Cooking corner

Tasty Shepherd’s pie

Ingredients
I kg lamb shoulder meat cut into 5cm squares.
1 onion diced.
1 carrot diced.
1 leek finely chopped. 100ml port.
2 large mushrooms
10 button mushrooms halved.
2 tsp tomato paste.
2 cloves garlic chopped.
500 ml lamb stock.
1tsp grd. coriander.
1 tsp grd. cumin.
1 tsp salt.
4 tbsp olive oil.
1 bay leaf.
3 sprigs thyme.
6 peppercorns.
750 gr. Potatoes.
Milk and butter.

Method
Sprinkle lamb with coriander, cumin and salt. Heat oil in deep pan and brown the meat.

Then remove the meat, pour off any excess fat and add the vegetables and tomato paste, cook until they start to brown.

Then add port and stir well. As it begins to bubble add thyme peppercorns, and bay leaf, stirring well.

Pour into casserole dish with lid adding stock and meat, stirring to mix. Cook for two hours at 150 degrees.

Check occasionally to ensure the meat is not drying out.

When cooked the meat should be almost falling apart.

To finish the pie:
Mash potatoes well using more butter and milk than usual to ensure a moist mix.

Spoon the mix onto the casserole and cook with lid off at 180 degrees until topping is brown (aprox 30 minutes).