Your shepherd's pie recipe...

[Epona]

Yes! Absolutely! Cheesy bloody tomato-y pies are wrong!

I do/don't go with carrots, I don't consider them as essential, but I, too, reckon the purist recipe is without but will add finely diced carrots to bulk it out and balance the potato topping, make it more 'interesting' if I have plenty of carrots to hand.

And yes, definitely, they should invent a new name if their recipe involves feta cheese and tomatoes ffs!

I do carrots because I like carrots.

I was once speaking to someone in the US who told me that they loved shepherds pie, gave me their recipe - it involved diced potato on the bottom rather than mashed potato on the top. No, no, I cried, and patiently explained their error. The recipe did sound really quite nice tbh and I might try it out at some point - but it wasn't shepherds pie, more of a meat & potato casserole.

 

[Epona]

The thing with the carrot is not so much adding something extra to the meal as padding out a limited amount of expensive meat with cheaper vegetables. Remember shepherds are not rich people. Every sheep that they mince up and put in the oven with mash on the top is a sheep that they cannot sell at the market.

That's definitely a factor - when I was a kid every meat dish we ate was bulked out with veg grown in the garden or dried lentils/beans/pearl barley - meat can work out expensive whether it's something you're buying or something you're holding back from sale for your own use.

I love pearl barley, not had any for ages, it's only just occurred to me that I should get some and use it in a veggie stew/soup with herb dumplings next time it's getting to the point where there's not a lot of fresh veg other than root veg available.

 

[lynne8]

Mince (lamb or beef), onions, garlic, mushrooms, stock, lots of worcester sauce, salt, pepper, herbs. Just mash with butter and seasoning on the top. Simple.

No veg in it but usually have it with peas and carrots.

Sounds perfect. I don't put garlic in mine though, and sometimes mix the peas in. Mincing up leftover Sunday roast with one of these is how I remember it from the olden days :

 

[subversplat]

The thing with the carrot is not so much adding something extra to the meal as padding out a limited amount of expensive meat with cheaper vegetables. Remember shepherds are not rich people. Every sheep that they mince up and put in the oven with mash on the top is a sheep that they cannot sell at the market.

The only sheep farming family I have ever actually got to know on a proper basis are fucking, well, minted. We're talking millionaire rich. They rent land from Delboy Trotter* to grow their sheep on and everything.

* Really, David Jason owns sheep grazing land that he rents out

 

[subversplat]

You should have a baked potato instead of meat and potato soup instead of gravy too.

I like it.

Potato scones for afters

 

[shakespearegirl]

Would love to hear some vegan recipes.

And for someone to clean my oven.

Veggie Shepherds (kind of) Pie

all quantities approximate and can be changed depending on what you have available with no adverse effect

5 leeks
4 spring onions
4 carrots
2 cups of mushrooms

cut all up into small chunks. cook for 20 minutes in large glass of white wine. Put into baking dish. Cover with mashed potatoes (cheesy ones are nice if you are not vegan), bake for half an hour

Yum

 

[tarannau]

White wine, mushrooms and leeks? This is not anything resembling a shepherd's pie. It's got a potato topping and that's about it.

Would agree with Ann that Shepherd's pie's fundamentally a simple dish. Lamb, potato, onion, bit of carrot, thyme and next to nothing else, bar perhaps a dash of lea and perrins. The simplicity is its charm

 

[ringo]

cook for 20 minutes in large glass of white wine.

Now this I would like to see

 

[shakespearegirl]

White wine, mushrooms and leeks? This is not anything resembling a shepherd's pie. It's got a potato topping and that's about it.

Would agree with Ann that Shepherd's pie's fundamentally a simple dish. Lamb, potato, onion, bit of carrot, thyme and next to nothing else, bar perhaps a dash of lea and perrins. The simplicity is its charm

Someone asked for a vegan alternative, this is one.

 

[tarannau]

I can understand that, but it's nowhere near a shepherd's pie. Red wine, mushrooms and lentils would perhaps make more sense, but your recipe would seem closer to a fish pie than anything involving lamb.

 

[Mitre10]

This was on Saturday Kitchen a few weeks back and looked the dog's danglies.

Apparently short rib is pretty inexpensive but I've never bought it so don't know.

Might get round to cooking it this weekend...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/braisedshortribandon_91339.shtml

 

[Ozric]

I like to roast a leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary as a Sunday roast then use the leftover meat a few days later.

Chop it up into little cubes (better texture than mince) add fried onions, carrots and any other veg you want. Cover with gravy and top with creamy mash. Easy peasy and gorgeous!

 

[Lemon Eddy]

I like to roast a leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary as a Sunday roast then use the leftover meat a few days later.

