Shepherd's Pie

Ahoy, my dear readers! Thanks to you, No Free Lunch has reached 4000 pageviews. Thank you for the continued support through my longer-than-expected creative nadir.

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.