I've never had mutton, at least, I don't think I have. I've heard it's really healthy though. Guess I better try some.

Post the recipe ThicknShort and I'll cook it this weekend. :)

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I rarely eat sweet food, but those Chelsea buns look delicious.

The mutton will be heading your way later today and thos Chelsea Buns... The word 'divine' comes to mind.

Shepherd's Pie (with Cottage Pie variation)
 

Shepherd's Pie
with Cottage Pie variation

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/...epherdsPie.jpg

Ingredients (serves 6):
1 kg of minced (ground) mutton
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 stick celery, thinly sliced
150 grams of butter
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
100 ml of lamb stock (if not available, make up with beef stock)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
500 grams of potatoes, boiled
Freshly ground sea or rock salt
Freshly ground black pepper
100 ml of whole milk

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 220 C.
• Pour one tablespoon of the oil into a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the onions until soft and golden-brown. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
• Add the carrots and celery and fry until soft and golden-brown. Remove and set aside with the onions.
• Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and 50 grams of butter. Add the minced (ground) mutton, stirring it until it browns. If too much liquid collects at the bottom of the pan, simmer until most of it has evaporated. The mutton should be moist, but not wet or sitting in a large quantity of its own juices.
• Add the carrots, celery, lamb stock, thyme and parsley, mixing it well.
• Mash the potatoes with the remaining butter and whole milk.
• Season with sea or rock salt and freshly ground black pepper and add the fried onions.
• Transfer the meat into an ovenproof dish, spreading it out to make an even layer.
• Spoon over the mashed potato and tease the surface with a fork to create some peaks.
• Place the dish into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the mash potato topping is golden-brown and crisp.
• Serve at the table in the dish.

Variations:

• If you are concerned about weight, replace the whole milk with skimmed milk, leave out the butter, instead adding another 100 ml milk to the potatoes for mashing and do not use any cooking oil when frying the mutton.
• Substituting the mutton with minced (ground) beef will give you a dish called 'Cottage Pie', another favourite, easy and cheap mid-week dish.
• The original recipe dating to 1791 used twice or even thrice the amount of mash potato and would see the pie dish first lined with a layer of mash, then meat (any leftover cooked meat, finely chopped, would be used for this) and then mash again.
• The possible variations are endless.

Side dish recommendations:

• Although this was traditionally served on its own, try serving with any salad you like.
• Traditionally served with an English Real Ale. If you can find it, I would recommend a glass of Adnam’s Broadside or if only more commercial English Ales are to be had, try John Smith’s Bitter. If still all is to no avail, try anything Bitter, Ale or even and IPA.

Storing and reheating:

• Once cooked this will keep a couple of days in the fridge.
• To reheat, place a slice of the pie into an ovenproof dish and heat in the oven. Do NOT reheat all of it multiple times. Minced (ground) meat is susceptible to bacteria due to its large surface area.
• Suitable for home freezing, preferably in meal sized portions.

Download:
PDF file attached, see below.

Roast Leg of Mutton
 

Roast Leg of Mutton

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/...egofMutton.jpg

Ingredients (serves 10):
1 leg mutton (2-2.5 Kg)
500 ml of cheap red wine
500 ml boiling water
3-6 cloves garlic, peeled
4 juniper berries
Several sprigs of rosemary
Freshly ground sea or rock salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3-4 tablespoons of corn flour

Method:

• The day before you want to cook this dish, start by marinating the mutton with a mixture of ground down garlic, juniper berries and finely chopped rosemary leaves for at least 24 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 150 C.
• Rinse off the herb crust and pat dry with a kitchen towel.
• Season with freshly ground sea or rock salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Place the leg of mutton into a roasting dish with a lid.
• Roast the meat for 40 minutes per 500 grams.
• When cooked, remove the leg of mutton and place onto a carving dish, covering it with foil, to rest for at least 15 minutes.
• Pour the boiling water into the roasting dish, removing as much of the stock as possible.
• Drain the liquid through a muslin cloth into a saucepan and add the red wine.
• If required, s Season with freshly ground sea or rock salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Prepare the corn flour with a couple of tablespoons of water, heat the stock and stir in the liquefied corn flour until it is completely dissolved and you have a smooth, creamy gravy.

