Shepherd's pie

I love shepherd's pie. I've been known to buy a lamb or hogget roast just so I could leave it to go cold after cooking it and make shepherd's pie from it.

This is why I bought a largeish bit of hogget leg from which to make mutton pies.

I put the bit of meat I hadn't used in a pyrex oven dish and into the oven to roast while I was preparing and cooking the pies:

 This is how it looked when the pies went in:

Then I boiled some potatoes to mash:

When the meat was done …

… I cut the meat off the bone and put it and an onion through the mincer, …

… I poured the cooking fat from the oven dish …

… and made some gravy from the pan juices by adding water and a bit of flour then cooking it off in the microwave:

The gravy went into the minced meat along with salt and pepper and a good squeeze of tomato ketchup:

Once it was all mixed up …

… I spread out out in the washed oven dish …

… then started on the potatoes. I drained them, dried them by shaking the pot on on the burner, added a nice hunk of butter and a bit of milk, then mashed them. Shepherd's pie looks nicer with lovely white peeled potatoes, but all I had was these purple ones and I like potato skins, so I just left them all in.

The potatoes go on the meat …

… I made a nice sort of basket weave pattern on top with a fork once I'd spread them out:

A few small dabs of butter on top …

… then into the oven to cook …

… until it's piping hot all through and the top is brown and crispy.

This is my comfort food, and the only reason tomato ketchup has for existing.