No-Fuss Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients

• lamb mince
• 500 g lamb mince
• beef stock
• 500 ml beef stock
• tomato, finely diced
• 2 tbsp tomato, finely diced
• carrot, finely diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• asparagus
• onion, finely diced
• 1 onion, finely diced
• milk
• 3 tbsp milk
• sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• butter
• 85 g butter
• vegetable oil
• tbsp
• Worcestershire sauce
• oils
• units
• goat meat
• sauces
• worcester sauce
• millilitres
• ml
• dairy
• potato, roughly chopped
• 900 g potato, roughly chopped
• Buttered peas and greens, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve
• Fresh chives, to serve

Method

1. Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy, wide pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and carrots with a pinch of salt and soften for 6–8 minutes, stirring now and then, until glossy and sweet-smelling — you want them collapsing, not colouring.
2. Turn the heat up to medium-high. Season the lamb mince generously with salt and pepper, then crumble it in. Brown for 5–6 minutes in a single layer, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon. If your pan looks crowded, do it in two batches — all at once and the water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. You're after proper colour and stuck-on bits on the base of the pan; that's flavour. Tip off any excess fat.
3. Stir in the tomato purée and fry for 2 minutes until it darkens a shade and smells jammy — raw purée tastes tinny, cooked purée tastes deep.
4. Splash in the Worcestershire sauce and let it hiss against the fond, scraping up the brown bits. Scatter in the rinsed red lentils, pour over the beef stock, and bring to a simmer. The stock lifts everything off the base — that's where the gravy gets its body. Season, cover, and cook for 40 minutes, lifting the lid for the last 20 so the sauce reduces to a thick, rich gravy that just coats the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust the seasoning now — at the end, not at the table.
5. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Boil the potatoes in well-salted water — it should taste like the sea — for 12–15 minutes, until a knife slides through without resistance.
6. Drain thoroughly and leave to steam-dry in the colander for a minute. Wet potatoes make gluey mash. Mash with the butter and milk until smooth and glossy, and season generously — taste it; under-seasoned mash flattens the whole pie.
7. Tip the filling into an ovenproof dish, spoon the mash over the top, and ruffle with a fork to make plenty of peaks — those are the bits that crisp.
8. Bake for 20–25 minutes until the top is golden in patches and the gravy is bubbling through at the edges. Flash under the grill for a minute if you want a deeper colour.
9. Leave to stand for 5 minutes — it needs that to settle, or it slumps onto the plate. Then serve straight from the dish, finishing each portion with a crack of black pepper and a generous scattering of fresh chives over the golden peaks.