Shepherd's Pie

Our friend gave us what I thought resembled half a lamb a few months ago which we dutifully froze and have been trying to make a variety things from the different cuts we got (so please excuse a few upcoming lamb recipes).

While we have had fun getting to know the different cuts and how to cook them: scrag or neck (grillikiekko), chops (grillikyljys), leg (viulu) etc. We have also had a few disasters: lamb ribs - I will never buy again, they are just fatty with the minimum of meat; Anjum Anand's Honey Roasted Spicy Leg of Lamb recipe was not good - I don't know what we did wrong but it ended up dry and the meat was not flaky and soft like lamb leg should be. If I had actually paid good money for a leg of lamb I would have been hopping mad about the failure of this one.

So, instead, I thought I would make the new start to this blog with a traditional British recipe and probably one of my favourite dishes of all. If it's cold, or I'm homesick and want some good hearty food, then Shepherd's Pie is one of the dishes I crave the most. After several experiments with different variations and some help from Gordon Ramsey, I think I may have cracked how to make good Shepherd's Pie. For those who don't know the difference, Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie are pretty much the same, except Shepherd's Pie is made with lamb mince and Cottage Pie is made with beef mince.

Ingredients (serves 4)

•  2 tbsp olive oil
• 500g minced lamb (I am just so happy when lamb is available here I don't care whether it is lean or not!)
• 3 or 4 rashers of bacon
• 1 large onion (or a couple of small ones), grated
• 1 large carrot (ditto), grated
• 4 or 5 cloves garlic, grated or crushed
• 1.5 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• Thyme fresh (1.5tbsp)/frozen(1.5tbsp)/dry(1 tbsp)
• Rosemary (same quantities as thyme)
• 250 ml red wine. I usually use alcohol free because it's cheaper
• 300 ml chicken stock
• 1 kg of potatoes which are good for mashing, peeled and quartered
• 50 g butter
• around 100 g strong cheese, grated e.g. Gouda, Cheddar or whatever else you like
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Heat oil in a large pan until hot
3. Season the mince and fry both bacon and mince in the oil over a moderate to high heat for a couple of minutes. They don't have to be completely browned.
4. Stir in onions and carrots and add the garlic. Add in the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and herbs and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
5. Pour in the red wine and reduce until it has almost completely evaporated.
6. Add in the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer until the sauce has thickened. At this point you want it slightly runnier than is to your taste as it will thicken further when it is baking.
7. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft (Don't forget to stir the mince from time to time). Drain and then let steam dry off the heat for a couple of minutes. Add the butter and a bit of milk or cream if you have any and mash. Add about 3/4 of the cheese and continue to mash until relatively smooth.
8. Spoon the mince into the bottom of a large ovenproof dish (I like the small Ikea Koncis series, they seem to be the perfect size and are a good shape for the oven, although they do resemble school dinner serving dishes!).
9. Add the mash potato on top. I find this a bit difficult, so I just put small blobs around the top of the dish and then gently try to smooth them together to form a layer over the top of the mince. I then make swirly patterns with the fork and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.
10. Bake in the oven for around 20mins until the top is just starting to turn golden brown

Since we are a two person family, I usually save half in the fridge to reheat in the microwave for the next day.

Hyvää ruokahalua!