Yummy Shepards Pie

During my first year of uni, I spent my time living off frozen food and ready meals. I spent that year on an intensive course and never had a lot of time to cook, so used it as an excuse not to. However, since I've been living with my boyfriend I've really started to enjoy cooking, espeically from scratch. Plus it is so much better for you not to have any of that rubbish in your body. Things like Shepards pie are fantastic for freezing or putting in the fridge and re-heating the next day. If you're living by yourself, you could cook this at the weekend and it could be your meal for 4 days of the week - definitely no excuse not to cook!

 

 I'm not pretending to be an amazing chef, but I thought if I could share a few of my favourite recipes then it might help somebody out there!

 

Recipe

 

1 pack (about 400g) beef mince.

1 tin chopped tomatoes.

1 red onion.

4 carrots, peeled and chopped.

1kg potatoes, peeled and chopped.

85g marg or butter.

100-200ml milk.

50g cheese.

2 beef stock cubes.

Flavourings/Spices of your choice.



 

Firstly, you need to prepare your potatoes and veg. This takes quite a while (but it is worth it!). Peel and chop your potatoes into even sized pieces, wash them and then put them in the pan ready to go.

 

 

Peel and chop your carrots, onion and any other veg you might be including.

 

 

Put a saucepan onto medium heat and let it heat up for a few minutes. Once heated, add your mince.

 

 

Fry your mince intil browned, then add any veg.

 

 

While your waiting for the veg to cook, add boiling water to the pan of potatoes on a medium-high heat. (My potatoes took about 25 mins).

 

Once your veg has softened, add chopped tomatoes and mix it in.

 

 

Then add the beef stock cubes and mix. Add any spices or flavourings. My staples for a beef mince dish are lea and perrins, black pepper, a pinch of salt, tomato puree and I also added some cayenne pepper for a bit of a kick.

 

 

Let that simmer away while you sort out the potatoes. Drain them, and then add the butter and milk until its lovely, creamy mash. I usually add the milk by eye until it looks soft enough, so the measurement in the recipe is an estimate.

 

 

 

Pour the mince into the bottom of a dish and spread out evenly.

 

 

Then spoon on the mashed potatoes, pressing it down with a fork to make it nice and fluffy looking. Sprinkle on the cheese.

 

 

Then put it into the oven for about half an hour, until nice and golden. Serve up and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liddie x