Easy Peasy Shepherd’s Pie

Whoa.

What a full week!  First week back at uni and it feels like I’ve been back for ages lol  It is definitely going to be a jam-packed semester with two placement based subjects and after one seminar on Family Law, it’s clear that the 100% exam will not be a walk in the park (though law exams never are).  That means that blogging will once again have to take a backseat to RL.  *sigh* Cooking will sadly have to as well but I did do a fair bit of it over the break having been inspired by MasterChef (#TEAMANDY!).  It was the first time that I’d followed the series as closely as I did – possibly due to exam procrastination ahem.

Anyhow, there are a number of dishes I cooked (and documented) however, I’ve decided to skip ahead to something I made earlier this week for my Student Alpha group.  Why skip ahead instead of going in chronological order of making the dishes?  I thought you’d never ask ;).

1. It’s a recipe connected with fond memories from my childhood as it was one of the first recipes that I properly learnt from one of friend’s mother back in primary school.

2. I spontaneously made an Instagram game out of the cooking process (Guess what’s cooking? – start here).  Congrats to Lianne from Food Made With Love for guessing correctly :D.

3. It is always so well received whenever we cook it for potluck at church or bring it to dinner parties.

4. Though it seems like there are a lot of steps, it’s really easy-peasy.

Need I give you anymore reasons?

Easy-Peasy Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• ½ kg of mince beef
• 3-5 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2-4 clovers of garlic, finely chopped
• A bag of frozen corn, peas and carrots
• Butter
• 1 cup of warm milk
• Shredded cheese
• Tomato sauce (for colour and to taste)
• 1 cup of water
• Salt (to taste)
• Flour
• ½ kg of potatoes, cut into quarters

Method:

1. Heat the butter in a large saucepan or pot.  Let the butter melt and when the saucepan is hot, add the onions.  When onions are soft and tender, add the garlic.
2. When the garlic and onions have become a golden brown colour, add the mince meat.  Stir around until the combination is mixed through and until the meat has changed to a brown colour.
3.  Add the cup of water and mix around for a minute.  Then add the flour to thicken the mixture.  Add tomato sauce until the mixture has enough colour.
4.  Next pour in the amount of corns, peas and carrots to your liking.  Stir.  Add salt to your taste and add more tomato sauce if you require.
5.  Set aside.  Boil some hot water and then add the potatoes with 2 sprinkles of salt.  When the potatoes have softened, drain all the water away.  While waiting, preheat oven to 180⁰C.
6.  Put the potatoes in a large bowl (used to mash the potatoes).  Add two tablespoons of butter and mash the potatoes together.  Add the shredded cheese (to your liking but usually about 2 handfuls) and mix.  Slowly pour in the warm milk while you are still mixing the potatoes.
7. Now, spoon in the mince beef mixture into the bottom of a medium sized baking dish so that it has a flat top.  Next, add the potato mixture on top and smooth out the top as well.
8. Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the top begins to become a golden brown colour.  When it is ready, take it out of the oven to cool for about 10 minutes and then it is ready to be served.

 Additional notes:

• Suggestion is to serve it with a fresh green salad like my Avocado and Apple Salad so it’s not too heavy.
• As you’ll see in the ingredients, a lot of it is just to taste so sorry that I can’t give exact measurements.  A bit of trial and error never hurt anyway ;).
• The tray I used wasn’t big enough for all the filling so I made a few mini ones:

I may have had two for dinner tonight… ;).

Well, hope you enjoy making your own easy-peasy shepherd’s pie!  Let me know how it goes :).

Have a great weekend everybody!

Random Question: What was the first dish that you ever learnt to cook?

♥ Ames