Shepard's Pie

[calimac]

I had a sachet of seasonings to make Shepherd's Pie. I must have picked it up on my last visit to a British specialty grocers without looking very closely. According to this recipe, Shepherd's Pie is made by browning mincemeat with onion, adding the seasonings, peas, and carrots, and baking it in a casserole dish with mashed potatoes on top.

Well, I don't like mincemeat, peas, carrots, or mashed potatoes, so I made it with ground turkey*, asparagus, broccoli, and polenta on top. That's more to our tastes. Since it's not exactly Shepherd's Pie, I call it Shepard's Pie, in honor of, well why not, Alan Shepard. I've always liked him.

The dish was a success, just like Al's spaceflights.

*A versatile meat, ground turkey not only makes great meatloaf, but I've been using it for Cajun rice dressing in place of the usual ground beef, which in turn is a substitute for the original chicken giblets.

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't know that. Sometimes I still get caught offsides by British usages. So ground turkey wasn't that off after all.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, ground turkey was close enough to spot-on. Tho' when I said "ground beef", I should of course have said "ground lamb", as it's shepherd's pie; if you used beef, it would be cottage pie. (The British household tradition is that this is made on Monday, with the leftovers of the Sunday roast, so you'd be mincing/grinding cooked meat either way - but nobody does it like that any more.)