Ingredients:
2 onions; 2 Carrots; 1 Celery stick; 500g pack mince, such as turkey; 100g smoked bacon, chopped; 2t plain flour; 284ml carton vegetable or other stock; 150ml red wine; 700g potatoes peeled; knob of butter; 4T red pesto; 25g parmesan, grated.
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6/fan oven 180C from cold. chop the onions, carrots and celery in a food processor. In a pan over a low heat, cook the mince until the juices start to run, stirring. Add the vegetables adn bacon and cook for 15 minutes until browned. Sprinkle over the flour and cook for 1 minute, still stirring. Stir in the stock and wine and cook, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into chunks and boil for 10minutes. Drain well, and return to the pan. Stir in the butter. Season.
3. Stir the pesto into the meat, season and spoon into a shallow ovenproof dish. Spoon the potatoe pieces on top, sprinkle over the cheese and bake for 30 minutes until golden. Serve immediately.
Vs
Shepherd Pie Mountains
Ingredients :
1/4 Onion (Unless I'm using pickling onions, there's no way I'd use even a whole onion in one meal!); 1/2 Carrot (depending of course on the size of your carrots!); 1 celery stick; Mince (it doesn't matter whether it's lamb, steak, beef or turkey, and you are the best judge of how much mince you use in a dish for your family!); Bacon (I used the last 4 rashers in the pack and as a matter of interest and for this blog, I weighed it and it was just over 100g!); 2t flour - oh! I've just noticed it's two teaspoons, I put 2 tablespoons! Plus I didn't have plain flour so I just used what I had - self-raising flour! (maybe that's what made it taste extra good?!); 1 vegetable stock cube (or you could use an Oxo cube, or chicken cube or lamb cube!); Potatoes - I have a farmer provider and normally only use half of his gigantic potatoes, but I used a whole one for this!; Knob of butter - 'one cooks knob is another cook's door'!!!; Italian Grated Grana Padano, apparantly it's just like Parmesan just made in a different part of Italy!
I missed out the wine, because I don't usually cook with wine, but I have a vague memory of someone suggesting using orange juice instead! So add to the ingredient list : 150ml orange juice with about a tablespoon of vinegar!
Method :
1. Preheat oven.
2. Put the mince in a saucepan, usually no extra oil should be needed, and cook until it changes colour.
3. If you're not chopping the vegetables while the mince is doing, peel and chop the potatoes and put in a pot to start boiling. They only need to be par-boiled.
4. It's not necessary to chop the carrot, onion and celery in a food processor (more washing-up to do!), but I did it once and it may just add a little different texture to just chopping with a knife! Anyway, chop it all up, and add to the mince together with the bacon pieces. Cook for 10-15 minutes.
5. Stir in the flour well before adding the stock, orange juice and vinegar. (I use South African grape vinegar as it is milder to the nose than malt vinegar!) Leave to cook while sorting out the potatoes.
6. Drain the potatoes, then return to the pan and shake with the knob of butter and add seasoning.
7. Pour the mince mixture into an ovenproof dish and top with the potatoe pieces (the 'Mountains'!)
8. Sprinkle as much Parmesan/Grana Padano or whatever grated cheese you like, over the top, a good sprinkling certainly makes a difference to the crispiness of the potatoes!
9. Bake for 30 minutes and serve with a green vegetable or salad.
(Original recipe from GoodFood magazine, BBC Books, 101 Cheap Eats, Tried-and-Tested recipes)
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