English Cuisine

Shepherd’s pie

Cuisine: English Created by Alice Parsons

This dish is a wonderful way of using up leftover vegetables and cooked meat though when Food Safari filmed home cook Alice Parsons making this delicious recipe, she had gone to the trouble of cooking a leg of lamb especially for the dish. Alice grew up in the greenbelt of England and learnt never to waste anything...food was good, hearty and satisfying. This version of shepherd's pie has a few additions to add extra flavour, some of these are Alice's special touches, like the dash of soy sauce for saltiness, the cider for a little sweetness and the little shards of lemon zest. Topped with creamy mashed potato that forms a crispy crust when baked, this is a dish that is delicious at almost any time of the day.

Shepherd's pie dates back to the 18th century and usually refers to minced lamb topped with potato; while cottage pie uses beef mince, both solutions to stretching limited resources just a little further to feed large families. According to the Oxford Companion to Food, Shepherd's Pie originated in the north of England and Scotland where there were large numbers of sheep.

The mincing machines that make this dish really work came into popular use during the 1870s and work wonderfully in giving the cooked meat a light texture that cooks down well with the other ingredients and spices.

Ingredients

½ kg cooked lamb (or whatever you have left over)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 sticks of celery, diced
2 carrots, finely cubed
Freshly ground pepper
Pinch of salt
2-3 tsp plain flour
2 tsp mustard powder
About ½ cup stock (chicken, beef or vegetable)
Dash Soy sauce
Worcestershire Sauce, generous splash
3 pinches of mace (outer layer of nutmeg)
Zest of 1 lemon
½ cup apple cider
Any other leftovers in your fridge (optional)
2 bay leaves
½ bunch chopped curly parsley
8-10 medium sized boiling Potatoes
Warm milk (for mash potato)
1 tbsp butter
1 lightly beaten egg
Grated cheese for topping (optional)

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Preparation

Mince cooked lamb in old fashioned mincer or food processor

Heat olive oil in a large fry pan and add chopped onion and celery. Wait until onion becomes translucent then add diced carrot. Leave on medium heat to soften for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t burn.
Season with salt and pepper.

Add lamb to fry pan and combine ingredients. Then add flour and mustard powder to the mix along with a little stock for moisture so that flour and mustard powder combine well with other ingredients. Then add a dash of soy sauce and a generous splash of Worcestershire sauce. Add mace and lemon zest and about ½ cup apple cider – make it gooey but not sloppy (at this point you could add any old leftovers you have in the fridge eg. peas, gravy, leeks).

Combine all ingredients and add 2 bay leaves, some chopped parsley and take off the heat.

In another pot, boil the potatoes until soft. Mash with milk, butter, pepper and salt. Add lightly beaten egg to the mash and combine.

Lightly grease a large baking dish. Pour in the meat mixture from the fry pan. Top with mashed potato until it’s completely covered with quite a thick layer of mash. (at this point you may add a little sprinkling of grated hard cheese of your choice).
Glaze mash with some melted butter.

Place in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or until mashed potato is golden.

English Restaurants

Displaying 10 of 68 English Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	Prince Albert Bar	Broadbeach
2.	Chesser Cellar	Adelaide
3.	De Bortoli Winery and Restaurant	Dixons Creek
4.	Fenix	Richmond
5.	Restaurant Balzac	Randwick
6.	Slug 'n' Lettuce Tavern	Parafield Gardens
7.	Four In Hand Hotel	Paddington
8.	The Lord Dudley Hotel	Woollahra
9.	Moon and Sixpence	Perth
10.	Bistrode CBD	Sydney

09 Oct 2010 08:18 AEST

Alan Walters

Forest Lake

Looks Great

Look very good. What temp. did you have the oven set at. 2 Teaspoons of Chia Seed would add to the goodness of the dish Well done, I am going to try it Alan W

16 Feb 2009 06:44 AEST

Sheree Thomson

Adamstown Heights

More like a kilo

I loved this recipe but it was more about a kilo of mince that was needed -not half a kilo. Will make again.

30 Jan 2009 06:31 AEST

DAVID JAMIESON

THORNBURY

JUST LIKE MUM MADE.

THE THING I REMEMBER MOST WAS THE RECYCLING OF THE DAY-OLD LEG OF LAMB AND MINCING IT WITH THE HAND POWERED MINCER, HOW AUTHENTIC. REALLY TAKES ME BACK TO MY CHILDHOOD

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