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Leftovers: Summer Shepherd’s Pie recipe

Summery Shepherds Pie“Do you like carrots in your shepherd’s pie?”
“Yes please!” Danny looked suspicious, “What else are you going to add?”
I was planning to cook a traditional British Shepherd’s Pie with the leftovers from a shoulder of lamb. He visibly relaxed.

But when I went to the fridge that evening the shelves were bare. For weeks Danny had been stockpiling carrots, buying every bag that he found on the Tesco condemned food counter. At one stage the fridge was bursting with them and I’d considered making carrot whisky (it needs 6 kilos) but pressed for time had just used them with each meal. Somehow we had managed to eat every single one.

So I shifted up a gear and used the other seasonal vegetables that were crying out to be transformed into something delicious. The pie was very good. I stuck to the traditional sort of seasoning for a Shephed’s Pie and the combination worked well. Tasty, summery and packed with flavour.
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Summer Shepherd’s Pie recipe

Ingredients:

Pie base:

  • Half a shoulder of cooked lamb, minced
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 chubby clove of garlic, chopped
  • 1 orange pepper, chopped
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 1 medium courgette, chopped
  • Good handful of fresh parsley, chopped fine
  • 2 tbsp of mushroom ketchup
  • 0.5 tsp of marmite
  • 2 tsp of flour
  • 200 ml of strong vegetable stock (I used 1 tsp of veg stock powder to 200ml of boiling water)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

  • 450g of potatoes. Peeled and quartered
  • 2 tbsp of milk
  • 1 large knob of butter
  • Large handful of grated mature cheddar (or goat’s cheddar)
  • Ground white pepper

Method:

  1. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan and add the chopped onion and garlic. Fry very gently until the onion becomes translucent.
  2. Add the pepper, celery. tomato and courgette and stir to coat the vegetables in the olive oil. Sprinkle over the flour and stir well before adding the stock. Simmer until the vegetables are soft yet still have bite.
  3. Meanwhile, simmer the potatoes for the topping. When they are ready mash them or ideally pass them through a potato ricer and add the butter, milk and freshly ground white pepper. Set aside in a warm place. When the vegetables in the saute pan have softened, stir in the minced lamb, parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Switch off the power to the ring, pop on a lid and leave for two or three minutes for the minced lamb to heat through.
  4. Put the meat and vegetables in a pie dish and spoon over the mashed potatoes. Roughen the surface with a fork and sprinkle over the grated cheese. Grill for five minutes or so until golden brown.

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7 Comments

  1. and when there is left over cottage pie, from the left overs that were used to create it, wait till its cold and with floury hands roll it in to small rissoles, dip in beaten egg and finaly breadcrumbs and deep fry for a supper snack while watching tele 🙂

  2. Hi – thank you – we are enjoying our adventure in France too but having to keep living costs down as much as possible whilst setting up the gites. But then I have alsways enjoyed saving money where-ever possible.

  3. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Rosie

    We are into the eighth month of our save money challenge 2008. So now I am budgeting like mad and using up every leftover. Now averaging 40-50% on over the counter spending. It’s essential but proving to be fun.

    Interested in what you are doing in France. Best of luck with all your ventures.

  4. Hi – just stumbled across your blog – and will have a better read when I am not processing more home-grown veggies and eggs. I love meals made from what-ever is in the fridge – they are often my best creations but of course never truely recreated.

  5. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Amanda

    I’ve missed you and your blog.

    All of our blueberries ere a gift to the birds too!

    Blackberry soup – sounds delicious!

    Hi Sharon J

    We cook some food for my mum now (88) and she was so pleased to hear that Shepherds Pie would soon be winging its way into her freezer.

    She does get half vegetarian food and this must be an enormous sea change!

    Good luck with your pie!

  6. Sharon J

    Oddly enough my daughter asked yesterday whether we wouldn’t be having Shepherd’s Pie soon. After reading this, I guess I’m just going to have to oblige 🙂

  7. Yummy! Wish we had some leftover meat. Having just returned from holiday everything is bare, except the garden, which having had tons of rain is absolutely thriving. We’re going to be eating our first potatoes today. We tried the carrots raw yesterday – delicious but they need a bit longer in the ground. The pumpkins are really starting to come alive. There are lots of tomatoes but they’re all still green. The blueberries seem to have finished, but walking back from the village shop this morning armed with the papers and a bag we picked a huge amount of blackerries – Small wants to make blackberry soup. A sweet soup… Let you know how it tastes.

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