English | Sybaritica

Lamb is not all that popular amongst most Canadians but when I was a kid growing up in England roast lamb was a very popular Sunday dinner. In many households, the main joint would invariably be followed, sometime later in the week, by that old leftovers stand-by, Shepherd’s pie.

Shepherd’s Pie has always been a mainstay of institutional cooking – school cafeterias and the like – and most people associate it with a composite of ground beef, various vegetables and potato. Strictly speaking though, versions with beef are actually Cottage pies whereas a true Shepherd’s pie, as the name suggests, should contain lamb… generally ground cooked lamb that is leftover from a roast.

The basic pie consists simply of ground meat (usually with added onion) baked under a topping of mashed potato. There are endless permutations on the theme, however, involving a whole host of diverse additions. Peas are quite common; as are carrots, and celery, and quite a few recipes add cheese to the potatoes. My mother used to make a version with applesauce in the meat mix and I love it this way, especially with corn niblets added. For this current, experiment, however, I want to go back to the basics and make a very traditional, simple pie…  Read more