Recipes – № 21
Shepherd’s Pie
Shepherd’s pie, a baked dish of ground lamb or mutton topped with a golden brown layer of mashed potato, is comfort food from the British Isles. It’s definitely comforting to me ever since my mom, who is English, treated me to shepherd's pie growing up. It appears to be just as satisfying to Kim and Lina (my wife and daughter) though, so it seems my judgment isn’t too clouded by nostalgia.
If available, I like adding some sautéed mushrooms as well as a bit of mushroom broth (which I always have in the freezer) for additional depth of flavors, but the recipe is great (and more traditional) without either of these additions.
Note that cottage pie is identical to shepherd’s pie except that it uses ground beef instead of lamb or mutton. Both are delicious.
Serves 4 as a main dish
2 ½ lbs potatoes. Around 2 lbs peeled. Any reasonably starchy, medium or large, yellow- or white-fleshed variety.
1 ¼ lbs ground lamb or mutton
1 medium onion, any variety
1 large or 2 small carrots, any variety
1 large or 2 small celery stalks
5 thyme twigs
1 bay leaf
5 Tbsp butter and 5 Tbsp olive oil. Alternatively use 10 Tbsp olive oil.
1 cup shelled English peas or other green shell peas. Use frozen ones in winter.
Optional: 1 ice cube of reishi- or pheasant’s back mushroom broth (1 ½ Tbsp).
Optional: 2-3 ounces of fresh mushrooms, sautéed and chopped. Hen-of-the-woods, king oyster, wine cap, velvet pioppini or porcini mushrooms would all be great choices.
Kosher salt and fine sea salt
Black pepper
Peel the potatoes and cut them into large, roughly equal-sized chunks for even cooking. Boil the potatoes in salted water until cooked, 20-30 minutes, depending on how large the pieces are.
In the meantime, pre-heat the oven to 375F. Heat a sauté pan over medium heat, form the ground meat into a ball and fry it in 2 Tbsp of olive oil in the pan. The meat should have a semisphere shape in the pan. Let it sauté undisturbed until the underside is browned, then break it up with a spoon, season with sea salt and cook the rest of the meat through. While the meat sautés, peel the onion and carrot(s) and chop into 1/3-inch cubes along with the celery. Set the meat aside in a casserole or baking dish and sauté the chopped vegetables, thyme twigs and bay leaf in 3 Tbsp of olive oil over medium heat in the same sauté pan used for the meat. Don’t clean the pan – it’s got lots of great flavor for the vegetables to absorb. When the aromatic vegetables are soft and just starting to take on a golden color, remove the thyme twigs and bay leaf and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the peas and any mushroom or mushroom broth and add back the meat. Stir everything together and add more sea salt or black pepper to taste.
At some point while you’re sautéing the meat and vegetables, the potatoes will be cooked. Drain them, taking care to preserve some of the cooking liquid. Add 2/3 of a cup of the cooking liquid back to the potatoes as well as 5 Tbsp butter or olive oil and some sea salt. Puree with a potato masher and add further salt or cooking liquid as needed. Aim for a firmer consistency than if you were serving the mashed potato as is, since they will soften in the oven.
Distribute the meat and vegetable mix evenly into the casserole or baking dish and top with mashed potato. If you like you can use a fork to press a pattern into the perimeter of the mashed potato for a homey decorative look. Bake in the oven for 1h and 15 minutes until the mashed potato has formed a golden brown crust. I like serving shepherd’s pie with a simple green salad.
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