S is for Shepherd's Pie

I made a shepherd's pie today using the leftover lamb from our Sunday roast.

Gather:

• Leftover lamb (around 400 grms), minced
• 1 red onion, chopped finely
• 3 smallish carrots, peeled and diced into small pieces
• 3 bay leaves
• ¼ pint of frozen sweetcorn
• ¼ pint of frozen peas
• Any other leftover veggies (we had some buttered leeks and cabbage)
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce
• Squidge of HP (brown) sauce
• 1 tblspn mustard powder
• ½-¾ pint of leftover gravy (add water if necessary to top up)
• S&P

• 5-6 Maris Piper or Desiree pototoes, peeled and cubed roughly
• 5 cloves garlic, de-papered and cut into quarters
• 2 oz butter
• 1 fl oz of milk
• S&P

• Handful of grated cheese (I used cheddar, but any hard cheese works)
• White pepper

Then...
Preheat the oven to 165°C (fan assisted, 180°C if not).
Gently fry the onion and carrots in a large, broad-based frying pan in a small slug of veggie oil.
Tuck in the bay leaves and set aside off the heat while you sort out the potatoes.

In a saucepan, just cover the cubes of potato and garlic cloves with water, add a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil.
Turn down the heat and simmer the water until the potato and garlic bits are soft (usually up to 10 mins depending on how small your cubes are).
Drain off the water and return the lid to the pan and set aside off the heat for the potatoes to steam a bit.

Remove the bay leaves from the onion/carrots.
Add in the mince, (frozen and leftover) veggies, sauces and mustard (but not the gravy).
Fry, gently turning over the ingredients with a spoon until everything's well mixed together.
Season to taste.
Set aside.

Add the butter and milk to the resting potatoes.
Season and mash well until the mix is smooth.
Check the seasoning is right.

Pour half your gravy into your casserole dish, spoon on the mince mix and then pour over the remaining gravy until it's coated the mince but not swimming in it.  Otherwise your mash will be very difficult to spoon over.

Using a metal spoon, cut out and spoon over thin wedges of the potato mash onto the mince mix until all the contents are covered.
Spoon over the remaining mash and press down till the top's even.
Sprinkle over the cheese and grind over a few twists of white pepper.*

Either bake in the oven for around half an hour until the top is lovely and golden and serve OR freeze at this point (i.e. before the final bake) for up to three months.

To cook, allow it to defrost completely before putting in the oven (again in a preheated oven at 165°C if fan assisted, 180°C if not). This time leave the pie in for around 40 minutes as the contents are cooking from being cold.

* We often have a couple of roast potatoes left and I usually chop these up finely and sprinkle them on the top of the potato before adding the cheese.  They crisp up when cooking, adding to the crunch of the melted cheese.