Chinese food is of course the best food in the world, but every now and then, everybody needs a little break from it. England is not best known for its cuisine, but as I grew up in England, I do like some nice English comfort food from time to time and Shepherd’s Pie fits the bill perfectly. It’s also incredibly easy to make from scratch.
Ingredients:
700 grams potatoes
450 grams minced beef (you should use minced lamb but that’s hard to find in China. Well, it’s hard to find late on a Sunday night on Huai Hai Road anyway!)
1 carrot
1 onion
2 small handfuls frozen peas
1 tsp each of dried rosemary and dried thyme
Pinch of ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
200ml beef stock (I used Oxo cubes)
125ml milk
1 tbs plain flour
Grated cheddar cheese
Paprika
1. Chop potatoes into cubes and boil in salted water for about 15 minutes till tender and ready to be mashed. While being boiled, finely chop the onion and carrot. You could also chop a stick of celery if you like.
2. Drain the potatoes and place back in the pot for mashing. Add a little butter, salt and white pepper as well as the milk and mash till soft and smooth.
3. Heat some oil in a pan and stir in the onions and carrots, cooking for about 10 minutes till tender. Then add in the beef and stir gently till cooked (about 5 minutes).
4. Add in one tbs of flour to thicken the gravy and mix in to the beef then add beef stock and the seasoning (rosemary, thyme and nutmeg) and stir for around 5 minutes till gravy thickens, adding salt and pepper to taste if needed.
5. Place the beef mixture in a baking dish (I don’t have one so I used a shallow bowl) and cover with the mashed potatoes, then fluff the potatoes with a fork to make an uneven surface.
6. Finally top potatoes with small pieces of butter, paprika and some grated cheese (optional) and put in the oven at 200C / 400F for about 30 minutes.
Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving to your hungry guests.
You’re probably wondering what you’re supposed to do with the peas. Well they should have gone in to the pan with the beef at stage 3, but it’s too late now. Just put them back in the freezer for next time!
July 30th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
looks great!
July 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
How could you forget the peas? LOL
It looks delicious and I could just eat a huge plate of it. I love Shepherds Pie on yucky, rainy, depressing days like today. Just need a hot cuppa and an old movie – bliss!
July 30th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
D – Thanks. My photography skills are still better than my cooking skills.
KimC – Pop over for some whenever you like. I’ve just seen Gordon Ramsey make his version of it and I am dying to try it out as he does a few things differently.
I should point out I forgot the peas when writing the recipe NOT when cooking the pie!
July 30th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
how many have you made in the last week Peter, it was three at the last count?
July 30th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Dingle – It depends on if you count the one I’m making tonight!
July 30th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I thought the peas were for throwing @ the guests for a minute
July 30th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I bet Gordon remembers the f’ing peas.
I buy the Shepherds Pie at Flying Fox in Jinqiao and they always forget the peas. Some bright spark always plonks about ten on the top of the mash before it is served.
Did you get your recipe from them?
July 30th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Rose – Yes that’s one option.
KimC – Believe it or not there’s no peas in Gordon’s recipe. I hope you’re joking about the peas on the mash. So you’re way out in Pudong? I guess you won’t be popping round any time soon then.
July 30th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Oh it’s a cook-off, is it?
This begins when I get back from the Philippines.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
This all sounds great, but what’s an oven? That’s not something we seem to have in our kitchen down here. We do have heat lamps in our bathroom – would that work?
July 30th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
t – Bring it on!
Mark – I have an electric counter top oven I got from Taobao for 600 rmb. It works fine!
July 31st, 2009 at 10:45 am
Looks awesome but could someone please convert the grams and ml into something I can understand?
July 31st, 2009 at 11:07 am
Heli82 – 200ml is about one cup (slightly less). 1000 grams (1 kilogram) is 2.2 pounds. Hopefully you won’t end up with a huge pie that can feed 400 people instead of 4 people!
July 31st, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Clearly I’m not british enough. For some reason I thought Shepherd’s pie involved lamb. Shows how much *I* know.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:11 pm
My bad… just read your ingredient list. Shows how detail oriented I am. (sorry for the double post)
July 31st, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Do pay attention please Renners.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:20 pm
it looks delicious…if only i had an oven
July 31st, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I feel another visit to Shanghai might be in order! Just left HK and the last meal I had there was in fact pie….I miss pie the most living here!
August 1st, 2009 at 3:07 am
yum! you can cook in the kitchen . . . but how about in the . . . oh, never mind! =P
August 1st, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Balticninja – 600 rmb on Taobao. Do it!
Wiseman – Any time.
Angie in Texas – LOL, well in the …. I’m not cooking, I’m on fire!
August 1st, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Angie – doesnt he sound too good to b true , good in all depts … wonder what the catch is …
August 2nd, 2009 at 1:20 am
@ peter: touche!
@ rosa: his scary word is: commitment.
August 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 am
Angie – My scary word isn’t commitment it’s “sleep with just one girl for the rest of your life are you freaking kidding me?”. Okay that’s 16 words. I see what you’ve done, you’ve shortened it to one word.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Ha ha… Miss jellied eels yet?
Some British food is just as awful as Chinese food. Ha ha..
August 7th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
@London Caller – Can’t say I miss them. I do miss good pies and Cumberland sausages though. And proper chips. Not bloody French fries.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:35 am
[...] the woai cooking challenge, i cooked dinner for myself [...]
February 24th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Where-o-where did you get OXO cubes from in Shanghai?
Please do tell. I can’t find them in any of the ‘foreign’ supermarkets here.
Cheers
February 24th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Every branch of City Supermarket has OXO beef and also chicken stock.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:25 am
shoot, my local lianhua has OXO cubes.