Leonardo Was Right
May. 13th, 2014 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerThis week's Resolution Recipe: Shepherd's Pie.
From the Notebooks of Leonardo, a recipe for a shepherd's pie starts: "Take three shepherds, and wash them..."
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped (Ha! I used... more.)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lb or thereabouts lamb, ground (I used 1 lb high-quality ground beef)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2/3 cup red wine
1 1/3 cup yesterday's gravy (I used leftover gravy from stewing oxtails for terrine, which was then used to braise a beef brisket. It is good gravy.)
Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco to taste (I cut up a couple dried chiles instead)
salt & pepper
2 1/4 lb potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed with milk and a generous quantity of butter
Stew the onion, carrot, and garlic gently in the olive oil until softened, then raise the heat and add the meat, turning it so that it browns all over. Mix in the tomato, wine, and gravy. Continue to simmer very gently for 15 minutes or so while you are cooking and mashing the potatoes.
Heat the oven to 400. Five minutes before you finish cooking the meat, shake in the Worcestershire and Tabasco to taste. When you have the flavor you want, decant the meat mixture into a gratin or pie pan (I used a 9" square Pyrex pan) and cover with mashed potato. Ruffle the surface with a fork. Cook for 10 minutes to get the potatoes browning, then turn down to 350 and cook for 45 minutes.
What worked: It was a better Shepherd's Pie than I usually make, mostly because of the gravy. The fork-ruffling was a nice touch. It went very well with Colin's homebrew cider (which was the goal). His cider is bone-dry and isn't as good a sipping cider unless you like that, but it's very good with food.
What didn't: I forgot that the curvy upstairs neighbor does not care for mash - right until I was starting to put things together. So she got a separate portion with a cottage pie pastry cover. It might have gotten overcooked since it was much smaller, but she gamely ate it anyway.
Will I make it again? Probably.
From the Notebooks of Leonardo, a recipe for a shepherd's pie starts: "Take three shepherds, and wash them..."
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped (Ha! I used... more.)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 lb or thereabouts lamb, ground (I used 1 lb high-quality ground beef)
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2/3 cup red wine
1 1/3 cup yesterday's gravy (I used leftover gravy from stewing oxtails for terrine, which was then used to braise a beef brisket. It is good gravy.)
Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco to taste (I cut up a couple dried chiles instead)
salt & pepper
2 1/4 lb potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed with milk and a generous quantity of butter
Stew the onion, carrot, and garlic gently in the olive oil until softened, then raise the heat and add the meat, turning it so that it browns all over. Mix in the tomato, wine, and gravy. Continue to simmer very gently for 15 minutes or so while you are cooking and mashing the potatoes.
Heat the oven to 400. Five minutes before you finish cooking the meat, shake in the Worcestershire and Tabasco to taste. When you have the flavor you want, decant the meat mixture into a gratin or pie pan (I used a 9" square Pyrex pan) and cover with mashed potato. Ruffle the surface with a fork. Cook for 10 minutes to get the potatoes browning, then turn down to 350 and cook for 45 minutes.
What worked: It was a better Shepherd's Pie than I usually make, mostly because of the gravy. The fork-ruffling was a nice touch. It went very well with Colin's homebrew cider (which was the goal). His cider is bone-dry and isn't as good a sipping cider unless you like that, but it's very good with food.
What didn't: I forgot that the curvy upstairs neighbor does not care for mash - right until I was starting to put things together. So she got a separate portion with a cottage pie pastry cover. It might have gotten overcooked since it was much smaller, but she gamely ate it anyway.
Will I make it again? Probably.
