Someone gave me a lamb and some potatoes, and I had all manner of loose vegetables in the fridge ready for cooking, so I made lamb shepherd’s pie. I looked up a Jamie Oliver recipe with lamb and rosemary in the title for inspiration and then just free-rolled from there.
Two evolutions later, I had made a couple of stops for more ingredients and come up with a stellar dish that fed my sense of fall seclusion and comfort, and that made good use of many of the current inhabitants of my pantry. Is there any better feeling than nailing a dish of comfort food when you’re just drinking wine and riffing in the kitchen? If you want to give this comfort food a go, here’s what I did:
Lamb Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
- 4 rashers smoked bacon
1 medium yellow onion - chopped
4 cloves garlic - minced- 6 medium brussels sprouts - sliced
3 pounds ground lamb (minced lamb)
2 pounds potatoes - peeled
2 sprigs rosemary
1 piece bay leaf (bay leaves)
1-2 tablespoon all purpose flour (plain flour Australia and UK)
¼ cup red wine
¼ cup beef stock (beef broth or beef bouillon)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper - to taste
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce - adjust for taste
1 teaspoon salt - adjust for taste
3 tablespoons ketchup (tomato sauce Australia and UK) - adjust for taste
¼ cup peas
¼ cup carrots - diced
¼ cup cauliflower - diced
¼ cup tomato - chopped
Instructions
- Add the bacon into the skillet and saute with onion and garlic.
- Add the brussels sprouts, turning around on the heat for a moment or two.
- Add the ground lamb and stir until brown.
- While the lamb browned, boil the peeled potatoes in salted water. (Note: at some point during this process, you’re going to want to throw in a couple of sprigs of rosemary and a bay leaf or two as well.)
- In the meantime, it’s a good idea to drain most, if not all, of the fat off the meat (lamb can be pretty fatty).
- Next, sprinkle a tablespoon or two of all-purpose flour on the lamb and mix in 1/4 cup or so of red wine.
- Add a splash of beef or chicken broth to help create a bit of gravy.
- Add some pepper, Worcestershire sauce and salt to taste. Add three tablespoons of ketchup (or to taste) and about a third of a bag of Trader Joe’s Melange of Vegetables. Finish off with a selection of large pieces of chopped heirloom tomatoes.
- Once the potatoes had cooked, drain them and mash them, adding butter, milk, salt and pepper.
- Finally, put the lamb filling into a baking dish and gently spread the mashed potatoes on top. Bake at 375 degrees until the potato topping has turned golden brown.
Nutrition
After that, you can sit in front of the fire, basking in your hearty, cold-weather comfort food and linger over a glass of red wine. Try adding a little Jethro Tull to up the atmosphere.
Lamb Shepherd's Pie
Print RecipeIngredients
- 4 rashers of applewood smoked bacon
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- brussels sprouts, sliced
- 3 pounds of ground lamb
- 2 pounds of potatoes, peeled
- rosemary
- bay leaf
- 1-2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup of red wine
- beef or chicken broth
- pepper
- Worcestershire sauce
- salt to taste
- 3 tablespoons of ketchup (or to taste)
- Trader Joe’s Melange of Vegetables (or anything similar)
- chopped heirloom tomatoes
Instructions
- Add the bacon into the skillet and saute with onion and garlic.
- Add the brussels sprouts, turning around on the heat for a moment or two.
- Add the ground lamb and stir until brown.
- While the lamb browned, boil the peeled potatoes in salted water. (Note: at some point during this process, you’re going to want to throw in a couple of sprigs of rosemary and a bay leaf or two as well.)
- In the meantime, it’s a good idea to drain most, if not all, of the fat off the meat (lamb can be pretty fatty).
- Next, sprinkle a tablespoon or two of all-purpose flour on the lamb and mix in 1/4 cup or so of red wine.
- Add a splash of beef or chicken broth to help create a bit of gravy.
- Add some pepper, Worcestershire sauce and salt to taste. Add three tablespoons of ketchup (or to taste) and about a third of a bag of Trader Joe’s Melange of Vegetables. Finish off with a selection of large pieces of chopped heirloom tomatoes.
- Once the potatoes had cooked, drain them and mash them, adding butter, milk, salt and pepper.
- Finally, put the lamb filling into a baking dish and gently spread the mashed potatoes on top. Bake at 375 degrees until the potato topping has turned golden brown.
After that, you can sit in front of the fire, basking in your hearty, cold-weather comfort food and linger over a glass of red wine. Try adding a little Jethro Tull to up the atmosphere.
