All of us food bores know that real shepherd’s pie is made with minced lamb. If it’s made with beef, it’s cottage pie. According to the ever-reliable (!) Wikipedia, the term “cottage pie” has been around since 1791, where leftover beef would be used by the poor cottage-dwellers as a pie filling. “Shepherds pie” came along about a hundred years later, as a cheekily-named lamb equivalent.
Shepherd’s Pie is traditionally made with minced lamb left over from a roast. The pie in these pictures comprises not only the leftover lamb, but the leftover gravy too; this gives the pie a rich and deep flavour. I’d go so far as saying it’s worth roasting lamb joint just to make this pie!
Ingredients
- 500g minced lamb, leftover if possible
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 3 sticks celery, chopped
- 250ml beef stock, or leftover gravy topped up with water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt & pepper
- 900g potatoes
Method
- If you’re using leftover lamb, chop it finely rather than mincing it. This ensures there’s a bit of texture in the finished dish. Heat a little olive in a pan and brown the lamb and onion. Add the carrot and celery and fry for a minute more.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (except the potatoes) and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for about 30 minutes.
- While the lamb filling cooks, pre-heat the oven to 200°C and prepare your spuds. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash with a little milk and plenty of butter and seasoning. You could also add an egg yolk which will enrich the mash and give it a great golden colour while it browns.
- Transfer the lamb mixture to an oven-proof pie dish. Spread the mash on top and use a fork to make a rough surface. Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes or until the pie is golden brown. Serve with some piccalilli or some buttered peas.
Variations
- Roast Lamb - Add 2 minced garlic cloves, a teaspoon of finely chopped rosemary and a glass of red wine while you’re frying the lamb. Serve with minted peas on the side. All the flavours of a classic lamb roast in one dish.
- Cottage Pie - Substitute the lamb for beef and add a small bottle of stout and reduce. Some finely chopped thyme would be a nice addition to this also.
Serves 4.
Most of the credit for this “Beef & Bean Chili” recipe goes to the wife. I’ve added some nice ‘extras’ such as the oregano and chipotle, but it’s essentially her recipe. Go all out, serve with rice, sour cream, salsa, chips, wraps and a few beers. It’s really, really, really good.
Ingredients
- 900g good-quality minced beef
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 sticks celery, chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 medium courgette, chopped
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1-2 tbsp dried chilli flakes (depending on your tolerance)
- 1 tsp ground chipotle chilli pepper
- 5 tbsp tomato ketchup (Chef is perfect for this)
- 5g dark chocolate (85% cocoa solids)
- 250ml beef stock
- 5 tbsp concentrated tomato puree
- 2 x 400g canned tomatoes
- 2 x 400g cans kidney beans
- 2 x 400g can black-eye beans
Method
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pot or casserole. Add the onions and fry until starting to colour. Add the garlic, minced beef and a little salt. Fry hard to get some colour on the meat.
- Add the vegetables, chilli flakes, cumin, coriander, chipotle and fry for a minute or two.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, apart from the black-eye beans, bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Add the black-eye beans 5 minutes before the end, as the tend to break up more easily. Season with salt if necessary and some freshly ground black pepper.
Serves 6-8.
Notes
- Tomato ketchup might seem like an unlikely addition to a good chilli, but it really does work. It’s the perfect mixture sweet, sour and spice and gives a great depth to the dish. My personal preference is for Chef over Heinz.
- You could substitute a teaspoon of cocoa powder for the dark chocolate. Again, this gives the chilli a deep, rich taste.
- I use kidney beans here out of habit more than anything, but you could use any robust bean: chickpeas, pinto beans etc.
- The ground chipotle powder is optional here because it’s not that easy to come by. It gives a great smoky flavour. I’ve previously substituted this with about 200g of finely chopped chorizo, which is a great alternative.
- This dish is excellent if it’s eaten the day after it’s cooked. It also freezes extremely well.
- Sometime I like to make my “Devil’s Breath” version, adding a tablespoon of “Chipotle in Adobo”, along with 2 teaspoons of “Habanero Hot Sauce”. You can use any brand you wish, but I use the products from the Cool Chile Co.
This dish is great for a Sunday lunch. Prepare the dish and leave to cook slowly in a low oven for two and a half hours. Eat with plenty of floury spuds, a glass of good red wine, or a pint of the black stuff.
I’m not sure how Irish “Beef in Stout” actually is. Certainly, the British have been braising beef in ale for donkey’s years. And stout certainly isn’t an Irish invention, despite popular belief.
If this recipe seems like too much effort, you can always just drink the stout. Notice I haven’t used the “G” word in this recipe! You can use any Irish (dry) stout you have to hand.
Ingredients
- 125g bacon or pancetta, cubed
- 1kg stewing beef (such as round steak), cubed
- 2 tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 500 ml stout
- 2 onions, sliced
- 3 celery sticks, sliced
- 3 large carrots, cut into large chunks
- 250ml beef stock
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- 1 tbsp tomato pureé (optional)
- 2 tsp light muscovado sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- salt & black pepper
Method
- Pre-heat your oven to 160°C (140°C if you have a fan-assisted oven).
- Add a little oil to a frying pan and brown the bacon or pancetta. Fry the bacon until golden. Transfer to a large casserole.
- Brown the beef. Toss the beef in the seasoned flour. Add a little more oil to the frying pan and fry the beef in batches until caramelised. Make sure you do this in batches so as not to overload your pan. Transfer the browned beef in the casserole.
- Add a little more oil and gry the onions until caramelised. Add to the casserole.
- Pour some stout into the hot frying pan to de-glaze it. As the stout bubbles, scrape at the bottom of the pan to remove any caramelised juices from the bacon and the beef. Add the stout and de-glazed juices to the casserole.
- Now, assemble the rest of the dish. To the casserole, add the celery, carrot, tomato pureé, Worcestershire sauce, stock, herbs and the rest of the stout. Season well with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Stir well and place the casserole on your hob. Bring the casserole to a gentle simmer and place in the oven for between two and two and a half hours. Check after an hour that there’s no beef drying out on top of the casserole; if there is, just give it a quick stir.
Notes
- I like to thicken the sauce using a little “beurre manie”. Mix a tablespoon of plain flour with a tablespoon of softened butter. Stir the resulting paste gently into the sauce and simmer for a few minutes until thickened.
- You could use shin beef for this. Just trim some of the fat from the meat and add at least an hour to the cooking time to allow this tough meat to tenderise. The extra far in the meat will melt out, giving a rich and unctuous sauce.
Serves 4.
According to the Irish Indo (yes, I know it’s gone to the dogs ...) Burger King are selling a “pimped” version of the iconic Whopper called, wait for it, “The Burger“. The said sandwich comprises a patty of wagyu beef and is served with white truffles, Cristal champagne onions straws all in a saffron bun. Wagyu beef or not, I’m guessing you’ll still feel queasy afterwards, this being BK. Full story here. (requires registration)
A quick google shows that food bloggers the world over are going crazy about this one!!
