The British pub menu: Curry shepherd pie "Yassy's version" Updated on Feb 3rd,2010
Picture is added on Feb 3rd,2010
In previous entry titled " Traveling without flying ", I wrote about the unique British pub that me and my husband have found near our house. The pub has been one of our favorite eatery place since our first visit. One of our favorite dish there is shepherd pie with curry flavor. Since we liked it so much that I have tried re-create the dish we have tasted there. I think it came close to we have had there with my twist to the dish. You can try out and see if you like it.
Here is how I make my version of curry shepherd pie.
I made scoring on potato part with fork
When I make mashed potatoes/shepherd pie topping, I do not use regular potatoes. I use Yukon Gold Potatoes. It is more creamy texture and it definitely taste much better than regular potatoes. With baked potatoes,I do not use Yukon gold potatoes. I use Russet potato because it has more texture to it and best suits to the dish.
So, my choice of potato I used for shepherd pie is Yukon Gold Potato. I usually wash potatoes, wrap them in saran and put it on microwaveable plate and cook them. 1 potatoes needs 3 minutes plus one minute. If you use 3 potatoes,3 potatoes x 3 minutes+1 minutes=10minutes. It depends on size of the potatoes but,usually I use 5 potatoes or so. If it happened to be too much of potato, you can always make different dish using leftover mashed potatoes.
For example, you can make the mashed potato like a golf sized ball, and wrap it with thin ham. When you wrap the potato ball, you need to wrap like funnel shape and you can place the wider open side outward on plate and it looks pretty. You can use leftover mashed potato salad too instead of regular mashed potato. And, if you like to go further to use it up, wrap the potato like sushi roll with ham and dredge it into flour, put them to beaten egg, roll on panko bread crumbs and deep fry them. It is good side dish with different takes to leftover meal.
Anyway, first step for shepherd pie is to make the topping=potato part.
After cooked in microwave, I use chopstick to get peel off and I mash them with masher. After that,I sprinkle kosher salt,and put 1-3 table spoon worth of butter and I add 1-2 handful of shredded reduced moisture motzarella cheese ( I prefer fresh Motzarella when it comes to taste test competition but,it has too much moisture and it does not work well in this dish) and handful of grated Parmesan cheese let it melt by heat.Then,I add splash of milk, splash of heavy cream and stir,and add 1-2 table spoon of sour cream and keep adding milk till desired texture. Then,season it with pepper. This is my topping part.
As for meat part, all you need is half ground lamb,half ground beef,canned green peas, small chopped carrots,1 clove of garlic.
Sometimes, finding ground lamb in a package is difficult.Not all grocery store carry the ground lamb all the time. So,what I do is to buy a package of boneless leg of lamb, and cut to about half pound or so (amount will be depending on how much meat you like to use) and put it to food processor and zap to ground meat. When I make a burger patties,I tend to buy a favorite cut of meat,then ground the meat before making patties in food processor.
So, put about half table spoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I prefer cold pressed EVOO) in a big wide bottom pan, cook ground beef and ground lamb. Then, add grated 1 clove of garlic chopped carrots and cook to tender. Season it with salt and pepper (I usually use Molton brand's "Nature's season".It is a seasoning blend bottle with blue cap). Then, sprinkle "hot madras curry powder", and adjust hotness to your preference, and add bit of ground cumin, add bit of ground coriander splash of Worcester sauce and add touch of chopped fresh Rosemary. Adjust overall taste. When curried meat is about done, add a bit of water-drained green peas and stir and take off from heat.
So, potato part and meat part, both cooked through at this point. Therefore, easy to assemble parts to make it to shepherd pie.
Prepare baking dish,butter the dish, and pour curry flavored meat part on bottom, and place mashed potato on top. Brash the top of mashed potato with melted butter and put the dish under broiler.
Broiler brown the food very quick so, you need to watch the food so as not to get it burned.
When potato part gets bit of brown color on top, it is done. Since mashed potato part does not include egg like other shepherd pie recipe,you do not need to cook it long time in the oven.
This dish is express version of shepherd pie, and easy to make,quick to serve. I hope your family would enjoy this dish as much as mine does. When you scoop some portion of the shepherd pie, since mashed potato has Motzarella in it, you will see the string of the cheese. That makes our dog "Palette" go nuts about our meal. Sadly,she never get our meal, but she enjoys the smell of the melted stringy cheese in the potato part.
Enjoy!
In previous entry titled " Traveling without flying ", I wrote about the unique British pub that me and my husband have found near our house. The pub has been one of our favorite eatery place since our first visit. One of our favorite dish there is shepherd pie with curry flavor. Since we liked it so much that I have tried re-create the dish we have tasted there. I think it came close to we have had there with my twist to the dish. You can try out and see if you like it.
Here is how I make my version of curry shepherd pie.
I made scoring on potato part with fork
When I make mashed potatoes/shepherd pie topping, I do not use regular potatoes. I use Yukon Gold Potatoes. It is more creamy texture and it definitely taste much better than regular potatoes. With baked potatoes,I do not use Yukon gold potatoes. I use Russet potato because it has more texture to it and best suits to the dish.
So, my choice of potato I used for shepherd pie is Yukon Gold Potato. I usually wash potatoes, wrap them in saran and put it on microwaveable plate and cook them. 1 potatoes needs 3 minutes plus one minute. If you use 3 potatoes,3 potatoes x 3 minutes+1 minutes=10minutes. It depends on size of the potatoes but,usually I use 5 potatoes or so. If it happened to be too much of potato, you can always make different dish using leftover mashed potatoes.
