Shepherd's Pie .. the kind with vegies in it

How do you get kids (and ahem [*cough cough*], certain adults too) to eat these vegetables?

EXHIBIT A : Colon friendly fibre which would do your doctor proud

You disguise it!  ... In a meaty shepherd's pie with creamy mash potatoes - the stuff that men and kids can live on indefinitely. Some stealth is sometimes justified for the greater good ;P

EXHIBIT B : The shepherd's pie for the serving

So how do we get from Exhibit A (the sliced vegies above) to Exhibit B (the meaty carbo concoction that will have your kids and your man begging for more) without raising too much of a suspicion?

First, we'll roast it and and then roughly chop it up beyond recognition.

Sprinkle some sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and some oil over the vegies and roast it for about 15 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees celsius

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I used a pair of kitchen scissors to quickly chop up the roasted vegies

The shepherd's pie is relatively easy and quick to prepare with some planning and multi-tasking involved. While the vegies were roasting in the oven, I boiled the potatoes on the stove while cooking my meat filling.  Halfway through simmering the meat filling, I added the chopped up, roasted vegies and cooked for a further 5 minutes. This is when you adjust the seasoning of salt, black pepper and the moisture level to your liking.

Lay the meat filling with the incorporated vegies out on an oven dish.. the great thing about aubergines and zucchini is that they just disappear into the dish.  

Time to attend to the potatoes, which should be fork tender by now.

I usually just drain the potatoes, throw them into my cake mixer with the milk, butter, salt and pepper and process. It's fluffy, mashed potatoes within 3 minutes.

Layer the mash potatoes onto pie filling

Use a fork to create those lines and sprinkle with some mozzarella (and parmesan if you wish) and pop it into the oven for 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees celsius or until it nicely browned.

Ingredients used for this dish:

To roast and then chop 

1 brinjal or aubergine

1 celery stick

1 carrot

(zucchini would be good too but I didn't have it on hand this time around to replace the celery - in fact you can put any vegies you want. Caveat - avoid strong smelling, difficult to camouflage stuff like cabbage, brocolli which may just alter the taste of the pie filling )

Time : 15 minutes at 180 degrees celsius with circulation fan on

The Meat filling:

350 g of minced beef/ lamb

300 g of ready made tomato pasta sauce or ragu sauce (those bottled tomato pasta sauce are a great convenience - you can use napoletana, mushroom, basilico  and so on)

2 bay leaves

1 whole fresh tomato, quartered

Sautee the mince meat in some oil together with the bay leaves and quartered tomatoes. Throw in the pasta sauce and allow to simmer. Incorporate the abovementioned roasted vegies. Season to taste.

The Mashed Potato Topping

Mash the following

550 g of boiled and cooked russet potatoes

100 g of fresh milk 

A dollop of butter

Salt and pepper to taste

The Assembly of the Dish

Lay out your pie filling in an oven-proof dish. Remember to remove your bay leaves before putting on your mash potato layering

For sprinkling during baking:

Grated mozzarella cheese and a pinch of grated nutmeg seed

(Tip : Adjust the moisture level of the pie filling by adding more tomato sauce, making sure there is some gravy in it. Same goes for the mashed potatoes, add more milk or cream if necessary for the right amount of moisture. You don't want your pie to dry out during the baking process.)