I had Shepherd’s Pie once before I created this recipe. I really feel like I’ve missed out my whole life on this de-licious-ness. Origin of this dish is debatable. It seems that every culture has their variation of this dish, but most likely originated in England or Ireland (of course each says it’s their own!). Cottage Pie (not called Shepherd’s Pie until 1877) was introduced in 1791 when potatoes were accepted as an edible crop. It probably was
“invented” by frugal wives trying to use up leftover meat, my ‘cup-a-tea’. Cottage pie is essentially just leftover minced meats topped with mashed potatoes. Some people say Shepherd’s Pie uses lamb, and Cottage Pie uses beef. Whatever it’s called, it’s delicious and a super easy way to feed lots of people for not much $$$$.
Serves 6-8, and about 1 1/2 hours to make
Ingredients:
about 2 lbs organic potatoes (russet or yukon gold)
4 Tbsp grass-fed butter
1/4 C heavy cream
1 lb grass-fed ground beef or lamb
1/2 lb thick sliced bacon
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 large organic carrots, diced
1 C organic frozen peas
1 Tbsp organic tomato paste
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, minced
2 sprigs fresh thyme, minced
salt and pepper
1 C shredded raw cheddar cheese
Directions:
1. preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. peel and chop potatoes into 1″ cubes and cover with cold, filtered water. bring to a boil and simmer until fork tender. (you can soak them in water for 30-60 min if you want to remove some of the starch, I did not though).
**don’t add the potatoes to boiling water. You want to cook from the inside-out, not the outside-in, so bring the water to boil with potatoes in.
***make it Paleo by substituting the mashed potatoes for your favorite “mashed cauli-tatoes”
3. While potatoes are cooking (about 15-20 min), cook the bacon in a large cast iron skillet (ours is probably 20″ in diameter) over medium heat. You can use a regular pan, I just was planning on baking the pie in the very large and in charge skillet!
4. Remove bacon once cooked. Leave the bacon grease in the pan! Cook the beef or lamb in the bacon grease. Season with salt and pepper. Once finish, remove and drain on paper towel, but make sure to leave some grease in for cooking the veggies!
5. Sauté the onions and 1/2 t salt over medium heat in the bacon grease (if you need to add some butter, by all means, do so!). After about 5 minutes (when the onions are clear-ish) add the diced carrots and another 1/2 t salt and cook for another 5 minutes or so. DONT FORGET ABOUT YOUR POTATOES!
6. While the onions and carrots are cooking, take this time to chop up the bacon (into similar size as the meat) and grate your cheese if you have not yet.
7. When carrots are done add the peas, tomato paste, minced thyme, minced parsley and bacon. Cook until peas are heated through.
8. While the meat mixture is heating, prepare your mashed potatoes. Add 3-4 Tbsp of grass-fed butter, about 1/4 C heavy cream, salt, minced thyme and minced parsley. Mash with fork until smooth (I just mashed them in the pot they cooked in after I drained them!). Go ahead and taste them and see if they need anything else.
9. If you didn’t use an oven safe dish (like a massive cast iron skillet!), transfer the meat mixture into a 9″ x 9″ baking dish; if the dish is oven safe, just leave it be. Spoon the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture and spread with spatula to make a relatively even layer.
10. Bake at 375 for 20 min.
11. After 20 min, add the cheese to the top and bake for another 10 min. To make it extra crispy, turn on the broiler the last 2-3 min. Just don’t forget like I almost did 😀
12.Remove from oven and enjoy.
Elizabeth Horn 