I’m hoping that this comfort dish will aid my recovery from the nasty flu virus I had last week! We frequently had this dish during my childhood, growing up in the North of England, as it was cheap, nutritious and easy to make.

I’ve swapped the traditional minced lamb for minced turkey, white potato for sweet potato, and threw some grated orange zest into the mix too see what happens! 

Unfortunately, my oven stopped working halfway through cooking today, otherwise the finnished product would have had a nice golden brown colouring on top! The flavours all worked well together though, and I couldn’t resist a good dollop of HP Sauce on the side. Well, that’s my tea sorted for the first half of the week!  

Ingredients (Serves 4): 

-500g Turkey Mince

-4 large Sweet Potato, peeled & cut into roughly 1 inch cubes 

-Olive Oil

-1 large Carrot, finely diced 

– 1 Onion, finely diced

-2 Garlic cloves, finely diced 

-100 ml Red Wine

-2tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

-2tbsp Thyme

-1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

-Knob of Butter

-Zest from 1/2 an Orange

-50g Mature Cheddar Cheese, grated 

-Salt & Pepper

*Optional dollop of HP (Brown) Sauce

Method:  

-Pre-heat the oven to 200 oC

-Put the Sweet Potatoes into a pan of boiling water and cook for 20 mins.

-In the meantime, heat a large flat frying pan with a little Olive Pil. Once hot, add the Onions, Garlic & Carrots, cook on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until soften. Add Salt & Pepper halfway through. Remove from the heat and add to a bowl.

-Using the same pan, add a little more oil and then add the minced Turkey. Cook for around 10 minutes until lightly browned all over. 

-Add the contents of the bowl to the pan, mix up well. Add the Red Wine, Worcester shire Sauce, Thyme, Cayene Pepper, and cook on a low heat for another 5 minutes. 

-Check that the Sweet Potato has now been cooked. It should be soft, but still a little firm. Drained from the pan, add a knob of butter and mash up well, removing any lumps. Add the Orange zest and some Salt & Pepper. 

 

– Add the Turkey and Veg mix to the bottom of a rectangular ovenproof dish. Then top it with the mashed Sweet Potato. I use a fork to flatten the top down. Sprinkle over the grated Cheese and add to the oven for approx 20-30 minutes until the top is golden brown (that’s if your oven is actually working!) 

-Remove from the oven and serve up immediately.