Moomy The Shepherd & Her Pie

Day 14 of 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

2 weeks of surprising upsets, undeserving exits and exciting matches in the Group Stage will finally wrap up tomorrow. I'd say The Big Game of the Day will most likely be that of USA v Germany. 

My new fave team meets my all-time fave team AND 3-times World Cup Champion ('54, '74 & '90).

The Yanks v Die Mannschaft.

Team USA head coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, himself was a member of the German national team that won football's highest accolades in 1990. So he defo knows a thing or two about how to win the game.

I know tomorrow's game will be a nail-biting one. And because I support both teams, it will be doubly-crazy for me! My darling hubby had asked me earlier "Who will you support? What are you going to do?"

Honestly, I don't know. I just want both teams to make it to the top of the table for their group and move on to the next round.

It all began with 32 national teams in 8 different groups.

Group G is known as the Group of Death.

A few more spots left in the Round of 16 ...

Football/soccer fans have coined the term "Group of Death" for any competitive group which contained their favorite teams.

In that case, I'd say tomorrow's match will be The Death Match in my Group G! *grimaces* But honestly, I really hope Team USA will advance through to the next stage. If they do well this World Cup, it will give soccer a wonderful boost that's much needed in this country which is otherwise known for their Football (men with helmets and shoulder pads, The Blind Side movie), Baseball (LA Dodgers) and Basketball (who doesn't know Michael Jordan?).

#IBelieveThatWeWillWin

And who knows … one of my boys might just play soccer for Team USA one day! :D #IBelieve

Anyhoo!! Remember that huge leg-o-lamb my darling hubby had roasted over the weekend? Now there was just too much lamb for just the 2 of us - I knew there would be plenty of leftovers. So on Monday, I made Shepherd's Pie for dinner :D

Shepherd's Pie is basically a pie with meat filling and topped with mashed potato crust. Sounds yummy, right? And since I already had meat chunked up from the previous night's Subway-style sandwich dinner, I figured the lamb chunks would work in a pie …

I decided to turn those little chunks

into a texture that is similar to ground meat ...

Only to realize that the filling will work even better if the lamb chunks were not chunky. So I blitzed the leftover chunks of meat quickly in my trusty Magic Bullet. Don't worry, the filling won't be gloopy and mushy like baby food because I will add other textured ingredients into it. 

Here's what I did for my Shepherd's Pie:

I chopped these up into little diced pieces: 1 yellow onion, 3 carrots, 4 sticks of celery, 4 cloves of garlic and the leaves from 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary. Try to keep the diced pieces similar (in size) so you don't choke on some big, some chunky, some tiny veggies while eating, OK?

In a large pot over medium heat, I added enough olive oil and let that warm up. Once it's nice and warm, I poured the above chopped ingredients into the pot. Stir and season the mixture lightly with salt and pepper.

Chopped onion, carrots and celery went into the pot first ...

Once the veggies have softened (say about 8-10 minutes), I turned the heat up and added these: the blitzed leftover meat (about 1.1lbs/500gm), a handful of chopped white mushrooms, 1 cup of frozen peas, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 250ml of chicken stock, 3 generous tablespoons of tomato paste, half a cup of tomato ketchup and half a tablespoon of smoked paprika. Stir it all together and bring the mixture to a boil.

The tomato paste and ketchup

added color to the lamb filling ...

Then I let the mixture simmer on very low heat for about 25-30 minutes or until most of the liquid is gone.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 390degF and then you can get started on the pie's topping: Mashed Potatoes!!

Now in our house, my darling hubby always make the best mashed potatoes. I don't know why; maybe it's the way he whipped it (he used a metal potato masher and his manly arms to work the spuds into a nice whipped consistency) or what he sprinkled into the potatoes (this is the tricky bit - he always make his mashed spuds differently each time but it always taste good!). But what I do know about basic mashed potatoes is this:

Peel about 8-10 good-sized potatoes and cut them into chunks. Whether you cut them into big chunks or smaller quarters, just be sure that your potatoes are similar in size so that it will cook at the same time. 

Cut your spuds into equal chunks

so they will cook evenly.

Rinse the chunks again and plonk them into a pot of cold, salted water. Let the potatoes boil for about 10-15 minutes until they are tender. You'll know they are ready when you poke at them with a knife tip and the chunk fall off nicely. Now don't over-boil the potatoes because your mashed potatoes will turn out watery.

Once the spuds are ready, drain them in a colander. Let them sit in the colander for a second; into the same pot, quickly spoon in 3 tablespoons of butter. Swirl it around with your spoon so the heat from the warm pot will melt the butter for a bit and then you toss the rest of the potatoes into the pot.

Now's the best part: *cue music* Do (i.e. start mashing) the mashed potatoes …

Everytime I hear the words 'mashed potatoes', 

I will always think of this song ...

I had roasted some garlic cloves in the oven 

and added them into the potatoes for a 

wonderful garlicky flavor! Delish!!

Once you have mashed the chunks away, add a splash or two of milk; that will help to bring the mixture together. Season it with black pepper and if you're adventurous, a sprinkle of smoked paprika and herbs for the added color and flavor. Whip a bit more and then you can assemble the pie.

In a large & deep ovenproof baking dish, spoon the lamb mixture in first; level the mixture out so the meat layer is nice and even. 

The meat goes into the baking dish first ...

Then you spoon the mashed potatoes evenly above the lamb layer. Drizzle the top with some olive oil and poke some short sprigs of fresh rosemary into the topping.

Pop it into the oven and let it work its magic for about 35-40 minutes until the top is crusty and golden :D:D:D

Hot from the oven!

O yum!! :D:D:D

The pie turned out beautifully - the blitzed lamb together with the diced veggies and peas made a beautiful filling with a rich tomato-ey flavor. The topping was very creamy and scented with garlic and rosemary. Very very yummy. I think I will make this with fresh ground beef next time …

Anyway, we made enough pie to have leftovers for the next day so … that's not bad, isn't it? 

So far, Our Big Roast of 1 huge Leg-o-Lamb made these meals:

~ 1 Leg-o-Lamb meal with Roasted Herbed Potatoes and Caesar Salad with home-made dressing & croutons;

~ 1 Subway-style sandwich meal: chunks of lamb meat in hoagie roll with leftover Romaine lettuce, mayonnaise and Dijon mustard. Side of Caesar Salad again but this time round, I added a couple of hard boiled eggs on my salad;

~ A huge Shepherd's Pie = 2 dinners!

And that's not all. I have another meal (or two!) that I was able to whip out of the leftover leg-o-lamb so wait for my next post, OK? 

Until then … baaaaaaa for now! *winks*