Shepherd’s pie

Ingredients

Filling

• 800 gminced lamb
• 2onions, chopped
• 2carrots, diced
• 2 stickscelery, diced
• 3 clovesgarlic
• 2 tbspplain flour
• 2 tbsptomato purée
• 400 mllamb or beef stock
• 1 tbspWorcestershire sauce
• 2 sprigsthyme
• 1bay leaf
• salt and pepper

Optional

• 150 mlred wine
• 150 gfrozen peas
• 1 tspMarmite

Topping

• 1.2 kgfloury potatoes, Maris Piper or King Edward
• 80 gbutter
• 100 mlwarm milk
• 1egg yolk
• salt and white pepper
• 50 ggrated cheddar, optional

To serve

• buttered greens
• pickled red cabbage

Directions

1. Heat a heavy pan until it is properly hot and brown the lamb in batches. Brown it in batches with space around it. Let it sit and colour before stirring, and take it right to a deep brown. Lift the meat out and pour off most of the fat, leaving a couple of spoonfuls.
2. Fry the onions, carrots and celery in that fat until soft and lightly coloured, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Stir in the flour and tomato purée and cook them for 2 minutes. Cooking the flour and purée out takes away the raw floury taste and the tinny edge of the tomato.
3. Return the meat, add the wine if using and let it bubble away. Add the stock, Worcestershire sauce, thyme and bay, and season. Now simmer it gently, uncovered, for 45 minutes.
4. Stir in the peas at the end if using, and take out the bay and thyme stalks. Now cool the filling before the mash goes on, and cold is better than warm. Spread onto a hot filling, the potato sinks straight into it and you lose the layer entirely. Use a floury potato, not a waxy one, because waxy potatoes go gluey when mashed.
5. Peel and cut them into even pieces and start them in cold salted water. Starting in cold water cooks them evenly through; dropped into boiling water the outsides collapse before the centres are done. Simmer rather than boil hard, which breaks them up and waterlogs them.
6. Drain them thoroughly, then return them to the dry pan over a low heat for a minute. That minute of steaming off is what makes the difference between fluffy mash and wet mash, and wet mash will not hold a pattern.
7. Mash them with a ricer or a masher, never a food processor. Beat in the butter first, then the warm milk gradually. Add the butter before the milk, which coats the starch and keeps the mash short and rich.
8. Beat in the egg yolk, which helps the top brown and set. Season it well, and use white pepper if you would rather not see the specks. Work from the edges inward and seal the mash to the sides of the dish, which stops the filling bubbling up around it. Every raised edge crisps and browns, and a smooth top gives a pale soft crust.
9. Scatter cheese over if you want, though it is not traditional. Bake at 200°C (390°F) for 30 to 40 minutes until deeply browned on top and bubbling at the edges.
10. Put it under the grill for a few minutes at the end if the top is not brown enough. Rest it 10 minutes before serving, which lets it settle enough to cut. Serve it with buttered greens, and pickled red cabbage on the side is a genuine northern habit.

Technique

• Cottage pie is the beef version and the names are not interchangeable.
• Made with leftover roast lamb, minced, it is closer to the original dish.
• It freezes well assembled and unbaked.

Substitutions

• Beef, making it a cottage pie.
• Sweet potato or a potato and celeriac mash on top.

Variations

• Cottage pie, with beef.
• With cheese on the mash.
• With a layer of sliced potato on top instead of mash.

History

Cottage pie is recorded from 1791 and shepherd’s pie from 1854, when mincing machines made leftover roast meat easy to reuse.

Frequently asked questions

What is Shepherd’s pie?

Shepherd’s pie is a main from United Kingdom: minced lamb in gravy under browned mashed potato. Cottage pie is recorded from 1791 and shepherd’s pie from 1854, when mincing machines made leftover roast meat easy to reuse.

How long does Shepherd’s pie take to make?

Shepherd’s pie takes 30 min of preparation and 1 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Shepherd’s pie?

Yes, within limits. Beef, making it a cottage pie. Sweet potato or a potato and celeriac mash on top.

What is the most important thing to get right in Shepherd’s pie?

Peel and cut them into even pieces and start them in cold salted water. Starting in cold water cooks them evenly through; dropped into boiling water the outsides collapse before the centres are done. Simmer rather than boil hard, which breaks them up and waterlogs them.