Shepherd's Pie: Savory and Simple

As summer slowly simmers down and we slip into the Fall, I’m feeling more and more compelled to cook more and more comfort food. My ideal “comfort food” is starchy and savory, with plenty of fat or butter. I love to make biscuits and gravy, potatoes au gratin, or 4-5-6-7-8 cheese macaroni. Tonight I did a bit of experimentation in the kitchen, and came out with a delicious recipe that I’m glad to call my own!

Shepherd’s Pie with a White Wine and Balsamic Reduction
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This is my own preparation of the savory meat pie that I fell in love with during a trip to London a few years ago. The recipe is very recipient to change, so feel free to manipulate it as you like. I like to change up the vegetables used for the filling, sometimes adding leeks or corn to the mix. Although I prefer to serve the Balsamic Reduction on the side, it can be used to glaze your carrots before tossing them into the pie. I’ve broken this recipe into three separate sections to make it seem as simple as it really is.

The Mashed Potato “Crust”:
1.5 lbs potatoes, (russet or gold, whichever you prefer)
1 stick salted butter (some may prefer to reduce this by half)
about ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp sour cream
2 egg yolks (as per Gordon Ramsay’s instruction on Hell’s Kitchen)
salt and pepper, to taste

This part of the recipe is very straightforward. I generally don’t peel the potatoes. Quarter your potatoes and place them in a large pot, covered with water. Bring the water to a boil and allow them to cook for about 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain the water.

In a mixing bowl, combine all of the remaining ingredients. Use a potato masher or hand mixer to break down potatoes and mix in the ingredients. Don’t beat the potatoes to death, though. Some small chunks can be nice. Add cream until the potatoes are firm, but still fluid enough to spread over your pie. You can complete this component in advance if you wish, or use leftover mashed potatoes in a pinch.

The filling:
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 cup white onions, coarsely chopped
1 lb ground beef (I like to use 75% or 80% lean for this recipe)
3 large carrots, oblique cut
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup frozen green beans
2 tbsp olive oil
fresh parsley, chopped
green onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp tomato paste (optional)

Cover a large skillet in olive oil and heat the oil on low heat. Add the garlic and onions, and allow them to sweat until the onions are translucent.  In the meantime, par-cook the carrots in boiling water for about 3 minutes, just to soften them a little bit. When they are slightly tender, strain out the water and set them aside.

When you first start to really smell the garlic releasing it’s aroma, adjust the stove to medium heat and add your tomato paste, allowing it to brown for a minute or two before adding your ground beef. By doing this you’re creating several layers of flavor in your dish.

Allow the beef to brown completely, then add your carrots, peas, and, green beans, mixing well and coating all of your vegetables in oil. (Side note: if you choose to glaze the carrots in the balsamic, leave them out for this step.) Simmer the mixture until all of the vegetables are cooked and most of the water has evaporated out of the skillet. 

Now, move your meat and vegetable mixture to the dish you plan to bake your pie in. (A large pie tin will do the trick, but I really love to bake this pie in a 8’’ or 9’’ cast iron skillet, because if you choose to omit the balsamic sauce, you can use the same skillet from the stove to the oven.) Try to get all of the bits of food out of your original skillet, but don’t rinse the skillet, as this is where you’ll be making your balsamic sauce.

Stir in about 3 sliced green onions and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley. Then spoon your mashed potatoes onto the meat mixture, spreading it evenly so that it neatly covers the meat mixture like a pie crust. Cook the pie for about 20 minutes to firm up the “crust” and allow the pie to set. 

(I like to cover the pie in shredded cheddar and parmesan halfway through baking.)

The Balsamic Reduction:
1 splash white cooking wine, (this can be substituted with any white or red wine of your choosing. Be creative. I’d be interested to hear what you come up with!)
1 cup balsamic vinegar

As the pie cooks, you can make your Balsamic reduction. First, you’ll deglaze your pan with a splash of white cooking wine. This will pick up all the yummy bits from your pan and add them to your sauce.  Then simply add the balsamic vinegar and cook it over medium heat, keeping the liquid at a light simmer until you see the vinegar become somewhat viscous. When the sauce begins to cling to the pan lightly, your balsamic glaze is ready to serve. 

