My daughter Tessa has been stressed out at work and wanted comfort food. I believe in shopping the edges of the supermarket and buying the purest form of food available. Here’s what you’ll need to bake the Shepherd’s Pie I made for her:
Easy Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
- 1 lb free-range grass-fed ground beef, beefalo, or buffalo
- 1 purple onion, chopped
- 1 package fresh mushrooms, washed and chopped
- 1 package fresh or frozen English peas
- Optional: feel free to add bell peppers, garlic, corn, or any other veggies that appeals to you.
- 1 stick Kelly Gold Irish Butter from grass-fed cows
- 1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated Buy a block of cheese and grate it yourself to avoid the anti-mold additives in already-grated cheese.
- 5-6 medium-sized potatoes washed, boiled until soft, and mashed with skins-on
- 1 package 2 rolled-up ready-made pie crusts
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Cut the washed potatoes into wedges, cover with water in a large pot and boil until soft.
- While the potatoes are boiling: In a large skillet coated with butter or olive oil, cook the ground beef, chopped onion and mushrooms until the beef is browned and the onions are translucent.
- When the meat mixture is done, turn off the heat and stir in the peas.
- Grease (with butter or olive oil) a large oven-safe pan. Line the bottom with the first pie crust (pilfer from the other crust if you need more).
- Spread the meat mixture on top of the pie crust in the oven-safe pan.
- Drain and smash the potatoes along with the stick of butter.
- Layer the buttered mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture.
- Sprinkle grated cheese on top of the potatoes.
- Cut the rest of the pie crust into strips and arrange over the cheese.
- Bake until the cheese is melted and the pie crust is golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Notes
This whole enterprise takes less than an hour and serves 6 or 8 people. It's also a great casserole to take to parties, and you can be as artistic with the top crust as you'd like.
