As a busy mom, it’s great when I can make extra portions of anything to freeze in order to serve it on another night. I tend to do this at least once every 2 weeks. This way, I can have a free night off from cooking. It’s so much easier to just throw something in the oven and make a salad. However, I’m also fortunate that my husband is a great cook!!

My middle child wanted to make a Shepherd’s pie this week, so I thought why not. He’s old enough to give it a try. After all, I expect my sons to be proficient in the kitchen just like their father. Cooking is a definitely a life skill that everyone should possess.

This is a really “generic” Shepherd’s pie recipe – you can substitute the type of meat used, change up the seasonings and the vegetables that are incorporated. You can even adjust the proportions or ratio of meat to vegetables a bit if you wish. This basic recipe is something that can be refined to suit your family’s tastes and needs. 

This recipe listed is enough to make 3 trays for my family of 2 adults and 3 kids. This translates into 3 meals for our family. I would estimate that each tray would be a generous portion size for 4 adults.

Ingredients:

· 10-12 large (6-7 pounds) potatoes, peeled and cubed. The smaller the pieces, the faster they will cook. I prefer the Russet potato for this recipe because once cooked and mashed, it becomes fine white powdery granules of deliciousness. Its natural composition is “fluffy-like” – like it’s already been whipped. Check back later, as I’ll have another blog post with more information about why I choose Russet potatoes and about mashing potatoes.

If you’re not sure about the use of green potatoes or the condition of your potatoes, please read this blog post by clicking here.

· 1 and 1/2 cups of milk (if you want to decrease the fat content, then simply use water as a substitute)

· 1/2 – 3/4 cup unsalted butter (you can use salted butter. However, for those trying to decrease salt intake, unsalted is one option.) If you use the unsalted butter first, you can also add salt to taste at the table as well if you wish.)

· 1 large onion, diced so that it’s about 2 cups

· 1 tablespoon of minced garlic

· 4 tablespoons of oil

· 2 cups of corn (Your choice of frozen, canned or fresh off the cob.)

· 2 cups of diced carrots, about 3-4 large carrots. (Diced carrots should be no larger than two corn kernels in size).

· You can add your family’s other favorite vegetables like peas and celery, just select vegetables that don’t produce a lot of water when cooked.

· 3 pounds ground round beef (but you can use ground pork, ground turkey, ground chicken meat, or ground lamb if you prefer)

· 1 and 1/2 cup beef (or other kinds) broth. I just used the vegetable stock from cooking the carrots and potatoes.  

· Salt, pepper, other seasonings of your choice

· Shredded cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Boil the potatoes. Place the peeled and quartered potatoes in a large-sized pot. Cover with at least an inch of cold water. Add a teaspoon of salt if desired. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until tender (about 20-30 minutes).

The best way to cook potatoes is to place them in cold water first and then bring it to a boil. This way, both the potato and the water heat up that the same rate.

However, I know others that bring the water to a boil first, and then add the raw potatoes. Apparently, dropping them into boiling water is a bad idea because the hot water will cook the outsides of the potatoes faster than the insides. This will leave the insides unevenly cooked. I would assume that this is more of a problem if you are cooking a whole potato, versus potatoes that have already been cut into smaller pieces.

Check back later, as I’ll have another blog post dedicated to potatoes in general.

2. Boil the carrots. Peel and dice carrots. While potatoes are cooking, place carrots in a small pot of cold water. Boil them until soft (about 15-20 minutes). You’ll probably want to cut the carrots 1/4″ to 3/8″ thick and then dice them further.

3. While potatoes and carrots are cooking, in a large pan sauté garlic and onions together with 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil. If you are using celery, add it to this step. Cook until the onion (and celery) is tender.

4. Add ground beef (or whatever meat you have selected) into the pan. Stir and brown your meat. Cook uncovered.

5. Add your selections of seasonings. This is where you can really spice things up! Or have fun with experimenting with a variety of seasonings.

6. Once the meat is thorough cooked through, add beef stock. In my case, I just use the vegetable stock from the carrots after straining the carrots. No point in letting any carrot goodness go to waste! Or, you can add chicken, or another type of vegetable stock.

7. Strain carrots, if this hasn’t already been done for the last step.

8. Add, your carrots and corn into your meat mixture and cook for another 5-10 minutes to get the flavours to blend together. Your meat should no longer be pink at this stage. 

9. You can add more broth if needed so that the meat doesn’t dry out. Bring broth to a simmer and then reduce heat to low. Cook uncovered. If you have too much broth, you can add a a bit of flour to “thicken” up the liquid before finishing the cooking process in the pan.

If you find that you’ve added to much broth, plain flour made into a flour slurry will fix it. Simply mix equal parts of flour and cold water in a cup and when smooth, stir in to the sauce. Bring the contents to a simmer for 5 minutes to cook away the raw flour taste.

For my purposes, I used 2 tablespoons of flour to 2 tablespoons of water. This will ultimately gave my broth consistency a more gravy like consistency.

10. Strain the potatoes.  

11. Mash the cooked potatoes. You’ll know they are cooked when a fork can easily pierce them. In a bowl, placed the strained potato, milk and ½ block of butter. Mash with a fork or potato masher. You can add additional seasonings of your preference to the potato as desired. Don’t over work the potatoes. Please click here for more information about potatoes. 

12. Preheat oven to 400°F. 

13. Spread your meat mixture in an even layer in your dish, pan or tray. Your baking container should be at least 2” deep. The meat mixture will be about ½ the depth of your baking container. However, some of you might want to go deeper to get a thicker pie. If your pan is 3”, then layer 2” of meat mixture. Please note, that my recipe is for 1” meat mixture and 1” mash potato spread.

14. Spread the mashed potatoes over the top of the meat mixture. If you “rough up” the surface (so that it’s not smooth) of the mashed potatoes with a fork, the little peaks will get well browned. You can even use a fork to make creative designs in the mashed potatoes.

15. Optional – you can add some cheese to the top for additional flavouring. Our family loves the Tex Mex shredded cheese which is a combination of cheddar, mozzarella and Monterey Jack. We had also used a combination of Edam and mozzarella. Some my family don’t prefer cheese toppings so we only cover 1/2 of the tray.  

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16. Since we have make 3 meals from this recipe, we only bake 1 of the trays that we’re going to be eating on the same night. Place in a 400°F oven and cook until browned and bubbling about 30 minutes. If necessary, broil for the last few minutes to help the surface of the mashed potatoes brown.

17. While your pie is baking, you can use aluminum foil to cover the other 2 trays, cello wrap them individually and then place them in the freezer when they are at room temperature.  When I’m ready to use the other portions, I simply take them out of the freezer and bake at 400’F for 30-45 minutes, when I see the cheese or potato has browned.

(Be careful when broiling using Pyrex or glass dishes, they have been known to shatter under the high heat of the broiler. It’s not a worry if you are using a ceramic or metal casserole dish or tray.)

Bon Appetite!!

Please comment below and let me know what your family’s favorite seasonings are for Shepherd’s pie.

Slightly Petite, Wendy