Since this is still the week of St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to use the opportunity to make a traditional Irish Shepherd's Pie for dinner a few days ago. I combined a few recipes I found online to make dinner and was happy with the results. We also invited my mom for dinner that evening and it seems like everyone liked this pie. I made it with ground beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, onions and peas.
I have been planning on making this type of a pie for a while now. The first time Ivan and I tried something similar was when we were in London. I ordered a lamb pie and Ivan ordered a beef pie and they were both very good. So this is my recipe for the Shepherd's Pie:
Ingredients:
- about 2 pounds of potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 2 tablespoons of sour cream or softened cream cheese
- 1 large egg yolk (reserve egg white for later)
- 1/2 cup of cream, or for a lighter version substitute vegetable or chicken broth
- salt and freshly ground black papper (to taste)
- about 1 tablespoon of olive oil or to taste
- 1 3/4 pounds of ground beef or ground lamb (I used ground beef this time)
- 1-2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons of butter (I substituted some olive oil)
- 2 tablespoons of all-purplose flour
- 1 cup of chicken or beef stock
- 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce or to taste
- 1 cup of frozen peas
- 1/2 cup of red wine
- 1 teaspoon of sweet paprika
- 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
- couple of pinches of dry thyme (optional)
- some tomato paste to taste (optional)
- grated parmesan cheese (optional)
Directions: (Servings: 4)
- Preheat oven to 200 C / 400 F
- Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes.
- Drain potatoes and transfer them into a bowl.
- Combine sour cream, egg yolk and cream (or broth) and add the mixture to the potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth
- In the meantime, preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat
- Saute carrots in the olive oil until starting to get tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add onions and saute for about a minute or two
- Add meat and season with salt, black pepper and thyme
- Cook until browned, then drain fat
- Add the butter (or olive oil) and peas
- Sprinkle with flour and stir through
- Add wine, Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste (if using)
- Let this reduce slightly, then add the stock and allow to reduce down until you have a thick meaty gravy
- Season to your taste
- Remove from heat
- Grease an oven-proof dish (I used a pie dish like seen in the photos) with butter (or olive oil) and add the cooked meat
- Spoon the mashed potatoes over the meat evenly
- Brush with the left over egg white evenly and sprinkle with paprika and some parmesan cheese (if using)
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until the potato is nice and browned on top
- Sprinke with some parsley if you would like and serve with some dark beer or Irish whiskey. ; )