I wanna be like you…

Melissa had seen me making shepherd’s or cottage pies a few times before and the other day, she decided to try it herself. It turned out pretty good, I must say. The mashed potatoes were perfectly done…

…but though the filling tasted absolutely great, the beef was a bit tough for almost-toothless senior citizens like me…

She said that she did simmer it for a long time though. I asked her if she sliced the meat across the grain but she said that her mother helped her with the cutting so she did not know. Hmmm….no comments. LOL!!!

Gee whiz! I just discovered that there is actually a difference between shepherd’s pies and cottage pies. – I have assumed all this while that they are just different names for the same thing…as they look the same – on the outside at least. It seems that cottage pies have beef filling while shepherd’s pies use lamb instead. Even Secret Recipe calls theirs shepherd’s pies even though I am quite sure that they do not have lamb in them.

Personally, as far as the filling is concerned, I do not follow any rigid rule or recipe. You know me – anything goes! The first time I made it, I had beef in smoked barbecue sauce cooked with Bombay onions and sliced button mushrooms…and on one occasion, I even used corned beef. I don’t think I’ve ever used lamb before…so all this while, my shepherd’s pies were actually cottage pies. Duh!!! One of these days, I’ll use chicken – I wonder what I can call them then…