Hearty Bean and Mushroom Cottage Pie

This is a vegetarian dish that meat-eaters in my family found very appealing as well, and it feels like the right sort of a dish in mid-winter.

Ingredients:
*cooked white beans
*floury potatoes
*mushrooms (I use button mushrooms because they are available all year round, but, when wild mushrooms are in season, use those for more interesting flavor)
*oil
*starch
*fresh herbs (I used parsley and dill)
*milk
*sour cream
*onions
*garlic
*parsley root
*salt and pepper
*optional-other vegetables (I added some diced and lightly fried red capsicum, as I love it, but you could try something else or use no vegetables at all)

Method:
Boil potatoes until tender, drain them and mash with some milk, salt and pepper until smooth. Start making the mushroom gravy. Chop onion, garlic and parsley root finely and brown it in oil. Add sliced mushrooms and fry them until they look nice and brown. Add sour cream and a cup or two of boiling water to make up the volume desired (there is no need to use instant stock, actually if there ever is a need for instant stock, something is wrong with the recipe). Mix some starch in cold water. If you are unsure about the amount, choose less rather than more, you want beans and mushrooms in nice, runny gravy rather than in some kind of goo. Add the starch mixture to the mushrooms and boil until it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. In a large oven proof dish mix the mushroom gravy, beans, lots of chopped herbs and optional vegetables, spread out the mixture in an even layer and top with the mashed potatoes so they cover all bean mixture. Make some nice pattern with a fork on the top of the mash and bake it in the oven for 35 minutes.

The filling of this cottage pie is loosely based on Alison Holst's vegetarian bean and mushroom pie filling.