Shepherd's Pie for Chris

Shepherd's pie, or "Cottage Pie" was originally a way to use leftover meat from a roast in the days before refrigeration.  It's an example of traditional ways of making meat 'go further' by re-cooking it with cheaper starchy addition like potatoes; other examples of this can be seen in Yorkshire Puddings as well as Pie and Mash.  If you have any leftover meats, don't be afraid to toss them in with the ground beef; in this case, I had some leftover lamb that I used along with the beef.

In the recipe below, I wanted to create a 'layered' shepherd's pie, with a thin later of sweet potato on top of the meat mixture and a generous amount of mashed potatoes on top. If you don't want to create that effect, just add the sweet potatoes in with the potatoes, or omit them altogether.

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 stalk celery (diced)

1 carrot (diced)

1/2 large onion (diced)

2 cloves garlic (diced) (yeah, I loves my garlic)

2 cups corn kernels (frozen or canned)

1 small package extra lean ground beef

1 tbsp Worcester sauce

2 tbsp flour

4 Medium Yukon gold potatoes (peeled and cut into chunks)

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup milk or cream

Optional: Leftover roasting meat, cut into small pieces

Optional: 1/2 cup beef broth or dark beer

Optional: 1 large sweet potato (peeled and cut into chunks)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Add the potatoes to a pot of boiling water. While the potatoes cook..
   
3. Add the celery, onion, garlic and carrot to a hot pan, saute until tender.
   
4. Add ground beef, combine with celery, onion, garlic and carrot and cook until beef is no longer pink.
   
5. At this point, add the Worcester sauce, and the beef broth or dark beer (I was out of both so I omitted them). Also add the cooked roasting meat. Season with salt and pepper. Add the corn kernels, and flour, then stir to combine. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Pour contents of pan into bottom of a shallow dish.
   
6. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place in bowl. Add sweet potatoes to water in pot. To the bowl of cooked potatoes, cut up and add butter, cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Mash potatoes until desired consistency (some like 'em lumpy, some like 'em smooth)
   
7. When the sweet potatoes are done (if you stick them with a fork they should fall off on their own), pour out the hot water in the pot, season with salt and pepper, and mash.
   
8. Pour the sweet potatoes on top of the beef mixture in pan and spread even. Now do the same with the potatoes.
   
9. Put in oven for 30 minutes at 350.
   

Serve with ketchup or HP