In my fam­ily, Shepard’s Pie is one of those dishes that is a must.  Per­haps its a nod to the Irish her­itage.  Per­haps it was some­thing that my Bampa made when I was a child  How­ever, I have to admit, I never even attempted to make it once.  That is until I caught an episode of Cook­ing For Real and Sunny Ander­son was mak­ing Shepard’s Pie with Mush­room Onion Gravy.  Oh my lord – I will NEVER make Shepard’s Pie any other way again!

I have to thank Sunny because not only was this the piece de resis­tance for Christ­mas Eve din­ner (no Feast of Seven Fishes in this house – it would be Seven Pota­toes – you know us Irish love pota­toes *LOL*) but Sunny’s instruc­tions here taught me the PROPER way to make mashed pota­toes for Christ­mas din­ner the next day.

I did how­ever make a few sub­sti­tu­tions, the main one being corn instead of zuc­chini but her recipe is so ver­sa­tile that it allows for sub­sti­tu­tions.  She wasn’t kid­ding when she said the gravy takes it to new lev­els because, quite frankly, it does.  Plus I was able to attempt some knowl­edge I learned from the movie Julie & Julia, specif­i­cally “Don’t crowd the mush­rooms or they won’t brown“.  So dag­gone good.   Many thanks to Sunny for a killer recipe, one that will be in the tried & true file.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shepard’s Pie with Mush­room Onion Gravy

Recipe cour­tesy of Sunny Anderson

Ingre­di­ents:

• 2 pounds rus­set pota­toes, washed, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 clove gar­lic, smashed
• Salt
• 6 table­spoons butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 table­spoons veg­etable oil
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (85 per­cent lean)
• 2 tea­spoons Worces­ter­shire sauce
• 1/2 tea­spoon cayenne pepper
• 2 table­spoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup low-sodium beef stock
• 1/2 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pep­per, julienned
• 2 zuc­chini, juli­enned  (I sub­sti­tuted corn)
• 2 car­rots, peeled and grated
• 1 tea­spoon Hun­gar­ian hot paprika, plus more for gar­nish (I sub­sti­tuted Smoked Paprika)
• 4 ounces Havarti cheese, grated  (I sub­sti­tuted Extra Sharp Ched­dar Cheese)
  Mush­room Onion Gravy, recipe follows

Direc­tions

1. Pre­heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a medium saucepan, cover pota­toes and crushed gar­lic with enough water to cover by 1-inch. Add some salt and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium-high and cook until fork ten­der, about 15 min­utes. Drain pota­toes, return to pot, and mash together with 3 table­spoons of the but­ter and the heavy cream. Sea­son with salt and pep­per, to taste, and set aside.
3. In a large pan on medium-high heat, com­bine 1 table­spoon but­ter and 1 table­spoon oil. When but­ter has melted, add beef, Worces­ter­shire sauce, cayenne pep­per and salt and pep­per, to taste, and cook until meat is brown. Stir in tomato paste and saute for a few min­utes. Add stock and bring to a sim­mer. Sea­son and remove mix­ture to a bowl. In the same pan, add remain­ing but­ter and oil and saute onions until almost ten­der, then add red bell pep­per, zuc­chini, car­rots and paprika. Cook until ten­der, about 10 min­utes. Remove from heat.
4. To assem­ble, in a 9 by 12-inch bak­ing dish layer half of beef, press­ing down to pack in, then sprin­kle the cheese on evenly. Pour the remain­ing half of the beef over the cheese and press down. Next, add the sauteed veg­eta­bles and top with the mashed pota­toes, spread­ing out with a spat­ula or the back of a spoon to even out and to form dec­o­ra­tive peaks and val­leys. Sprin­kle top with paprika and bake for 30 min­utes or until edges on pota­toes turn golden brown.
5. Serve with Mush­room Onion Gravy.

Mush­room Onion Gravy:

• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 8 ounces white but­ton mush­rooms, sliced
• 3 table­spoons oil
• 3 table­spoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup red wine (As I don’t slip the pug any­thing cooked with wine and he hit me with sad eyes while cook­ing, I sub­sti­tuted beef stock**)
• 2 cups beef broth
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, saute onions and mush­rooms in oil until ten­der and mush­rooms release their mois­ture, about 5 min­utes.  (Remem­ber – don’t crowd the mush­rooms or they won’t brown) Add flour and stir to evenly coat. Slowly whisk in wine and then the broth. Sim­mer until thick­ened and sea­son with salt and pep­per, to taste.

**NOTE:  Before y’all (or Meowmix) slaps me for feed­ing the pug peo­ple food, he is slipped treats on occa­sion and he takes his title of “Sous Chef” seri­ously.  He can often be found watch­ing Food Net­work dur­ing the day or stalk­ing the oven & stove.  Wiggs fully endorses this recipe…