“This is the ultimate showstopper shepherd’s pie recipe from our pub, The Mariners in Rock. We have world-class lamb and hogget down in Cornwall, and we get all of ours from Philip Warren Butchers. It will take some time to cook, but the results are more than worth it. I like to serve alongside a mint salsa verde which cuts through the richness of the pie really nicely."
2shoulders of lambboned and rolled (roughly 2.5kg each)
500gsmoked streaky bacon diced
3large onions Roughly diced
6large sticks of celery Roughly diced
7large carrots Roughly diced
6large beef tomatoes
4kglamb stock
1head of garlic Halved
1bunch of rosemary
1bunch of thyme
1bottle of red wine
2.5kgtomatoeschopped
2tbsptomato puree
800gCreamy mash potato made with plenty of butter
Parmesan
Cheddar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 110C.
Sear the lamb in a pan until it has a nice and even golden colour all around.
Add in one onion, two carrots and one stick of celery alongside the garlic, rosemary and thyme.
Transfer to an oven proof dish, cover the lamb shoulder and vegetables with stock.
Tightly wrap in tinfoil and cook until tender and soft, should take about 5 hours. (Can be done overnight).
Bring a pan of water up to boil. Cut the core out of the beef tomatoes, cross the bottom. Plunge into boiling water for ten seconds then into ice water and peel the skin.
Get a wide heavy based pan onto high heat, once hot add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, add bacon and roast quite heavily, then once roasted turn the heat down to medium, add onions let them cook for a couple of minutes then add in celery and carrot.
After two minutes add in tomato puree, let cook for three minutes, always stirring.
Then add in red wine ½ a bottle at a time.
Once reduced, add in chopped tomatoes then reduce down by half.
Now the meat is cooked, take the lamb shoulders out of the liquor, and pass the liquid through a strainer and pour into the pan.
Reduce by half until nice and thick and can coat the meat.
Meanwhile peel the tomatoes, deseed them, cut into four, then cut each ‘petal’ into rough dice. Mix into the lamb shoulder mix.
To assemble:
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Place the lamb shepherd’s pie mix in an oven proof deep dish, spoon mash on top, rough up edges with fork to create spikes.
- Bake for ten to fifteen minutes until bubbling and mash starting to colour.
- Now grate over generous amount of 1 year old Davidstow Cheddar and 36-month aged parmesan.
- Place back in oven for a further 15-20 minutes until cheese is nice and crispy.