Cheese & Potato Pie Recipe for One

I love cheese and potatoes, so I often make a cheese and potato pie.  I don’t see it as a recipe as such, it’s just a food combination that’s tasty.  This morning I had some potatoes that needed eating so it seemed to make more sense to use up some of those potatoes and to make a nice winter warmer pie!

With just two basic ingredients, it’s easy for me to have these in the house most of the time.  All weights and measurements are “rough” and don’t need to be precise; you adjust it depending on what you’ve got and how you like it!

Sometimes I don’t bake the pie at all, I just eat the cheesy mash!  It all depends how I feel on the day.

This is a pie that serves one person.

Ingredients (for one): 

• ~500 grams of potatoes, peeled so they weigh about 370 grams.
• 70 grams of cheddar cheese. Any hard cheese will do.
• A knob of butter.
• Pepper to taste, optional.

Method:

1. Cook the potatoes – I sliced and steamed my peeled potatoes in the microwave.
2. Grate the cheese.
3. Mash the potatoes, I just use a fork to do this, add in the knob of butter and any pepper.
4. Add most of the grated cheese to the mashed potato – retaining just a little to sprinkle on the top.
5. Grease an ovenproof dish and tip the potato and cheese mix into it.  Make any pretty patterns you want on the top and sprinkle the remaining cheese over.  I use my Small Falcon baking tin for this recipe.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190°C/375°F for 20 minutes.
7. Serve!  I like to serve this with baked beans.

Toaster Oven Method:

The toaster oven is much more fuel efficient than using a full-sized oven.  Additionally, it cooks quicker.  I use my toaster oven to make this, with the following instructions:

1. Bake the cheese and potato pie on the bottom shelf of the toaster oven, without any pre-heating.
2. Set the top and bottom elements to ON.  The bottom is the oven element, so this cooks the dish; the top element is the grill element, so this browns it from the top simultaneously.
3. Set the oven temperature dial to 185°C and bake for just 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven when the top is the colour you want it!