Shepard"s Pie



One of my favourite make ahead dishes for the winter.  It can easily be prepared in advance, and placed in the fridge and baked in a few days.  This dish is traditional made with lamb, but we prefer ground beef.

Ingredients:

Filling:

  1. Olive oil;
  2. 4 cloves of garlic (minced);
  3. 1 Large onion (finely chopped);
  4. 2 Celery sticks (chopped small);
  5. 3 carrots, chopped;
  6. 1/3 cup of flower;
  7. 1.5-2 lbs of ground beef;
  8. tomato paste (3 table spoons);
  9. Red wine to degalze, about a glass;
  10. 2 beef oxo packs;
  11. a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce; and
  12. salt and pepper to session.

Topping:

  1. 1.5Kg of potatoes;
  2. 1/2 cup of milk;
  3. 1.4 cup of non salted butter; and
  4. salt and pepper (white pepper works best) to taste.



Instructions:

 To make, fry up the ground beef until brown, and drain off the excess fat.   remove the beef from the pan, and use the olive oil to fry the onions and garlic until fragrant, then deglaze the pan with the wine.  Then ad back the beef.  At this point, add the pealed quartered potatoes to boiling water.



Add the beef stock, beef oxo packs, Worcestershire sauce, chopped carrots, as well and any other flavours you wish to add.  I like to season with kosher salt and pepper at this point.  Stir around in the pan, and reduce.  once reduced, add in the frozen pees to the mix.

 
Once the potato's are cooked, drain, and mash with the butter and milk (I use a light cream 10%), as well as salt and pepper.  Once mashed, dump on the meat ,mix, and spread out.  You can pipe it on for a perfect look, but I like rustic.


Then bake at 350F for about 40 min, or until golden brown.


We served right away, as we were hungry, but for a perfect piece, let cool for 20 or so min.

This is a great make ahead meal.  Have you made shepherd's pie before?  How did it turn out? 

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