I found this absolutely fantastic gadget at the local junk-shop the other day. It's a Universal Food Chopper and it is just the tool I've been looking for.
It looks like a meat grinder, but it does so much more. It can chop, crumble, and make a paste out of most anything. What it excels at is giving a whole new life to leftovers.
Which is a good thing because in this household, we are notoriously bad at eating up leftover roast and veg.
Universal Food Chopper |
Next I more-or-less separated the meat from the gravy and passed the meat through the food chopper. It was a roast lamb shoulder that had been browned and then cooked with garlic in a puddle of red wine. The juices from the roast combined with the wine to make a fantastic gravy. Oh, I put the garlic through the Universal too.
Last of all, I took a few slices of sourdough bread, chopped them up into about 1 inch cubes and passed them through the chopper to sop up all the juices.
In a large bowl, I mixed the chop stuff with the gravy and added some wine or beer or it might have been apple cider - whatever I was drinking at that time. I even threw in a small handful of frozen peas and corn because I worry that we don't eat enough veg. Salt and Pepper, and if I had thought about it, I would have added a finely chopped sage leaf. (If you don't have enough gravy you could mix a stock cube or a spoon of Vegemite with half a cup of hot water, then add to the mix).
Put filling into your baking dish, cover with mashed potatoes (leftovers or fresh or a blend of both).
These are mini-pies to go into the freezer for future dinners - there's only so much shepherds pie one family can eat at a time.
We put goat cheese and paprika on top.
Since everything is already cooked, you just need to heat it up enough so that the lovely juices bubble up and hopefully add a slight flavour to the mashed potatoes. Somewhere between 30 min and an hour.
I apologize for this photo, but keep in mind, most of the family is just really hungry and quite often they serve themselves before I have a chance to find my camera. But you get the general idea: chopped up leftovers in a gravy on the bottom and mashed potatoes on top.
It's a very British pie to make Mrs Beeton Proud - and is a True Shepherds' Pie. It was made of lamb for the shepherd to eat while tending to the sheep.
two new additions to the farm |
Affordable cooking: Yes! All leftovers that may or may not have died a lonely death in the back of the fridge. You can bulk this out with extra veg or even a bit more bread in a pinch. It's great for feeding company that is here for a few days in a row, so they don't get board of eating the same leftover roast beast day in and out.
Allergy Friendly: Yes! Change the ingredients and sauce to suit your needs. Allergic to potatoes? Use bread dough or pastry dough for the topping.
Healthy: Yes! It's a well balanced meal and you can always serve it with a salad.
It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to serve this to your vegan friends.
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