May the road rise to meet you...

With St. Patrick's day just around the corner, Val asked me for my Shepherd's Pie recipe. It's something I make every week for work and I'm very proud of it (it's also the first menu item that I got added at the Lodge upstairs). So, I typed up my scaled down recipe for her and thought that I'd share it here.

I warn you, this is not a healthy recipe. It is full of fat and butter and potatoes and deliciousness. But the way I see it, you've got to splurge now and then. And what better day to splurge than the day that we celebrate the patron saint of Ireland by being drunken bafoons and wearing green body paint and sitting in the bushes eating ravioli?

Wait....you don't do that? That's just me?

Well shoot.

Anyway! Moving forward, Shepherd's Pie is a pretty traditional Irish dish. You can use ground lamb, ground beef or stew meat...I love it with ground lamb but realistically, that's kind of expensive. Unless you've just got a lamb shoulder laying around that you can grind and put in a pie. But if you're like me and most of us, ground beef will work just fine. At work, I use scraps that our butcher has leftover from cutting our filet, so what I use is more like stew meat. If you do that, extend your cooking time before you add the flour because you'll want your meat to cook a bit longer to get tender.

Alright, on to the good stuff...

What you'll need:
- 1.5 pounds ground beef
- 1/2 pound carrots (sliced or cubed, however you like it. Adjust the amount of carrots if you want more or less veggies in it. I use three pounds of carrots, but I make a giant batch, I'm just kind of guessing for a single casserole dish)
- 1 can sweet peas or a bag of frozen english peas if you can find them
- 1 medium onion diced
- 5 or 6 cloves of garlic minced
- 1/2 small can of tomato paste
- AP flour (not much, maybe a 1/4 of a cup)
- 2 stalks of celery (slice the stalk in half lengthwise, then chop. I like kind of big pieces of celery)
- 1 TBSP each minced rosemary and thyme (you can use dried if you want, but I prefer fresh. Up to you.)
- 1-2 cups of beef broth
-1/2 a stick of butter (keep the rest of the stick handy, just in case)
-1 TBSP of olive oil

Melt the butter in a big pan or skillet. Once the butter is melted, pour in the olive oil. Add your carrots and celery first. Just cook them for about five minutes over medium high heat until they just start to get tender. Add in your onion and garlic and stir around, cooking until the onion starts to get transparent. Crumble up your ground beef and add it straight to the pan with all the vegetables. You want the butter and fat from the beef in the pan, so just start stirring it around.

Add your herbs at this point.

Once your ground beef is cooked and your vegetables are tender turn the heat down to medium or medium low and cook for ten minutes or so. You really just want the flavors to kind of marry at this point. You don't want the liquid to cook off, so keep the heat on the lower side and keep an eye on it. If you lose your liquid, throw the other half of the stick of butter in with everything and let it melt.

Now, after it's cooked for a little bit, sprinkle flour over the whole mixture and stir. Do this a little at a time until all the liquid is absorbed. If you need more or less flour, that's okay. You just want no more liquid in the pan. Everything will start to stick together and look weird, that's okay. Keep the whole mass of things moving for a few minutes to cook out a little of the flour taste. Add in your tomato paste and keep stirring. It all might start sticking to the bottom of the pan at this point and that's okay too. You want to get some of the bitterness of the tomato paste out, so I'd say cook it like this over medium/low heat for five minutes or so.

Now, I'd throw my potatoes in the water at the very beginning so while your mixture is cooking right now, you can prepare the mash. Melting the butter and warming your heavy cream is key in good mashed potatoes, but I'm sure you know that. I just make very very buttery mashed potatoes and season only with salt and pepper but make them the way you like them best. If you put a lot of butter in them, they'll get wonderful and golden and say moist when you bake them.

Okay, back to your filling. It's going to be thick and weird and all stuck together, so now you throw in your beef stock. Just a little bit at a time. You want to make a gravy with the stock so stir while you add. Scrape the goodies off the bottom of the pan and stir until your filling is thinned out, but not too thin. You want it to be like a thick stew. At this point, add in your drained can of peas and then salt and pepper to taste. It's going to need a good amount of salt to get the flavors out, so don't be shy. Use kosher salt if you have it.

Put the filling in a baking dish and cover with potatoes. I spoon them on and then spread them out with the back of the spoon or your hand. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or so. The top will get nice golden brown. I'd let it sit for ten minutes or so before serving. At work, I garnish with fresh chopped chives.

Some people like to sprinkle paprika on top or even pipe out the potatoes to make it look all fancy. And that's nice too, but I like the rustic look of just spooning and spreading the potatoes. And, nothing against grandmas, but it looks like something someone's grandma would do in the 80's (again...nothing against the 80's either). That's just my personal opinion. No need to make the top look all fancy when you're just going to stick your face in it.

I keep meaning to write here more and share more recipes, but I just can't seem to pull it together. I say that I'll try but I won't make any promises. Life as a Disney cook is amazing, but very busy. The Mouse never sleeps, you know.

All in all, I don't think I've ever been happier. This summer is proving to be the most exciting one I've ever had. I'll be sure to give more updates on that when it all gets closer. Work is amazing, my roommates are amazing and Florida is pretty awesome. As I said, I'm a very happy girl. 

That's it for now, I'll come up with some more fun recipes to share soon. In the meantime, if there's anything that any of you would like to have a recipe for please let me know. If I know one or have any good ideas, I'd love for some prompting. I'm going to enjoy my one day off and try not to put on real pants all day.

'For each petal on the shamrock this brings a wish your way. Good health, good luck, and happiness for today and every day.' - Irish Blessing

Happy eating,
Lauren