Home Cookin'

Made some awesome lamb dishes the last couple of days. I had a leg that I boned out and just chopped into bits. It needed to be used and I really didn't feel like a roast even though I'd spent a couple of days defrosting it.


From it I've made:

- a rolled fetta and olive stuffed portion which turned out pretty nice but the cold cuts off it are disappointing.

- a curry which I had Sunday. I'd worked in the yard all day, so I might have just been really hungry, but hell it was good. I marinated the chunks in a rogan josh paste overnight and then threw everything else in. Very glad that there was enough left for two portions for the freezer.

- made a stock out of the bones and roasted the other bits with garlic cloves. Then last night, which is the real reason for this post, I made my first ever Shepherd's Pie.

I've read that Shepherd's Pie is really designed to use up leftover lamb, so I've never really had the chance to do it before. I'll be making sure there's plenty left in future though.

Looked up the recipe in Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's The River Cottage Meat Book and used it, as the man advised, as a rough guide.

Here 'tis.

500g [cooked]lamb, chopped into pea-size chunks
1-2 onions, chopped
1-2 carrots, chopped
garlic (mine was chopped in with the lamb)
leftover gravy or stock (I used the stock I'd made from the bones, which was reduced down so much that it set into a jelly when it cooled)
1/2 glass red wine (which I misread as half a cup - well, bugger it, that's a big glass!)
1 tbsp tomato ketchup (which I "interpreted" as a splurt of tomato sauce and a little bit of tomato relish)
1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (Nah..., bit more...)

1kg mashed potato


Fry off the onion, garlic and carrot until the carrot softens. Add the meat and do the same. Add the rest and taste it!!! Adjust amounts of the sauces if need be. Simmer for about half an hour. Pile it all in a dish, pile the mashed potato on top and bake for about another half hour.

I baked up a huge dish of this stuff and served myself a decent portion. It was so good - actually somewhat sweet tasting - that I made a total guts of myself and ate another huge portion later on. Couldn't get enough.