Dhansak Bake (Curry Cottage Pie)

A dhansak is a meat curry that is cooked with lentils and that is exactly what I want to share with you – a simple beef and lentil curry cooked as quickly as possible but still crammed with flavour. However, this is a dhansak in baked form, with onion mash on top and cooked in the oven.

Nadiya Hussain

(From https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dhansak_bake_31484)

Ingredients

For the beef

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• ½ tsp salt, plus extra for seasoning
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp curry powder
• 1kg/2lb 4oz diced beef, cut into 1cm/½in pieces
• 400g tin lentils
• 4 tbsp beef gravy granules

For the onion mash

• 1kg/2lb 4oz potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
• 200g/7oz butter
• 200ml/7fl oz full-fat milk
• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 75g/2½oz crispy fried onions
• small handful fresh chives
• 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 200g/7oz red Leicester, grated

To finish

• 4 medium eggs

Method

1. For the beef, add the oil to a large pan over a high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and salt. Cook until the onion is lightly browned and translucent.
2. Add the cinnamon, curry powder and beef and cook with the lid off for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the lentils and 500ml/18fl oz water and cook over a medium heat for 20 minutes until some of the liquid has evaporated.
3. Add the beef gravy granules, lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. To make the onion mash. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft, then drain well and put back into the pan. Warm the butter, milk and a little salt in another pan until the butter is melted.
5. Mash the potatoes (or put them through a ricer for the ultimate smooth mash). Add the milk mixture, then mix in the mayonnaise and garlic. Add the crispy fried onions and mix through until they begin to soften in the warm mash.
6. Add the chives, reserving a few for the top, then add the spring onion and half the cheese (reserve the other half for the top).
7. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.
8. Spoon the beef mixture into a 30cm/12in rectangular roasting dish. Dollop over the mash. I don’t like to smooth it out – I prefer to leave uneven dollops in places and create some craters for the eggs.
9. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove from the oven and crack in the eggs where you have left spaces.
10. Sprinkle over some salt. Add the reserved cheese and chives, and bake until the whites of the eggs are opaque, leaving the yolks runny. Take out and serve while still hot.