Irish Shepherd's Pie - Classic Shepherd Pie for St. Patrick's Day

hello this is chef john from food wishes calm with irish shepherd's pie irish because we're using Irish cheddar we're using the authentic lamb and when it's gone you're gonna say to yourself I wish I had more alright to get started we're gonna put a little bit of olive oil and butter in a Dutch oven on medium heat I got to throw in a diced onion and lamb a couple pounds of ground lamb shepherd's pie is made with lamb not beef all right Shepherds raised sheep not cows so when you make a shepherd's pie with beef you call it a cottage pie that makes no sense alright and you want to take a wooden spoon and while that cooks you want to break it up nice and small there should be a lot of liquid that comes out a lot of water don't worry that's going to evaporate and eventually you'll start hearing it sizzle and it will start to brown and nicely ideally it leaves you a nice brown fond on the bottom of the pan alright when it gets to that point which took me about 10 minutes or so I'm gonna add a nice big spoon of flour that's going to make that beautiful thick gravy that holds all this together we're going to cook that flour for just about three or four minutes and while we're cooking the raw edge off that flour let's go ahead and add our seasoning we're gonna go with salt and pepper some fresh rosemary a little bit of paprika a little touch of cinnamon some ketchup which I hear people in Europe love and some fresh minced garlic we're going to stir that in and I know some that's not classic classic shepherd's pie but you know what the Irish are very experimental people and I think they would approve so by the time we added our seasoning and stirred it in the flour has been cooking long enough and we're going to add our liquid I'm adding water now you can add chicken broth you can add beef broth but lamb is a pretty strongly flavored meat so it really doesn't add a whole heck of a lot all right we're going to give it a stir it's going to thicken up very quickly because we used a good amount of flour and we're just going to cook this for about five or six minutes until it really thickens up nice I mean really thick it should look something like that at that point you can turn off the heat and it's time to add the vegetables which are peas and carrots now since we're using frozen peas I'm going to be nice and lets you use frozen carrots they come with the frozen peas in the same bag as soon as the vegetables are stirred in we're going to transfer this into your casserole dish any kind of large baking dish will work I believe this is nine by thirteen you're going to spread it out and you're going to tap it down not the old tap a tappa we're going to use the spatula and just smooth it out all right so that's all set we're going to set that aside until our potato crust is ready which is made from potatoes the most Irish of all ingredients by the way indigenous to America you're welcome Ireland I think you've more than made up for it by sending us all those policemen all right so we're going to boil a couple pounds of potatoes I'm using Yukon Gold I think they make a beautiful cross nice color nice texture so we're going to boil those in salted water until tender we're gonna drain them thoroughly all right toss in some butter some cayenne some salt of course some cream cheese and some Irish cheddar I want you to go to one of the big supermarkets and try to find Irish cheddar it's really really good I'm using one called Dubliner which is not that hard to find if you can't find Irish cheddar any kind of sharp white cheddar will work alright we're going to take a potato masher and mash all that together and when that's thoroughly incorporated I'm going to also add one egg yolk that I'm going to beat with a couple tablespoons of milk I want to pour that in stir it in when that's all mixed in go ahead and top your meat but here's how you're going to want to do it place big spoonfuls on top don't just dump it on top because you don't want to mix the filling the meat mixture into the crust so I like to put dollops all over the top then take a fork and even it all out now there's lots of ways you can do this you can leave it really rough and rugged very similar to the terrain of the Irish Shepherd or you can take a fork and make one of these kind of crosshatch designs I think that looks pretty cool or if you're insane like me you can spend 15 minutes mimicking the pattern on the wool sweaters worn by the shepherds all right once the topping is done we're going to put that in a 375 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes what you're looking for is this a beautiful crust you're going to see that gravy bubbling around the outside and if or something like this you gotta let sit at least fifteen minutes but you know what I didn't wait I'm gonna admit it right now the Sun was going down and I wanted to get the final money shots so I just said I'm going in with the spatula but you know what it worked everything was fine in fact more than fine just amazing there's nothing better than a well-made shepherd's pie that slightly gamy a beautifully flavored lamb the vegetables that thick rich gravy and then the Irish cheddar in the potatoes on the top so perfect it would be a great change of pace to that corned beef and cabbage for st. Patrick's Day or have both even better so there you go Irish shepherd's pie I hope you give this a try head over to food wishes calm for all the ingredient amounts and more information as usual and as always enjoy

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 2,615,651

Rating: 4.9246078 out of 5

Keywords: Irish, Shepherd's, Pie, Classic, Shepherd, casserole, St., Patrick's, Day, cheese, lamb, chef, john, foodwishes, Cottage Pie, Food, Cooking, Ireland, Kitchen, Recipe, Allrecipes, recipe, recipes, Irish Shepherds Pie, how to, how to make, how to cook, how to bake, make, cook, bake, learn, food, potato, carrots, peas, beef, main, dish, dinner, easy, simple, delicious

Id: TsrTU3CJn2c

Length: 5min 26sec (326 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 05 2012