Recipe - Mashed Potato Pie (Skelchy version)

... for the ones who keep asking for it ... ;)







Ingredients:

Meat Portion:

1. Minced meat - pork is best, followed by beef then only by chicken (preference la).
2. 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of 5 spice powder.
3. 2 - 3 tablespoons of Lea & Perrin's sauce (I don't exactly measure my ingredients, as you can tell).
4. 4 - 5 tablespoons of thick soy sauce (molasses).
   
5. 1 dash of light soy sauce or to taste (go sparingly as the Lea & Perrins is quite flavorful).
6. Salt & Pepper to taste after meat is cooked.
7. Corn flour (I use the old favorite Brown & Polson's) 2 teaspoons in a little water to thicken up the gravy.

Potato Portion:

1. 20 russet potatoes (or any darker variety of potato) that's about your fist size or slightly smaller than a regular grapefruit.
2. About 3/4 - 1 full bar of SCS Salted Butter (or any good quality of salted butter).
3. About 1/4 - 1/2 cup of Dutch Lady full cream milk. (I used to use HL, but the vanilla flavor of HL really, REALLY kills the taste of this dish)
   
4. Salt, Pepper & Sugar to taste.
5. Dried Oregano for a ZING to the potatoes if you like ...
   

Directions:

Meat portion

1. Put all meat into a mixing bowl, followed by 5-spice powder, Lea & Perrin's, soy sauces and mix thoroughly. Add extra thick soy sauce (molasses) if mixture isn't completely DARK brown / black.
2. Cover with Saran Wrap and leave to marinate in fridge for at least 2 - 3 hours.
3. After 3 - 4 hours, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or any vegetable - based oil) on medium heat and fry meat when oil is piping hot.
4. After meat is cooked about 3/4 way, add 1/4 - 1/2 cup water and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in salt, pepper & sugar to taste.
5. Thicken up sauce with corn flour.
6. Set aside for layering process.

Potato portion:

1. Skin potatoes (I cut them in 1/2 to hasten the process) and pop them into a pot of salted boiling water.
2. Let boil till potatoes are just tender enough for mashing and dunk them in cold water for 2 seconds to stop them from over cooking.
3. Put slab of butter and mash potatoes. Add in milk bit by bit and continue mashing. If mash is too dry, add more milk.
   
4. Add in pepper and salt to taste and I also add in the oregano here ...

Begin with a nice wide dish and begin the first later with a generous helping of mashed potatoe, followed by meat and repeat until finish. I usually put most of the gravy on the top most meat layer as that allows the sauce to continue seeping into the mashed potato layers to flavor up the potatoes. Just a little tip ...

Eat this with a generous serving of salads ok? :)