This blast for the past kitchen is the type I associate with shepherd’s pie, also a blast from the past! Is it the same for you? Or do you think of a different era?

The kitchen/dining room I grew up with was a mix of eras, because money to renovate was a fantasy. Some of the kitchens in this article are a blast.

Shepherd’s pie or cottage pie?

The 1984 cookbook pictured above is in my mother-in-law’s collection of recipes (I wrote about her recipes here too). Her kitchen was tiny, but produced a lot. Shepherd’s pie is on the first page, along with steak and kidney pie, braised steak and onions (I remember that coming in a tin? OMG it still does!), rissoles, and tripe 🤮 in parsley sauce.

Purists say shepherd’s pie should be lamb (shepherd/sheep). But the cookbook recipe calls for minced (ground) steak, so I interpret that as beef, though lamb also comes in steak. Every other recipe on the page that lists steak is a beef dish.

For modern tastes, I think shepherd’s pie recipe needs more freshness, and extra depth, hence using both liquid stock and stock cube, extra carrot, peas and a massive handful of parsley. I serve with greens, in this case, roasted broccolini and asparagus, on a bed of rocket dressed with olive oil and lemon.

“And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle”
-Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), from “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”

Ingredients

1.5 kg mince beef (in photos here I used 1kg mince and 500g diced, need to leave a little longer simmering in pan if diced to soften)
3 carrots, diced
1.5 onions, diced
1 cup frozen peas
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 tsp worcestershire sauce
3 tsp soy sauce
1¾ cups stock, chicken or beef
1 beef stock cube
3 tbsp flour
thyme, parsley
salt, pepper

Potato

1.2 kg potatoes
80 g butter, plus extra if required
¼-½ cup milk
salt, pepper
egg, lightly beaten for brushing
sprinkle parmesan to taste

Instructions

Add a little olive oil to deep frying pan and cook mince on high heat until browned. Drain off extra fat or liquid.
Add in onion and fry until transparent.
Add in carrots and saute for a few minutes.
Add in stock, tomato paste, handful of thyme, sauces, crumbled stock cube, salt and pepper, and bring to boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
Separately, add ¼ cup water to the flour and mix till smooth. Add to the frying pan and stir, bring to the boil so that the meat mix thickens.
Add frozen peas. then reduce heat and simmer for another 10 minutes. Stir through parsley.
Put mix into ovenproof dish. Either top with potato and proceed to bake (potato can leak into the meat mix) or cool meat mix in fridge for reheating and baking with potato later (see baking below).

Potato

Boil potatoes in salted water until very tender. Drain well. Add back to saucepan on very low heat, allowing any remaining liquid to steam off for a minute. Then mash potato well. Add butter and mash through. Remove from heat. Add additional butter if required. Add milk and mash until very smooth. Add additional milk if required.
Season to taste. If you like parmesan, you can sprinkle through and mix.

Baking

While both meat and potato are hot, you can top meat with potato. Easiest to blob potato on, then smooth with fork, taking it the edges to seal the meat in. Brush potato with egg, and bake in oven at 180℃/356℉ for 45 minutes until golden brown and top is crispy. However the potato can weep into the meat mix if both mix and potato are hot.
Or, prepare meat and potato in advance and refrigerate until cool. Then assemble and bake as above. Or cool the meat only, then top with warm potato and bake as above. Keep in mind usual food safety rules re reheating foods.

Hello!

Blast From the Past Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s pie or cottage pie?