Irish Shepherd’s Pie – with a Stoller Twist
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound ground beef or lamb
Salt and pepper -> to season the meat
1 large onion diced
3 carrots diced
4 sprigs of thyme – picked and finely chopped
3 T flour (I like Wondra it’s very fine and easy to make sure it doesn’t clump)
1 T of butter – typically this would be equal to the butter, but in this case the roux will form because of the fat in the meat
1 C Stoller Pinot
2 T tomato paste
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 C stock – beef, chicken, veggie – doesn’t matter
1 C English peas – fresh or frozen
DIRECTIONS:
Brown the meat of your choosing and season liberally with salt and pepper.
Sweat the carrots with the meat once you get the meat 1/2 way browned
Then add herbs, flour and butter – cook for two minutes creating a blonde roux. Just enough to get the raw flour flavor gone, but still light enough to have binding properties
Next go in with Stoller Pinot, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and stock. Cook this down for about five minutes until the excess liquid is gone and it looks like beef in gravy
Add your peas and stir – taste and adjust seasoning
Slap all of that into your favorite casserole dish and turn your oven on to 375.
Then take either leftover mashed potatoes or make the fresh recipe.
Smooth on the top. Bake the whole thing about 25 minutes browning those epically sexy taters.
Epic Mashed Potatoes
INGREDIENTS:
2# Yukon Gold taters – peeled (optional) large diced (not optional)
1 TSP salt (but let’s be real, I use more salt than that)
1/4 C hot heavy cream
1/4 C hot buttermilk
5 cloves fresh garlic smashed and tossed in
2 T unsalted butter, softened (close to room temp is best)
2 T sour cream
2 T marscapone
To finish:
Salt and Pepper
Butter
1 T fresh chives – chopped
1 T fresh flat leaf parsley – chopped
DIRECTIONS:
Boil the diced potatoes in seasoned water until fork tender – drain water and start mashing
Separately warm the heavy cream and buttermilk and garlic together – bring up to a boil and simmer on low until the taters are tender then add this liquid to begin the mash
Add the butter, sour cream and Marscaopne – I like to whisk or whip with a mixer this until smooth
Taste and add salt and pepper
Add your herbs and reserve some to garnish after baking the pie