Variations:

• Try cooking the mutton in a 'Roemertopf' (a German make clay pot).
• Proceed as normal but place the leg of mutton into the well-watered Roemertopf and then into the COLD oven. Do NOT preheat the oven or the clay pot WILL break.
• To remove the stock from the Roemertopf you MUST leave it to cool down for 10-15 minutes on a heat proof surface.
• Try marinating by spread the content of a whole 340 gram jar of mint sauce over the meat. Personally, I would always recommend Colman's Classic Mint Sauce. In any case it must be made from fresh mint, never opt for the mint sauce made from dried mint, it is the worst quality ever.

Side dish recommendations:

• Roast potatoes, green beans, mint sauce, sage and onion stuffing and Yorkshire Puddings.

Alternatively

• Roast potatoes and a full compliment of roast vegetables (thin, whole carrots, halved parsnips, thick-slices red onions), mint sauce and sage and onion stuffing.

Storing and reheating:

• Once cooked this will keep several days in the fridge.
• To reheat, spoon some gravy into a saucepan, thinly slice some leg of mutton and ever so gently reheat. Do NOT bring to the boil.
• Suitable for home freezing, preferably in meal sized portions.

Useful web links:

• Roemertopf, manufacturer's official website
• Mutton Renaissance official website

Download:
PDF file attached, see below.

I find it interesting that your cottage pie is our shepherd pie although we traditionally have a layer of corn between the meat and mashed potatoes.

If you ever wondered: how canned corn is made.

And if you'd prefer a greener/home made way, try this Pedal-Powered Corn Degrainer.

I'll have to post my "revisited" shepherd pie recipe at some point. But just to give you an idea, it's made from duck meat, beets and onions and a mixed mash of potatoes, carrots and rutabaga along with a couple more interesting things.

Cornish Pasties
 

Cornish Pasty

http://i1123.photobucket.com/albums/...ishPasties.jpg

Ingredients (makes 2 very large ones):
300 grams of beef skirt
1 medium onion, finely chopped
300 grams of finely diced swede aka rutabaga
300 grams of finely diced waxy potato
Freshly ground sea or rock salt
Freshly ground black pepper (this is a must and should not be replaced with anything else)
500 gram packet of ready made puff pastry
2-3 egg yolk for brushing and making the dough stick together
White flour for rolling out the puff pastry

Method:

• Have your butcher prepare the beef skirt, carefully removing all fat, gristle and membrane. The whole skirt will be enough for about 4 or 5 very large pasties.
• Cut the meat into thin strips across the grain. This is important as it will make the meat much more tender. The strips should be about 5 mm, by 5 mm, by 12 mm (approx. 1/4" by 1/4" by 1/2").
• Peel and chop the onions and set aside.
• Peel and thinly slice the swede. Make sure it is no thicker then 3 mm. Then cut into 5 mm wide strips and ultimately cut again to about 10-12 mm long (1/2") and set aside.
• Peel and cut the waxy cooking potatoes to the same size. Rinse and leave to dry on a towel.
• Separate the yolk from the egg white and stir until it is creamy (only use two eggs for now. If need be you can do the third one later).
• Preheat the oven to 180 C.
• If the store-bought puff pastry came in a square pack, try slicing it through its height, retaining the shape. This is important since you must NEVER knead puff pastry to get it into shape.
• Spread some flour on the worktop and roll out half the puff pastry. Try to make it go as round as you can, but if it stays square, that's not a problem. Once rolled out it should be about 10-12" in diameter.
• When adding all ingredients make sure you leave a 1" edge of the dough uncovered.
• Sprinkle half the onion onto one half of the dough.
• Season with freshly ground sea or rock salt and black pepper.
• Sprinkle half the swede on top of the onion.
• Season with freshly ground sea or rock salt and black pepper.
• Sprinkle half the potato on top of the swede.
• Season with freshly ground black pepper. Do not use salt on the potatoes as it will make water leak out from the flesh.
• Evenly distribute one half of the meat strips onto the potato.
• Season with freshly ground sea or rock salt and black pepper.
• Brush the edge of the dough with plenty of egg yolk.
• Fold over the empty half of the dough and press down to seal.
• Fold part of the edge over and crimp the edges using your thumb and index finger. This will give you small indentations that will help keep the pasty together and seal in all the moisture and flavour.
• Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
• Brush liberally with egg yolk. If needed, use the third egg now.
• Place in the oven and bake for approx. 1 hour. Check if all the vegetables are soft by sticking a skewer into it after this time. The swede may require longer cooking depending on how fresh and tender it was originally. Maximum cooking time I ever had was 90 minutes.
• Remove from oven, leave for at least 25 minutes to cool down or you WILL burn your mouth.
• Cornish Pasties are traditionally eaten with your hands.

