Shepherd's Pie with Lamb

⏳ Time

5 hours 30 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

One of the culinary prides of the British crown is a pie that requires quite a large number of different cookware — from a saucepan to a baking tray. Despite the seemingly simple name, shepherd's pie regularly attracts the interest of serious chefs — from John Smith to Mike Johnson. The latter even dedicated a special column on his website to this pie, intriguingly titled '10 Things You Didn't Know About Shepherd's Pie.' Among the surprising discoveries, he mentions, for example, that you should not confuse cottage pie with shepherd's pie: the former is made with beef, while the latter is exclusively prepared with lamb; in Chile, you can find an almost exact copy of the British pie called pastel de papa; and in British India, this pie was considered an excellent option for a light snack.

Ingredients

Lamb Shoulder - 0 lbs
Olive Oil - 0 fl oz
Spanish onions - 4 heads
Carrot - 4 pieces
Rosemary - 4 stalks
Wheat Flour - 1 tablespoon
Potato - 2½ kg
Butter - 5 oz
Breadcrumbs - 0 oz
Hard Cheese - 5 oz
Fresh Mint - 3 stalks
Green Peas - 10 oz
Celery stalk - 4 pieces

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Rub the lamb shoulder with oil, a pinch of salt, and pepper. Place it in a narrow baking dish, add a little hot water, and roast for 2-3 hours, until the meat starts to fall off the bone.

Step 2

Remove the lamb from the oven and let it cool slightly in the pan. Then, take the lamb out, remove the meat and crispy skin from the bone, and chop it coarsely. Pour the remaining fat from roasting into a clean container, then splash some boiling water into the roasting pan. Set aside for a while.

Step 3

For the filling, peel and coarsely chop the carrots, celery, and onion. Sauté the vegetables in a large pot over medium heat, adding 2 tablespoons of the remaining lamb fat. After 5 minutes, add the rosemary leaves and continue to sauté for another 20 minutes, until the vegetables caramelize.

Step 4

Add flour, lamb, bones, and the juices that have formed in the baking dish to the vegetables, and pour in 1.5 liters of water. Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid and simmer on low heat for 40 minutes.

Step 5

When the mixture thickens, remove the bones and strain it into another pot. Set the vegetables and meat aside. Reduce the sauce to your desired consistency. This sauce is traditionally called gravy.

Step 6

For the pie crust, peel and chop the potatoes into large pieces. Boil them in salted boiling water until tender. Drain the water, allow the potatoes to dry, then add butter, grate in 50g of cheese, season with salt and pepper, and mash thoroughly until you achieve a smooth, creamy consistency. Let it cool completely.

Step 7

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Use the remaining lamb fat to grease the baking dish. Sprinkle the bottom and sides of the dish with breadcrumbs and rosemary leaves—this will add a crunchy texture to the crust. Gradually spread the mashed potatoes to create a base and walls for the pie, about 1 cm thick.

Step 8

Layer the filling and a few spoonfuls of gravy sauce. Spread the remaining mashed potatoes on top to form the pie crust. Seal the edges well and create a decorative pattern with a fork. Grate the remaining cheese on top, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake on the lower rack of the oven for 1 hour, until the pie is covered with a golden and crispy crust. Serve with green peas and sauce; for a touch of zest, you can add a few finely chopped mint leaves.