Tuesday 4 October 2016

Multi Shepherd's Pie

One of the things I love about blogs, is the snippets of information you can read that spark off an idea.

In this case, it was Rhonda on the Down to Earth blog, talking how to get vegetables into adults and children who aren't too keen on the whole idea see here.

First of all, I wanted to mix meats so I used 400g of stewing beef, plus a combination of 400g of pork and 100g of streaky bacon, all minced together. I removed half the pork/bacon mixture as I wanted to test another recipe. The other half was added to the beef with a whole minced onion.

This mixture was fried until slightly brown before a generous dash of Worcestershire sauce was added. In a larger pan, I add 8 diced small mushrooms, 3 diced medium carrots (from the garden), and a whole diced red sweet pepper:
The meat mixture was added, along with a can of chopped tomatoes. The pan was then topped up with boiling water until the mixture was just covered, then simmered for 30 minutes:

Once ready, a 1/4 bag of Quorn mince, two good handfuls of peas and the same of sweetcorn were added, along with two pork stock cubes and one beef one. Two tablespoons of tomato puree were added and the pan simmered for another 5 minutes.


Three ladlefuls of the mixture were drained through a sieve (keeping the gravy) and placed into three enamel and one casserole dish:





The remaining gravy:

was divided into three (not quite enough for all four but no doubt I can save some gravy in future for that one), cooled and frozen.

I cooked one large sweet potato in a pan and enough normal potatoes in another pan. Once cooked, they were mashed seperately, then mixed together, before being added to the top of each dish:
When cold, they will be covered and frozen for later use. Once thawed (along with some gravy), a generous grating of cheese will be added to the top before being heated in a 200C oven for 30 - 40 minutes. Yum.

So then, four different meats, counting the Quorn, 10 different vegetables counting the tomato puree.

Obviously if those you cook for don't like vegetables so much, grate or blitz them before adding to the meat of your choice and darken the gravy to hide them more. Normal potato rather than a mixture would also be a good alternative. You can of course, add whatever and however much vegetables you want, depending on what you like and the season you are in.


8 comments:

  1. What a great idea to add a sweet potato to the mash! I love the colour, and the extra vitamins are definitely a bonus. I'll definitely try it next time!

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    1. I wouldn't have thought of it usually.

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  2. I am blessed that everyone I cook for loves vegetables. However I do love the idea of adding a sweet potato to the topping.

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    1. I wonder if people aren't exposed to enough variation when growing up?

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  3. They really looks good. I overbought sweet potatoes earlier in the year and ate so many I haven't been able to face them since, but that topping looks very tempting!

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    1. Not something we eat a lot off but makes a change.

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  4. That sounds a wonderful mixture which I will try. It's timely 'cause I'm trying to use up food from my cupboards and deep freeze rather than buying anything much this month. Using a mixture of meats will allow me to use bits of various meats that are lurking in the freezer.
    Just a small comment; Worcester sauce contains gluten (barley). A good substitute is Yorkshire Relish..
    Thanks for all your excellent recipes. Sue

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    1. Thanks for that but I can eat gluten in small amounts. Never seen Yorkshire Relish, shall keep a lookout!

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