This new format was good. A bit of chat, debate, some cooking and drink matching. Living with a non drinker I particularly liked the fact that they would always suggest a non alcoholic drink pairing for each dish. The one thing I was less keen on was the way which they dealt with wine, as they would only ever describe the wine they were drinking without giving you a name, price or where to buy it. Watching this programme also had the effect that for a very short (and weird) time developed a bit of a crush on the front man Michel Roux Jnr. This is thankfully over, as it was really adding fuel to the fire of Rhid's opinion that I fancy really god-dam weird men and in turn getting a little bit offended on his own behalf.
Strange food crushes aside, it's changed the way I make shepherds pie, forever.
I was never really given shepherds (lamb) or cottage (beef) pie at home as a child. I'm not really sure why, as it's a British staple food. Maybe it was my father's, very strange, aversion to mashed potato? So this left me with my only experience of this being school food, and therefore disguising. I attempted to correct this in my early twenties by making myself one. However, not really knowing what I was doing, it wasn't particularly successful. It was only really when I was doing chalet cooking for children in the French Alps some years later that this dish really started to interest me. It really is ultimate comfort food.
Ever since then I've been fiddling with the recipe. More or less tomato, lamb / beef / chicken stock, fresh rosemary versus dried, adding red wine or leaving it out, lot of veg or just onions and garlic and various potato versus meat ratios. The latest incarnation was to try browning the meat in batches so was almost crispy in an attempt to add flavour and texture, whilst at the same time cooking down the veg (carrots, celery onion and rosemary) until it was richly coloured and sweet, which was very nice.
All the recipes I've tried though have always had minced lamb at their core. Michel Roux's version focused on using up the remains of a roast lamb joint. I wasn't convinced, especially seeing as the recipe then required you to mince the lamb (I don't own a mincer) and then adding tomato ketchup of all things! The other thing that I wasn't wild about was that the veg was added raw to the minced lamb and then just slapped in the oven with the mash on top. But what about my beautiful caramelised vegetables?!
However, as Easter lamb was on offer at Waitrose I bought a leg speculatively thinking that we might have people over and if not I could try this recipe. I'm so glad I did. Firstly hacking the lamb leg to pieces and then chopping it up in to mince by hand was really quite therapeutic I just shoved the veg into a food processor. Therapeutic or not, I'd had enough chopping by then. Then once compiled and served up it was lovely. The roast lamb gives a lovely texture to the pie and not cooking the veg off in advance gave them a lovely fresh, almost crunchiness. The ketchup too was also a winner. I normally add tomato purée but this version had a lovely sweetness added by the ketchup. I'd really recommend that you give this a try.
For this recipe I used the leftovers from a leg of lamb studded with garlic and rosemary so I left out the extra garlic. I reduced the amount of mash in this recipe and also added cream as well as the milk to the mash because, well, that makes the best mash.
Shepherds Pie
400-500g/14oz-1lb 2oz leftover roast lamb, leftover gravy and fat from the roasting tin
1 carrot, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 sprig fresh parsley, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
5 cloves leftover roast garlic
4 tbsp ketchup
1 kg/2lb 4oz peeled, cooked floury potatoes (such as King Edward, Desiree or Maris piper)
butter, to taste
dash of milk
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Scrape all the meat off the lamb bone and put through a mincer with the carrot, celery, parsley, shallots and leftover gravy and fat from the roasting tin. If you haven’t got a mincer then chop everything finely and mix together. Add sweet roasted garlic cloves popped from their skins and the ketchup.
Press the mixture into an ovenproof dish. Mash together the cooked potatoes with butter to taste and a dash of milk, and top the meat with the potatoes. Use a fork to make a pretty design on top.
Cover the dish with foil and cook in the oven for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and turn up the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 for a final 10 minutes so it’s piping hot and lightly golden-brown on top.
For the stir-fried cabbage, heat the oil in a wok until hot, then stir fry the ingredients together for a few minutes until cooked, but so it keeps its colour and stays crunchy.
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