Here is a great alternative to ordinary Christmas food – a wonderful Shepherds Pie recipe made by my b/f, Jon. When he works the kitchen he makes even the great Gordon Ramsay seem pale in comparison :)
You’ll have to look far and wide for a tastier pie, which is a MUST on cold Winter days. It can be made in three different variations for all tastes: Shepherds Pie, Cottage Pie och Vegetarian Pie. The recipe is given here in English as Jon is from New Zealand. Enjoy!
SHEPHERDS PIE
(Serves 4 – 6)
Ingredients
Potato top:
- 1 kg floury potatoes
- butter
- milk
- herbes de provence
- 100g grated parmesan cheese
- salt
- pepper
Filling:
- 500g lamb mince meat (for Shepherds Pie) OR
- 500g beef mince meat (for Cottage Pie) OR
- 500g quorn mince or equivalent (for Vegetarian Pie)
- 4 – 5 carrots
- 2 – 3 challots / onions
- 3 – 4 cloves of garlic
- 1kg chopped tomatoes
- 300g frozen peas
- 60ml liquid beef stock / 1 – 2 beef stock cubes
- 50ml Worchestershire sauce
- 1/3 red chilli / 1tsp Sambal Oelek
- 50ml tomato ketchup
- 30ml soy sauce
- herbes de provence
- salt
- pepper
Method:
- Set oven to 220C
- Chop and boil potatoes in a large saucepan. While boiling, go to step 3:
- In a large frying pan, lightly fry mince, garlic, challots, carrots.
- Add chopped tomatoes, peas, beef stock, Worchestershire sauce, chilli, ketchup, soy sauce, herbes de provence (to taste), salt (to taste), pepper (to taste).
- Let simmer 5 – 10 minutes.
- Drain potatoes when soft. Lightly mash with fork. Add milk, butter, salt, peppar and herbes de provence to taste. Continue to mash with a fork until done.
- Pour mince mixture into a large oven dish.
- Top with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle over parmesan cheese.
- Bake the Shepherds Pie in the oven for 15 minutes at 220C. The parmesan cheese should melt and become crispy brown on top.
- Remove from the oven and serve pie hot, with a glass of red wine on the side.
Bonus recipe: Gordon Ramsay’s Shepherds Pie
Interesting trivia
Cottage pie was first seen in 1791. It was made with leftover roasted meats in a pie dish lined with potato and potato crust on top. Potato being first introduced around this time as an edible crop affordable by the poor.
The dish “Shepherd’s pie” wasn’t heard of until the late 1800’s. The term has been used synonymously with “cottage pie”, regardless of whether the principal ingredient was beef or mutton. More recently, the term “Shepherd’s pie” has been used when the meat is lamb, which makes sense as shepherds farm sheep, and not cattle.
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Did you try the recipe? How did it taste?
BON APPETITE :)
and LOVE from Jon and Maria
