I know, I don’t eat lamb, either, not until now. We are In Search Of low salt meals and corned beef isn’t quite on the menu yet, and St. Paddy’s Day needed some sort of traditional Irish meal, and that is how the idea of a Shepherd’s Pie came up.
Alton Brown is my go-to-guy - he taught me how to temper an egg so the macaroni and cheese sauce smoothly blends and clings just perfectly - and I had been trying to learn that for years.
And then there's the humor. He says: “I’ve always been a fan of shepherd’s pie — a cottage pie containing ground shepherd. In the event that a shepherd is not available, mutton or lamb may be used.”
We tried it on March 17th. Well, actually we made it on the 17th but there was chicken that needed to be cooked, so it sat overnight in the fridge for the next day. It goes together in a snap. You can make the filling and let it sit until dinner when you do the mashers and bake it whenever.
So then we tried it on the 25th, and the next month on the 7th, and again in May for guests on the 15th.
The recipe is killer good.
I put my little stamp on everything, so Alton’s original recipe was modified to have less butter, milk instead of half/n/half, no egg yolks, more garlic, less salt, more chicken broth and a few extra seasonings. Ididn't. In fact, we upped the lamb to 24 ozs because lamb in our area is only sold in 12 oz packages.
Prep: 1 c. chopped white onion, 3 cloves chopped garlic, 2 sliced carrots (or about 12 baby carrots sliced). Toss in a large skillet with a bit of olive oil and sauté about 5 minutes until it softens. You’ll add the lamb next, a dash of kosher salt, 1/2 t or more of pepper and brown it. Lamb is quite lean so no need to drain.
Add 1 and 1/4 c. of salt free organic chicken broth, 1 tsp. low sodium Worcestershire sauce, a dash or two of Cajun spice, some Mrs. Dash table blend, and Mrs. Dash salt substitute, along with 2 teaspoons of tomato paste (we use the tomato paste tubes which have a more concentrated flavor and less than 60 mg of salt in 2 tsp).
Sprinkle 2 T or more flour over the mixture and stir well. You’ll want the heat to be medium low and let the flour cook for about 5 minutes or so, and add more flour if you need to see the juices thicken a bit. You’ll add the 3/4 c of corn and peas at this point, warm if they’re frozen or cook until al dente if fresh. Add the herbs (2 t. rosemary and 1 t. thyme and a little marjoram), cool on the counter, cover in saran wrap and refrigerate until ready. OR…forge ahead.
Any casserole dish with at least 2″ sides and around 2 qts will do. I use an oval 2.5″ deep sided casserole dish. Lay the meat mixture in first, spoon and smooth the whipped potatoes and bake 25 minutes in a 400 oven. It’s like Lasagna in that it needs to rest about 15 minutes before serving.
For 6 servings, it’s roughly 500 calories for Alton’s version. His is higher in fat and cholesterol because of the half n half, the egg yolk, and the butter, so I’d deduct about 70 calories per serving for my version. We served ours with a kale salad and low fat poppy seed dressing.
