The ultimate winter comfort food. A thick layer of luscious minced meat coated in a silky, flavourful gravy, all topped with light, fluffy and buttery mashed potato and served with more luscious gravy!
Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
For the minced meat layer: heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil over a moderately hot heat and add the lamb. Cook until browned all over. Break up the meat as you stir.
Lamb can be quite fatty, so when cooked tip into a colander lined with kitchen paper to absorb the fat. Leave a little fat (around 1 teaspoon) in the pan to cook the beef.
Next cook the beef until browned, breaking up the meat as you stir. Tip into the colander to absorb any extra fat. (See Recipe Notes.)
Tip the onion into a mini food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Alternatively, finely chop by hand.
Add the remaining olive oil to the pan, if necessary; there may be enough fat from the meat. You need around 2 – 3 teaspoons.
Tip in the onion and cook over a moderate heat until softened and lightly caramelised. Stir from time to time and scrape up all the delicious bits on the base of the pan as you stir.
Add the garlic, mix in and cook for a further minute.
Return the meat to the pan and stir in the flour and tomato puree; cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously.
Pour in the red wine and cook until it has reduced and almost disappeared. (See Recipe Notes.)
Next add the Worcestershire Sauce, thyme and seasoning. Stir well.
Add the stock, stir to mix and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook on low, ideally for 1 hour, but a minimum of 30 minutes.
Remove roughly 500ml of gravy by ladling it into a saucepan through a sieve. Tip any meat in the sieve back in the pot. Simmer the gravy, without a lid, to reduce and thicken – you need around 250ml.
At the same time simmer the minced meat further until there is only a little gravy left. Remove any thyme stalks, if used.
Ideally store the meat and gravy in the fridge overnight to allow the flavours to develop and deepen.
Make the mashed potatoes: cut the peeled potatoes into even sized chunks.
Cover with cold water, add the salt and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook until soft. This will take 15 - 25 minutes, depending on the type and size of the potatoes.
When the potatoes are soft, drain well.
Mash the potatoes with either a potato masher or an electric whisk and add the butter, pepper and half the cream or milk.
Whisk until light and fluffy, adding more cream/milk as needed. (NB stop whisking as soon as the potatoes are light and fluffy. If you over-whisk, the potatoes can become waxy in texture.)
Assembling the Shepherd's Pie: transfer the meat to a baking dish. I use a dish measuring 26 cms/10 inches long, 18 cms/7 inches wide and 7cms/2½ inches deep
Top with the mashed potato.
Use a knife to make some swirls in the potato or use a fork instead.
Cook the pie: preheat the oven to Fan Oven 180°C/200°C/200°F/Gas6
Cook in a preheated oven for 45 minutes or until everything is piping hot, you can see little bubbles come to the surface and the potatoes have nicely browned.
If you have topped the minced meat with potatoes and then stored in the fridge overnight or for a few hours, you may require an extra 10 minutes in the oven.
If you have made the meat and gravy the day before and kept it in the fridge overnight, you should be able to remove any extra fat from the top of the gravy. Reheat it in a pan to serve.
Serve the Shepherd’s Pie hot with gravy and extra Worcestershire sauce on the side and some green vegetables.
Equipment:
Beef:
Beef can be less fatty and you may not need to put it in the colander – depends if you have bought beef with 5% or 20% fat.
Red wine:
If you can't/don't want to add the wine, simply omit this step.
Extra gravy or not?
We like our food with a LOT of sauce or gravy. If you do not want extra gravy – use half the amount of stock.