Shepherd’s Pie

A few weeks back we visited a very popular local irish pub and I was about to order the Shepherd's pie when I noticed that it has beef. That is definitely not an authentic Shepherd's pie. A Shepherd's pie is supposed to have lamb, just like fisherman's pie has fish and cowboy's pie has beef. This prompted me to make some of my own pie.

Ingredients For Meat Mixture

• 2 lb. ground lamb
• 1 onion diced
• 2 fat cloves of garlic
• 2 medium carrots diced
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1cup chicken stock
• Freshly ground pepper
• Salt to taste

Ingredients For Mashed Potato

• 2 lb. golden potatoes cut into quarters
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 egg yolk beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
• 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper powder
• Salt to taste

Procedure Of making Meat Mixture
Preheat oven at 250F. In an oven proof baking dish take butter along with onion, garlic, minced meat. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Mix well. Add half a cup of chicken tock to it and stir.
Put the dish in the middle rack of the oven and cook for an hour. Carefully take the baking dish out. Add vegetables. Mix flour with rest of the chicken stock and pour over the meat mixture. Give everything a nice mix. Now cook it again for another hour. At the end of the cooking it will look like a thick meaty gravy.
By this mean time make the mashed potato. Boil potatoes in adequate water till tender. Drain it. Mash the potato with a little butter. Season it with salt and pepper. Sprinkle chopped parsley and mash till potatoes are smooth.
In a bowl whisk together egg yolk and milk and stir it into the mashed potato mixture. Top the meat mixture with mashed potato and spread it evenly to cover. You can pipe the mixture too, to give it a fancy look.
Bake it in a pre heat oven at 350F for 25-30 minutes.
Serve warm.