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Thirty-Hour Shepherd’s Pie | Recipe

Wayne @NationalDish — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 17:00:19 +0000

Shepherd’s Pie is a British Classic

There are few dishes that reward patience quite like a traditional shepherd’s pie. This slow-cooked lamb version is stripped back to its essentials — two days, one pot, and a handful of good ingredients that build quietly into something remarkable.

Often, shepherd’s pie was a way to use up leftover roast lamb — simple, thrifty cooking at its best. In this case, we’ve gone all in from the start, braising lamb shanks for depth and richness. Both approaches are preferable to the shortcut of mince, which can never quite replicate the texture or flavour of true slow-cooked lamb.

The dish has its roots in the rural kitchens of the British Isles in the late 18th century, when the potato became a staple and leftover meat needed a second life. Whether from England, Scotland or Ireland, the idea was the same: nothing wasted, everything transformed — and few comfort foods speak so directly to home cooking.

I made this during a rare weekend off from coaching girls football, be assured, this Shepherd’s Pie is incredible but not nearly as good as my football team!

Thirty-Hour Shepherd’s Pie | Recipe

A slow-cooked lamb shepherd’s pie recipe made with lamb shanks, homemade stock and buttery Maris Piper mash. Traditional British comfort food, perfected over 30 hours. Don't worry, you won't need to shepherd it for 30 hours. Start with a casserole to braise the lamb and make stock.

CourseMain Dish
CuisineBritish
KeywordHomemade, Stew

Servings4 People

Prep Time1 Hour

Cook Time30 Minutes

Passive Time28.5 Hours

Ingredients

For the Stock

2Large lambshanks
1Large carrotcut into chunks
1Large onioncut into chunks
2Sticks celerycut into chunks
8Whole black pepper corns
3/4Litre's waterenough to cover the lamb to about 2 thirds

For the Pie Filling

Allof the meat from the lambshanks
2 carrotsfinely diced
1 onionfinely diced
1Stick celeryfinely diced
1tbsp corn flour
2tsp Worcestershire sauce
500ml lambstock (the stuff you just made when braising the lamb)
sea salt flakes
black pepper

For the topping

1kg potatoesMaris Piper
2 egg yolks
300ml double cream
sea salt flakesto taste, carefully

Instructions

The Stock and pulled lamb (Day 1) Place the lamb shanks, carrot, onion, celery and peppercorns in a heavy casserole. Add water to come three-quarters up the sides of the shanks. Don't brown the meat, it'll catch a tiny bit if gnarl, but when it's in the pie, you want it soft and silky. Cover and roast in the oven at 130 °C for 6 hours. The meat should fall from the bone and the liquid should have turned into a rich, gelatinous stock. Lift out the shanks, strain the stock, and refrigerate both overnight. Discard the spent vegetables.
The Filling (Day 2) Skim and discard any fat from the chilled stock. Shred the lamb from the bones and set aside, be careful to pick out any small bones. There's a particularly pin like bone in each shank, make sure you find those. In a clean pan, melt a little butter or dripping. Gently sweat the fresh carrot, onion and celery until soft and aromatic, avoid any colour. Stir in the flour to make a light roux, then add the shredded lamb. Gradually pour in enough of the reserved stock to form a thick, glossy mixture. Add the Worcestershire sauce and simmer until the sauce clings to the meat. Season generously to taste with salt and black pepper. Spoon into a deep baking dish and leave to cool slightly.
The Mash Boil the Maris Piper potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain well and return to the pan over low heat to steam off excess moisture. Mash with all of the cream and the egg yolks until smooth and rich, add a little milk if you need to loosed it up, you don't want it runny at all though - so be careful. Season well, taste it. With a spatula gently scoop it into the roasting dish, creating a layer on top of the filling. Rough up the surface with a fork, I made a Union Jack - the texture will crisp beautifully in the oven.
Bake Bake at 200 °C for 30–35 minutes, until the top is golden and the filling bubbles at the edges. There’s no need for cheese — the richness of the lamb and stock speaks for itself. You choose the colour as it bakes, you want a few burnt peaks for sure.
Serve I served it with a big spoon full of peas, but any green vegetable loves sitting beside a Classic Shepherd's Pie. Enjoy

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Sweet and Sour Chilli Mango Chicken | National Dish Recipe from South East Asia…maybe

Wayne @NationalDish — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 14:05:11 +0000

The colour alone of Sweet and Sour Chicken with Mango is enough. All pictures copyright of nationaldish.co.uk

– we’re not 100% sure where this dish might originate.

