British recipe
How to make Shepherd's pie
All of the UK
Minced lamb cooked with onions, carrots and gravy, topped with mashed potato and baked until golden. Made with beef, it is usually called cottage pie.
Ingredients
- 500 g minced lamb
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, finely diced
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 400 ml lamb or beef stock
- 1 kg floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 50 g butter and a splash of milk
- Salt and black pepper
Method
- Brown the lamb in a large pan over a high heat, then lift it out and pour away most of the fat.
- Soften the onion and carrots in the pan for about 8 minutes, then stir in the flour and tomato purée.
- Return the meat, add the Worcestershire sauce and stock, and simmer gently for about 30 minutes until thick. Season well.
- Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until tender, drain and mash them with the butter, milk, salt and pepper.
- Heat the oven to 200 °C. Spoon the meat into an ovenproof dish, spread the mash on top and rough it up with a fork.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is golden and the gravy bubbles at the edges.
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Cottage pie is the older name, first recorded in 1791. Shepherd's pie appears in the 1800s, and it was a thrifty way to use up the leftover meat from a Sunday roast.
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