Shepherd's Pie - Yum

[cbayer]

My husband is English and sometimes craves food he grew up with. Now, in all honesty, I don't find that much to like about English food, but Shepherd's Pie can be made really delicious.

I made it yesterday and it came out great. I used ground beef, but put some crispy bacon in as well. I added onions, celery, carrots, garlic, peas and spiced it with paprika and thyme.

To the mashed potatoes, I added shredded monterey jack, plain yogurt and blue cheese. The blue cheese is what, IMO, made this really, really good.

It came out of the oven bubbling hot with a nice browned top and was delicious.

what's your favorite way to make this classic?

(I am going to try Bubble and Squeak next week).

:hi:

[Paper Roses]

1. Sounds great. In the old days around my house, Mom would layer

mashed potatoes, browned ground chuck, a can of corn and called that Shepherd's pie. I never went to the cookbook for that recipe since I left home in 1960. Love to hear variations that make something you don't like sound interesting again. Since I am alone, making one of these would last me several meals.
Care to give a few more details?

[cbayer]

2. Sure! Love to share recipes. And I think this would freeze well.

Bacon - 2 slices
Ground beef - 1 pound
Celery, Carrots, Onion - about 1/2 cup chopped each
Garlic - 2 cloves minced
Frozen peas - about 1/2 cup
Paprika - 1 tsp
Fresh Thyme - 2 tsp
White Wine - 1/4 cup

Mashed potatoes - 2 - 3 cups - I used Trader Joe's Garlic, dehydrated mashed potatoes, but you can certainly make your own
Monterey Jack - 1 - 2 oz
Plain yogurt - 1/2 cup
Blue Cheese - 1 - 2 oz

Chop and fry bacon
Add ground beef and brown
Drain grease
Add celery, carrots, onion, garlic and saute until soft (about 10 minutes)
Add peas, paprika, thyme and wine and cook until wine cooks off

Put this in a dutch oven and cover with a layer of the mashed potatoes with the cheeses and yogurt.
Sprinkle with paprika
Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes, or until browned and bubbly.

Enjoy!

:hi:

[Paper Roses]

3. Wow, Should not call Mom's and yours by the same name.

Going grocery shopping tomorrow anyway so I can pick up a couple of things that I don't have on hand.
Thanks

[tango-tee]

19. Sounds great, and I can feel it attaching itself to my hips!!

And now tell us, what is Bubble and Squeak? I've heard the term before but can't for the life of me imagine what it is.

[cbayer]

20. I never got around to making it, but I think it is mashed up potatoes and leftover

veggies which you form into patties, fry and top with a poached egg.

I watched a video on it a few weeks ago.

:hi:

[hippywife]

21. And cabbage.

Cabbage is a must...it makes the squeak. I don't think the egg is necessary, nor is forming into patties. You can but can also make it as a skillet casserole type of dish.

:hi:

[Tesha]

22. Bubble and Squeak was usually..

just potatoes, cabbage and onions for us...

but according to Wiki we are more like...

"Rumbledethumps is a traditional dish from the Scottish Borders. The main ingredients are potato, cabbage and onion. Similar to Irish colcannon, and English bubble and squeak, it is either served as an accompaniment to a main dish or as a main dish itself."

sometimes with meat
sometimes baked with cheese on top
sometimes fried with bacon

Mom could make leftover into anything... and she often did!

[tango-tee]

23. Thanks for the hints! My hubby loves leftovers.

He is a great cook, and hates to throw away leftovers. He finds any number of inventive ways of using them, and I will definitely tell him about this!

[EFerrari]

4. Shepard's Pie is greek to me.

Do you put a smashed potato topping on the filling and bake or does the potato mixture also go under the yummy stuff?

[hippywife]

5. Taters on top, Beth.

It's kind of like a pot pie with no crust and the taters are the topping.

[EFerrari]

6. Thanks, hippywife. I get it confused with Cornish meat pies.

Maybe that whole "taters on top" thing just seemes wrong. lol

[cbayer]

7. I am eating the leftovers right now, and it seems very right!

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

12. I was once nanny for a separated dad who had two kids.

He was Irish and he told me that the food I made wasn't real food to him. (Don't cry for me, enchiladas!) LOL. It probably didn't help that I'd had very little experience with either beef or potatoes until I was a teenager learning to cook out of books because the two dishes my sainted grandmother made were all about pork and rice. The poor guy.

Apparently, there's still a lot about potatoes for me to learn. :)

[hippywife]

8. I've never made it before

because it's just never appealed to me at all. :hi:

[Irishonly]

9. Sounds wonderful

Do you know how to make pasties? I don't but would love to learn.

[cbayer]

10. I don't but I just looked it up and want to try them

Looks like you just make a simple pie dough, fill it with the same kinds of ingredients that go in the bottom of the shepherd's pie, seal it up and bake. Meat pies! Another big yum from me.

:hi:

[Irishonly]

11. Thanks

I had one years ago and couldn't remember much except I really liked it.:7

[Tesha]

13. A guilty treat...

Pasties for us is basically some stew in a hand pie.


(Cheat and buy a pie crust to keep it easy.) :9
This is what ours usually look like.

[housewolf]

17. My but those are pretty!

I'd love one right now!

How do you get that nice scallop-y edge to them? All the ones I've seen have a simple fork-crimped edge. Yours are much prettier.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

18. A proper pasty. . .

I believe has the meat and veg at one end and you eat your way to dessert. They were traditionally sent in a lunch box and eaten cold. LOL--my gran would say, "It's all just mixed up in the end, anyway--EAT!"

I have come to love shepherd's pie much more than pot pie because 1) it's so much easier and 2) way less fat (and carbs, maybe?) If I'm doing meat, it's always chicken breast, sautéed up with mushrooms and then the gravy made with some wine to deglaze that. To hurry the pie in the oven, I also usually toss the veg (at the least, big chunks of carrot and broccoli) in the skillet first to brown a bit, then toss it in the casserole whilst the chicken cooks (I usually buy big packs of breasts and store them as singles in the freezer, so it's not just a matter of cutting into cubes--hence, the pre-cooking). For super-fast food, it's then just a matter of instant mashed tatties and some cheese and onion powder on top. I also do a more "traditional"-looking version with Boca Burger crumbles that goes straight to the oven, but IMHO, it lacks the pizzazz that chicken/mushroom/wine sauce has.

Ugh. Those photos are killing me--I'm heading to bed now and will wake up ravenous for something out of the oven!

[Arkansas Granny]

14. I've made this a couple of times for the guys I work with using venison and

it was quite tasty. My "recipe" is much like yours, but it seems that I never make it exactly the same way twice. I like crunch up some of the canned, fried onion rings to add to the mashed potatoes if I have them on hand. My DIL has requested it again since I made it for her. The leftovers heat up well.

[Vinca]

15. Has anyone ever made it with a sweet potato topping?

My husband is diabetic and for some strange reason sweet potatoes are okay and white potatoes aren't. I thought I might give it a try.

[cbayer]

16. Nope, but I bet it would be great.

If I did that, I might use ground or chopped pork for the meat, as I love that combination.

It is basically peasant food, so you can make a million varieties - using what you have or what you like!

:hi:

[undergroundnomore]

24. OH MY

I just love shepherds pie. I just never thought to add blue cheese or for that matter shredded Monterrey jack cheese to the mashed potatoes. For me it's comfort food plain and simple and mine always comes out plain and simple.

Darn you though. Now I will have to try it your way next time.