.: Recipe : Shepherd's Pie :.

A slightly modified Gordon Ramsay's recipe....

(Pictures updated 19/6/09)

Ingredients
800 grams of minces beef
2 large onions, minced
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 carrots, minced
3 tablespoon of tomato puree
1/2 cup of chicken/beef stock
4 - 5 tablespoon of Worchester sauce
2 tablespoon of chili flakes (or more according to one's taste)
Pepper, salt & mixed herbs to taste

Mash potatoes topping
800 grams boiled potatoes
100 grams butter
3 egg yolks
50 gram grated cheese
Pepper & salt to taste

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Heat some oil in a frying pan and cook meat until slightly brown. Remove meat from pan.

Add oil and fry garlic, onions and carrots until golden. Add tomato puree and the mince to the carrot and onion and pour over stock. Season with salt, pepper and mixed herbs and add in Worchester sauce. Gently simmer for about 15 mins until stock reduce. Lastly, add in chili flakes. Spoon mixture into ovenproof serving dish.

For potatoes, add butter and roughly mash it. Add egg yolk, one at a time and mix throughly. Add grated cheese and seasoning. Spoon the potato mash over the meat, and sprinkle the remaining grated cheese.

Bake for 30 mins, until top is brown

Verdict:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ (8/10)

Love the juicy beef filling. The proportion of meat to topping is just nice, unlike some shepherd pie which I've tried that has way too much potato topping. And I love, love, love the chili flakes - coz I just love the spiciness! An absolute must (tho not in the original recipe)! *wink*
The topping could have been better, coz it wasn't brown and crisp. Perhaps it because I used cheddar cheese instead of parmesan cheese (which was what the original recipe ask of). Perhaps the next time I make this, I will add in mushroom and leek for a more "fuller" filling.

* Note : Well, technically this is a cottage pie rather than a shepherd pie coz I used beef instead of lamb. But according to Wikipedia - The term "shepherd's pie" did not appear until the 1870s, and since then it has been used synonymously with "cottage pie", regardless of whether the principal ingredient was beef or mutton. It doesn't really matter what you call it, so long as it taste good! :)