Then I top it with mashed sweet potato instead of regular spuds.Īs I'm discussing the recipe with mum, she asks if I remember my paternal grandma's signature pie. I make my filling with tinned tomatoes, caramelised onion, mock mince, mushrooms for extra texture and either Worcestershire sauce or a heaped tablespoon of Vegemite (you can't taste it, but it adds depth). I too make shepherd's pie, though my version is different – I married a pescatarian with a penchant for healthy eating. 'I make pies in a large dish, because people can come back for more,' she says. I tell her about mum's individual chicken pies. She tells me that my great grandmother made them from scratch 'all the time', wants to know if we put hardboiled eggs in fish pies in Australia and shares her own recipe for a sort of vegetable sausage roll, the pastry lined with cream cheese. Unprompted, cooking tips follow: 'It's very important you make ridges in the potato with a fork and then put it under the grill so it goes crunchy on the top.' Nearly half an hour later, we're still talking pie. 'The filling in shepherd's pie is like bolognese, minced beef but without the tomato and garlic, which gives it more of an old-fashioned flavour because we didn't use garlic in the '40s and '50s it was quite exotic then,' she says. I check the time difference and call my grandmother, Stephanie, in London. My family, despite calling it shepherd's pie, makes cottage pie. The name 'shepherd's pie' came in the mid-19th century to refer to those made with lamb. People living in cottages were often poor, hence 'cottage pie'. It originated in the 18th century as a way to use up leftovers, not unlike my mother's chicken pies. Shepherd's pie, or cottage pie, has UK origins. Mum recalls regularly eating shepherd's pies during her childhood, which she also cooked for us. 'It wasn't until I started cooking that I noticed not only what I had inherited in the kitchen, but also what I had changed.' 'I associate pies with Australia more than the UK, though steak and kidney pies are very British… when I think of minced meat pies, that's more Aussie pastry and minced meat, with gristle,' she laughs. Surprisingly, she thinks of them as Australian, too. Abby, my mum, moved to Melbourne from London in 1986. I associate pies with Australia: Four'n Twenty in crinkly plastic that burned the roof of my mouth at the school canteen and at the football. 'I did little individual pies because it's more appealing for kids the fact you could pick them up with your fingers,' she tells me. Talking about the pies now, mum reveals they were her way of repurposing meat leftover from cooking chicken soup. I'd mimic my dad, lifting off the flaky, store-bought pastry lid to let the meat cool in the china ramekin. Her individually portioned chicken pies received the highest honour, three hand-drawn stars: little more than pulled chicken in an inoffensive roux flecked with parsley.

If you flick through the smudged pages of my mother's cookbooks and printed recipes, hand-drawn stars mark the meals eaten without complaint by the whole family.

Humble pie food