Shepherd's Pie!

A nice lady from my neighbors group gave me two boxes of produce from Eastern Washington yesterday, and in mine was a big bag of potatoes. I gave one box to a friend who lives nearby and shared my box with another friend who lives down the hall from me. Looking at all the potatoes I had, I decided to make shepherd's pie.

Flashback: College

Shepherd's pie was a dish I did not know existed until I met Marie. Marie-Andrée. Marie's family migrated from Canada down to Florida when she was very small, so she was a South Floridian at heart with Quebecois roots. I was the fresh-off-the-plane church girl from Guam who didn't know much about life in Florida, let alone life in the United States, and she was from streetwise and multicultural Miami. We fast became friends, and looking back, she was the first friend I made on mainland soil. Marie was my roommate from start to finish. We learned a lot from each other in terms of upbringing, sharing a common living space, sharing food, sharing bills, university stress, and exchanging culture. In many ways, we grew up together from teens to young adults.

I've since lost touch with Marie, but I'll always remember her goodnaturedness, love for animals, devotion to family and friends, and her open heart. 

One thing she made repeatedly for roommate meals was shepherd's pie. 

She said it was easy to make and can feed a lot of people with plenty of leftovers, and it was really good, especially with ketchup. I had mine with some soy sauce sometimes, too. 

Fast forward to maybe 20 years later, and it's only now that I've made this dish for myself. I remember all the steps, except I watched one Gordon Ramsay video to see how long I'd have to put the pie in the oven for. 

It's a crustless pie, really. And Marie's version is different: It's refreshingly simpler. 

Stages of shepherd's 🥧 

Marie-inspired Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients: 

- 1 egg

- 5 large potatoes, soaked and peeled for boiling

- 1 pound or .5 kg ground meat of choice 

- 1 onion, diced

- a few garlic cloves, pressed, sliced, or diced

- 1 can of whole kernel corn

- cheese of choice

- shaved or grated parmesan

- salt, pepper, herbs of choice, ground garlic

1. You take a pound of ground meat (I used 85% lean/15% fat ground lamb), season it with salt and pepper, ground garlic if you like, some herbs if you want to, and sauté that with a couple of garlic cloves and a whole diced onion. 

Optional: Some broth for flavor. I used pork broth for mine. I did not measure. It looked like 1/3 to 1/2 of a cup.

2. Boil 5 large peeled potatoes. Remove from water to cool down. Blend in a food processor with a bit of olive oil, salt, and parmesan. Throw in an egg at the end to bind the mashed potatoes. This will be useful for when the layers set in the oven. (Marie didn't do this with hers, but the two videos I found online used the egg, so I went in that direction.)

3. Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. 

4. Open a can of whole sweet kernel corn. Drain (or drink--that corn can juice is delicious). 

5. Using an 8" square baking pan or other similar casserole dish, scoop the ground meat from the pot and into the pan. This is your first layer.

6. Empty the drained can of corn over the meat. This is your second layer.

7. Use a few slices of cheese (I used muenster) to place over the corn. This is what I did that Marie didn't do because I felt like it. This is layer three.

8. Lastly, get the whipped/mashed potatoes and spread in an even layer over the cheese and corn. 

9. Pop into the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top layer forms a light crust on the edges.

10. Switch to the top broiler and broil for so long as you see a slight surface browning.

Cool, serve with ketchup or any other condiment of choice, and eat.