[Sca-cooks] Shepherd's Pie

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Susan Fox-Davis:
>On Jan 26, 2004, at 6:43 PM, ranvaig at columbus.rr.com wrote:
>
>>>How do you folks make Shepherd's Pie?
>>>
>
>With real shepherds!  [Wyde Evyle Grynne]

I believe the line you're seeking is:

"Shepherd's pie peppered
With actual shepherd
On top..."

>Okay, real answer:  lamb and whatever other leftover veggies are 
>available, make some kind of gravy, cover over with smashed potatoes 
>and maybe some cheese on top.

I'm more or less in this school myself: you pretty much have to 
assume that the whole point of shepherd's pie is that you had roast 
(or braised?) lamb the day before; if it's beef or something you have 
cottage pie, which is a different beast and with looser rules.

So for shepherd's pie, you have lamb (diced small) and any roasted 
carrots, onions, celery, or whatever, or other veg, such as carrots, 
celery, onion, leeks, mushrooms and/or green peas, maybe turnips, 
preferably with leftover gravy or, if boiled meat is used, either the 
cooking stock made into a gravy, or canned stock (darkening with 
stout is a good trick). Herbs are a good addition but they may 
already be in with the meat anyway. Worcestershire or other steak 
sauce if you must... . Crust can be mashed taters or shortcrust, or 
even a potato shortcrust (which is just like it sounds, cold mashed 
potatoes worked with flour as for gnocchi, but with fat worked in, as 
for shortcrust -- the result can be rolled out somewhat thickly, 
puffs up a bit, and browns well -- also makes great potato scones).

Cottage pie is what I associate with ground beef, although all the 
Irish diners in my neighborhood (yes, we have Irish diners, where, 
instead of pastitsio and moussaka at 3AM, you can get black puds with 
fried tomatoes and curried chips...) refer to the ground-beef cottage 
pie under mashed potato crust as shepherd's pie...

Qu'est-ce-que c'est cheese?

Adamantius