This lamb pie has got to be one of my best tasting dinners yet and the perfect dinner for cold wet days.
Braised lamb in a rich red wine infused sauce topped with cheese-stuffed mash patties is perfect when you’re craving a hearty home-cooked meal or mom’s special casserole.
Cottage pâté with lamb shanks
Ingredients
- Four to five medium soft boiled potatoes, peeled and chopped for the mash
- Salted butter
- Dried herbs for the mash (your preference)
- 1kg lamb shanks/stew pieces – shanks work best because of the marrow bones
- 1/2 chopped onion
- 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic mixture
- 1 TBS steak and chop spices
- 1 TBS barbecue spices
- 1 teaspoon of white pepper
- 1 teaspoon masala (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 2 cups dark red sweet wine (Woolies Glühwein works best)
- 1 mutton stock cube (mixed in a cup of warm water)
- 10 g of tomato puree
- salt to taste
- 3 Tier TBS Cake Flour
- 200 gr Chedder/Gouda cheese cut into cubes
- 1 cup Mozzerella cheese to top it off
- cooking oil
- 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
Method
Mashed potatoes
- Boil potatoes until tender and ready to mash.
- Add salt, dried herbs, butter and mash until smooth. – Tip: replace the salt with garlic salt for more flavor.
- Cover and reserve.
Braised lamb shanks
- Bring the stove to medium heat.
- Add just enough cooking oil to cover the surface of the pan (barely).
- Add your dried spices and the ginger-garlic mixture (steak and chops/bbq/turmeric/white pepper/masala/sugar) and sauté over medium heat for 2/3 minutes.
- Add the pieces of lamb and sauté for about 12/15 minutes. (you can adjust the stove temperature for more heat).
- Lower the heat from the stove and remove the pieces of lamb, cover and set aside.
- Add the diced onion to the same pan and sauté until translucent (this should take about 5 minutes).
- Add 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Then add the flour and stir with a whisk or wooden spoon until it begins to thicken.
- Add the fried lamb and mix.
- Pour in the wine, the mutton broth and stir.
- Add tomato paste, stir until dissolved.
- Cover with cool weather, close the casserole and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- You can add water if the sauce is too thick. Remember that this also needs to go in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and let the lamb rest for about 10 minutes.
- Start making the mash balls.
Cheese stuffed mash balls
- Preheat the oven to 200º
- Add 1 tablespoon of flour to the mash mixture. This will allow the balls to stay firm without breaking in the oven.
- Transfer the lamb to a casserole dish
- Pour a TBS of mash into the palm of your hand, squeeze a cube of cheese in the middle and roll it into a ball.
- Cover the lamb with these cheese-stuffed meatballs.
- Top with mozzarella and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and serve.
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