Easy Shepherd's Pie

I was looking for something different and realized I hadn't had shepherd's pie in a long time --in fact I've never *made* shepherd's pie! So I used the internet (which is full of "awesome") and I found this shepherd's pie recipe on elise.com

Easy Shepherd's Pie Recipe

Serves: 4
Prep time: 20-40 mins
Cook time: 45-60 mins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs ground round beef
• 1 onion chopped
• 1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas
• 1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

Method

1 Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

2 While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tablespoons butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan.

3 Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked.

4 Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add worcesterchire sauce. Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.

5 Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.

6 Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.

7 Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Serves four.

I had to run out to by everything, so I didn't get started until 7pm or so... then with all the prep and such, it was 9pm before it was moments away from taking out of the oven. I didn't do the math ahead of time. I saw "easy" in the title and assumed it'd be fast... 2 hours later I'm all OMG WTF TTYL GG BFF AFK. (translation for mom: "Oh My God, What The F***, Talk To You Later, Good Game, Best Friends Forever, Away From Keyboard.")


I tried to follow the recipe closely so when it said "other seasonings of choice," I chopped up a half clove of garlic! ^_^

Here's how the bottom layer came together.


Just butter.


Brown the onions and garlic.


Drop in the veggies.

After adding the meat, it also calls for a few table spoons of beef broth and 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce (?!) --I put in at least 3 times that.


We peeled and boiled some potatoes.


Tiffany did the mashing :)

After we had both layers, I put it in the pan and then into the oven --but not as long as they suggested, which was 30 minutes. Instead I went with 20 minutes on "bake" and then flipped over to "broil" to brown the top for 10 minutes... oh wait... that's 30 --BLAST! Out smarted again!

Now I know what you're thinking. You're asking yourself, "Which bottle of wine complements Shepherd's Pie?" And the answer is: "Rum & Coke" :)

Final Thoughts

It was tasty, but next time, more spices and more Worcestershire Sauce.