Shepherd’s Pie

 

I know I promised meatloaf, but…something came up.  Namely, I decided to use that ground beef I had thawing and take a swing at Shepherd’s Pie!

I’ve made this dish I believe…once previously.  It essentially wound up being a veggie casserole with potato on top.  Not very good.  So, while doing a little hunting online for inspiration I stumbled across this video by Gordon Ramsay.

A bit MTV, isn’t it?  Yeah.  While the video doesn’t really give you much in the way of measurements and actual instruction…I watched it a couple times, picked up a few ideas and decided to wing it.  The verdict?  My wife called dibs on the leftovers, my one kid gave it a 6 stars out of 5, and our picky eater made toast.  I was tempted to throw a few Gordon Ramsay adjectives their way, but…everyone has their own preferences, right?

Here’s how it all shook down.

Gordon Ramsay Inspired Shepherd’s Pie – A DT2C mashup! (?)

The Mashed Potatoes.

• 2 lbs potato.  Salt some water, peel and dice the potatoes and boil them until you can put a fork in them without that crunchy potato resistance.
• Drain
• Add a splash of milk.  Mash.
• Add 2 egg yolks.  Stir it all up.
• Add about 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese.

I started the potatoes boiling and cooking while I was doing the meat.  Once the potatoes were ready for mashing, the meat was simmering off some liquid.  It all timed out rather nice.

The Meat.

• 1 lb lean ground beef.  (Ramsay used Lamb.  Who’s got THAT lying around?) Brown it, strain it, set it aside for a bit.  You’ll want to use a large deep pan you can load up and simmer things in.
• 1/4 onion – shredded with a grater.  Could have done more, I had 1/4 onion on hand.  Go with 1/2.
• 1 carrot – shredded with a grater.  I did about 8 mini-carrots.  A big one would have been much easier to shred.  It all tastes the same.
• 2 teaspoons crushed/minced garlic.  I’m guessing on quantity here, I was really winging this one.

Saute the onions and carrots, cook them down a bit, then toss the ground beef back in.  Alright, now it’s time for some seasoning.  Here goes (to my recollection).

• 2 teaspoons rosemary
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Tomato paste (I used a couple squirts of bottled pizza sauce I had handy – saving the tomato paste in the pantry for another recipe this week…)
• a few good cranks of black pepper from the pepper mill
• 1 cup chicken stock/broth

Let everything relax and simmer together.  This would be a good time to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 Celsius).  You want to get the beef mixture cooked down so it’s still moist, but not runny.  Okay.  Time to toss it all together.

Grab a casserole dish.  The round ones with a lid (you won’t need the lid unless you have leftovers – and with this one you won’t have leftovers.  Yum.)  Put the meat mixture on the bottom, press it down a bit.  Next, put the mashed potato mix on top, kind of like you’re icing a cake.  Once that’s done and smoothed over a bit, take your parmesan cheese and sprinkle generously over the top of the potato.  I then gave a few cranks of black pepper from the pepper mill and sprinkled some paprika spice on top to give a bit of colour to everything.  Not much, just a light dusting.

Whack it in the pre-heated oven for…20-25 minutes.  Scoop.  Serve.  Enjoy.

With the ground beef running around $3.50, the potatoes about $1.50 and then various spices, odds and ends and parmesan…I’m guessing all tallied this one came out to about $8 to pull off?  I shredded up a head of romaine to have alongside this.  I mean, there’s already veggies, starch, protein and dairy included…and as a heavier dish, a light salad made a good companion.