Well of course you haven't, I just came up with it! While looking at my pictures of this delicious homemade Shepherd's Pie, I noticed after I cut out a slice that the pie resembled Pac-Man. Sadly, he didn't last long, my wife went in next and then I went in for third's and fourth's, call me a glutton, I don't care. It was damn good and I was hungry!!!
So how did we end up with this Pac-Man looking like pie? Well, you're reading this, so I may as well tell you :)
It all started off with this:
-Russet Potatoes
-One white onion
-3 carrots
-Garlic
-S & P
-Butter
-Olive oil
-Flour
-Ketchup
-One egg yolk
-1/4 cup half & half (I actually used heavy whipping cream cause it was all I had)
-Beef stock
-Worcestershire sauce
-Corn kernels and peas
-1lb ground lamb
-1/2 lb ground pork
While looking for recipes, I found the reason they call it Shepherds Pie. It's because of the meat of choice, lamb. Get it? Shepherds, lambs, ya, I think you got it. How dare I question your reading comprehension!
I came to find out that Whole Foods Market was the only place in my area that had non-frozen ground lamb. They came in 1 lb packs and I still had a 1/2 lb of ground pork leftover from my Norwegian Meatballs, so I went with that ratio.
First I had to dice my potatoes and cook em' off, not to mush, but enough to make a hardy mash.
While those were going, I diced up my peeled onion and carrots and gave them some color. Then added in fresh minced garlic.
WHERE'S THE BEEF??? If you're at least my age, or older, you should catch that reference. It's right here!!! But it's not beef, it's lamb and pork!
Meat is almost cooked off and the potatoes have been drained.
Added in the beef stock and then the corn and peas and let simmer.
Next is the real fun part. Taking your mashed taters and smothering them over the top as the crust of your pie. Make sure to have enough potatoes or else you'll clearly come up short. I am glad I decided to peel and dice one more potato otherwise I would have been short.
Then pop that cast-iron baby in the oven for 25-30 minutes. I went a little longer because I wanted a real nice crust on the top of my taters. Pro-trick I learned after making this...use a fork and make lines in the top of the potatoes so that more heat hits more surface area thus creating an even crispier top, thanks Gordon Ramsay!
And here she is in all her delicious potato glory...
Pac-Man Time!!!
YUM-YUM-YUM (in pac-man voice)
Thanks for spending some quality time with me this week! Happy Steeming and Happy #FFF y'all!
Full disclosure
Have you ever had ground lamb? I have no idea why I decided to make Shepherd's Pie to be completely honest with you, but I came across a recipe and thought I'd give it a go. IMHO, lamb isn't really my cup of tea after making it. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed making something new and trying something new to eat, but if I were to do it again, I would just use a beef and pork mixture, which would then be a Pot Pie. The lamb was just too gamey for me, like most people would say they don't like venison. To each their own. I'd still eat it again, but I would prefer it with beef.