Shepherd’s pie is such a humble but delicious comfort food dish that my Mom has always made and one of our family favorites. If you don’t bake it with the mashed potatoes on top, it’s called mince and tatties. She always made it with ground beef, but you can also make it with ground lamb. She and my Grandma have always used Bisto – that ubiquitous British gravy thickener and I use it as well for this dish. You can find this British product at larger grocery stores now. It’s a cornstarch based powder with a little bouillon powder mixed in it and you mix it with a little water and pour it in towards the end of cooking to thicken the sauce and make it more like gravy. You sauté an onion and the beef and add carrots, garlic, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce (these last 3 ingredients are my own addition), some beef stock and cook it until the carrots are cooked through and then add the Bisto slurry to thicken it. Most of the time I serve it over mashed potatoes for a quick dinner, but traditionally, you put the beef mixture in a casserole dish, top it off with the potatoes and bake until the top is nicely golden brown. I sprinkled some Parmesan cheese over the top of the potatoes to brown it even more. I still like it and make it several times in the winter and it takes me back to my childhood. Click here for the recipe….
