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Easy Shepherd Pie

This document provides a recipe for an easy Shepherd's Pie. It begins with background that Shepherd's Pie is traditionally made with lamb but Americans use beef and call it Cottage Pie when made with beef. The recipe then lists ingredients like ground beef, vegetables, potatoes and butter and provides instructions to brown the beef, mash the potatoes and layer and bake the casserole. The summary highlights that Shepherd's Pie is a comfort food casserole with layers of meat, gravy and mashed potatoes and baking brings it all together.

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157 views7 pages

Easy Shepherd Pie

This document provides a recipe for an easy Shepherd's Pie. It begins with background that Shepherd's Pie is traditionally made with lamb but Americans use beef and call it Cottage Pie when made with beef. The recipe then lists ingredients like ground beef, vegetables, potatoes and butter and provides instructions to brown the beef, mash the potatoes and layer and bake the casserole. The summary highlights that Shepherd's Pie is a comfort food casserole with layers of meat, gravy and mashed potatoes and baking brings it all together.

Uploaded by

brittanycross91
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Easy Shepherd's Pie

Posted by Elise on Apr 6, 2006

Filed under All Seasons, Beef, Budget, Casserole, Comfort Food, Main Course, Wheat-free

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Shepherd's Pie is an English dish, traditionally made with lamb or mutton. Americans typically
make Shepherd's Pie with beef. The English (and Australians and New Zealanders) call the beef
dish a "cottage pie". Naming conventions aside, Shepherd's Pie is essentially a casserole, lined
with cooked meat and vegetables, topped with mashed potatoes, and baked.

Here is a basic recipe for a simple ground beef Shepherd's Pie. The original recipe comes from
my friend Frances Hochschild and her mother (thanks Frannie!). We dressed it up a bit with
some veggies and Worcestershire sauce.

Easy Shepherd's Pie Recipe


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Ingredients

 1 1/2 lbs ground round beef


 1 onion chopped
 1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas
 1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
 1/2 cup beef broth
 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
 Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

Method

1 Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

2 While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan.

3 Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables,
add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either
at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked.

4 Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire
sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding
more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.

5 Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.


6 Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork
so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the
potatoes as well.

7 Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few
minutes if necessary to brown.

Serves four.

Shepherd’s Pie is basically a casserole made of cooked meat with gravy which gets topped with a
layer of mashed potatoes and then baked.  It is comfort food at it's best!  As with all recipes there
are many variations of Shepherd’s Pie, including some with a layer of vegetables as well.

Here in America, Shepherd’s Pie is typically made with beef.

In England, Australia and New Zealand Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb or mutton, and
“Cottage Pie” is made with beef.

To make this (American) version of Shepherd's Pie all you will need to know is how to:

 Mash potatoes and


 Brown beef in a frying pan.

Many (more advanced) recipes call for various other vegetables, like chopped onions, carrots,
garlic, peas or corn to be added to (or layered on) the beef mixture. Still other recipes suggest
that you need to know how to make your own gravy.

But if you're a beginner cook, it's perfectly OK to use a jar of store bought gravy, which is what
I'm going to do here.
At the grocery store buy:

 1 and 1/4 pounds of ground beef


 A 12-ounce jar of beef gravy
 3 large potatoes (about 2 pounds)

You will also need about 1/3 cup of milk and 4 Tablespoons of butter. I'll assume that you
already have those two ingredients in your refrigerator! (If you don't, do buy some milk and
butter as well!)

Start by getting the potatoes washed, peeled, cooked and mashed. I've written a post here on
mashed potatoes.

While the potatoes are cooking, brown the beef (video) in a frying pan. Be sure to drain off the
excess fat.
Stir in the beef gravy.

If you have any extra spices in your cupboard you can add them as well. Some options are: 1/2
teaspoon of garlic or onion powder or 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.
Spread the meat mixture over the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish. I'm using an 8-inch square
baking dish.

Now spread the mashed potatoes on top.

Using a fork, fluff the top.


Then cut 1 tablespoon of butter into really tiny bits and dot the bits over the mashed potatoes.
This will help to brown the top of the potatoes.

(You could sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese or grated cheddar cheese on the top if you like.)

Bake the casserole in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. It will look like the picture
below when you take it out of the oven.

Sometime the gravy will bubble up through the potato topping which is just fine.

A WORD OF CAUTION:

You can put the Shepherd's Pie under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top a little
bit more, BUT NOT IF YOU USED A GLASS BAKING DISH AS I HAVE DONE.

Generally speaking, (Pyrex) glass baking dishes are suitable for baking only. When used
under a broiler, the extreme fluctuation in temperature can cause the dish to crack. If you
plan on browning YOUR Shepherd's Pie under the broiler, use a metal baking pan, not a
glass one!

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