Shepherd's Pie from River Cottage Meat  Book, this dish is one of our son's favorite. So great to watch his eyes light up when he walks through the door and hears "Shepherd's Pie!" to the nightly "What's for dinner?" question.

Ingredients:

1 lb. leftover lamb roast (from leg or shoulder) or you can use 1lb. ground lamb** (Ground Morris Grassfed Beef works well too)
1 tbls. olive oil
1-2 onions, chopped
1-2 carrots, finely diced
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 cup stock or gravy (preferably from lamb or other meat)
1/2 cup of red wine
1 tbls. ketchup
1-2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
4-5 cups creamy mashed potatoes (don't make them too runny)
Salt & pepper to taste

Roughly chop the meat into pea-sized pieces.  Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan then saute the onions. Add the carrots and then garlic until the carrots have softened slightly.

Add the meat and fry gently until nicely browned.  Add the gravy/stock, plus the wine, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, then season with salt and pepper.  Simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, adding a little water if the mixture looks dry and more seasoning to your taste.   You want the mixture well lubricated by not soupy.

Put the meat in a pie dish and pile the mash potatoes on top, covering the meat completely.  Use a fork to rough up the surface of the mash.  Bake at about 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes until the mash is nicely browned on top and the sauce is bubbling up around the edges.  Serve at once, ideally with minted peas and some nice British ale!

**If you substitute ground lamb for the leftover lamb roast, brown the lamb separately from the rest of the ingredients and then drain the fat.  Then add the ground lamb to the stock mixture and proceed with the rest of the directions.