Leftovers Shepherd's Pie

I love lamb. Love it!

So a slow cooked roast leg of lamb is high on my list of things I want to be eating at any point in time.
The problem is I know I cannot eat a full or even a half leg by my self and it would be gluttonous even between two people.

The answer is to go old school and make one of the original leftovers recipe's... A Shepherds Pie.

Most Shepherds Pie will be made using lamb mince.. (cottage pie used beef)

Using slow cooked meat adds a whole world of extra goodness.

I am not going to give measurements for this dish as it is is really a what you have available type of thing.

For this recipe you will need

Potatoes
Onions
Carrots
Slow cooked meat - Lamb or beef
Garvey mix
Peas

And some milk and butter for the mash

To slow cook lamb all you need to do is put the lamb in the slow cooker and turn it on.

This is half a leg of lamb and it took around 6 hours to cook. (I tend to set something cooking before I set off to work and when I get home I have delicious food and a house that smells awesomely foodish)

We had already eaten a nice lamb dinner and I had a sneaky lamb sandwich when I got home. These steps assume you have the meat already cooked and in the state of leftovers.

For mash peal some potatoes
Chop your potatoes into small parts

Put them in a pan and boil until they're soft

Drain the water

Mash - I add some milk and butter when mashing to help produce nice creamy mash.

Make as much as you need If you are planning ahead you could make a whole bunch of mash and have it with your slow cooked lamb meal as well as using it in your Shepherds Pie.

Cut some onions up and soften them in a pan with a little oil in it.

I cut the tops and bottoms off my onions before making a slice down one side which allows me to remove the papery onion skin. I then cut the onion into slices with the onion stable on it flat cut side.

I used the biggest pan I had but with this dish you can make it to any size. My mum makes little individual portions which are delicious.

Grab some carrots.

Peal them and chop them into smallish bits before adding to the softening onions. Make sure to give the onions a stir from time to time.

Add fresh or frozen peas. I had a packet which makes things a little easier.

The beauty of slow cooked lamb is the fall off the bone tenderness it has.

Use as much meat as you want to and add it to the big pan of goodness.

(Try not to eat all the meat before this step... its difficult because slow cooked lamb is awesome)

I used lamb gravy but beef is just as good.. (There are lots of alternatives to this recipe which include making gravy from scratch and adding things like red wine and worcester sauce. You can make it as fancy as you want but you don't have to. I think if your making it after a day of work simple is better)

I made a small pan of gravy and added it to the onions, carrots, peas and meat mix before decanting it into a large ovenproof dish.

I like to have a thin mash crust so but if you would prefer a thick lair use a deeper dish.

Add the mash on top of the gravy mixture and use the back end of a fork to flatten and texture.

I put my pie in the oven for around 30 minutes at 200 degrees until the pie crust became golden brown.

This pie is fantastic straight from the oven but I think it improves once it has had a chance to settle.

It can be frozen and re-heated and is one of the things I make during colder months as a really healthy and probably good for you comfort foods.