So I’ve got left over lamb (just a bit), left over pot roast, left over gravy from said pot roast (complete with bits of celery, carrots and onion) and left over mashed potatoes from yesterday’s dinner.
All I need to pick up is some puff pastry, right? I don’t like peas but if I must include them, I’ll pick up a can of baby peas (I forget the brand I’m thinking of but it has a French name). How do I assemble it? Am I missing anything?
Are you looking for fancy restaraunt style Shepherd’s/Cottage Pie, or just good ol fashioned home stlye? My mom’s simply consisted of meat, peas, diced onions, and spices all mixed together, then mashed potatoes on top.
Of course, I don’t eat peas or mashed potatoes (odd, seeing as how my heritage is English, Irish and Scottish), so she often made homemade Yorkshire Pudding as well. Mmmmmm…best side dish with this meal in my opinion. But you’ll have to get the recipe for that elsewhere, I’m pretty useless in the kitchen.
Good luck.
I consider the pastry optional. Peas are definitely optional. You might want to get a bag (or small box) of frozen mixed veggies – but I like veggies, so you can’t go by me.
Yorkshire pudding is pretty simple. I’m going off the top of my head here, so the amounts of the ingredients might not be correct. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
Take 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk, and two cups of flour. Mix together thoroughly. Pour into your pan of drippings (from your roast). Bake at 450 for about 20 minutes. It’s as easy as that.
As for Shepherd’s pie, El Elvis Rojo had the basics. I’ve made it with alternating layers of meat and veggies, then mashed potatoes. Brush some melted butter onto the top layer of potatoes to help brown it up. Some recipes I’ve seen call for cloves in the spices, and I can’t stand the taste of cloves so I don’t use that, but you might like it.
I make a cottage pie by browning a mix of ground lamb and ground beef, sauteeing onion, diced carrots and sometimes celery, adding a bit of flour to the mix, then a bit of beef stock. Simmer till thickened, stir in a few frozen peas, then put in a casserole, top with mashed potatoes, dot with butter and bake at 375 for 45-55 min, less if spread thinner…
Actually, be wary of the time in that recipe. When the potatoes begin to brown and it’s bubbly, it’s ready.
Jeez, you guys actually cook! What we call shepherd’s pie at my house is a bag of frozen mixed veggies, a can of mushroom soup, and frozen TVP crumbles, plus leftovers. Pour instant potatoes over the top, sprinkle with grated cheddar.
hmmm - “cottage pie” in my family is a dessert - a pie with raspberry filling and almonds. The Yorkshire pudd on top of shepard’s pie is new to me - I’ll have to give it a try. (My Welsh grammie used mashed potatoes.)
whoops - I see El Elvis uses it as a side dish,
I love Shepherd’s pie, but I’ve never had it with puff pastry (I’m British, FWIW), it might be a tasty addition. Where would I put the pastry? Or would I put the whole thing in the pastry?
I’ve used pastry on homemade chicken pot pies, but never on shepherd’s pie.
The basics have mostly been covered. Brown your meat with some chopped onion (I add a little garlic), I put this in the bottom of a pyrex cassarole dish. Then I layer on semi-steamed carrots (having just lost their crispness) and frozen sweet green peas. I cover this and bake at about 350 whilst I whip up the mashed potatoes. Once the potatoes are mashed, I cover the top of the cassarole and continue baking until it’s hot bubbly and brown on top (but not solid brown…just browning peaks, kinda like a meringue). If I want to be really impressive, I pipe the potatoes on with a icing bag and star tip 
FaerieBeth
You have to ask how to make shepherd’s pie? Relax. Shepherd’s pie is like stew: It’s one of those dishes which it is simply impossible to screw up. Throw together whatever leftovers you like, top with smashed taters, and heat the whole shebang up in the oven. Nothing to worry about.
There are things that can make it especially good (pastry shell, the right spices, etc.), but there is simply nothing you can do which will make it bad.
See, the great thing about English cuisine, is the majority of it comes from back in the day when the island was covered with poor sheepherds, so the food is rather basic. Sheepherd’s pie/cottage pie is one such dish where the basic premise was: We’ve got a lot of food left over from the week, what do we do with it before it spoils? The solution:
Throw it in a pot and cover it with potatoes!
I’d never heard of putting a covered pastry on it, but my mom never got overtly TOO fancy. Quick question for SteverinoAlaReno, or anyone else who knows how to make Yorkshire Pudding. What’s the difference between that batter and the batter used to make Toad in the Hole? My mom’s YP was often flat (or at least thin), but Toad in the Hole is supposed to be rather puffy, yet it’s typically the same type of batter, no?
No, no, no, I was going to the pastry on the bottom.
Chronos has it right. Shephard’s pie is properly made out of whatever you have left over at the end of the week.
Wel, I’m glad to know my Mom’s (And mine) is genuine Sheppard’s pie.(names we screw up in the States! ;p)
Though she and I both use frozen corn for the centre layer.
And by all means, pop a few heads of garlic in a slow oven for a half hour untill the insides are toasty and smooshy soft and add them directly to the 'taters.
The short answer is “I don’t know.”
The long answer is that my Yorkshire Pudding does come out very puffy. I’ve never made Toad in the Hole, so I don’t know what goes in it; I’ll take your word that the batter is essentially the same. It’s possible that your mother is cooking her YP at too low a temp. Once I accidently cooked mine at 350, having forgotten to reset the oven after removing the roast, and the pudding was very flat (and took forever to bake). Next time your mom makes it, watch her like a hawk