Shetland Shepherd’s Pie By Ronnie Eunson from Uradale Farm, Shetland Isles, compiled by Wendy Barrie, cook, food writer and Leader of Slow Food, Scotland’s Ark of Taste.
The Ark of Taste was created by Slow Food to catalogue the existence of endangered foods and associated food culture lest they are lost or forgotten forever. Not only is this a valuable register providing fascinating insights, it may also be our saviour one day. As industrial farming methods and food processing continue to diminish our biodiversity, these fragile foods are recognised and boarded on the Ark - a record of our food heritage and a saving of old breeds, varietals and seeds.
Such products include Native Shetland Kye (cattle) and Lamb, old landrace breeds - small animals with big flavours! Ronnie and his family farm organically in the far north of Scotland and sell organic yarns from their flock too. These animals can withstand the feisty weather and live well off land that is uniquely rich in flora, biodiversity and ‘terroir.’ Shetland Blacks are the native potato and also thrive in the soil and climate of Shetland. For an island salt fit for the Ark, look no further than Isle of Skye for an artisan product, produced from Loch Snizort.
For more information visit: www.uradalefarm.blogspot.co.uk; www.slowfoodscotland.com/ark-of-taste/
Ingredients: Serves 2
200g Native Shetland Lamb or Kye, minced
1 onion, peeled & chopped
2 carrots, peeled & diced
3 medium sized Shetland Black Potatoes
50g butter
1 dessert spoon cornflour, slaked in water
Scottish rapeseed oil
Isle of Skye Sea Salt (another Ark product)
Freshly milled pepper
Method
1 Place a drizzle of rapeseed oil in a pan and brown the meat. Once all is browned, add the onions to soften.
2 Meanwhile, wash potatoes and cut in halves. Boil the potatoes in a pan of lightly salted water, using Isle of Skye Sea Salt, until tender then drain.
3 Add carrots to the meat pot and almost cover the contents with water. Bring to boil and simmer with lid on for a good 10 minutes to cook through.
4 If you wish to mash potatoes, cast off skins and return potatoes to pan and crush with a knob of butter.
5 Pre-heat grill.
6 Add the slaked cornflour to the meat and return to the boil to cook out flour and thicken the gravy.
7 Spoon the mince into
individual bowls or a family
dish and finish with a topping of mash potato. Fork the tops and season.
8 Toast in the grill for
a few minutes to finish the
dish.
Photo© Wendy Barrie www.scottishfoodguide.com
In association with Taste Communications.
www.tastecommunications.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article