Shepard's pie by Gordon Ramsay

I made this twice and I have to post it now because its so good. Tip though: If you use lamb meat its called Shepard's pie. If you use beef its called cottage pie. I have done both and came out really good. For the beef I used the leanest ground beef i could find:




The fastest I did it was in 1 hour but I was pooped! Makes about 4 very large servings. Makes awesome leftovers!

Ingredients:

The Filling:

• Olive Oil (2 Tbsp)
• Ground Lamb or Beef (about 1.5 lbs)
• 1 Large Carrot (grated)
• 1 Large Onion (grated)
• Fresh Rosemary
• Fresh Thyme
• Minced Garlic (I used 4 cloves)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Worcestershire Sauce (2 tablespoons)
• Tomato Puree or Paste (2 tablespoons)
• Red Wine (about 1 cup or a mini bottle of Merlot)
  
• Chicken Stock (1 1/2 cups)

The Mash:

• Golden Potatoes (about 1.5 lbs)
• Heavy Cream ( 1/4 cup)
• Butter (3 1/2 Tbsp)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Egg Yolks (2)
• Parmesan Cheese (1/4 cup, minimum)

Prep Work:

• Dice the garlic
• Separate your herbs from the stems
• Separate your Egg Yolks
• Peel and Slice your potatoes into even pieces
• Open your wine if it’s not already
• Open your can of Tomato Paste

Cooking the Potatoes:

This part is easy as pie (no pun intended), just boil some water, throw some salt and your potatoes in (diced up for faster cooking), and set a timer for 15 minutes – start on your filling. Upon the timer going off, take your potatoes out and strain the water off. Put potatoes back into the pan, or into a medium mixing bowl. Mash the potatoes with their ingredients from above and keep warm (your filling should be about done by this point).

If you really want to cheat you can make instant mash BUT used one with herbs and butter. Make sure they are very stiff. Then add egg yolks and cheese.

Cooking the Filling:

Pour Olive Oil into a hot, rather large pan, then add meat. Stir meat as if your life depends on it for a few minutes so it’s nice and brown, and broken into very small pieces. Add your Rosemary, Thyme, and Garlic, then stir some more. Drain meat and set aside on a plate. Quickly add your Carrot, and Onion, stir till the onions and carrots are soft and browning. Add back the meat; The idea at this point is to get everything to a minced consistency.

Add Worcestershire Sauce, stir, add Tomato Puree, stir, add Red Wine and sweat down for a minute or two. Almost back to a dry state again. Add chicken stock and cook till its a dry moist texture. Which takes about 15 on high heat or 30 mins on a med. heat.

Final Instructions:

Scoop your meat mixture into a deep casserole or other oven safe dish and then spoon the mash over the top. Spread the mash over the top of the mix with the bottom of the spoon and then sprinkle a generous portion of Parmesan cheese over the top. Poke the top with a fork several times to give it a peaked look. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to the top; stick it in the oven at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes to brown the potatoes and set the pie.

Serve it up hot!

If you want to see how its made you can watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLxI8cZRWjI&feature=player_embedded