Cate's Shepherd's Pie

As featured in Barbican Life magazine!! http://flickread.com/edition/html/584e5d1a464d0#1

This was my favourite meal growing up. Actually, it’s my favourite meal now. Shepherd’s Pie is supposed to be lamb rather then beef mince, but we’ve always called it Shepherd’s Pie, so I’m sticking to it. It’s hearty comfort food, perfect for winter, and if you make double and freeze one, it’ll be a blessing during the upcoming holidays when you can’t face any more cooking. 

Unlike most other dishes on my blog, this one is from memory: years of standing next to Mum at the cooker and watching for the secret trick to make the meat taste so rich. Apparently it’s not a secret – it’s Bisto gravy granules.

My mum in the 70s (same as now but with less perm. And better furniture)

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1 onion, chopped

500g beef mince

1 stock cube, made up to 500ml with hot water

A few squirts of HP sauce

2 tsp gravy granules

4 large potatoes(about 1kg), peeled

1 tbsp butter

Method

1. Fry the onion in a little oil until starting to colour. Add the mince and poke it with a wooden spoon so it breaks apart and is completely browned.

2. Add the stock, HP sauce and gravy granules and bring to the boil. Taste and season, then simmer for about 30 minutes.

3. Chop the potatoes into even sized chunks and boil for 20 minutes until tender. Preheat the oven to 180⁰C.

4. Mash the potatoes and add the butter and some salt and pepper

5. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the mince, without too much liquid, to a pie dish. Layer the mash on top. Run a fork along the top of the potato to ruffle it up, which makes lovely crisp brown ridges. Sprinkle with cheese if liked.

6. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes until the potato is browning and the gravy is bubbling up around the edges (or freeze at previous step and cook from frozen for about 50 minutes).

I like my Shepherd's Pie with peas, grave made from the leftover meat juices and more HP sauce.

Jazzing it up

Shepherd's Pie can be jazzed any ways, especially if you want to up the vegetable count. 

Grating a carrot into the mince is a good way of hiding extra vegetables. Adding peas, sweetcorn  and chopped carrot to the mince makes for a colourful one pot pie, and you can use a little less mince. You can also play with the topping, adding sweet potato or swede to the mash. A crispy leek and breadcrumb topping is another alternative.

Unanswered Shepherd's Pie questions

Why does this taste completely different from "mince with mashed potatoes"? Even with exactly the same ingredients, something magic happens in the oven...

Why can I eat so much of it?