Shepherd's Pie for 40!

Today was my volunteering day down at the Luncheon Club at TBC and it was shepherd's pie for an estimated forty people.  I had to draft The Woo in for some early morning peeling as I would have sunk without a trace otherwise.

Whilst she was tackling 10 kilos of spuds for mashing followed by 4 kilos of carrots for peeling and slicing I cracked on with the meat filling.  Five kilos of Hayward's chunky ground mince was browned in a large roasting dish in a little oil on a high heat.  This was then drained and added to a kilo and a half mirepoix of onion, carrot and celery which had been softened in a little oil in a very large pan.  All stirred together and then in went 4 x 395g cartons of chopped tomatoes, a litre of water, a good shake of mixed herbs, three Oxo cubes, four or five splashes of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  This was covered and brought to the boil and then kept on a rolling simmer for about an hour and a half (uncovered for the last 30 minutes) to cook through and reduce slightly.

Once this was all on the go I did help out with the peeling!

Once the potatoes had cooked and been drained I mashed them with about 3/4 pint of semi-skimmed milk and a pat and a half of butter and then added a good few handfuls of grated cheese and three teaspoons of English mustard.  This was then seasoned to taste and set aside to cool.

Once the meat filling had cooked through I ladled it into shallow oven dishes and The Woo and I topped it with the creamy mash.  Sprinkled with more grated cheese and in a high oven until the top was getting those lovely brown and almost burnt bits that taste SO good!

Margaret, Betty, Fiona and another Wendy all turned up between 10.30 and 11am to help with the serving and, eventually, the washing up.  A good dollop of shepherd's pie, a portion of carrots and some peas all topped with an onion gravy made up by The Queen of the Gravy herself aka The Woo seemed to go down a treat.

Pud was fruit and ice cream but next week I've promised them roast chicken.  Roger, the caretaker, showed me about half a dozen boxes of free Bramley apples that someone had brought in so I had the girls peel and slice them up and they were cooked down with a little artificial sweetener (have to cater for the diabetics!) and left to cool.  In the freezer ready for apple and foraged blackberry crumble next week!

I get so much pleasure from this one day a week doing something for other people and it was great having my lovely Woo with me there today.  She managed to wriggle out of the washing up with a conveniently timed visit of her dad's to the dentist, though!

Love ya, Rck Chck!!