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4. Recipe of the Week Traditional Shepherds Pie

The meals created for the GIY Eat Together programme are all seasonal, homemade, homegrown and hearty. This one is a family favourite and a guaranteed clean=plate meal.

In the olden days, meat pies were done with left over stew and not with mince.  The reheated stew was then topped with pastry or with mash potato (more traditional in Ireland).  The diced lamb gives this a fantastic texture, and it’s full of in-season vegetables – garlic, carrots, parsnips and onions.

Ingredients

• 500g diced lamb
• 4 large tomatoes or 1 small tin of chopped tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 1 large onion
• chopped rosemary leaves
• 200 ml good homemade chicken stock (made from the left-over bones of a roast chicken)
• pinch of salt
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil
• 700g nice buttery mash potato to cover the top

Directions

Fry off the diced lamb with a little cooking oil in a wide stock pot for 5 to 6 minutes until golden brown. Peel and slice the vegetables. Add the vegetables to the meat and fry off for 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the chopped garlic, rosemary and salt. Add the chopped tomatoes and the chicken stock and simmer on low heat for 2 to 3 hours until the meat start to become flaky.  Pour the lamb stew into a pie dish, cover with mash potato and bake at 150 degrees celsius for 45 minutes.