So I’m making a casserole (I think the Brits call this a “shepherd’s pie”) for dinner.
Real easy. Potatoes and ground beef.
the recipe is simple:
boil potatoes, mash 'em up with some margarine.
In frying pan- fry onions, add loose ground beef, add mushrooms.
In cassarole dish, make a bed of the mashed potatoes.
Add a layer of the fried ground beef/onions/mushrooms.
Cover with another layer of mashed potatoes.
—Then BAKE for 20 minutes
Now it suddenly occurs to me–I’ve been nibbling the whole time, and already eaten almost a full meal of this dish while I was cooking it…so why bake the whole thing, since all the ingredients are already thoroughly cooked and quite tasty already?
What does the oven-baking add to the process?
Baking adds a tasty crust to the top, allows the flavors time to rest and “marry”. It also ensure the whole pie is warm, as some ingredients may have cooled while waiting to be put in the casserole dish.
I wouldn’t call it shepherd’s pie. I make mine by cranking leftover roast leg of lamb – not Legolam; that would be weird – frozen mixed vegetables, and a bit of leftover lamb gravy, topped with leftover mashed potatoes or colcannon. I don’t use a bottom layer of potatoes. Since it’s all leftovers (or frozen, since I tend not to have mixed vegetables when I make the roast), it has to be put into the oven. But yeah, what The Devil’s Grandmother said.
What you have sounds a little like a variation of cowboy pie. Cowboy pie can be a shepherd’s pie with beef substituted for lamb, sometimes with taco seasoning mixed in. Or it might have beans in it. Or it might be a tamale pie (basically taco-seasoned ground beef with corn and onions, topped with a cornbread-type layer) with a potato topping instead of the cornbread.
Whatever it is, it sounds like a good recipe to have on-hand for when supplies are low and you don’t feel like going to the market. I’ll have to try it sometime.
If you’re not going to bake it, why even make it a casserole? You could just have the beef and onions with a side of mashed potatoes, or mix it all on your plate.
uh, well, ya see, that’s pretty much what I did.
Remember, I said I was hungry, and nibbled (a lot )while I was cooking it.
And it tasted pretty much the same in small forkfulls straight from the frying pan, as it did when I served it at the table nicely presented in the casserole dish.