Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie....the kids and hubby love them...me...so so...as I am never a meat person, a bit of chicken ...but I love fish...so I have never thought of attempting this at home...until I saw this here : Anie's blog and I strated to drool....

So, on Saturday whilst doing my 'wet' marketing at Pasar Tani Melawati, I decided to find all the ingredients to make this dish for lunch! I got my minced topside (free of fat and very fresh!) and potatoes...hmm somehow there weren't any russet potatoes, err the kind that you make mashed potatoes, so I had to settle with whatever my findings were that day...and the onions...my they were rm6.00 per kg....whooping high price!

Anyway, here's the recipe which i have given many twists and turns from that that I found at Anie's...all to suit whatever that I had in my kitchen......

Ingredients

For Mashed Potatoes

1.5 kg potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 tbsp butter, I omitted

1/2 cup milk, I substituted with 3/4 cup cream...yezza!

salt and ground balck pepper

For Minced Beef Filling

1 tbsp olive oil, I used 1 tasbp olive oil and 1 tbsp cooking oil...way to go ...woot!

1/2 kg minced beef, I used about 3/4 kg minced beef

1 clove garlic, I used 4 cloves

1 onion, I used 2 medium onions

2 tbsp butter, I omitted

2 tbsp all purpose flour

1 cup beef or chicken stock, couldn't find any beef cube stocks from Pasar Tani, so I settled for 1 tsp Maggi Secukup rasa.....eh boleh jadi spokeperson for Maggi, I nih!Add half cup water.

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce, I used 2 tbsp, hehe!

4 tbsp HP fruity sauce....I added, found this in my fridge, hubby uses this in his sandwiches :p

1 tbsp Lingam's Chilly Sauce, he he!

1 cup grated cheese, I used Bega's extra tasty cheddar...  

I also added red and yellow capsicum diced, 1/2 stalk celery and 2 small sticks carrots

Method

1. Boil potatoes in water, that just covers them, add salt....boil for about 15 minutes. When tender, I stirred the cooked potatoes to dry up all the water, and potatoes were left as a huge lump!

2. Using a fork, I mashed the potatoes, when all done, add whipping/double cream and pepper...set aside.

* While boiling the potatoes, I started preparing the filling....

3.Sautee garlic and onions until brown, add the minced meat and brown them too..this will caramelise and give the 'sweet' taste...

4.Add all the sauces, Maggi secukup Rasa and half cup water.

5.Add a pinch of salt, cheese and add all the vegetables, stir for a couple of turns and turn off fire!

6.To assemble, I simply filled up a large casserole dish with meat filling and spread mashed potatoes to cover. Then spread the rest of the mashed potatoes and using a fork I did a criss-cross all over on top and sprinkled some cheese.

7.Bake for about 40 minutes in a preheated oven at 200C.

After that ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY.....too  bad I didn't have any macarons for dessert that day.....

[dear readers, sorry if I had not replied to your comments, I will...soon!!]