Shepherd’s Pie – take 2

I decided to give shepherd’s pie another try after my first successful attempt. This was was a little different and I only made enough for our family this time. We received some lovely ears of corn from our CSA last week as well as quite a few potatoes and some Vidalia onions. Add those to the ground beef in our freezer and you have nearly everything you need for local shepherd’s pie!

7 medium ears of corn
1 medium onion
4 cloves of garlic
5 medium potatoes
1 Tbl. bacon grease
1 pound ground beef
1 large green tomato
1/2 cup beef bone broth/stock
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbl. butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Granulated kelp
1/3 pound of extra sharp cheddar cheese (sliced – would have been better grated)

The first thing I did was to cook the corn. I put the shucked ears into a large stock pot full of cold water and bring the water to a boil. I then turn the heat down and leave the corn in the water for about 10 more minutes after that. After 10 minutes, during which I coarsely chopped the onion and minced the garlic, I ran cold water over the corn and then used a small knife to cut the kernels from the cobs.

While cutting the corn kernels I cooked the potatoes in the stock pot I had used for the corn. They cooked for about half an hour. I started them in cold water then turned the heat to high until it started boiling. Then I turned it down to medium until the potatoes were nice and soft when I poked them with a fork.

After finishing with the corn, while waiting for the potatoes to cook, I put the dollop of bacon grease in our cast iron skillet and sautéed the onions and garlic for a few minutes before removing them from the skillet and browning the ground beef. Once the ground beef was brown all the way through, I added the onions and garlic back into the skillet along with about 1/4 cup of beef stock, the chopped green tomato, salt, pepper, and a handful or so of whole wheat flour to thicken up the liquid. I let the ground beef mixture simmer for about 8 minutes before putting it in the bottom of a large casserole dish.

While the meat simmered, I mashed the potatoes and put in 1/2 a cup of milk and half a stick of salted butter along with 1/4 cup of beef stock. To season I put in some black pepper and a generous pinch of granulated kelp.

I had planned to put in a layer of collard greens between the beef and corn layers, but forgot. So after spreading the meat/tomato/onion mixture in the bottom of the casserole dish, I put the corn on top, and then spread the potatoes over the whole thing. I added some extra sharp cheddar cheese to the top and baked it for 35 minutes and then two extra minutes on low broil to brown the cheese on top.

It turned out quite well! The green tomato added a bit of sour to this extremely savory dish and I only regretted that I had forgotten to add the collard greens which would have been a wonderful addition, in my opinion.

Both Phred and I consider this to be a success and our children cleaned their plates after the first time they ate it.

~B.