Shepherd’s Pie

I’m just going to go ahead and say it: This is not a seasonally appropriate post. Shepherd’s pie is one of those cold, snowy, winters night meals, or for those of us in San Francisco, a cold rainy one. In my defense, the cooking and photo shooting of this recipe happened months ago.

I’ve been busy. Mostly with my Kickstarter campaign, and the preparations for it. It’s a pretty big project, and I’ve neglected blogging because of it. My intention is to put a new recipe up once a week, and I will try and get back to that schedule.

Now, onto the current matter: Shepherd’s Pie. After the many hours it took to prepare, style, shoot, cook and clean up, I saw this video from the one and only Gordon Ramsey. Face palm. It’s all in the mince??? I’m doing it all wrong! And come to think of it, he’s probably right. Grated vegetables, in place of diced, would integrate so nicely into the ground lamb and make the whole dish more cohesive. I have always made Shepherd’s Pie the way my mom did, by dicing the vegetables by hand, resulting in vegetables you can bite into. This recipe reflects that version, but feel free to Paleo-ize the Gordon Ramsey method!

the beautiful fresh English peas were my inspiration for making this dish.

chunks of vegetables! Gordon would likely throw this in the trash and yell at me.

evenly covering the meat filling with the cauliflower mash

Out of the oven & beautifully browned

2 pounds ground lamb
1 C peas (either frozen or fresh)
1 C carrots, small dice
1 C onions, small dice
2 T tomato paste
1 C red wine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fresh minced rosemary, or 1 t dried
1 t sea salt
1/2 t pepper

1 batch mashed cauliflower

Preheat oven to 425°

• In a large skillet on medium-high heat, brown the lamb.
• Once the lamb has some nice color to it, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
• Add the onions and carrots to the hot skillet and saute for about 5 minutes. They will beging to soften and brown.
• Sprinkle in the salt and pepper.
• Add the peas and garlic and sauce 1 minute more.
• Stir in the tomato paste and the wine, and allow to come to a simmer.
• Put the lamb back in, and simmer until the liquid is nearly evaporated, about 5 minutes.
• Transfer the meat to an oven safe dish, about 9″ across, and high enough to fit the lamb and a layer of potatoes.
• Spread the cauliflower mash on top of the meat and put into the preheated oven.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes. If you’d like the top more browned, place it under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Or, if you happen to have a torch, torch it!

Tuck in!

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