Shepherd’s Pie

Fun fact: there is an Indonesian version of shepherd’s pie. Like the famous English playwright wrote: a meat and potato casserole by any other name would taste as delicious. What’s that? He wrote about a rose instead? Oh but meat and potato casserole is so much better! Well anyway. The Indonesian version of shepherd’s pie is called: Pastel Tutup. There’s a snack called Pastel which looks just like an empanada. Tutup is the word for cover. So I think it got its name because it’s the same filling as an Indonesian empanada but instead of being wrapped in pastry, it’s covered with potatoes. This one below is not the Indo version. It’s the Irish version, complete with some nice dark beer in the filling.

Recipe below makes 6 (very!) generous portions.

Ingredients for mashed potato topping:

2.5 lbs (about 1.13 kg) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
6 cloves garlic
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1.5 cup (no need to be exact, if you want the metric version here, just eyeball 2 fistfuls) shredded Kerrygold Dubliner cheese (or any other medium cheddar)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Ingredients for filling:

1.75 lbs. (about 800 grams) beef stew meat (I bought a large brisket and cut them into about 1.5-inch (3.8 cm) cubes. If you buy stew meat, they will likely have more fat on them and will take less time to cook)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
3 strips of bacon, sliced (we use thick-cut bacon so if you are using regular bacon, you may want to use 4-5 strips)
1 large leek, chopped roughly
0.5 large yellow onion, chopped roughly
1.5 cup chopped mushrooms (I used shiitake but you can also use regular button mushrooms)
3 carrots, sliced into thick coins
3 celery ribs, sliced into the same thickness as the carrots
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup Fernandito La Folie Gran Reserve from Voodoo Ranger (you can substitute with another dark beer if preferred)
0.75 cup water or chicken stock
3-4 branches of fresh thyme (tbh I was cleaning out the fridge and found not-so-fresh thyme still in its packaging so I just dumped it all in there. No need to strip them because after this is all cooked, you can take out just the remaining tiny twigs pretty easily. If you don’t have fresh thyme, put in about 1.5 teaspoons of dried thyme)
2 bay leaves

Directions:

Lay the beef stew meat on a paper towel-lined plate or sheet pan and pat dry with another paper towel. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of flour. In a saute pan over medium high heat, brown the beef in batches with about few teaspoons or oil. Depending on how large is your saute pan, you may want to do this in 2 or 3 batches. Just make sure you don’t overcrowd the pan so you can get some good browning. Set aside the browned beef in a large mixing bowl.

After all the beef is browned, lower the heat to medium low and add in the sliced bacon. Cook until crispy and set it aside with the beef. Leave the rendered fat in the pan, raise the heat to medium, and put in the chopped vegetables. I usually like to put in the vegetables one at a time, cooking for a minute or two before adding the next one. so I can get good browning with these as well. If you want to do that, the order here would be: mushrooms, leek and onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Sautee everything until the onion and leek are slightly soft and then set aside.

Using the same pan, put in the tomato paste and cook for a a minute or two. Put in the butter and cook until melted. Stir them together until combined, and then sprinkle in the remaining 2 tablespoons or flour. Cook for another minute or two and then pour in the beer and whisk to combine. After a couple of minutes, turn off the heat and combine with the beef and vegetables.

Pour the entire mixture into a crockpot, adding the water/chicken stock and thyme and bay leaves on top. Cover and let it cook on high for about 5-6 hours. Depending on how hot your crockpot runs, you may want to check about 3 hours in. You want the beef to be tender but not falling apart. In my old crockpot, it took about 5.5 hours total.

When you think the beef is almost done, start preparing the mashed potato topping: In a large pot, place the potato chunks, garlic, and enough water to cover everything. Salt generously and then cook over medium heat until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, about 20-25 minutes depending on how large the chunks are. Drain the potatoes and then put it back in the pot for a few minutes to “dry off.” Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or run them through a potato ricer. Make sure you include the cooked garlic, they will flavor the potatoes really nicely.
In a small pot, heat up the milk with butter until the butter is melted. Stir in the milk-butter mixture into the mashed potatoes and mix well. Add 1 cup of the shredded cheese into the potato mixture and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside in a warm spot and keep it covered so it doesn’t dry out.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC) and transfer the beef filling into a heat-proof casserole dish. Top the beef with the mashed potatoes. I was being fancy when I made this so I put the mashed potatoes in a piping bag with a star tip. If you don’t have these, it’s totally fine to spoon the potatoes on top and just decorate by raking a fork across the top. This step should not be skipped because they will create nice craggly, crispy top. Sprinkle the remaining 0.5 cup of shredded cheese on top and then bake for 20-25 minutes until everything is heated through and cheese is melted. I also recommend putting this under the broiler for a few minutes for more delicious browning.