Another favorite weekend meal for us is Shepherd's Pie. I usually make a big batch and it lasts us two days! So we'll usually have it for a nice hearty Saturday night dinner and a super late Sunday luncheon!
How do we do it? This is going to be a bit difficult to actually write down a recipe because I really go by instinct for this one... but here's an approximate of what I normally use...
p/s: feel free to modify this!
Ingredients
How do we do it? This is going to be a bit difficult to actually write down a recipe because I really go by instinct for this one... but here's an approximate of what I normally use...
p/s: feel free to modify this!
Ingredients
- 2 carrots, diced
- ~6 celery sticks, diced
- 2 onions diced
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ~250gm ground beef
- 1 can, tomatoes, diced
- 1 box mushrooms, sliced
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Few lugs of olive oil
- 3 potatoes, mashed
- 2 handfuls of grated Parmesan
First dice up the carrots, celery and garlic. Place aside. Depending on my mood, sometimes they're chunkier and sometimes they're really finely diced. Take a couple of bay leaves and put it there too.
I learnt this trick from Jamie Oliver. Cut your onion this way, but don't go ALL the way down. Place it sideways and just slice. You'll get neat little squares!
First, put two dashes of olive oil into the pot/pan/wok/whatever you're using and brown the onions. I add about two shakes of McCormick's mixed herbs in it as well to give it a fuller flavor.
Add in the celery, carrot, garlic and bay leaves. Stir fry and combine till they're almost cooked. Remove from heat into a plate/bowl and set aside.
Using the same pot/pan/wok/whatever, add another lug of olive oil... and then put the ground beef in and stir fry till it's cooked. If it gets a bit too wet, scatter a bit of flour onto it. The flour will help absorb the extra moisture.
When that's done, pour the veggie mix back in. Remember to remove the bay leaves before pouring it back in because you do not want to accidentally bite on a bay leaf! Mix well.
Then pour in the tinned tomatoes and mix well.
Put in the sliced mushrooms. Here, I put in the celery tops as well. I usually save the celery tops because I love that flavor. Also, it makes it look nice and 'green'. Stir well and leave it to cook for about 30-45 mins. Make sure you stir it often and don't cover it with the lid too much because then it will become very watery. You want this mixture to be moist but not wet.
Spoon the mixture into a deep pan. I usually line mine with some tin foil so that it's less messy - this way it doesn't stick to the pan and I generally don't have to wash up after this!
Line the top with mashed potatoes. I find it easier if you scoop small bits in and gently spread it across like peanut butter. Be careful though, the base is quite squishy so don't press too hard!
Score the top of the mash with a fork.
Scatter the grated Parmesan over it. This of course depends on personal preference :) We love it with lots of cheese...Stick it in the oven for about 30 mins or so at 200 C or until the top becomes nice and brown.
See? The scored marks creates this nice crispy cheesy top which makes it OH-SO-YUMMY!!!Happy cooking!
xxx
Bunny
