Shepherd’s pie

serves 6-8

for the shepherd’s pie

300g minced lamb 700g lamb shoulder, cut into 3cm cubes 50ml sunflower oil 1 large onion, chopped 300g carrot, cut into ½cm dice 300g swede, peeled and cut into ½cm dice 1 small leek, finely sliced and washed 250ml red wine 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tsp picked thyme leaves 1 tbsp cornflour 1 litre strong lamb stock 1 tbsp tomato purée 4 tsp Worcester sauce

for the mashed potato

175ml double cream 50ml full-fat milk 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 rosemary sprigs 700g Désirée potatoes, peeled and quartered 65g unsalted butter, melted 4 egg yolks good pinch of grated nutmeg

to assemble

200g grated Berkswell cheese Preheat the oven to 80C/lowest gas mark.

Season all the meat. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pan with a lid. Add the mince and brown it well, then remove from the pan and drain in a colander over a bowl.

Add the shoulder to the pan and brown all over, being careful not to overload the pan so the meat doesn’t boil – colour it in batches if needed. Remove the lamb from the pan and drain in the colander with the mince.

Set the pan back on the heat, turn the temperature down, and add the lamb fat collected into the bowl. Add the vegetables to the pan and cook for about five minutes, not allowing them to colour, then pour in the wine and bring to the boil to reduce by half.

Add the garlic and thyme and cook for five minutes. Add the mince and diced lamb back to the pan and stir in the cornflour. Add the stock, tomato purée, Worcester sauce and some seasoning.

Bring to a simmer, add the lid and cook in the oven for 5-6 hours or until the meat is very soft. Remove from the oven and remove the lid. There will be a lot of fat on the top: carefully remove this with a ladle and discard.

Allow the pan contents to cool and decant the meat and vegetables into a colander over a pan to catch the liquid.

Place this liquid back on the heat and bring to the boil. Skim off fat and scum that comes to the top. Reduce the braising liquor until it coats the back of a spoon and tastes rich – season again if needed.

Place the meat and vegetables in a large bowl and break the meat up with a fork, adding about 300ml of the braising liquor. You want the mixture to be moist but not so wet that it overflows in the oven when you reheat the pie.

Transfer the meat and vegetable mixture to a deep ovenproof dish, 36cm x 25cm. Allow to cool then chill, overnight if possible, to set. Cool the liquor down and place in the fridge.

For the mash, place the cream, milk, garlic and rosemary in a heavy-based saucepan and bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and allow the flavours to infuse.

Cover the potatoes with cold water, add two teaspoons of sea salt and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Drain in a colander. Allow to steam-dry for 2-3 minutes.

Mash or purée the potatoes. Strain the milk and cream mixture into a jug and add this to the potato, mixing at a slow speed. Add the butter then the egg yolks and nutmeg.

Taste and season. If you would like to pipe the mash mixture, place it in a piping bag with a 1½cm star nozzle.

Set the oven to 120C/gas mark ½.

Remove the pie dish from the fridge and top with the mashed potato (I pipe a thick border of mash around the edge of the dish before piping rosettes over the top of the meat, but you can spoon it on if you prefer), and sprinkle with the cheese.

Place the dish in the oven for an hour then turn the temperature down to 90C/lowest gas mark for 50 minutes. The middle needs to be heated to 80C, so use a temperature probe to check then take straight to the table. Reheat the braising liquor and serve it at the table from a jug.

Serve the shepherd’s pie and braising liquour with sliced lamb rump, truffled celeriac purée and Brussels tops.