I even remember making this in 2008. I remember the taste, and how delicious it was. I’m glad I found the recipe again! I think it was a BBC Good Food one, hence the posh bits. 🙂

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Ingredients
1 tbsp sunflower oil (I used smoked olive oil)
200g smoked streaky bacon , preferably in one piece, skinned and cut into pieces
900g lamb neck fillets, cut into large chunks
8 baby onions, peeled
5 carrots , cut into large chunks
3 tbsp plain flour
small bunch thyme (I used 1 tbs dried)
350ml red wine
350ml lamb or beef stock(for this I mixed the wine with 350ml water then added a beef oxo cube. Needs must and all that)
large splash Worcestershire sauce
I don’t have a casserole dish that I can use on the stove top, so I used a frying pan for the first stage, then just tipped it all into the casserole dish.

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4

Fry the bacon in the oil until crispy, then remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place in the casserole dish.
Remove extra fat from the fillets, then cut into chunks.
Brown these in the oil, a few at a time, and remove them with a slotted spoon and add to the pot.
Add the onions and carrots to the frying pan, and cook them until they start to brown.
Sprinkle in the flour and mix to coat. I added 3 knobs of butter here as the pan juices had almost gone.
Cook off the flour for about 5 minutes then add in the stock/wine mixture and the Worcestershire sauce.
Bring to the boil, then simmer until it starts to thicken, then pour it all over the meat.
Mix well, put the lid on and cook for 1 hour.

After an hour make the cobbler topping.

350g self-raising flour
4 tbsp chopped mixed herbs , including thyme, rosemary and parsley
200g chilled butter , grated
juice 1 lemon
5 bay leaves
beaten egg , to glaze (except I forgot this)
Tip the flour and herbs into a large bowl, then season with salt and pepper.
Add the butter and mix using a fork.
Make a well, then add the lemon juice and 3 tbsp water.
Gently bring together to make a soft dough.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 5mm thick, then cut into rounds using a 7.5cm pastry cutter.
Re-roll the trimmings, then cut out more rounds until the dough is used up.
Take the casserole from the oven, remove the lid, then arrange the circles of dough, overlapping, around the edge of the dish, sticking bay leaves between them.
Brush with egg and bake for 45 mins until golden.

NOTES:
Hmm. Next time I will add bicarbonate of soda to the topping mix. They do not seem to want to rise at all.
Too much lemon in the topping. Use only half next time.
Fresh thyme would have been better.

Yes, this is a very poor 2008 photo, but you get the gist!