Monday, February 23, 2009

Shepherd's Pie - Solid Or Soupy?

I admit it, I love my shepherd's pie to really just be solid meatloaf of ground beef with a mashed potato topping. It's what I grew up with, and what I want when I'm craving comfort. My younger daughter has told me (more than once) that it's one of the few dishes of mine that is really not a favorite. She prefers her shepherd's pie soupy. She'll really love this one.

As promised, I'm on the second pot pie dish from this month's Bon Appetit And for those of you who come back here time after time, you know that I'm all about fast and easy, so be warned. This Lamb & Eggplant Shepherd's Pie is certainly not difficult, but I did spend much of the day preparing it yesterday.

The flavor and texture was worth the effort and, according to BA you can prepare the filling (think stew) ahead and then it's just time to boil the potatoes and do the final baking - 45 minutes. It's so different to my mother's - lamb cubes instead of ground beef, adding salty chewy cheese to the potato topping, eggplant and diced tomatoes really keep it unique...there's no need to even try to compare.

Another caution...well two....1) the recipe calls for a lasagna sized baking dish 13x9x2", and that's what I used, but had to ladle off a couple of huge spoonfuls of sauce before topping with the potatoes and good thing I put the dish on a lined rimmed cookie sheet as it overflowed; 2) this serves 8-10 and I didn't even try to figure out how to cut it in 4-lots of ingredients and I'm math challenged. So we'll be eating this for a while and I will probably freeze the filling as stew and perhaps can salvage the topping and make some potato pancakes.

All that whining aside...it was awesome! Go ahead, broaden your horizons...but first...really which shepherd's pie to do favor...solid or soupy?

7 comments:

pigpigscorner said...

I love mine soupy! I love to drown my food in yummy sauce!

giz said...

Somehow soupy doesn't work for me. Like you, I was raised on solid but I attribute that to my mother not really understanding what this dish is supposed to be in the first place.

Ruth Daniels said...

Giz, you're probably right...along with the notion of green veggies not being done until they're grey! At least I don't do that!!!!

I must admit, though...this version is very tasty - as long as I don't call it shepherd's pie.

Anonymous said...

I love mine to be solid :)

Katie Zeller said...

It's kind of like the deep dish v crisp crust pizza. I like them both - they each satisfy a craving at different times...
Sometimes, together..
A face it, I like it all!

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, I prefer solid to soupy.

Like Giz, I don't believe my mother understood the Shepherd's Pie concept.(I won't even tell you what she did to Welsh rarebit.)

That said, we loved her Shepherd's Pie made in a deep dish--bowl, actually--with ground beef, a touch of Worcestershire sauce, thin layer of peas and mashed potatoes.

The potatoes were always extra milky so they didn't dry out while baking.


As I write this, it sounds ghastly, but is actually yummy.

CY said...

I like mine more on the solid side with a little "soup" coming out of it when you serve it up! I always place a baking tray under any dish I use, I'm such a clutz and I always spill something in the oven which then becomes a charcoal lump on the bottom of the oven. yeek.