Shepherd's Pie at Home

Hello, Chefs!😋

Shepherd's pie is a traditional and popular dish originating from the United Kingdom. Its popularity has spread to our country, but more recently, when every news portal has a What We're Eating Today section (and these are more visited sites than politics), the family has been keen to try it. I will be happy to try to prepare this dish for them.

All the ingredients are here - nothing unique or exotic - potatoes, minced meat, and vegetables. I followed the standard recipes for this dish. It's easy to prepare and takes a little longer, making it more suitable for a weekend meal, lunch, or dinner when you have time.

What do I need for four people?

one kilo of potatoes
300-500 grams of minced meat of any kind (the basic recipe is lamb, but I use a mixture of beef and pork)
2 large onions
2 carrots
2 leeks
2 stalks of celery
a tablespoon or two of butter
tablespoon tomato paste
cheese if desired (not necessary; I use parmesan because it browns nicely on mashed potatoes)
a teacup of milk
spices (I used smoked paprika, thyme, and summer savory, but you can use other spices too, I suppose)
salt and pepper to taste

😋

First, I prepared the mashed potatoes or puree. I peeled, washed, cut them into small cubes, and put them in boiling water for about 15 minutes.

😋 📷 😋

While the potatoes were cooking, I fried the minced meat. They first made a pie by cutting the meat into small pieces as I read it. Now, everybody is making it with minced meat.
I slightly salt and pepper the roasted meat a little; the spices are added later. When the meat had turned brown after 10 minutes of roasting.

😋 📷 😋

I cut all the vegetables into chunks, and as you can see, I remembered to add a cup of peas (from a can) and found some bay leaves and nutmeg powder.

😋 📷 😋

The potatoes are almost cooked, but I'll wait a little longer. In the same pan where I fried the meat, I added a tablespoon of oil and, first, the onions. After a minute or two of frying, I added the chopped leek, stirred again, fried for a minute, and then added the chopped carrot.

😋 📷 😋

After few minutes of roasting, when the vegetables had softened a little, I added the minced meat to the pan, poured in half a liter of water (if I had poured in some stock, it would probably have been better, but I didn't have any), and added the spices - a few bay leaves, a teaspoon of nutmeg, a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and again salt and pepper to my taste.
And I let it continue to simmer on low heat.

😋 📷 😋

And now it's time for the potatoes, which have been cooking for quite a while. This was deliberate because it is better to have them cooked more than not when making a buttery mash. I drained the water, prepared the butter, heated the milk, and grated the Parmesan cheese.
I added a spoonful of butter to the pot where the potatoes were cooking, added the warm potatoes and grated Parmesan on top, and started to mash. We usually add warm milk and butter while pressing to make everything smoother. After a few minutes, the puree was ready.

The minced meat and vegetables were also ready, so I added peas. Why at the end? Because the peas were already cooked out of the can and would probably fall apart, which we don't want.

😋 📷 😋

Just a little more, and it will be :)

First, put the minced meat and vegetable mixture in the bottom of a glass bowl, then put the puree on top, mash it a little, and pierce it with a fork.

😋 📷 😋

A little more grated Parmesan cheese and the glass baking tray go into the oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the puree is golden.

😋 📷 😋

Well, that's how this pie is now :)

As I looked at the various pictures of this pie, I noticed that mine doesn't look like a Master Chef Award, haha, but you serve a piece of it on a plate.

I added a mixed salad with radicchio and rucola.