Ingredients - serves 6 (or 4 hungry farmers)
1kg lean lamb steak | 2 tsp of rosemary, chopped finely |
25g plain flour | ½ tsp grated nutmeg |
500g onions, peeled and thinly sliced | 300ml beef stock |
500g Bramleys peeled, cored and thinly sliced | 500g potatoes, peeled and diced |
500g swede, peeled and diced | 60g butter |
1 tsp sea salt | 3 tbsp milk |
1 tsp ground black pepper | 3 tbsp of vegetable oil |
Method
- Cut up the lamb steak into chunks (approx 2.5cm) and coat in the flour.
- In a hot frying pan melt a little of the butter and the vegetable oil and brown the lamb pieces. Do it in batches to make sure the lamb fries and browns evenly.
- Using the same frying pan brown the chopped onion and put to one side.
- When browned set aside and allow to cool.
- Using two saucepans, bring salted water up to the boil. Add the apple slices to one pan and boil for 5 minutes. Add the potato and swede to the other and boil for 10 minutes.
- Drain these separately.
- Using a potato masher mash the parboiled potato and swede together with a little butter and a little milk.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5.
- Grease a medium sized oven proof dish with a little butter and place into it layers of lamb, onion and apple. Sprinkle each layer with a pinch of chopped rosemary, grated nutmeg, sea salt and black pepper.
- Pour the beef stock over the layers and then top off the pie dish with the mashed potato and swede mixture. Use a fork to rough up the top of the mashed swede and potato, then dot the top with little pieces of butter, sprinkle over a little sea salt, ground black pepper, and chopped rosemary.
- Cover the pie with some foil. Put the oven dish on an oven tray and bake in the oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour take the foil cover off the Gloucestershire Pie and bake for a further ten minutes in a hotter oven at 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7 to brown off the top.
Serve with seasonal vegetables.