As this is the unofficial food thread I've just made a superb shepherds pie.

Ingredients -:
1, Asde bag of extra special baby sprouts, bacon and garlic butter tossed in the wok then lined the bottom of the oven baking dish.
2, Onion, chopped, softened in wok and a 1lb of butchers steak mince added and browned for 5 minutes.
3, Tin of toms added.
4, A teaspoon of red chillies in white wine vinegar added.
5, A jar of Homepride Shepherds Pie sauce added.
6, All contents mixed and spooned out over the top of sprouts and bacon.
7, 5lb of Albert Rooster spuds boiled and mashed with butter and milk then covered carefully over top of aforementioned mix.
8, Creative use of back of fork for ridged effect.
9, Red Leicester cheese grated over the top of spuds.
10, 170 degees in a pre-heated oven for 50 minutes.

It was a visible masterpiece and didn't arf taste good!

yep, I agree, my next attempt will not require belly pork at all and will concentrate more on getting the gelatine into the pie and perhaps not squashing the meat down so firmly, all in all they were good, perhaps too much Allspice and not enough pepper, problem with the gelatine and the meat was too dark when cooked (not pink like a pork pie) but the pastry was spot on - overall it did end up like a meat pie with the meat being coincidently pork, rather than a pork pie, if you know what I mean.

The glass jar method is mentioned in the Hairy Bikers recipe and it was only at the last minute that I realised that I didn't have any glass jars

cor...

any chance of an invite mate ?

I managed to decimate beans on toast last night !

can any one suggest a good book for beginners ? ie "How to Cook" or similar?

Only the best for you SanJunien ....... micronde required........rlhttp://www.picard.fr/rl
Or rlhttp://www.leaderprice.fr/leader-price-et-vousrl

We might have to have a Wizeb, Sanjunien, Peggy rendezvous if I tramp over to Limoges this coming season.
We will doubtless despatch several bottles of claret.