There are four recipes on the ‘NeedARecipe.com’ website which seem to confuse people, so let me try and explain.
Shepherd’s Pie is what most people tend to call any variation, but the original Shepherd’s Pie was made just with onions, lean minced (ground) lamb, and topped with mashed potato. Shepherd’s Pie is an original English recipe that is inexpensive and ideal for a hungry family. Great with a glass of beer or cider.
Shepherd’s Pie is the sort of food that brings a smile to everyone’s face! That saucy, full-of-flavour filling, that creamy potato topping, and that awesome golden potato crust. This is a timeless classic – make this once and you’ll make it over and over again.
Cottage Pie is similar BUT it’s made with beef and not lamb. The Brits have a national fascination with minced meat pies and, when they combined it with mashed potatoes, the Cottage Pie was born. In early cookery books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat, and the pie dish was lined with mashed potato as well as having a mashed potato crust on top.
This classic favourite makes a comforting meal, especially on a cold day. Lean minced beef is a healthy filling that takes minutes to cook, and the topping is quickly browned under the grill. Serve with peas or seasonal greens. Delicious!
Duck Pie (Parmentier de Canard) is similar again BUT it’s made with confit de canard – duck confit. This simple recipe will give you a different take on Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie. It’s a duck version that will delight your family and your guests alike. The only drawback is that you may not find it easy to get hold of Confit de Canard. We’re lucky, living as we do for six months of the year in France. But you can order Confit de Canard online from Godard the best producers in France.
Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie meets the needs of an increasingly vegetarian population. The meat is replaced by vegetables and a rich gravy is produced with a combination of wine and vegetable stock. And it’s this last one that had me scratching my head.
To be honest, I do love a my meat. And by meat, I mean beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, whatever. I’m a damned carnivore! But I also really like vegetables, when they are good quality and properly cooked
And the vegetables in Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie taste good … REALLY good. Served up in a red wine gravy and baked under a layer of creamy mashed potatoes – they are THAT good!
I suggest you add full fat Greek yogurt to your mashed potatoes to get that extra creamy-tangy taste. That red wine, garlic, olive oil, rosemary… it’s my version of aromatherapy.
If you’re using up leftover mashed potatoes, they usually need a little help since they can be a bit dry out of the fridge. Just cover with clingfilm and pop them in the microwave. As they heat up, they will become creamy again. Then spread that magic on top of your silky, veg-packed mushroomy gravy. Yummmmm!
When you pull this out of the oven and the sauce is bubbling up around the sides under the gently-golden potatoes, you’ll be delighted you gave this Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie recipe a try. This is total comfort food and you’re best to attack it when hungry as hell with a big appetite.
By way of marking our return to France, we invited our friends and neighbours, Terry, Julie, Dominic and Kate to dinner last night. We kicked off in normal style with a glass or two of Kir, using a rather nice Chardonny that had travelled back with us in January. When we settled at the table, we started with 
After which, we resorted to one of our regular favourites, 
Our dessert was a chocolate and nut gateau that M-D had made using walnuts from her daughter’s garden in The Loire region of France. We served this with orange slices sprinked with orange zest that had been cooked in cinnamon sugar and, just to give a contrast, we mixed normal oranges and blood oranges as we arranged them on the plate. Naturally, there being plenty of chocolate in the cake, we served Mas Amiel with its dense and concentrated inky black Grenache grapes and its complex nose of tobacco and garden herbs.
Even eating didn’t stop her talking, though it did slow her down a little as our lunch started with foie gras (as you do!) served with a lovely crisp 2005 Sauternes from Chateau Roumieu. Even M-D’s aunt showed a bit of respectful silence for that one! Following that, we got stuck into the main course of 
At this time of year, Vitelotte Potatoes (also called Vitelotte noire, Négresse or Truffe de Chine) are available in France. Vitelotte is a gourmet variety of blue-violet potato that has been cultivated in France since the early 19th century. In fact, they come in white, yellow, pink, red and violet, but the violet variety are the most common and, though they taste just the same as ordinary spuds, they are fun to use, offering a great alternative presentation on the plate.
The main course was served with an excellent Menetou-Salon which, though a red wine, is very light and can easily be served with fish. We skipped the cheese (having filled up on succulent monkfish) but Susanne had brought with her a hand-make chocolate cake from a pâtisserie near Versailles so we did some wilful damage to that, served with a glass or three of Mas Amiel Vintage.
However, one place that never fails to please is 
As we were out walking the other day, we met one of the local “characters” – a lady by the name of Pauline who, it turns out, is involved in the monitoring of Basking Sharks, which are often found in the plankton-rich waters around the Isle of Man. The Basking Shark is the second biggest fish in the world (second only to the Whale Shark) but it is truly an endangered species. It is a slow moving filter feeder that has a greatly enlarged mouth and highly developed gill rakers. These enormous fish have been measured up to 12.27 metres (40.3 ft), and weighing an estimated 19 tonnes, yet these gentle giants are not aggressive and are harmless to people.
On New Years Eve, M-D (my wife), her sister their two cousins and their partners (and myself) sat down to a typical French evening meal (started at 8pm and finished at 3am!) and, somewhere along the way (after the oysters and smoked salmon) we ate 
After half an hour of madness with New Year party poppers and various other lunatic activities, we cleared the rubbish off the table and sat down to fresh salad leaves in a 
Obvious answer… the freezer cabinet! And what did I spy, peeping at me from under a pack of Manx kippers? …. Probably one of the most delightful beef recipes ever – 
It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that I have a passion for Daube (it’s pronounced slightly more towards “Dobe” than “Daub”) so the idea of finishing off the old fashioned vegetable mix that I prepared yesterday (Purple Majesty potatoes, parsnips, green Romanesco Cauliflower and carrots), along with a good old-fashioned recipe like Daube appeals to my natural instincts (and to my unapologetic stomach!)