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I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Bon Appetit!

Las Vegas Pt. 2

Upon arriving at our hotel room at the Stratosphere, I made a beeline to the restroom, where I was surprised by a rather red-faced Beezy wrapped around the toilet, half asleep. Veronica and I helped our intoxicated friend to his bed, where he could pass out with dignity.

At that moment it seemed like Beezy’s night was ending early, but soon after dinner at Roxxy’s, an all-night 50’s themed diner located on the ground floor of the Stratosphere (where they project Elvis movies onto the walls and the servers perform solos twice an hour), we happened to find him on the casino floor, beer in hand, engaged in his first legal game of poker. It was about to be four in the morning, and it was clear that Beezy’s birthday celebrations were still only starting.  I, on the other hand, had been up since six on the previous morning, so I wished my friend good luck and went back up to the room to sleep.

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The next morning, the whole group planned to visit the hotel buffet with Beezy’s dad, who had made the whole trip possible by setting us up with our hotel rooms.  The buffet was extensive, yet surprisingly unimpressive; perhaps I was just being over-imaginative again, but the spread was more generic than I’d expected. The food was okay, but I would have gladly paid ten dollars more to eat somewhere that didn’t remind me of a Golden Corral.    

We were lucky enough to arrive just as the chefs served up a fresh tray of eggs benedict. I must have eaten three or four of them, and each egg was cooked to perfection. Those and an endless pile of steamed crab legs kept me occupied for the majority of the meal. I was so occupied, actually, that I didn’t notice when Beezy rushed out of the dining room, apparently for another dance with the porcelain throne.  

Now, at this point I should probably explain that our friend Beezy has a notoriously weak stomach when it comes to alcohol. It’s been a long-standing joke that Beezy is “allergic” to hard liquor, his response to which is so predictable that we coined the term “larry-ing” (after his first name) as a euphemism for vomiting. Considering his history, Beezy’s morning sickness didn’t seem like much of a concern to anyone in our group.

Sure enough, Beezy made a swift recovery, and after breakfast, we were soon on our way to the Liquid Pool/Lounge, which is essentially a monstrous pool party made exclusive with a prohibitive cover charge.  I’d heard that in a place like Liquid, one could find the ultimate pool party paradise; however, this wasn’t what I’d envisioned my leisurely day at the pool looking like: two pools, both packed like a New York subway with sweaty bodies and silicone implants.  After about twenty awkward minutes of trying to fit into this hedonistic celebration (and after being told that all seating was reserved for those willing to pay for bottle service), our group realized that Liquid was not our particular cup of tea, and we quickly packed our things and took off.

We retreated to the guest pool at the Aria Hotel, where the mood was far more relaxed. Though it was a spectacle worth remembering I, for one was grateful to leave the overrun cesspool called Liquid, where it seemed none of our group were either rich or drunk enough to enjoy ourselves. At the guest pool, we were at least able to find seats, open waters, and some people that we found a bit more relatable. A word of advice to Vegas travelers: don’t feel obligated to spend too much extra money on the “exclusive” clubs (they’re often more hassle than they’re worth. Instead, just enjoy the company of friends and go where the spirit takes you. 

After sharing a couple pitchers of mojito, the spirit took us back to our hotel, where I made a point of enjoying some more of the Stratosphere’s incredible pizza. I brought the pizza back up to the hotel room to share with my roommates, but to my surprise, I walked inside to hear the amplified “brrrraaaaahghghgh!” of Beezy gastro-geysering in the bathroom, accompanied by Veronica’s priceless expression of sympathetic disgust.

After emerging from the bathroom with paled skin and intense eyes, Beezy admitted that he felt a bit under the weather...

