My Mom’s Shepherd’s Pie

Cut the potatoes into even size cubes & place in a pot of boiling water with a pinch of salt and let it boil for about 1/2 hour or until potatoes are VERY tender.

While the potatoes are cooking, pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Add 2 Tablespoons of cooking oil to a large deep pan. Keep the pan at high heat at all times.

Add the onions. Stir them around for a minute. Add the minced garlic. Stir it around for a minute. And then add the ground beef. Keep stove at high heat and give it a good stir.

Add the carrots, mushrooms, 1 Tablespoon of mixed herbs and 5 bay leaves.

Add 2-3 cubes of beef bouillon. It depends on the brand you use. Taste it at the end and add more if necessary. I crumble them with my fingers into the pan. There’s nothing worse than eating into food and biting into a large lump of undissolved stock cube.

Add 3 tablespoons of Bovril, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper and 1 Cup of red wine. After a good stir to combine the ingredients in the pot, sprinkle in 5 tablespoons of plain flour. Stir the flour through. Turn off the fire. Cover tightly and set aside.

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By now the potatoes should be done.

The potatoes must be very tender, or they won’t mash nicely into a soft whipped texture.

Drain the potatoes, return them to the pot and add in 150 grams of butter, 2 cubes of chicken stock, black pepper
and 1.5 cups of whole milk. Stir and mash. Tweak with milk or seasonings where necessary. You want to get a very soft mash.

When the mashed potatoes are finger linking good on their own, cover the pot and set aside.

Now back to the meat mixture. Dish out the meat stuff into a large casserole dish. Fill half the dish with meat mixture.

Place the mashed potatoes in a strong freezer zip lock bag. And push the mixture to the bottom of the bag. Snip off an inch tip of one of the corners of the bag. Hold the opened tip carefully and place the bag of potatoes over the casserole dish. Start piping in straight lines end to end.

Once you have the potatoes piped on, use an offset spatula or a jam knife and gently move the surface of the potatoes till you get an even flat top. Add more mashed potatoes where necessary.

Brush the egg yolk over the surface of the pipes generously. Glide a fork over the surface gently and create straight lines.

Do the same thing for the second pie.

Pop the pies into the pre-heated oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown on the top. To give it an extra golden brown, I turned the oven to broil in the
last 5 minutes.