Shepherd’s Pie

I saw a tweet that led me to this you tube video. You have to admit this is quite a nice idea for a cook show. Anyway, me being me, I just had to try the recipe and the beautiful thing is that I had all the ingredients on hand.

As Peter Nduati (C.E.O, Resolution Health E.A) demonstrated the meal is pretty easy to put together and I think you can never go wrong when baking. I used his recipe with a few tweaks here and there.

Ingredients:

For the meat filling

1/2 kg minced meat

1 cup pre-boiled peas

4 carrots chopped

1 onion chopped

1 tomato cubed

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 cup water/beef stock/chicken stock

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt to taste

For the mashed potatoes

Handful of potatoes, peeled,washed and halved

Water for boiling

2 bay leaves

Salt to taste

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp butter

Start by boiling the potatoes.

In a sufuria, place all the potatoes, fill it with just enough water to make them cook. Add the salt and bay leaves and cover.

Now for the minced meat filling.

In a skillet, heat some oil then fry your onions.

After the onions are slightly cooked add in the minced meat.

Season with the garam masala. Let the meat brown and cook for about 15 minutes. Then add your tomatoes.

Add the carrots and let them cook. At this point you can add the water/broth.

Let the meal simmer till the fluid has been greatly reduced then add the peas.

Now back to the potatoes. Drain them in a colander, remove the bay leaves and discard. Sprinkle over the turmeric powder and add the butter. Mash to your heart’s content. Taste to check if the salt is enough.

Now, we are ready to assemble the dish.

Rub an oven friendly casserole dish with some butter.

Put one layer of the mashed potatoes as the base.

Then line the mince meat filling.

Finally top off with the remaining mashed potatoes. I have put quite a lot of the mashed potatoes on the base that the remainder wasn’t enough to completely cover the top.

Finally, grate some cheddar cheese on the top.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes.

As per Peter’s recipe, there was a white sauce which i didn’t make since I didn’t have white onions. I had however made some kachumbari which I served with.

Verdict:

Delicious. Hubby loved it and so did our guest Ben.