Irish Kitchen Sunday

I spent today making a bunch of what we I guess could call "Irish foods" but I don't know if it's things they really eat in Ireland.

I have Habitat for Humanity this week and I took the main course for the meeting - I decided since we're meeting on Tuesday I'd do something St. Patrick's Day-ish. I opted for Shepherd's Pie.

I have made Shepherd's Pie a ton of times, but I wanted to use a nice recipe that would give me a fancier result.

I found one on Epicurious that I thought sounded great. So Adam got me all of the supplies and then once I put the meet in the pot to brown, I totally went on my own.

That's the nice thing about this dish - it's so easy to just put anything in and it will turn out great.

I ended up with so much filling that I made a large pie to take to my meeting, a medium pie for Adam for dinner, and then a tub of leftover filling went into the freezer for use at a later date.

No sooner did I get the Shepherd's Pie done than I started the Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner tonight for our St. Patty's Day feast! Mmmm so good and easily one of our favorite meals that I make all year long!


Stephany's Shepherd's Pie

2 lb. of ground meatloaf mix
3 medium leeks, whites and light greens, trimmed and cleaned
5 carrots peeled and cut on diagonal
4 stalks of celery diced
3 large cloves of garlic diced
2 turnips peeled and diced
8 oz mushrooms chopped roughly
1 bag frozen peas and pearl onions
Salt and pepper to taste
Thyme, 2 tsp or more to taste
1 can of tomato paste
2 cups beef broth
1 cup red wine

1. Clean and rinse leeks and chop. Saute in a pan with the meat until the meat is browned and the leeks are tender. Drain off any fat or large amounts of liquid.

2. Add the remaining chopped vegetables and sautee. Add seasoning.

3. Add tomato paste and liquids to the mixture. Add pea/onion mixture. Stir and let simmer for about 45 minutes.

4. Remove to baking dish and let cool.

Mashed Potatoes
You can certainly make your own potatoes but this is what I used.

5 lbs. potatoes peeled and diced.
Boil with salt until tender. Let drain.

In same pot heat 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of whipping cream.

Return potatoes to pot and mash

5. Place potato on top of your pie mixture and then place in the oven to bake and get the potatoes nice and browned.