In 1999, at the age of 19, I left for London with the goal of spending three months there and learning the language.
I returned after 10 days.
Every moment in life has a specific time, and I wasn’t ready yet back then, today if someone asked me to spend three months, or my whole life, in London, I would have no doubts, and I would leave the same day!
London is the European city I love the most, I’ve returned many times and I will return again, I’m sure, and yet I wasn’t ready then.
Too young, and London was too multicultural, too English and at the same time too cosmopolitan for a nineteen-year-old who had never traveled, and not least, you couldn’t eat well in London!
Over the years, every time I’ve returned (my uncle has lived there for thirty years), I’ve always opted for ethnic cuisines, from Moroccan to Indian, from Japanese to Middle Eastern, because London, as we know, doesn’t have a real culinary identity, and to find some English specialties, you need to stop at one of the many historic pubs, where you serve yourself and can find a “pie“, a sort of savory pie generally filled with meat.
Therefore, I chose an Anglo-Saxon traditional “Pie” for the English stop of “Around the World in 80 Dishes“.
Shepherd’s Pie, as the name itself suggests, is the typical pie (or rather casserole) of English shepherds.
This casserole even has different names depending on the type of meat used: when lamb is used, the correct term to define it is shepherd’s pie.
When beef is used, the name changes to cottage pie (you can find the recipe in the book “In cibo veritas, special creative and ethnic cuisine“).
It is a recipe of humble origins that is now present in various countries around the world in different versions: hachis parmentier in France, pastel de papa in South America, etc.
The Shepherd’s Pie originated at the end of the 1700s, when potatoes began to spread in the United Kingdom with widespread consumption especially among the poor due to their low-cost nutritional intake.
Poor families thus used the leftovers of the roast to prepare this dish.
Like every traditional recipe, every family has its own version, some add peas, some corn, some mushrooms, or some make mashed potatoes with cream, this is a “base” recipe that you can modify to your liking.
In the video, the version with sous vide lamb cooking thanks to the use of a roner.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 8 people
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: English
- Seasonality: All Seasons
Ingredients
- 1.1 lbs lamb
- 1 white onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery
- 1 cup red wine
- 2.1 cups beef broth
- 1.8 lbs potatoes
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- to taste butter
- to taste salt and pepper
- to taste thyme and rosemary
- to taste olive oil
Preparation
Chop celery, carrot, and onion. Chop the vegetables as evenly as possible to ensure even cooking.
In a large pot, brown the meat (brown the meat in small batches, avoiding turning it too often) along with the previously chopped vegetables, salt, pepper, deglaze with wine and let it evaporate, then add the tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, broth, chopped rosemary and thyme and let it cook for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the potatoes in a second pot.
Note: If you have homemade beef broth, be careful with seasoning, holding back a bit and adjusting in the final stage.
Peel the boiled potatoes and mash them thoroughly. Add butter and milk, salt and pepper, and then mix until smooth and homogeneous.
While preparing the mashed potatoes, add the milk gradually to not loosen the mixture, continuously mixing with a whisk.
Transfer the meat into a baking dish and cover it with mashed potatoes with the help of a spatula, bake at 392°F for about 20 minutes.
This one was tasted during our trip to Cornwall, exactly in Lymes Regis in December 2024.
Photos from the London trip from March 2 to 4, 2018
Photos from the London trip from March 2 to 4, 2018
Want to try a very special and decidedly British cookbook???