Chop it up into little cubes (better texture than mince) add fried onions, carrots and any other veg you want. Cover with gravy and top with creamy mash. Easy peasy and gorgeous!

Absolutely bloody correct.

Shepherd's pie needs to be made with leftover roasted lamb, and whatever veg are kicking about from the roast too. I usually saute some onions till they're nice and caramelized, chuck in a good splash of red wine or beer (either works), let it simmer for a while to thicken, then throw in the leftovers, let that simmer for a while, good glug of lea&perrins, very small drop of tabasco, maybe some marmite, possibly an oxo cube. When that's hit desired consistency, pour it into a baking dish, then when it's cooled enough to set a little fork over some mash.

Chuck in oven to make sure the mash is nice and crispy with burnt bits. Serve with left over gravy, and bread and butter.

 

[mrsfran]

I like shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top.

 

[Santino]

Absolutely bloody correct.

Shepherd's pie needs to be made with leftover roasted lamb, and whatever veg are kicking about from the roast too. I usually saute some onions till they're nice and caramelized, chuck in a good splash of red wine or beer (either works), let it simmer for a while to thicken, then throw in the leftovers, let that simmer for a while, good glug of lea&perrins, very small drop of tabasco, maybe some marmite, possibly an oxo cube. When that's hit desired consistency, pour it into a baking dish, then when it's cooled enough to set a little fork over some mash.

Chuck in oven to make sure the mash is nice and crispy with burnt bits. Serve with left over gravy, and bread and butter.

I get it, I get it. You're a casual kind of cook. I get it.

 

[citygirl]

Today, I am experimenting...

2 dishes of some kinda "Cottage" pie... both using fresh turkey mince and diced mixed (frozen) veg (carrots, peas, swede, sweecorn and broad beans), with red onions... one topped with sweet potatoes(unpeeled, i like the skin), and the other topped with butternut squash and a couple of small normal potatoes... i have no idea what to call these dishes...how all this will turn out..or indeed whether the kids will eat any of it

i shall see later

 

[ericjarvis]

Today, I am experimenting...

2 dishes of some kinda "Cottage" pie... both using fresh turkey mince and diced mixed (frozen) veg (carrots, peas, swede, sweecorn and broad beans), with red onions... one topped with sweet potatoes(unpeeled, i like the skin), and the other topped with butternut squash and a couple of small normal potatoes... i have no idea what to call these dishes...how all this will turn out..or indeed whether the kids will eat any of it

i shall see later

The first one is Bernard Matthews Southern Comfort. The second is Squashed Turkey Nut Pie.

 

[citygirl]

The first one is Bernard Matthews Southern Comfort. The second is Squashed Turkey Nut Pie.

Hmm... couldn't have Southern in there... have to be a Northern one

but the second one is &

 

[Pip]

My recipe is basically lamb mince, onions, garlic, grated carrot, mushroom, a little squeeze of tomato paste, stock, mustard, rosemary and sage. If I can be bothered I add more stuff, and if I'm making it for myself I add mofoing SWEETCORN!

No cheese on top but I always endeavour to make it extra crispy, and it has to be half sauce half mash. Sometimes I make my mash half potato half swede, and if my sauce is missing something I'll add a spoonful of bisto gravy granules. Shoot me down if you like, it works.

 

[Yetman]

SWEETCORN!

Wrongun

if my sauce is missing something I'll add a spoonful of bisto gravy granules. Shoot me down if you like, it works.

Feelin ya there though sister dont diss the bis. to

Carrots have got to be cubed as well, and dont overcook them. You want a bit of crunch to your carrots, and a bit of pop to your peas. Fixup

 

[Pip]

The carrots are fried with the onions and pretty much serve to bulk it out. No peas, unless they're on the side. If you don't like it why don't you go and release a solo album

 

[Thimble Queen]

Fry onions and garlic, add mince fry untill brown
Add lots of red wine
add veg... I usuallly use mushrooms, peppers and corgettes
Add a tin of baked beans
put in baking dish and top with cheeesey buttery, peppery mash yum!

Sometimes I add hot pepper sauce also

 

[wayward bob]

the best way i've found of crisping the top is to mash the spuds nekkid, just with a little of their cooking water water, melt the butter in a pan and pour it over the top, then fork into little furrows. so all the butter is concentrated where you need it on the surface

doesn't cheese make it chewy, not crispy?

 

[subversplat]

Is it seen as the quintessential 'English dish' in the USA? They even mention it in deadwood one time...

Just namechecked by the quintessential Brit kids in "The Bloodening" on The Simpsons" on c4

I hope that's Shepherd's Pie in my knickers