Basic Stew Recipe + Mash Topping

Basic Stew

I stumbled upon a piece of recipe from a book from Jamie Oliver (Ministry of Food ) . The way of cooking is somehow similar with the vegetarian Shepherd Pie (see at the end of the entry).

Here are the ingredients :

2 stick of celery
2 medium onions
2 carrots
2 tomatoes
olive oil
6 tablespoons of tomato puree ( Spaghetti 's sauce also applicable)

Meat:
(Chicken and White wine)
5 stalks of Thyme fresh leaves (from Tesco's vegetable section)
300 g mined Chicken
7 tablespoon of White wine

Instruction:
-Preheat oven to 350 F/180C
-Trim the ends off celery and roughly chop the sticks
-Peel and roughly chop the onions
-Peel carrots, slice lengthways and roughly chop
-Roughly cut tomatoes
-Put a pot on medium heat
-Put all vegetables and your chosen herb into the pan with 2 lugs of olive oil ,fry for 10 minutes.
- Put few grinds of pepper and salt sparingly .
-Add a splash of water if it looks a bit dry .
- Remove the stalks of herbs .

For your mash topping:
2 palm size potatoes
3 tablespoon of butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a sprig of fresh thyme

Instruction:
-Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
-Peel the potatoes ,cut them in half and boil for 10 minutes.
-Drain in colander and return them to the pan.
-Add butter and pinch of salt and pepper.
-Mash until smooth and creamy .

-Roughly top the stew with the mashed potato-don't worry about it being smooth and even .
-Pick a few thyme leaves off the stalk and lightly push into the potato.
-Cook in oven for 25 minutes .

Previously,I have tried

Vegetarian style Shepherd Pie
I have made a vegetarian style of Shepherd Pie from a very simple ingredients .