Test Kitchen with Leslie V2 + Shepherd's Pie

This week we switch recipes. Leslie has a crack at making my grandmother's traditional Italian manicotti while I try to follow Leslie's measurement-less recipe for savory Shepherd's pie (see below for what I was working with). While stuffing shells and peeling potatoes, we talk returning to the barn during the slow re-opening of states, US Equestrian Federation's June 1 target for restarting competitions, and the fun of Virtual Eventing. Virtual Eventing is a competition like you've never seen before in which top international event riders fight back against COVID-19 and raise money for medical charities around the world. So far they have raised over £150,000! Watch the competition replays and donate here: https://www.virtualeventing.com/


INGREDIENTS
  • 1 lb ground meat 
    • If you use lamb, it's technically shepherd's pie. If you substitute ground beef, it's cottage pie. We usually use bison, so I guess then it's prairie pie?
  • 1 bag of frozen peas and diced carrots ... it's convenient but I won't argue fresh is best. 
    • You can also dice up some celery and onions if you like or we've even used canned corn, drained, when we didn't have anything else.
  • 2lb of potatoes 
    • Russets or Yukon gold are supposed to be "best" for mashing, but we always have red potatoes so we use those.
  • shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup or more of cream or milk or half-and-half, depending on how you like you potatoes.
  • butter
  • salt and pepper
  • thyme and oregano or Italian seasoning
  • some kind of saucey goodness
    • We usually use red sauce. You could also make a gravy from the meat drippings.
DIRECTIONS
  1. Preheat oven to 400F.
  2. Make mashed potatoes. "Joy of Cooking" suggests baking the potatoes whole and unpeeled at 400F for the fluffiest texture. We usually boil them, peeled and cut into large chunks, until done (i.e. super soft). If boiled, drain off the water before the next step which is....Use a potato masher to smash up the potatoes. Don't have a potato masher? The bottom of a drinking glass will do the trick. Add about a cup of cream, half and half, or milk, several big chunks of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix it all together and tinker with adding more of the ingredients above until you're happy with it.
  3. Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Brown the meat and season with lot of thyme, oregano and/or Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper. Drain off the meat juices if necessary or preferred.
  4. Add your red sauce to the skillet, just enough to saturate the meat. You can add a tablespoon of flour to thicken it up if necessary, but the starchy potatoes are going to help do that anyway while it's all cooking in the oven. You can at this point mix the vegetables in with the meat. Or don't.
  5. Now it's time to layer it up. Snag a greased baking pan (The size doesn't really matter. It will only affect the thickness of your pie, not the deliciousness of it.). Spread your meat layer on the bottom. Vegetables next. Then smother those creamy potatoes in a nice thick layer all the way to the edge of the pan. Don't worry if you have leftover potatoes — you can use that to make potato cakes for breakfast. Last but not least, sprinkle several healthy handfuls of cheddar cheese on top.
  6. Cover with foil and bake in the oven about an hour. Remove the tin foil and continue cooking for 15 minutes or until cheese is browned on top.
  7. Serve and be happy.

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