Recipe

A Variation On Shepherds Pie Recipe

	Athena2k1 / All my dishes 1 year, 11 months ago A combination of a "shepherd's" or "cottage" pie, but in a crust. Prep:20m Cook:240m Servings:12	Athena2k1
	traditional meat pie cottage pie shepherds pie steak pie

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Ingredients

For Filling:

2 lbs stewing beef (very lean)

Water

Soy Sauce

Smoked paprika

Frozen or fresh peas

1 medium-large onion (more if you like a lot of onion flavor)

3 heads (not cloves - whole heads) of garlic

Olive oil

Butter (not margarine)

3-4 heaping teaspoons (tableware spoons) organic baking flour

1 5 1/2 quart pot

1 10 inch pan

For Mashed Potatoes:

2 small potatoes and 5-6 medium potatoes (aprox)

Non-Fat (skim) Milk

Butter

Mixer

Same 5 1/2 quart pot or another large pot if you want to speed things up

Plastic wrap OR Foil

AND your favorite pie crust recipe or frozen crust for (2) nine inch pies

Directions

Start with the Mashed Potatoes: Clean the potatoes well. Fill pot with hot water, and add a little salt - actually amount is unimportant and wait to boil. Add potatoes to water.

Check occasionally with a fork to see if they are done.

After they are fully cooked set them aside to cool enough to handle them with your fingers. Then remove skins (unless your family likes the skins - I do, but others don't so I remove them)

Add potatoes to mixer, and add aprox 1.5 cups of non-fat milk (no need to get high fat on these - save it for the butter) and butter to taste (I use tons, probably a whole stick) **note: It's probably best to start with about half of what you think you'll want to use, and then as the mixer is going add more gradually - I don't know if it makes much of a difference, but this is how I always do it.

Then place plastic wrap or foil over the top and place in the refrigerator until ready to add it to the top of the pies.

all of this can be done at the same time as other steps of making the pie filling as well.

Pie Filling:

Put all the meat in the pot and fill with water just a little more than needed to cover the meat (this meat should be pre-cut into chunks --- not one big hunk of meat) and cook on high.

Chop the onion - rough or uniform doesn't matter. Put half directly in with the beef.

Other half of onion will go into the 10 inch pan. Do not pre-heat the pan before adding the onion. After adding the onion drizzle just enough olive oil to cover about half the onions, add about a tablespoon of butter, and about 3 shakes of paprika.

Cook until onions caramelize (stir occasionally at first, and then more frequently so they don't burn)

After the onions caramelize, then add them (and whatever olive oil/butter is in the pan) into the larger pot with the beef.

Add a few more shakes of paprika to the pot with the beef. Stir.

Add about 3 "glugs" of Soy Sauce. Stir.

Start to roast your 3 garlic heads according to the recipe found here: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001712roasted_garlic.php

***I didn't really know how long to cook this, but I wanted to make sure it was good and flavorful and tender, so I let it cook for about 3.5 hours. If you know it won't take you that long - go for it, shorten the time for stewing*** At this time, after all the ingredients have been added, I lower from high to about medium for the duration of the cooking time.

After the beef is done enough, spoon out the beef chunks and slice them into much smaller pieces (think bite-size for a 2 year old child) and add them back into the pot. Cutting WITH the grain of the meat is important for consistency.

Add the peas into the pot now.

Now add the roasted garlic paste into beef broth a little bit at a time, tasting as you go to check for what you like.

Gradually add flour one spoonful at a time to thicken the broth into a stew-like consistency. **If you have never made a stew before, note this: do not expect the thickening to occur instantly, it takes a little while (3-5 min or so) before knowing if you'll need to add the next spoonful of flour or not.**

Now, put the pie crusts into the oven as you would with any other pie for just a bit - remove from the oven, and pour half of the beef mixture into each one.

Place mashed potatoes on top (I recommend microwaving the potatoes so they are easier to mush around on top, as I put them on cold from the fridge and it made a bit of a mess). Broil at 375 until crispy on top to your liking, I think I put mine in for about 10 minutes.

The pies will need to set up before dishing out.

I made this with homemade creamed corn - and everyone raved.

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