thought the batch I made for Thanksgiving was too salty and spicy (I had added 1/2 tsp more than what is noted below). I think next time, I want to try adding 1/2 cup of sweet corn kernals. Someday, I will try making a full version of this without the phyllo dough because that was the most tedious part. Let me know what you think!

Mini Cuban-Inspired Cottage Pies (makes about 20)

Ingredients

 Filling

·         1 lb ground beef

·         1 sweet yellow onion, diced

·         1  carrot, diced

·         1 red bell pepper, diced

·         ½ cup of frozen peas

·         1 jalapeno, diced

·         1 cup of tomato sauce

·         4 cloves of garlic, diced

·         ½ cup of wine

·         ½ cup of coconut milk

·         1 tsp salt

·         1 tsp black pepper

·         2 tsp cumin

·         1 tsp oregano

·         ½ tsp chili powder

·         1 tbsp olive oil

·         chives, diced (optional for garnish)

 Mashed Potatoes

·         2 yukon potatoes

·         ½ cup of coconut milk

·         1 tbsp butter

·         1 tsp salt

 Cup

·         Phyllo dough sheets

o   cut roughly into 4x4 inch squares

o   layer about 6 squares together (does not need to be exactly on top of each other, you can fan it out)

o   brush with olive oil between each square sheet

Directions:

Over medium high heat, add olive oil and sauté onions until golden brown.  Add garlic, jalapeno, carrots, and peppers and cook for a couple minutes.

Lower heat to medium.  Add beef and all of the dry seasoning for the filling.  Break up the meat with your spatula.  Add ½ cup of wine and let reduce for about 10 minutes.

Lower heat.  Throw in frozen peas. Add tomato sauce and cook for 20 minutes.  Add ½ cup of coconut milk and cook for another 20 minutes and let sit.

Meanwhile, peel and cut potatoes into chunks and boil for about 20-25 minutes in salted water.  Mix ingredients for the mashed potatoes and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put together phyllo dough squares.

Brush muffin tin lightly with olive oil.  Push in phyllo dough squares.  Add beef filling and top with mashed potatoes.

Cook mini cottage pies for 10 minutes and then broil for 5 minutes.

Garnish with chopped chives and serve.