Shepherd's Pie, If Blood was Sheep
May. 16th, 2021 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Blood Sausage Cottage Pie.
This is the third "Shepherd's Pie, If [x] Was Sheep" I can find in recent months. What can I say - sometimes I like variations on a theme.
"This is based on a lovely side dish I ate some years ago, in an upscale Lancashire restaurant that had two twinkly Étoiles Michelin, at a time when such things meant something."
500 g potatoes, peeled and diced
150 g unsalted butter
salt and pepper
4 onions, finely sliced
no garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
2 Tbsp lard
100 g bacon lardons (I used house-made)
100 g peeled and diced cooking apples
500 g blood sausage, diced
2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs (I used 1/3 cup)
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 20 minutes, or until just tender. Drain and let them steam dry, then add the butter and mash them, adjusting the seasoning. Cook the onions and garlic gently in the lard for 10 minutes, or until golden and sweet. Add the lardons and apple and continue cooking until the bacon is cooked through. Stir in the blood sausage and remove from the heat.
Fill a 9" pie plate (or 1.5 quart baking dish) with the blood sausage mixture, and spread or pipe the mashed potatoes evenly over the top. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes, or until hot and golden brown on top.
What worked: It was rich and exactly as one would expect. We like blood sausage, so this was right up our alley.
What didn't: I used a 1.5 quart baking dish and coated the top of the potatoes thoroughly with only 1/3 cup bread crumbs; it seemed like doubling it would be excessive. I'm not sure if I was correct.
Will I make it again? Perhaps. It's pretty rich and we try to not eat that way that often.
This is the third "Shepherd's Pie, If [x] Was Sheep" I can find in recent months. What can I say - sometimes I like variations on a theme.
"This is based on a lovely side dish I ate some years ago, in an upscale Lancashire restaurant that had two twinkly Étoiles Michelin, at a time when such things meant something."
500 g potatoes, peeled and diced
150 g unsalted butter
salt and pepper
4 onions, finely sliced
no garlic (Ha! I used... more.)
2 Tbsp lard
100 g bacon lardons (I used house-made)
100 g peeled and diced cooking apples
500 g blood sausage, diced
2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs (I used 1/3 cup)
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 20 minutes, or until just tender. Drain and let them steam dry, then add the butter and mash them, adjusting the seasoning. Cook the onions and garlic gently in the lard for 10 minutes, or until golden and sweet. Add the lardons and apple and continue cooking until the bacon is cooked through. Stir in the blood sausage and remove from the heat.
Fill a 9" pie plate (or 1.5 quart baking dish) with the blood sausage mixture, and spread or pipe the mashed potatoes evenly over the top. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes, or until hot and golden brown on top.
What worked: It was rich and exactly as one would expect. We like blood sausage, so this was right up our alley.
What didn't: I used a 1.5 quart baking dish and coated the top of the potatoes thoroughly with only 1/3 cup bread crumbs; it seemed like doubling it would be excessive. I'm not sure if I was correct.
Will I make it again? Perhaps. It's pretty rich and we try to not eat that way that often.
