A very versatile recipe, the combinations that can be used are limitless. For example, a cream sauce and grind chicken, or pasta sauce and eggplant for vegetarians.
Shepherds Pie
An entire meal, and very easy to make.
Servings: 6 people
Ingredients
Filling
- 600 grams grind meat Can be Chicken, Beef or pork grind meat. Your preference
- 3 carrot chopped
- 1 bell pepper or long sweet pepper, chopped
- 1 onion large, chopped fine or diced
- 1 bottle/box pasta sauce I prefer italian seasoning
- Seasoning to taste e.g. garlic powder and cayenne powder
Mashed Potato
- 1 1/2 - 2 kilo potato See notes
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1-1 1/2 tablespoon butter
Separator
- 300 grams grated cheese Optional
Instructions
- As it takes the longest, we will start with making the mashed potato. I prefer making fresh mashed potato, but you can also make boxed or powdered mashed potato as well. First, we peel all of the potatoes, and cut them up into cubes. Size doesn't matter.
- Now, fill pot with water until about 1 cm above the potatoes, add a pinch of salt to water, and place on stove at medium-high flame.
- Leave potatoes boil until soft, approx 20 minutes.
Filling - for alternative filling, see below
- Lets get started on the filling for the Shepherds pie. Start off by peeling the carrots, and then chop the carrots, sweet pepper and onion. Size of them are personal preference. I personally don't make them very big.
- Place a large frying pan or Wok on stove on high flame. If using chicken grind meat, add a little bit of vegetable oil or liquid butter to the pan. Beef and pork grind meat contain natural oils and can cook without sticking. Once the pan is hot enough, add the grind meat to the pot, and start mashing a little so you don't get large "meatballs" of meat in the shepherds pie. While the meat is browning, add preferred seasonings to taste. Don't cook the meat for too long. 2 minutes, or just enough for the meat to become slightly brown is fine.
- Now add in the carrots, onions and sweet pepper and mix in well. Give it about 2-3 minutes with the meat.
- Add pasta sauce to mix and mix in well.
- Turn the flame off on our grind meat filling. By now our potatoes should also be ready. Turn that off as well.
- Drain water from potatoes.
- Using a masher, mash potatoes. Add the butter and salt. Now pour in some of the milk while mashing, until the mashed potatoes gets to the consistency that you like. Some like it a little dryer, some like it fluffy and creamy.
- Taking a deep oven baking dish, add in the grind meat filling, and smooth it down
- Optional: Spread grated cheese over the grind meat until well coated. Any kind of grated cheese will work. My preference is the older cheeses, as they give it a very nice taste. Mozzarella mixed in also tastes great.
- Using a wide spatula, spread the mashed potatoes over the grind meat. Try and keep it even. Spread it all out until you can only see the mashed potatoes. Don't over fill, if you have some mashed potatoes left over, it's ok. You want the mashed potatoes be about 2-2 1/2 cm thick over the meat.
- Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 35 minutes. If your oven is top heated, cover with foil after 20 minutes or if you notice it getting too brown.
- Once done, take out and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Warning: Contents will be HOT! Even after cooling for a bit.
- Tastes great with a little Parmesan cheese (either flakes or grated) added on top. If you chose to go with the cheese in the center, then don't add the Parmesan cheese as it may be too much cheese.
Notes
In the Netherlands, they sell two types of potatoes. Slightly crumbling potatoes (iets kruimelig) and potatoes that harden slightly when cooking (vast kokend). For the mashed potatoes, it is best to choose the crumbling potatoes. You can use either, but it means a bit more work when going to mash the potatoes.
When making the grind meat filling, you can be creative with it. Add green peas and corn, for example. Or maybe some mushrooms.
Also a really nice way to make it: Instead of the grind meat filling, you can get steak (pre-cut into squares if available) and cut into squares. Don't make slices too thick. Fry in frying pan until brown (add onions and mushrooms if you like) or to liking, and add in Jus sauce. Use this as filling. It will be a bit more watery compared to the grind meat filling. You can use a little bit of corn starch or flour to thicken the sauce before placing in baking dish. Do not add any salt to season the meat, as this recipe comes out a bit salty already.
As an alternative to grind meat and pasta sauce you can try the following filling:
Alternative filling for Shepherds Pie
Alternative fillng for Shepherds Pie
Cost: $20
Ingredients
- 800 grams Beef or steak cut into bite sized cubes
- 2 onions large, diced fine
- 8-10 button mushrooms sliced
- 1 pkg beef jus sauce Maggi Jus sauce (don't use the one that asks for butter)
Instructions
- In large frying pan, add vegetable oil or olive oil and heat up on high flame
- When oil is very hot, add beef cubes and stir regulary until all sides are coated with a brown color
- Now add onions and keep mixing
- Prepare jus sauce according to instructions (should need 250-300 ml water). First, add mushrooms to pan, mix it in well and after about 1 minute add in the jus. Mix up well
- Stirring regularly, leave on high flame for sauce to thicken. Approx. 10 minutes.
Notes
Very nice alternative to the filling for https://www.josephsprivate.space/2018/02/09/shepherds-pie/.