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At West Lafayette's Pay-Less Supermarket, nestled between the ground beef and the ground bison, observant shoppers can sometimes find ground lamb. Having wanted to make this quintessential British dish, I snapped it up yesterday. Making shepherd's pie, I discovered two things. First, it's quite easy to make. Second, it's relatively difficult to capture in a photograph. Despite this, it's damn tasty. You can substitute ground beef here, but then we would be cowherds, wouldn't we?
Ingredients
Mashed Potatoes
- 5 potatoes
- 4 tbs half and half
- 3 tbs butter
- Salt and pepper
Filling
- 1/2 large sweet onion
- 4-5 small carrots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 pound ground lamb
- Splash of Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup peas
- 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chicken or beef stock
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Boil water in a large pot. Peel and halve potatoes. Cook potatoes until soft, so they can be poked easily with a fork. When done, drain and add half and half, butter, salt, and pepper. Mash well.
While potatoes are cooking, prepare the filling. Finely dice the onion and carrots. Mince garlic. With a little olive oil, saute vegetables on medium high heat for a few minutes. Add lamb. Break up the meat and add salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook until browned. Add peas, tomatoes, and stock. Mix thoroughly and let cook for a few minutes.
Pour the filling out into a casserole dish. Cover evenly with mashed potatoes. Use a fork to disrupt the top of the potatoes, so small peaks form. These peaks will brown in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.
When serving, scoop all the way down to get everything. I enjoyed my Shepherd's Pie with a big glass of Murphy's stout.
I had forgotten about this dish when you were doing a week of pub specials. Usher's House has it with chunks of lamb rather than ground lamb. I think ground lamb is more traditional. For this dish, one has to resist putting in herbs and spices. This is a British dish after all. Too many herbs would change it. Having a love for the flavors of the Mediterranean, it isn't easy for me to resist oregano, thyme or rosemary when it comes to lamb. Some may think cumin but we must resist. A dash of Worcestershire does the finishing touch beautifully. Yes, a stout is perfect.
ReplyDeleteThat looks very good, we'll be giving it a try soon... not sure what exciting ground meat we'll find, but Teeter is a wondrous place, and hopefully lamb is not out of the question. I hope you enjoyed your Murphy's, as per our recent discussion of its merits.
ReplyDeleteMy Harris Teeter is on the smaller side, and they only had bison and beef. DAMN. I'm going to go with the "cowherd's pie" tonight, though I'm contemplating doing it with meatloaf mix if I can't find lamb next time... that might be delicious.
ReplyDeleteReally good recipe! WONDERFUL outcome to effort ratio, which is always something I look for. And it was good with ground beef, but I do wish I had found lamb...
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that it turned out well with the beef. But in making the comparison, it's like comparing the Si Senor hamburger with the Si Senor lamburger. We all know it's not the same.
DeleteOn our quick trip to visit Sebastian we were able to partake in the Shepherd's Pie leftovers. It was still yummy and worth taking dish duty.
ReplyDeleteThe Shepherd Pie leftover was great. It really hit the spot with an ale. That casserole dish is paying off in extraordinary service. When I grew up in Hong Kong, grandma made a version of this with ground beef once in a while. She had never been to an English pub (not her thing) or knew anything about pub grub but somehow, this sort of a dish seeped into the local cuisine because of the British Empire influence. The dish she made consisted of mashed potatoes topped with browned ground beef, chopped vegetables and peas in brown gravy. It was not baked. It was a nice diversion for us. I only remember this dish served may be half a dozen to a dozen times. It was served on a soup plate (sort of like a dish for serving pasta). In lands influence by British culture, soup is eaten out of a plate with a bit of depth and usually not a bowl like we do in the U.S. The version of Shepherd Pie I described and the service vessel was an image in my mind that I can still recall quite well.
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