For example, you can make the mashed potato like a golf sized ball, and wrap it with thin ham. When you wrap the potato ball, you need to wrap like funnel shape and you can place the wider open side outward on plate and it looks pretty. You can use leftover mashed potato salad too instead of regular mashed potato. And, if you like to go further to use it up, wrap the potato like sushi roll with ham and dredge it into flour, put them to beaten egg, roll on panko bread crumbs and deep fry them. It is good side dish with different takes to leftover meal.
Anyway, first step for shepherd pie is to make the topping=potato part.
After cooked in microwave, I use chopstick to get peel off and I mash them with masher. After that,I sprinkle kosher salt,and put 1-3 table spoon worth of butter and I add 1-2 handful of shredded reduced moisture motzarella cheese ( I prefer fresh Motzarella when it comes to taste test competition but,it has too much moisture and it does not work well in this dish) and handful of grated Parmesan cheese let it melt by heat.Then,I add splash of milk, splash of heavy cream and stir,and add 1-2 table spoon of sour cream and keep adding milk till desired texture. Then,season it with pepper. This is my topping part.
As for meat part, all you need is half ground lamb,half ground beef,canned green peas, small chopped carrots,1 clove of garlic.
Sometimes, finding ground lamb in a package is difficult.Not all grocery store carry the ground lamb all the time. So,what I do is to buy a package of boneless leg of lamb, and cut to about half pound or so (amount will be depending on how much meat you like to use) and put it to food processor and zap to ground meat. When I make a burger patties,I tend to buy a favorite cut of meat,then ground the meat before making patties in food processor.
So, put about half table spoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I prefer cold pressed EVOO) in a big wide bottom pan, cook ground beef and ground lamb. Then, add grated 1 clove of garlic chopped carrots and cook to tender. Season it with salt and pepper (I usually use Molton brand's "Nature's season".It is a seasoning blend bottle with blue cap). Then, sprinkle "hot madras curry powder", and adjust hotness to your preference, and add bit of ground cumin, add bit of ground coriander splash of Worcester sauce and add touch of chopped fresh Rosemary. Adjust overall taste. When curried meat is about done, add a bit of water-drained green peas and stir and take off from heat.
So, potato part and meat part, both cooked through at this point. Therefore, easy to assemble parts to make it to shepherd pie.
Prepare baking dish,butter the dish, and pour curry flavored meat part on bottom, and place mashed potato on top. Brash the top of mashed potato with melted butter and put the dish under broiler.
Broiler brown the food very quick so, you need to watch the food so as not to get it burned.
When potato part gets bit of brown color on top, it is done. Since mashed potato part does not include egg like other shepherd pie recipe,you do not need to cook it long time in the oven.
This dish is express version of shepherd pie, and easy to make,quick to serve. I hope your family would enjoy this dish as much as mine does. When you scoop some portion of the shepherd pie, since mashed potato has Motzarella in it, you will see the string of the cheese. That makes our dog "Palette" go nuts about our meal. Sadly,she never get our meal, but she enjoys the smell of the melted stringy cheese in the potato part.
Enjoy!
Yum! Sounds like another great recipe to try. I love lamb. My Mom and Dad used to make it every once in a while. My Dad had worked with some sheepherders for a while when he was a young man, and knew some really good recipes. I wish I'd learned some of them from him, but he passed away when I was only 17, and I never learned. I learned a lot of Mexican cooking from my Mom, though.
You really make this recipe sound pretty easy. I noticed that you use curry in a lot of your recipes, so I will have to try to get some of that. I wonder if there are different kinds? Do you use the same kind in every recipe? Seems like you mentioned a specific kind in this one.
Anyway, thanks again for sharing with us!
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I love curry. Curry is one of those dishes you can find variety in taste in many countries: Indian curry, Thai curry, Japanese curry ... and you can also find red curry, yellow curry, green curry in Thai curry. They are all curry, but curry flavor comes from different type of products: paste,powder, ruex..
You can go back to previous entry titled " Japanese/Thai cooking:curry " for recipe to make Thai or Japanese curry. When I make Thai curry, I tend to use curry paste of kind I like to make (red/yellow/green)and add unsweetened coconut milk.That is where Thai curry flavor comes from. As for Japanese curry, one kind of curry but there is some brands you can get. My favorite brand is via S&B and green box. It is not too sweet. Japanese curry flavor comes from curry ruex block and plain water. You can make just curry sauce: Japanese curry ruex block and water and make it to a little thicker in consistency and you can dip the fried potatoes and eat it. Or, you can pour leftover curry over toast and eat it as curry toast.Or, you can add a bit of more water to thin the sauce and add cooked Udon and you get curry Udon
With Indian curry, I have not cooked variety of curry with variety of spices yet but, I like to use Indian curry paste (I like the one with purple lid) and you add chicken broth to it and add a little bit of mango chutney to sweetened up a little and it is the base I use to make Indian curry.
When you like to make curry flavored something, using curry powder comes in handy. I think there are two or more kinds of curry powder with McCormic brand, but I prefer hot madras curry powder. It is just my preference. To make one dish more Indian influence,you can also use Indian spice mix called garam masala as well.
There is also tasty dish called " Dry curry pilaf". It is one pot dish and,in the future, I will post about it. It is a Japanese dish.
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