A midweek favourite with a twist. Our smooth and silky potato and butternut squash topping opens to reveal a layer of juicy lamb mince and gravy stock with hidden carrots, onions and a slight hint of black pepper and thyme. A great single serve meal for everyone in the family and a great way to get the children to eat more vegetables.
500g Glenarm Redspark Lamb mince
2 onions finely sliced and siced
3 carrots finely sliced and diced
2 sprigs rosemary and thyme, picked and chopped
1 tbsp plain flour
400ml lamb stock (or veg stock)
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp tomato puree
7/8 Rooster potatoes quartered
400g butternut squash diced
100g butter
1 tbsp milk
Half tsp rated nutmeg
Brown the mince in a frying pan with a little oil, remove lamb once browned.
Add onion to the pan, stirring until golden. Add the carrots and herbs cooking until softened.
Add the flour and stir well to coat the vegetables, scraping the bottom of the pan to extract all the flavour.
Add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, stirring to coat everything evenly.
Return the lamb to the pan, add the stock, turn down the heat and simmer for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
Remove the lid and simmer for a further ten minutes.
Let it cool and then transfer into a 2" casserole dish.
Place in the fridge for an hour if you have the time.
Add the potatoes to a saucepan of boiling salted water, boil until they are nearly cooked through.
Add the squash to the potatoes ten minutes before the potatoes will be ready.
Strain and empty the water from the potatoes and squash.
Add the milk, butter and grated nutmeg, mash until you have a silky smooth consistency. Let it cool.
Remove the mince from the fridge, spread the mash evenly over the surface creating ridges with the back of a fork.
Cook in the oven for 25 minutes at 180 degrees until the topping is golden brown.
Remove and serve.
Who doesn't remember pretending they were ploughing a field with their fork on the potato topping of their Shepherds Pie as a child? Inspired by my wife when trying to get our one year old twins to eat more vegetables she sneakily combined the potato and squash as the topping. The result was an overwhelming success and has now become a staple of our dinner table.