I accidentally made it up, but that’s not to say it doesn’t exist. So in actual fact this could be a South East Asian ‘influenced’ English dish – Changlo food! You saw it here first.

Anyway, I fancied sweet and sour chicken, but wanted to add lots of chilli and forgot to buy pineapple, so used some mango I had – hence…

It’s really good – I also knocked up a cheats Mushroom Chow Mein on the side.

Sweet and Sour Chilli Mango Chicken | National Dish Recipe from South East Asia

This recipe goes to show, that if you have some items in your fridge or pantry that don't quite fit the original recipe, you can make do and come up with something ace.

CourseMain Dish
CuisineBritish, Chango, Chinese, Thai

Servings2 People

Prep Time20 Minutes

Cook Time20 Minutes

Ingredients

Main bits

2small skinless chickenbreasts, diced into large, as square as possible, bite sized chunks (big ones ok?)
1/2 red peppercut the same size as the onion
1large white onioncut in to 1 inch square pieces, look at the pic

Sauce

1400g tin mangodrain and keep the juice and dice the mango
3tsp caster sugar
1tsp corn flour
1 or 2sliced fresh red chilli
1bunch fresh corianderfinely chop the stalks and separate from the leaves
3cloves garlicfinely sliced, chopped or crushed
3tbsp sesame seedsgently roast them in a non-stick pan
3tbsp rice wine vinegar
2tbsp ketchup
1pinch sea salt flakesMaldon please
1tsp paprika powder

Marinade

1tbls soy sauceuse the light stuff if you can
1/2tsp garlic powder
1/2tsp Chinese five spiceno more than this

Mushroom Chow Mein

1handful mushroomsthickly sliced
1packet instant noodlesenough for two people
2cloves garlicchopped

Instructions

First thing is to marinate the chicken. To do that, in a bowl add the diced chicken, soy, garlic powder and Chinese five spice - leave that whilst you do the rest - not long really.
Chop everything up and get it ready - you want decent chunks. If you're doing a side, I did a cheats Mushroom Chow Mein, chop that stuff up too.
In a hot wok, add a tiny dash of oil and seal the chicken on each side, don't cook it all the way through. When done, drain off any of the sauce you haven't cooked off and put the chicken aside and wipe clean the wok.
Whilst you were doing that, in a separate non-stick pan, roast off the sesame seeds. Don't burn them, just add a little golden colour and then remove from the pan and set aside in a cold bowl.
Back on the heat, add a little oil and add the onion, garlic, chopped coriander stalks, two thirds of the chilli and the salt. Gently fry until the onion starts to clarify (not completely though) - try to avoid any charring, you almost want things looking raw.
Next add the chicken back in along with the red pepper, paprika, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, sugar and half the sesame seeds - heat and stir for a minute. Then pour in all of the mango juice (oh yeah) - bring to the boil and sprinkle the corn flour avoiding lumpage - stir. If you feel that a little more sauce is required, carefully add some water - it will reduce and thicken moving forward.
After 10-15 minutes, you should be pretty much done, throw in the diced mango and gently stir in to the sauce, it's ready when the mango is hot.
You can do the chow mein real quick. Fry off the mushrooms with the garlic and a good glug of dark soy sauce. After a few minutes add the noodles and toss and mix everything until it's a lovely soy sauce colour and hot.
Serve it up in to something that you can keep it warm in.
The chicken will now be ready. Serve it in a bowl and sprinkle with the remaining raw chilli, sesame seeds and coriander leaves.
Thank you South East Asia stroke England...maybe...

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How do you make a New England, USA Mixed Fish Chowder? | What is the national dish of New England, United States?

