Pork Shepherd's Pie Recipe

My 2 year old son loves eating fish and chicken drumsticks, but he won't be trying out beef steak anytime soon. Red meat is just too tough-textured for his little mouth, and this is another mince meal made for the boy's benefit. I actually cooked this meal a couple of months ago, and the photos and notes have been waiting for me to do a write-up. This Pork Shepherd's Pie was pretty easy to do because I basically used the bolognese recipe and omitted the tomatoes for the mince. The hardest part was peeling and chopping the vegetables, which wasn't actually that difficult but it took a long time. The extra effort paid off because the amount was enough for two meals for our little family, and I saved half the mince filling for another busy day when I need only to peel, cook and mash potatoes for the topping and then pop into the oven for a quick meal. With carbs, protein and vegetables, this is a true complete meal in one dish.

The oyster sauce might seem like a strange condiment to add, but I wanted to add an extra depth of flavour to the meat filling without having to buy yet another condiment (Worcestershire, barbecue and A1 sauces are popular choices in most shepherd's pie recipes), and it worked! You can't taste the oyster sauce but I'm sure it helped to flavour the dish.

Pork Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large carrots, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
1 medium capsicum, diced
1 medium head of broccoli, cut up into smaller pieces
7 or 8 mushrooms, sliced
500g minced pork
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons tomato sauce/ketchup
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup frozen corn
Dried Italian herb mix (basil, rosemary, thyme) and dried parsley, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
800g potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup (125mL) milk

Method

1. Heat some oil in a pot and sauté the onion, garlic, carrots and celery on medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the capsicum, broccoli, mushrooms and minced pork. If necessary, break any large meat clumps apart, and cook until the meat is cooked.
4. Add the tomato paste, tomato sauce, oyster sauce and water and stir well. At this point, the mixture may seem dry, but keep in mind that the vegetables will release moisture during the cooking process. Add more water if necessary.
5. Add the frozen corn and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes until vegetables are tender. Season well with salt, pepper and loads of herbs.
6. Meanwhile, make the potato mash. Boil potatoes for 10 minutes until tender. Drain, add butter and milk and mash until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Preheat the oven to 200degC. Spoon the meat mixture into a baking dish. Top with mashed potato and use a fork to spread over the meat mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the potato topping is brown.
8. Serve while hot.