Shepherd's Pie

I made shepherds pie for the first time today. I have had it before but have never made an attempt to make it nor seen it made before. I'm the sort of cook who eats, tastes and kinda automatically knows what goes into making the dish. I guess its a gift that I have. I am also an opportunist cook. By that I mean I only cook dishes when I know I already have the ingredients in my pantry or fridge. Either that or I substitute things along to way to make up for the lack of some ingredient. I'm also the sort of cook who cooks by instinct and as such, I do not use accurate measurements in my cooking. You know how it is... its always salt and pepper to taste, several dashes of soy sauce, a touch of chilli and etc.

I know this can be infuriating to some folk. But I must say this. Cooking is not an exact science. Only baking is. With cakes and pastries, measurement and temperature is everything. However with cooking, the best dishes always come from the heart. So as long as you have the passion for good food, your cooking will always pass the taste test. Heart is the secret ingredient to wonderful food. That's why a mother's cooking is always the best.

So back to my first attempt at a shepherds pie. I had bought about 10kg of potatoes at AUD 4 so I had to figure out some ways to use them up before they become evil (refer to the post about my evil potato) The pie came to my mind immediately because I knew I had mince in the fridge, tomatoes in the pantry and all the other seasonings needed. My simple recipe is as below.

6 mid sized potatoes

~1/2 pack of 1kg mince

2 mid sized onions (I pretty much diced them)

2 carrots

1 can button mushrooms

1 can whole peeled tomatoes (to substitute tomato paste which I didnt have)

2 bay leaves

1 cup of beef stock

2 tbsp of flour

A touch of oregano

Some worchestershire sauce

Salt & pepper to taste

200C in a fan forced oven for 20 minutes.

So the potatoes were cut and boiled to make potato mash. Mash is really easy. Just add some butter, salt, pepper and mash away. Once quite mashed up, add some milk for the smooth texture.

The carrots were cut into small pieces and I boiled them for awhile so it would be soft in the dish. I then fried up the onions in a deep pan till fragrant, added the button mushrooms, carrots and then the mince. After which I added the canned tomatoes, worchestershire, flour then the stock, bay leaves and oregano to simmer till the sauce thickened.

I then placed the mince into the base of a deep glass casserole, shook some parmesan cheese on top and then covered the entire surface with the potato mash. I decided to then make some bread crumbs and sprinkle them on top the mash for some added texture. My breadcrumbs look a little dodgy cos I used leftover bread skins (you know, the first and last piece in a loaf) and I was too lazy to crisp them to the max before pounding on them to make breadcrumbs. After that it was sent straight into the oven.

All my shortcut and substitution methods worked and the shepherds pie was yumminy yum yum. :) And I know what my mom is going to say to this post.

" You write so much about eating and food. You better be watching your weight! Don't eat so much! Make sure you exercise! "

Sigh.... What can I do mom... I love food and you have obviously passed on your cooking genes to me. What to do ah? :)

Till my next cooking adventure.

cheryl