On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 1 kg lamb mince, regular
• 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 celery, diced small
• 3 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp flour · 200 ml red wine
• 500 ml lamb stock
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 tbsp thyme
• 150 g peas
• — TOPPING
• 1.5 kg floury potatoes
• 120 g butter · 150 ml warm milk
• 1 egg yolk · 80 g grated cheddar · nutmeg

Method

1. Brown the mince hard in batches until it is genuinely dark and crusted. Most shepherd's pie is grey mince, and this is why.
2. Vegetables in, 12 minutes. Garlic, tomato paste, flour — two minutes each.
3. Wine in and reduced. Stock, Worcestershire and thyme in. Simmer 45 minutes uncovered until thick enough to hold a spoon upright. Peas in at the end. Cool.
4. Boil the potatoes, drain, and let them steam dry for 5 minutes. Mash with the butter, then the warm milk, then the yolk and nutmeg. Season hard.
5. Mince into a dish, mash piped or spread over, ridges dragged across with a fork — ridges are what brown. Cheese scattered on.
6. 200 °C for 35 minutes until brown and bubbling at the edges. Rest 10 minutes.

Cook's note. Try it with Durban keema instead. Substituting keema (GB-MSW-10) for the plain mince makes a shepherd's pie that will empty a British counter faster than anything else in this chapter.

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