Place a large frying pan/skillet over a medium high heat and add the oil. When hot, add the garlic and onions and fry for 2 minutes until taking on a little colour.
2 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp oil, 1 large onion
Add the carrot and continue to fry until softened.
1 large carrot
Increase the heat to high and add the beef. If your using leftovers, then you only needt o warm it up but if your cooking raw beef mince then cook it until browned all over making sure to break up any lumps.
650 g beef
Add the all-purpose flour and stir in well before adding the wine, beef Stock, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste/puree, crumbled stock cube, thyme, bay, salt and black pepper. Stir really well to fully combine.
125 ml red wine, 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 30 g all purpose flour, 45 g tomato paste, 1 cube beef stock, 1 tsp thyme, 2 leaves bay, ¾ tsp salt, ½ tsp ground black pepper, 400 ml beef stock
Adjust the heat until the contents begin to simmer and leave for 30 minutes or until the liquid becomes a lovely gravy like consistency.
Taste and adjust seasoning if required. Stir and taste again. If your happy remove from the heat and pour into the baking dish you will be serving it in. Allow to cool as its easier to assemble the pie off when the filling is cold as the mashed potato wont sink.
Place a large pan of water over a high heat and add the potatoes. Leave to cook or until the potatoes are soft though out. Drain the potatoes using a colander/sieve giving them a good shake and place over the pan to steam dry. You need to remove as much moisture as possible to prevent a diluted pie.
1 kg baking potatoes
Turn on the oven and preheat to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
Drain any liquid form the pan and tip the potatoes back in. Add the unsalted butter and begin to mash until the butter is melted and been absorbed.
25 g unsalted butter
Slowly add the milk a little at a time, mashing as you go until the mash is lovely and smooth. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper and stir to mix well.
135 ml full fat milk
Spoon the mash on top of the beef filling and using the back of a fork rake the mash into place leaving decorative fork marks.
Add a few small knobs of butter around the potato and then sprinkle the grated cheese all over.
50 g cheddar, 20 g unsalted butter
Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the potato is browning and the cheese is bubbling away.
Place a skewer into the middle of the pie and pull out to test the temperature. Don’t want a cool middle. Leave to stand for about 5 minutes prior to serving.
Notes
On thing you need to be careful of. Make sure the gravy/sauce is lovely and thick before removing from the heat. Otherwise once you put the mash on top and cook, you may end up serving beef in a diluted coloured watery sauce. This is not nice at all and spolis the dish.