Cooking - Shepherd's Pie

Cold weather is wishful thinking on my part! - still longing for a drop to a seasonal norm in the seventies here in Tucson but have to make do with the mid-eighties and a drop into the forties at night. How we suffer here!

Anyway, blissful weather doesn't stop me from thinking comfort food , and Shepherd's Pie is one of those ultimate comfort foods - it's right up there with soup, Cornish pasties, a great stew, chicken and dumplings. Traditionally, when made with beef, this is called Cottage Pie but what the heck! It's origins stem from the acceptance of the potato as a staple ingredient in English/Scottish cooking . Lots of potato and a little meat allowed the frugal housewife to "stretch the roast".

I've had some pretty awful versions of this dish in my life. Probably the nastiest were boarding school fare - glutinous, brown messes topped with post-war dehydrated mashed potatoes. My mother's version back in those days of rationing made use of the left-overs from a Sunday roast be it beef or lamb. The cold meat was minced and added to a brown sauce. It was a pretty tasty dish. It was only later, when meat became plentiful, that her version , and now mine, uses freshly ground beef.

The heart of a Shepherds Pie is the brown sauce, and if you want to be a purist and make your own, James Beard created a flavorful recipe. Follow this link for his recipe. If, like me, you find the occasional short-cut to be inoffensive and a time-saver , look for packaged mix made by Coleman - it takes a lot of the work out of prep time, and with a little doctoring produces an excellent Shepherds Pie. Here's my version of this once humble dish. Allow about 30 minutes for prep and about 1:15 minutes total prep and cooking time. The filling and mash can be made ahead of time. If starting with a cold filling, re-heat it on stove-top before adding the potato layer and putting under the grill.

This makes four, as my kids describe it, "regimental size" servings or six normal servings. It holds very well as left-overs - just re-heat in the microwave. I frequently double the recipe size and slice big squares that I freeze in single serving packages.

Shepherd's Pie

1. About 2 Cups of Brown Sauce


2. OR 1 package of Shepherd's Pie mix used as directed.


3. About 1 TBS olive oil
   


4. 1 llb 93% lean ground beef


5. 1 mid-size onion or a mixture of diced onions and leeks - enough to get 1 1/2 Cups


6. About 1 Cup coarsely chopped carrots


7. 1 Cup frozen peas


8. Dash Worcestershire sauce


9. 1 tsp. Dijon style mustard


10. Fresh cracked pepper and good salt (Maldon Sea Salt preferred) to taste. Dried thyme/parsley.


11. Topping: 4 baseball sized potatoes, 1 medium sized turnip, 1/2 large yam ** peeled and cut in 2" chunks.

** I like a mixture of root vegetables for the topping. It's a sneaky way of introducing variety. You can use all potatoes - all sweet potatoes - or any root veggie mixture.
Method


Make the Brown Sauce according to recipe or follow directions on the package for dry mix .
Pre- heat oven to 350F
Heat the oil in a shallow, oven-proof casserole or skillet. gently saute the onions/leeks until soft and translucent. Remove them to a bowl using a slotted spoon. Bring the heat up, add the beef to the casserole and saute briskly until browned. Return the onions to the casserole, add the raw carrots and peas, stir in the sauce (fresh or mix) season with a dash of Worcestershire sauce , mustard, salt and pepper and a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme or a tsp. dried thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer and transfer from stove-top to the middle shelf of a preheated oven.

While the filling is simmering in the oven. Boil the potatoes. Drain and mash with butter, salt and pepper and a couple of TBS of freshly chopped parsley. (do NOT use any liquids - you want a solid as opposed to runny mash)

Carefully remove the casserole from the oven. Turn the oven setting to Broil. Spread the mashed potato in an even layer over the filling. The thickness of the layer will vary dependent on the diameter of your casserole but try for a minimum 1" thickness. Score it with a fork. You can gild the lily by topping it with a handful of shredded sharp cheese and sliced tomatoes.


Put under the broiler for around 10 minutes or until the top is lightly brown and the filling is bubbling around the edges. Traditionally this is a meal in one and served alone.

Genny made a version of this over the weekend too and she'll post her comments and photos.

Genny's version of the shepards pie is now a staple of our household. Never would I have believed it. My recipe follows Gerry's above except no leeks (which I do happen to love, just didn't have any) and instead of traditional mashed potatoes for the topping I did mashed sweet potatoes. So it is a Thanksgiving version of shepards pie...good year round.! Try it. You would have thought the dish was made by Paula Deen.