How to Cook Shepherd’s Pie

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients needed to make shepherd’s pie:

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 ½ lb potatoes, rinsed, peeled and quartered
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
•  1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• ¾ cup vegetable or beef stock
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 tbsp butter, divided
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
• Dash of ground nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cooking instructions for shepherd’s pie:

• Drop the potatoes in a large stock pot of cold water and add a dash of salt to it.
• Bring it to a boil and then cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes soften.
• Drain them through a colander and set ½ cup of the salted water aside.
• Plop the potatoes back to the pot and cook them over slow flame for 1 minute so that any excess moisture in them disappears.
• Transfer them to a bowl and add 1 tbsp of butter to them.
• Season with black pepper as well as salt and mash them with a potato masher, while adding the reserved cooking water at times.
• Whisk the mashed potatoes with a wooden spatula until it turns fluffy and set aside.
• Warm up your oven to 400 degrees F.
• Drizzle vegetable oil in a skillet and heat it over moderately low flame.
• Toss in the carots, onions as well as celery and stir-fry them for about 15 minutes or until they turn tender.
• Increase the heat and stir in the ground lamb.
• Continue to cook the mixture for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently and crumbling the meat with the spatula.
• Once the meat browns evenly, dust the mixture with flour and stir them all together.
• Cook for a couple of minutes before pouring in the stock and season with the thyme, rosemary, a pinch of nutmeg, salt as well as black pepper.
• Give them a nice stir until properly blended and continue to cook for about 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens.
• Transfer the veggie-meat mixture to a pre-greased baking dish and spread them evenly throughout the dish.
• Top it up with the mashed potatoes, spreading them similarly but leaving irregular peaks on the surface with a fork.
• Dice rest of the butter into small cubes and distribute them over the top.
• Bake the pie in the oven for about half an hour, at preheated temperature, until the surface browns and it is heated evenly.
• Cool for about 5-7 minutes, slice and serve.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Last Updated on December 13, 2012 by