Shepherds Pie

Ingredients:
Ragu:
Some olive oil
500 g minced meat (preferably beef or lamb)
2 tsp tomato puree
2-3 shallots, thinly sliced
2 chopped garlic cloves
Half an aubergine, without skin, cut into tiny, tiny pieces
2 carrots, small cubes
Quarter celeriac, small cubes
½ cup red wine, not necessarily the best but also not the cheapest, and never sweet
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Maybe some hot water
bayleaves (2-3)
allspice (4-5 corns)
beef or chicken broth
fresh parsley
salt & pepper
cumin
Worcester Sauce
Maybe 1 tsp tomato ketchup to bind it
Paprika
chilli powder or cayenne pepper
maybe cinnamon

Mash:
900g potatoes/sweet potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Butter
maybe cream
maybe nutmeg

2 cups of peas, cooked with some salt, pepper, butter, lemon and drained.

Mix of grated cheese and sliced leek, enough to cover the pie

How to make the Ragu:
Heat up some olive oil and fry the mince until brown all over. Add tomato purree half way through and fry with the meat. Take out the meat and set aside. Heat up some more oil (not too hot or the remaining tomato purree in the pan will burn) and fry the shallots, garlic and aubergine for about 5 mins, taking care not to burn the garlic.

Add the carrots and celeriac, fry for a further 5 mins or until nicely browned, then add the mince back in and stir. Add the wine and let it bubble until completely gone. Then add the tinned tomatoes, bring to a boil, turn down to simmer and leave for about 30 mins with a closed lid. Longer is fine, too. If it seems to dry, add a bit of water or wine - too liquid, leave the lid off for a while.

While simmering, season with bayleaves (2-3), Allspice (4-5 corns), beef or chicken broth, fresh parsley, salt & pepper, cumin, Worcester Sauce, tomato ketchup, paprika, chilli powder or cayenne pepper, cinnamon etc.

How to make the mash:
Boil the potatoes and sweet potatoes in salted water until soft. Mash with butter, maybe cream, salt, pepper, maybe nutmeg.

How to assemble:
Preheat the oven to 180C Umluft (everything should be hot or at least quite warm otherwise it would take ages and burn on top!).
Put the Ragu in an ovenproof dish, cover with the peas, then the mash. Finish off with a mix of grated cheese and leeks. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 mins, until the cheese bubbles all over and is nicely browned.

Variations:
You could also add some celery green or parsley stalks for flavouring, some peppers and/or tinned sweetcorn. Use different kinds of mash - all potato, potato & celeriac, potato & chickpeas... Or leave out the leek in the topping. All of it will be delicious!