“Food poisoning!” he declared, insisting that some dish from the hotel buffet had done him in. I was doubtful about his diagnosis at first, but after reflecting on my own first impressions of the  buffet spread, I admittedly felt a small twinge in my stomach.

Empathetic food poisoning? Through much introspection, I’ve deemed myself to be a slight hypochondriac; however, I ate an awful amount of seafood during my own feast, as did Beezy...
So who knows?

Not to worry, though. After getting getting some food in my stomach, I was primed and ready to go out and see more of the Sin City, and it looked like Beezy was ready to guide us, with or without our approval. 

There are several sights to see in Vegas, the Bellagio boasts its fountain display, Mandalay Bay offers a beautiful aquarium, said to house a collection of rare golden crocodiles, but I especially enjoyed the Mirage’s Volcano, which erupts at set times throughout the night. And as if the the live, flaming volcano (replica) wasn’t enough, the Mirage hotel also houses a live dolphin habitat, the Revolution Bar/Lounge, a bar devoted to the Beatles (though they might get that theme across better if they played a Beatles song here and there), and the venue for the Beatles “Love” Cirque du Soleil show, where I, an avid Beatles fan, went berserk over the amount of unique Beatles merchandise they had for sale.

Although we didn’t get to see the show, I was still glad that we made a stop at the Mirage Hotel. But tonight I was anticipating nothing more than the trip that Veronica and I planned to make to Steak, Gordon Ramsay’s cutting edge restaurant on the Vegas Strip. This restaurant is designed to capture the fancy of the average young and unrelentingly hip Las Vegas tourist, boasting touch screen menus, comprehensive drink menus in the form of iPads, and an undeniably chic dining room with a gorgeous open kitchen.

Unfortunately for us, the restaurant is so popular that one shouldn’t expect to get any last minute reservations. By the time I was able to get the number for the restaurant and call them, they were completely booked.

Somehow this hitch in our plans wasn’t all that disappointing to me.  It, in fact, left me free to enjoy the Vegas meal which I’d really been anticipating: the beautiful creation known as the In-N-Out burger.  We hopped into a taxi and had the driver take us through the drive-thru. I’d be lying if I said that I truly regretted missing Ramsay’s restaurant. It seems to me that in his attempt to appeal to a particular demographic, he took a simple and unpresumptuous theme, “steak,” and somehow made it seem a bit pretentious. I have little doubt that I would have enjoyed Ramsay’s 60 dollar beef wellington very much more than my six dollar burger. After a frantic day on the Strip, it was refreshing to have a nice, uncomplicated meal. I settled into bed that night with a belly full of grease and a smile on my face.

Soon it was morning, and Beezy was crowing like a rooster in the bathroom again. He told us to go on without him for a while, which we reluctantly did.

We visited a few more casinos and bars before heading back to the Stratosphere, and when we arrived at the hotel, we realized that we’d lost Beezy again!

Well, he wasn’t actually lost, but he was apparently being hospitalized for alcohol Gastritis.  It seems that Beezy tried to fit too much fun into one night. His dad had picked him up from the casino that afternoon and taken him to the local ER.

I took a lesson from Beezy and took it easy that night.  Veronica and I ate again at the 50’s diner at the bottom of the hotel and passed out early after packing for the next day’s flight.

I was glad that we’d remained separate from the rest of the group that night, because as we were drifting off that night, we couldn’t help noticing the intense argument which was taking place in our neighbor’s room. Alcohol has a keen ability to grease the wheels of tense situations, and apparently a very high-tension situation had been building between two good friends of mine. It was a grim ending to a wonderful time, and I don’t regret missing out on the brunt of it.

Allow me to be cliched for a moment and quote the popular slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” False. Beezy went home with a swollen belly and a case of the “larries”. Two of my friends went home with more serious, festering wounds, which would affect them both greatly. Even I, who had a relatively normal vacation, went home with an eerie feeling which clung to me for days. Even though I’d had a great time, I wasn’t sad to see the Sin City fade into the clouds.

Traveling can be a profoundly confusing experience...