Variation (for experienced Cornish Pasty cooks only):

• Prepare only half of the savoury ingredients and place them only on one quarter of the pastry.
• On the other side place coarsely chopped cooking apple, preferably Bramley, adding some sugar and cinnamon if liked.
• Proceed as in the main recipe.
• This makes a truly original traditional Cornish Pasty, where farmers and miners would have the savoury half in one meal and the sweet half as a desert at a later stage.
• The ultimate multi-course finger food ever.

Notes:

• This recipe may sound complicated but it isn't. It is one of the easiest pasties you can make. The ingredients are cheap and apart from the cooking time it requires hardly any time preparing this.
• Cornish Pasties are now of protected origins, see the link to the Cornish Pasty Association for more information.
• The ingredients given are the ONLY ingredients permitted to be used. Carrots, peas and all sorts of other stuff have no place in a Cornish Pasty.
• The same applies to higher quality meat. Rump, sirloin or rib eye may be wonderful, but there is a time and a place for everything, just not in a Cornish Pasty.

Storing and reheating:

• Both cooked and uncooked this will keep a couple of days in the fridge.
• Wrap in foil and place in a cold oven, heating it to 150 C for approx. 30 mins. but it may be eaten cold.
• Do not freeze the uncooked product, as the vegetables will deteriorate.

Useful web links:

• The Cornish Pasty Association
• The Cornish Pasty (a fun site with lots of silly things relating to... The Cornish Pasty
• Beef skirt at Wikipedia (aka Roumanian Tenderloin or Roumanian Strip)

Download:
PDF file attached, see below.

Actually, denomination has shifted here as well but the correct name for anything with lamb, mutton or hogget in it would have to be 'shepherd's' something or other, after all, it is sheep in one of its many incarnations. But you are right, if you look it up on Wiki, it'll say that 'traditionally' it should be as I said, though the more modern use of the term 'Cottage Pie', referring to anything with meat and mash on it has become widespread in the UK as well.

Will have a look at those clips shortly. Thanks for that.

Never realized that. Come to think of it it does make quite a lot of sense. :) Probably because here, in French, we call this 'pate chinois' with an 'e acute' in 'pate', loosely translated as Chinese pie, which has no co-relation with the English name.

Here is a wiki on it confirming what I thought was the origin of it's name here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A2t%C3%A9_chinois

URL is encoded to prevent the forum from choking on the accented character.

I am getting seriously worried about you Canadians. Eating Chinese immigrants topped with mash and tomato ketchup stirred in? Jeez, you must be desperate. :D

On a more serious note...

Thanks for the link by the way. Interesting and yes, there are probably as many variations to this recipe as there are cooks on this planet.

My wife would like the change with the sweetcorn added, not me, I am not too keen on it unless it comes fresh off the BBQ or maybe I've just been buying the wrong stuff. I'll give it a bash sometime. Dinner plans for next week haven't been drawn up yet.

whoa I already love this thread. I have to try all of this on my guests at work ;)