Yumiam recipe · British classic
Shepherd's pie
Lamb, not beef. A mash worked with butter before the milk, and a filling reduced right down before it goes under. The dish that reheats better than it started.
A shepherd's pie is minced lamb cooked with onion, carrot and stock, covered with mashed potato and baked for thirty minutes at 200 °C. It is made with lamb, not beef — the beef version is a cottage pie — and the filling must be reduced before the mash goes on, or the layer beneath turns watery.
- Lamb, not beef — with beef the dish is a cottage pie.
- Reduce the filling until a spoon leaves a trail on the bottom of the pan — before the mash goes on.
- Butter into the potato first, hot milk second — mash worked the other way turns gluey.
Method
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Brown the lamb
Brown the minced lamb in a hot pan in two batches, without stirring too early. Set it aside and drain most of the fat.
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Build the filling
Soften the diced onion and carrot in the same pan for ten minutes, add the tomato purée, the lamb, the stock and the herbs.
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Reduce
Simmer uncovered for twenty-five minutes, until a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a trail that closes slowly.
The detail that decides it: this is where the dish is won or lost. A filling that still runs will soak the mash from underneath and no oven time will fix it.
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Make the mash
Boil the potatoes in salted water, drain them and let them steam dry for two minutes. Work in the butter first, then the hot milk. Season.
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Assemble and bake
Spread the filling in a dish, cover with the mash and rough the surface up with a fork. Bake thirty minutes at 200 °C until the ridges brown.