DateNight Dinners - Shepard's Pie
In honor of this being one of Brenden's favorite meals (and the fact that he was so excited about making shepard's pie, in love with how it turned out, and mesmerized by the taste of our rendition, that he actually asked me if he could write the post this week), you will be hearing about this week's date night dinner from Brenden's point of view. Hope you enjoy our story, from the other set of eyes and tastebuds that come with our date night dinners.
This week for date night we new instantly what we wanted to do. We had the mixer, we had the cast iron pot, and we had my love of meat and potatoes. You get three guesses as to what we made and the first two don’t count. BOOM! Shepherds pie.
As a prelude, this is a dish that sits close to home for me, it was a common dinner, as common as fish sticks, chicken nuggets, and pasta. Although this was leagues better than fish sticks (yuck).
The thing that excited me the most was finally making really good mashed potatoes. Most of the time my mashed potatoes aren’t creamy and soft, but more of weird dough consistency. I am not a good hand masher; this is where the mixer came in, that thing is a godsend. The potatoes were glorious and definitely my favorite part of the meal.
While I focused on the best part of the meal, I entrusted Tracy with the meat. We got a little distracted tasting the potatoes, and a little got burned to the bottom of the pot. After the meat was cooked, we drained it. For whatever reason Tracy likes to toss all the flavor away…fat equals flavor.
After the mashed potatoes were perfected, I was able to bring my full attention back to the task at hand and start mixing everything together, we tossed our frozen veggies in the broth until soft, then Worcestershire sauce and all the seasonings. Additionally, tomato paste was added to create a good consistency of the sauce.
Lastly, we added the meat and let it simmer for a long 20 minutes. When I say long, I mean it physically hurt and I salivated so much I was dehydrated. Finally the meat was ready for the potato topping. It was a magical joining of my two favorite ingredients. Unfortunately the bliss couldn’t last because we had to throw everything into the blazing hot oven (easily the best part of a cast iron pot)…after a coating of cheese obviously .
After all the baking Tracy wanted to broil the top to get some color there, psh who needs color when you have mashed potatoes. So I quickly quashed the crazy idea of delaying dinner any longer.
It was time to eat; but, I may have forgotten to get applesauce. As a child this was my favorite topping to this delectable meal. I have no idea why or where it came from but it has stuck with me ever since. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed in my oversight. Fortunately, the disappointment didn't last long.
With just one bite, and a bit of a burnt tongue from not letting it cool enough at all, the tastes of one of my favorite dishes came flooding back to me. It was quite scrumptious and, sans apple sauce, tasted almost as good as I remember my great, great grandmothers version.
Recipe adapted from thecookingjar.com, Skillet Shepherds Pie
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground turkey
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 16 oz bag frozen mixed veggies (we used a corn, carrot, green bean and lima bean mixture)
- 2 cups beef broth
- 2 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 6 medium golden potatoes, washed and cubed
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- garlic powder, to taste
- ground pepper, to taste
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- Over medium heat, bring a pot of water to boil.
- Add potatoes and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and place into the bowl of a mixer.
- Add butter, milk and mix until combined.
- Add garlic powder and ground pepper and continue to whip the potatoes until fluffy.
- In a 10 inch cast iron skillet, brown the turkey until fully cooked over medium heat.
- Drain any fat and set the fully cooked turkey aside.
- In the same pan, sauté the onions and garlic until translucent, about 10 minutes.
- Add mixed veggies and beef broth and simmer until veggies are soft, about 10 minutes.
- Stir the turkey back in, along with worcestershire sauce and tomato paste, combining thoroughly.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and compress the meat layer.
- Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.
- Top with a thick layer of mashed potatoes.
- Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of the potato layer.
- Place the filled cast iron skillet into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are browned.
- Remove from oven and serve.
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