Shepherd's Pie
Long before I was born, my parents lived a rural life in the Falkland Islands. This was the early '70s and at the time, the Falklands were (and still are) dominated by the sheep industry. Most of the stories I hear of those times revolve around three things: snow, penguins and shepherd's pie. There is also the weird and ,I fervently hope, apocryphal story of the young Falklander boy whose stomach exploded after eating a lethal combination of dried fruits and way too much water.
Shepherd's pie holds none of those explosive fears, though. Also known as cottage pie, it's a deeply traditional English dish that spread across the colonies which valued warm, nourishing, meat and potatoes based meals. In its most basic form, it's a rich meat (either beef or mutton) and vegetable gravy covered with mashed potatoes and baked; sometimes a pastry crust is involved, but not in mine. Australia has their version, which more resembled a classic meat pie, as does the Falkland Islands, which has always perplexed me with the addition of tomatoes. As with all of my treasured family recipes, I modified it over the years to my own snobbish palate; specifically, I removed the tomatoes and green beans that dominated my father's recipe and mixed the beef with ground sausage.
This is one of the ultimate wintertime foods: it's rich and flavorful, mostly uses root vegetables and can hold up to the Sunday roast tradition. I like to serve it with hot tea and crusty bread- remember, bread's only as good as its crust.
Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs ground beef
½ lbs ground pork sausage
3 large carrots (peeled and sliced thinly)
4 large celery stalks (sliced thinly)
1 large yellow onion (yep, sliced thinly)
5 large garlic cloves (coarsely chopped)
Salt, black pepper and about 3 tbsp flour
Fresh thyme, de-stemmed and chopped
3 cups beef broth/stock
1 ½ lbs yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered length-wise
5-6 tbsp cream or half & half
2 tbsp butter
salt and Pepper
½ cup dry bread crumbs
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp shaved hard cheese (pecorino, parmigianino, romano, etc)
First, boil a large pot of water with just a little salt; once it's bubbling, add the potatoes, cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes. When they're ready, you should be able to cut through a potatoes with the edge of a wooden spoon with no difficulty. I use a small mixer to do this (which technically makes them whipped potatoes), but you can empty the potatoes in a large mixing bowl, add the cream, butter and S&P and go to town on them with a potatoes masher. This is a rustic kind of recipe, so it's okay to have a few lumps. Set aside and pre-heat an oven on a broil setting- 450-500º or so.
Heat a large saucepot on medium high and added a few tablespoons of olive oil; when it's hot enough, the oil should become loose and shimmer. Toss in the carrots and sauté until they begin to color, then remove from pan and set aside. Repeat this process with the celery, onion and garlic, adding oil as needed. Remember, garlic cooks much faster than the others, so you can mix it in with the onion.
Once you have the veg done, add the beef and sausage to the saucepot and let brown. Personally, I don't believe in removing excess fat from a pan, but if you're very health-conscious, go ahead and skim it. Once the meat is mostly done, add the S&P, thyme and flour- the flour will make the pan stick, so stir carefully. Continue to cook for about 3-5 more minutes (just enough to brown the flour and remove any kind of starch taste), and then add vegs and stir. Once uniformly mixed, pour in the broth/stock and bring to a simmer. You want the result to be thick and rich, not thin like a soup or even a stew. Cook for another 10 minutes and pour into a large deep baking dish. Gently spoon the potatoes over the dish and smooth into a uniform cover, being careful around the edges of the pan.
Now this is a good part- you want to create a beautiful golden crust on the pie, so you're going to chop up the crumbs, butter and cheese into a fine mixture and sprinkle evenly across the surface. I use a food processor for this, but you can also use a pastry knife, or even just mix it all in a bowl and use two knives in a slicing pattern. Once you've topped the pan with the mixture, add to oven and bake just until golden-brown, probably about 10 minutes. Enjoy!
by Nathan Kamal