Shepherd's pie
Shepherd's pie is a traditional British recipe. This is my version (not traditional).
Ingredients
mince per person
potato per person
onion
flavouring
butter
cheese (optional)
oil or fat for frying
water
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Equipment
potato peeler
saucepan
knife and board for chopping
frying pan
spoon for stirring
fork
grater (optional)
casserole
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oven:
time in oven: half an hour
preparation time:
peeling and boiling potatoes
preparing and frying vegetables and mince
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Like most casseroles, the amounts of ingredients are up to you.
This is a minimal recipe. At the end, I suggest some additional or substitute ingredients.
Cooking process
- Peel the and cut them into small pieces, chip-sized (but bigger than fries-sized). Put them in a pan, cover with water, and boil for ten minutes.
- Put a little oil in the frying pan for frying. Peel and chop the and fry it for a bit.
- From its name, you would assume that lamb mince is used for this recipe, but most people use beef mince. Add the mince to the pan with the onions, and fry for a bit. You may wish to add some other ingredients for extra flavour(see below). When cooked, add a little water to make it all rather sloppy.
- When the potatoes have cooked, add a lump of butter, and mash roughly with a fork (or other implement if you have it). It doesn't matter if there are still lumps in it.
- Put the mince mixture in the casserole and the mashed potato on top. You will find it easier if you put spoonfuls of mash in different places on top, rather than putting it all in one place and trying to spread it. Leave it rough and lumpy on top. If you want, you can grate some cheese on top.
- Put the contents of the frying pan into your casserole, and put the casserole dish in the oven. Do not put a lid on the casserole. Cook for about half an hour, or until the top is browned.
- At the end of cooking time, it's ready to eat. With potato and vegetables in the pie, it should be enough by itself, but if you didn't have vegetables in it, you may want to prepare some to have with it.
Other ideas
Mince and onions can be dull by themselves. Here are some suggestions for flavourings.
- The mince part of the pie must have some liquid to form a gravy round the meat. You can have water if there is enough other flavouring. You can also use or some form of alcohol (wine, beer, sherry), if you want.
- You can add some vegetables to the mince mix, such as . Remember that the pie is only going to cook for half an hour, so hard vegetables risk being under-cooked. Perhaps the carrots could be grated, or boiled beforehand.
- You can add if you want.
- You can add some herbs. Rosemary is supposed to go with lamb. Thyme or parsley are used in British cooking. Or you can just use Mixed herbs.
- You can also add tomato paste (not very traditional!) or any sauce that you like, such as Worcester sauce or brown sauce or tomato ketchup.
- Some people add milk to the potato. You can have mashed potato without butter or milk, and leave out the cheese as well, if you have lactose intolerance or other objections to milk products.
© Jo Edkins 2007 -