Basildon Coder

The late, great Douglas Adams once felt moved to write an article about how to make a decent cup of tea. His motivation was the fact that so many of our American cousins are baffled by the British predilection with a nice hot brew; he concluded that the reason for such bafflement was the fact that “most Americans have never had a good cup of tea“, thanks largely to the habit of using hot (rather than boiling) water, and no teapot.

Now, there is a similar threat to another great British tradition. Recently, a recipe for Shepherd’s Pie hit the front page of Digg, prompting a lengthy comment thread which contained a number of remarks that British food sucks, or that Shepherd’s Pie in particular was horrible. A glance at the recipe suggests a good reason for this - diligently following it to the letter will result in a ghastly concoction almost entirely unlike a good Shepherd’s Pie. No wonder British food has such a lousy reputation abroad.

To redress the balance a little, here’s a proper Shepherd’s Pie recipe for any Americans out there wondering what the fuss is about. This is only a little more complicated than the aforementioned abomination, yet immeasurably superior.

Firstly, forget any nonsense about using beef and (horror of horrors) gravy from a jar, or indeed gravy in any form. Neither have any place in a Shepherd’s Pie. Firstly, use lamb - it’s called Shepherd’s Pie for a reason. Your average shepherd is more likely to have access to lamb than beef, yes? So what do you think they would use in cooking? I thought so. Secondly, use stock instead of gravy.

In order to keep it simple, like the original recipe (which was aimed at beginners), I’ll use convenient ingredients (dried herbs, bouillon cubes, etc) rather than fresh. Obviously the recipe is even better with all fresh ingredients and homemade stock.

You will need the following:

• 1lb ground lamb
• 1 1/2 cups lamb or chicken stock
• 2lb potatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• Rosemary
• Worcestershire sauce

The other recipe required ground beef, canned gravy, and potatoes, so basically the difference is that we use lamb instead of beef, stock instead of gravy, add a carrot and an onion, and bring out the flavour with rosemary (essential to get the best from most lamb dishes) and Worcestershire sauce. I don’t know how easy it is to get the latter in the U.S. but it was referenced as an optional ingredient in the other recipe, so I assume it’s available.

Recipe

So, first of all brown the lamb in 1tbsp olive oil, in a large pan. Make sure to break up any lumps. Whilst it is browning (about 5 minutes or so), finely chop the onion.

When the lamb is browned, transfer it to a bowl using a slotted spoon. Do not discard the pan juices. Instead, lower the heat and add the onions, cooking until soft (about 8-10 minutes). Add a pinch of minced garlic or garlic powder if you like.

Whilst the onions are cooking, finely chop the carrot. If you are using a bouillon cube for the stock, dissolve it in boiling water now. Re-add the lamb to the pan, along with the chopped carrot, the stock, a good pinch of rosemary, and 2tbsp of Worcestershire sauce. Do not omit the last two ingredients - they are essential. I mean it.

If you want to experiment further, you can also try adding a pinch of thyme, 1/2 cup of red wine (only use 1 cup of stock if you do this), and 1tsp tomato puree - but you can get a gobsmackingly tasty result without these ingredients.

Stir well, lower the heat to a simmer, and cover. Simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the stock has reduced (don’t let it dry out and stick to the pan though). Taste it - it will be phenomenal.

From here, you can more or less follow the other recipe - add the lamb to an oven dish, top with mashed potatoes made however you like them, and sprinkle with cheese (I use grated parmesan since it crisps up nicely, but you can use whatever cheese you like). I also like to add a little paprika and black pepper at this point. Finally, sling it in a preheated oven at 400ºF or 200ºC for half an hour.

Serve with whatever vegetables you like - I tend to go for peas, but if you prefer corn, great. Tuck in and enjoy.

Hopefully, in the same way your first good cup of tea convinced you that the Brits aren’t crazy when it comes to hot beverages, your first good Shepherd’s Pie will convince you that we know a thing or two about good food as well.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 8:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.