Description
I’ve never made or even tried Sheperd’s pie, so as it goes my better half insisted that I make it in celebration of this holiday. Here’s my take on an old classic. And it is delicious !
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 lb extra lean ground beef
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 –4 large carrots diced
- 4 ribs celery diced
- ½ bunch parsley finely chopped
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 3 –4 sprigs thyme finely chopped or 1 teaspoon dried
- 2 tablespoons flour or more as needed
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 glass red wine, Cabernet, Merlot or Pinot Noir, never use cooking wine,
- as this has a lot of salt in it and you can’t control the amount here.
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, be sure to shake the bottle well to get all of the settled flavors
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon beef base
- 1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouqe1 tablespoon catsup
- Johnny’s seasoned salt or Lawrys brand (for when you adjust the seasonings)
- 1 tablespoon chicken base, mixed with the riced/mashed potatoes
- 6 large potatoes peeled and boiled put through a ricer
- 1 egg beaten
- grated sharp cheddar as a topping (optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 425f.
- Peel and boil the potatoes until soft. Add and blend in the chicken base here and put the potatoes through a ricer, or mash as you normally do, set aside.
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil until just smoking, add the carrots,onion and celery followed by the butter. Saute over high heat, if anything starts to stick to the pan, deglaze with some of the wine, stirring up all of the browned bits.
- Lower the heat and add the ground beef the tomato paste, cook on medium high heat until the beef is browned.
- Add the flour and stir to incorporate, add the stock and all remaining ingredients, cook this and reduce until you have a nice thick gravy.
- Ladle the mix into an oven proof casserole, spoon or pipe the mashed potatoes over the mix, brush with the egg wash. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is slightly browned, you may broil to finish the browning process. Happy St. Patrick’s day!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 40 mins