When we arrived in Dublin, realizing that we were Ukrainian and that we didn’t have much money, Ryan, one of our neighbors who owns a restaurant, would bring us leftovers in the evening after work. Needless to say, with food he quickly won the hearts of our entire family! His help was invaluable to us and he has now become a family friend.

What I liked best was when he brought us his Shepherd’s Pie. He gave me a recipe for it, which is as follows.

Recipes (for 6 to 8 people):

• 1kg of potato
• 2 carrots
• 1/2 glass of water
• 2 onions
• 1 zucchini
• 200g tomato puree
• 400g of minced meat
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 table spoon of Paprika
• Milk
• Salt and pepper
• A little grated cheese

Method :

1. Peel carrots and potatoes.
2. Cook the roughly cut potatoes.
3. Mash them and puree them, adding milk to obtain the desired consistency.
4. Cut the vegetables (onions, carrots, leeks and zucchini) into small cubes to speed up the cooking, and brown them in a little oil.
5. Add the water and cover them until carrots are cooked
6. Remove the vegetables, crush the garlic cloves and brown them in a little oil with the sprig of thyme for 2/3 minutes then remove the sprig of thyme before adding the meat with the paprika.
7. Once the meat has browned well, add the vegetables and the tomato purée.
8. Pour your meat and vegetable mixture into the bottom of an oven dish then cover with the mash and sprinkle with grated cheese.
9. Bake in the oven and enjoy with an endive salad!

At home, everyone loved it, so I hope you do too!