Recipe 30: Irish Shepards Pie

A couple of my friends went on a trip to Ireland and so in honor of that I decided to try making something that was kind of Irish.  I settled on trying to make a version of Shepards Pie.
Over all, this recipe was pretty easy to make and was also pretty good.  I made this and took it over to Eric and Allison's and watched the first presidential debate with them.

Here is a (kind of blurry) picture of the final result:

 And here is the recipe that I used (link):

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 pounds lean ground lamb
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 cups water, or as needed
• 1 (12 ounce) package frozen peas and carrots, thawed
• 2 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and halved
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/4 pound Irish cheese (such as Dubliner®), shredded
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place olive oil and butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Stir in onion and ground lamb; brown the meat, breaking it up into small crumbles as it cooks, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in flour until incorporated, then mix in salt, black pepper, rosemary, paprika, cinnamon, ketchup, and garlic; cook and stir until garlic is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Stir in water and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the Dutch oven. Reduce heat to medium-low and bring mixture to a simmer; cook and stir until thick, about 5-6 minutes.
5. Remove lamb mixture from heat and stir in peas and carrots until combined.
6. Spread lamb mixture into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
7. Place potatoes into a large pan of salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain well and return potatoes to pan.
8. Mash butter, cayenne pepper, cream cheese, and Irish cheese into the potatoes. Mash until combined and potatoes are smooth. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
9. Whisk together egg yolk and milk in a small bowl; stir into the mashed potato mixture.
10. Top the lamb mixture in the baking dish with the mashed potatoes and spread evenly to cover.
11. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is golden brown and sauce is bubbling up around the edges, 25 to 30 minutes.

Changes

The only change that I made was the type of meat that I used.  I didn't really want to make lamb and so I decided to just use ground beef instead.  This may have made it less authentic, but I felt better about it.

I guess that I also changed in that I didn't use a Dutch Oven, I just cooked this on the stove.

The Process

This was a kind of involved recipe, but still wasn't too bad.  Perhaps that actually means that I have improved as a cook?

Anyway, the first step was to chop up the potatoes and cook them.

While they were cooking I started the meat mixture.  I cooked the ground beef and then added the veggies.

Once that was done, I spread it out in a 9x13 casserole dish.

Once the potatoes were done I added the cheese, milk, and other assorted ingredients and mashed it all up.

I then spread that out over the meat mixture and put it in the oven.

I took it out when the edges were bubbling and the potatoes were golden brown.

And once again, here is the final result.

I really liked this recipe.  I thought it was really good.  I think it might be better served with something as a side dish... but I am not sure exactly what. 

While there are a lot of ingredients and instructions, this dish was actually pretty simple to make and was also really good.