Wayne @NationalDish — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 22:12:34 +0000

You know how some things have names that sound exactly like they are? Well, a chowder is one of those things and what a wonderful thing it is. So much more than a soup and not a blitzer in sight. This chowder is based on the New England recipe, but rather than just clams I’ve lobbed in loads more goodies.

New England Mixed Seafood Chowder | We got cockles, mussels, smoked haddock, prawns, scallops oh yah

You can add whatever seafood you like to this, I grabbed what I had, it's your preference, the shellfish shells do look good for presentation though. To help, I've added my ingredients below - I was very specific, which helps you manage the cost too.

CourseMain Dish
CuisineAmerican

Servings2 people

Prep Time15 minutes

Cook Time30 minutes

Ingredients

1/2fillet smoked haddockundyed obvs, why would anyone eat that yellow rubbish? Cut it into bit sized chunks
6live mussels
12live cocklesclams are the norm and amazing
1handful shrimpsmall cold water prawns, these can be cooked
4whole scallopsslice these so you get lots of round discs of scallop
5whole new potatoespeeled and sliced in half, longways
3roughly chopped and deseeded fresh tomatoesyou only want the outer part
1bunch parsleychop the leaves
150ml single cream
300ml milk
250ml fish stockor you can use chicken
100ml white winea cold bottle of Muscadet is ideal
1large white onionchopped
1whole corn cobslice the corn off length ways with a knife, picture below
4rashers baconthis should be chopped, smoked, streaky and preferably dry cured
1clove garliccrushed
2tsps cayenne pepper
1tbls corn flour

Instructions

Grab a soup pot, a small saucepan, small frying pan, garlic crusher and put the kettle on for the stock. Chop the onion, bacon and have the shellfish to hand. The early stages all happen quite quickly, after which you can chill out.
Put the small saucepan on a high heat and have the white wine and live shellfish to hand - they should all close when you give them a shake, any that stay open, throw away.
Whilst the pan is heating up make the stock in a good sized measuring jug and have a strainer on hand.
When hot throw in the shellfish and then immediately the wine (in that order), it should generate lots of steam - cover and let it steam for no more than one minute, give it a couple of shakes. Then remove the lid and strain directly over the stock pot, capturing the liquor with the stock. They can sit there for a little while - they should all be open, throw away those that are closed.
Put the soup pot on a medium high heat with a little oil and cook the bacon until browned, releasing the fat, remove and set aside. Add the onion to the pot with the cayenne, a pinch of sea salt flakes, crush the garlic and stir. Gently cook the onions until soft and translucent. Get the other ingredients ready in the meantime.
This is what I meant with the corn by the way.
Take your now slightly under cooked shell fish and remove most of the meat from the shells, leaving a few intact. Put the small frying pan on a high heat and get it really hot and add a little oil - have your sliced, dry scallops to hand and when almost smoking, add them all, so each slice touches the bottom of the pan. All we want he is fast colour, at which point, remove them from the heat (a minute is probably to long, don't move them much either) and set aside. You don't have to do this, but it gives you nicer bites of scallop rather than floppy shellfish.
Onions should be done, move to the side in the pan and add the flour with a little oil or butter, cook it off so you have a bit of a roux and mix through the onions. Add the corn and whack up the heat.
Add the stock/shellfish liquor, potatoes and bring to the boil and turn down to a good simmer, cook until the potatoes are just under cooked. Now add all the milk and tomatoes and bring to the boil and turn straight back down to simmer - add the haddock.
This is now the final 5 minutes. Firstly, if you haven't already, taste your sauce and carefully season with salt and ground pepper - then add ALL of the remaining seafood (inc the shellfish you cooked at the start) and the bacon.
Stir it all gently and add the single cream, again, gently stir. Taste it, season only if needed and you should have a creamy consistency - too runny and you didn't reduce your stock enough - but, you should be just fine. All you want to do here is get everything hot, don't cook it any more than you have to.
Serve it up (pasta bowls are good for this), with the shells on top, covered in the parsley, maybe a grind of black pepper and if you must, chunks of sour dough bread and the rest of the Muscadet sat right next to it.
Thank you New England, USA

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