Monday Pie

I know Mondays are often “meatless” and are part of eating more mindfully but to my mind, and on a par, is not wasting food and in particular not throwing out any leftover meat. Monday Pie was the dish my family used to call this when we used up the Sunday roast lamb  Maybe, given the popularity of Meatless Monday it’s name should be updated to Tuesday Pie!

So essentially this Pie is a shepherds pie although, rather than starting with raw mince, it uses the leftovers from Sunday’s joint.  I like to foil wrap a bulb of garlic and roast it alongside the joint just for this recipe as it adds a depth to the dish but if you forget you can use garlic purée instead.  Mix these with mushrooms, thyme and other veg – include the secret addition of tomato ketchup – and then top off the pie with a mix of mashed potato and cauliflower. You could, of course, just use the potato, but I think the cauliflower not only sneaks in another of your five a day (or whatever the latest figure is) but it makes the finished dish lighter too

It doesn’t seem very exciting to write recipes using leftovers – and to be honest I didn’t think it would be something I’d do on this blog –  but its a recipe that I love and use and that I thought others would be interested in. So I am going to start to include ones for leftovers.  I hope you enjoy them as some of the recipes would be those I’d cook a roast for just to make the leftover dish!  Now that’s an interesting concept…..

Ingredients (serves 4)

• Leftover roast lamb cut into bite sized chunks (if needed supplement the lamb with canned beans such as haricot or cannelloni to make enough)
• Roasted bulb of garlic or use garlic puree instead
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• 1 large carrot chopped
• 1 leek chopped
• 250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
• picked leaves from 4 thyme sprigs
• olive oil
• 200ml liquid (gravy/stock)
• 1tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 large potatoes, baked
• 1 medium cauliflower separated into florets and steamed
• 50g butter
• salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat 2tbsp of olive in a frying pan over a medium heat
2. Add carrot, celery and leek and fry for about 5 mins till soft
3. Stir in the thyme and mushrooms and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes.
4. If using garlic purée rather than a roasted bulb add at this point
5. Add gravy/stock, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and seasoning and continue cooking until sauce is thickened.
6. Add lamb (with beans if required) and squeeze in roasted garlic
7. Stir until all ingredients are well combined and then transfer into serving dish(es)
8. Mash together potato and cauliflower with butter and season to taste.  There is no need to add milk as cauliflower carries all the liquid required
9. Top lamb mixture with mash
10. Heat oven to 180c
11. bake for 30 mins until bubbling and the top is browned