Lebanese Style Shepherd's Pie

I can't quite remember where I found this Lebanese Style Shepherd's Pie but it was an interesting experiment.

What I copied down:

Lebanese Style Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
200g minced lamb*
1 tablespoon pine nuts
salt and pepper
4-5 large potatoes, boiled and mashed
3 tablespoons butter
100g dried bread-crumbs

Preheat oven to 180c (Gas mark 4).

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan, add the onion and cook, stirring until tender. Add the meat, pine nuts, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until the meat is browned.

2. Place the warm mashed potato in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of butter and some salt and pepper and mix well.

3. Grease a deep baking tray with the remaining butter. Spread half of the mashed potato in the tray. Spread the meat mixture over in one layer, then spread the rest of the mash on top.

Sprinkle the bread-crumbs on top and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden.

*I didn't try it but I'm sure minced beef could be substituted for the lamb.

The first thing I did was to cook and mash the potatoes. While we did have a vegetable peeler, I found out too late that it is incredibly dull and cannot actually peel. Whoops...

I ended up leaving the peel on and cut the potatoes into slices. These were cooking while I prepared the rest of the meal.

 I chopped the onion into tiny pieces and cooked that in the oil for a few minutes.

 I threw in the minced lamb and the pine nuts and let that brown while I mashed the potatoes. I didn't have a potato masher, only a fork, so the potatoes were pretty lumpy. I didn't particular care either way. They were cooked through and they tasted good.

I spread half of the potatoes on the baking dish then dumped the onion-lamb mix and the rest of the potatoes. That cooked for about 20 minutes, until the tops of the potatoes started turning brown.

I ate after half of it and refrigerated the other half for another day. 

This one looks like another miss. I don't look forward to mashing potatoes by hand again and while I could use instant mashed potatoes, it seems sacrilegious to use instant when I'm in Ireland. The mixture itself was somewhat tasty but mostly bland. I enjoyed eating it, certainly, but between the equipment needed and the disappointing lack of leftovers relative to the cost, I will be shelving this recipe.

Perhaps I was a bit too ambitious?

Food used for the first time: Potatoes, lamb

Minced lamb, 208g at EUR 10.99/kg = EUR 2.29 at the local butcher's

Vegetable Oil, 1/20 of a bottle at EUR 1.35/bottle = EUR 0.07 at Aldi

Onion, 0.185 kg at EUR 1.39/kg = EUR 0.26 at Tesco

Pine nuts, 1/4 of a bag at EUR 3.99/bag = EUR 1.00 at Tesco

Baby Potatoes, 2/3 of a bag at EUR 1.19/bag = EUR 0.80

Total Cost: EUR 4.42 for two servings or EUR 2.21 for one serving