Shepherd's Pie

OK, so I was asked to put up some recipes that are gluten-free and honestly, I've been wanting to put up recipes for a while now, so we'll just see how it goes. As you can see, and feel free to make fun of me, I got a little Pioneer Woman-esque and took pictures along the way. I did this for 2 reasons: my favorite recipe sites always use pictures and I just wanted an excuse to borrow Mark's camera.

This Shepherd's Pie recipe originally came from here, but I decided to make a few changes while also making it 100% gluten-free AND organic!

Here's what you need:

• 1 1/2 lb. organic russet potatoes
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3 T. butter, divided
• 3 T. organic olive oil
• 1 med-lg organic carrot
• 2 organic celery stalks
• 1 medium organic onion
• 1 bag frozen organic peas
• 1 lb organic beef
• 1/2 T. cornstarch
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 cup organic beef broth
• salt, to taste
• white pepper, to taste
• paprika, to taste
• fresh grated parmesan cheese (optional)

I got almost all of my organic items at Kroger. I've been really pleased with their selection and I can tell they are making more of an effort to provide healthy, organic products. The only things I didn't get at the store was the onion (got that at the Farmer's Market last weekend) and the beef (got that from our CSA). Now, you could use the frozen bags of the organic vegetables (like I did with the peas) if you wanted to and I can't imagine there'd be any difference.

The first thing you'll want to do is peel and chop your potatoes into 1-in cubes. Put them in a large pot and fit with just enough water so that you cover them. Boil them for about 10-15 minutes or until they are tender (just like you would do for mashed potatoes). You can boil while you're working on the other veggies.

If you're not doing the frozen veggies, go ahead and dice up your carrots, celery, & onions. Apparently these three are none as mirepoix (I did not know that, but there's a little useless knowledge for ya!) Go ahead and put 3 Tbs. of olive oil in a large skillet or large pot and heat over medium heat.

Once heated, throw in your veggies and toss so that they are coated with the oil. Note: If you're using frozen peas like I did, throw this in about a minute before the other vegetables.

Let those vegetables cook for about 15 minutes or until they are tender. Go ahead and preheat your oven to 400 degrees here so it has some time to heat up.

Back to those taters. Once they are tender, drain them of their water then mash them with 1 Tbs. of butter and 1/2 cup of cream (you could use milk here, but I love cream in my potatoes). Add some salt and white pepper here to taste. You can use regular pepper here instead also. Yum! I had to sample these as soon as they were mashed...that's the Irish in me!

Now, back to the veggies. Once those are tender, add your ground beef and cook until there is no longer any pink. This takes about 5 minutes. Once that is done, you want to tilt your pot and spoon out any extra fat, but this beef didn't really produce much fat so I skipped that step.

Now, the next part calls for 1 Tbs. of flour, but since we are gluten-free, I relied on my trusty friend: corn starch. Corn starch actually thickens better than flour so you only need to add 1/2 Tbs. of corn starch. Stir it in and let it cook for a minute or so to get rid of the starch taste.

Add the beef stock (you can see my preferred brand in the picture with the corn starch), thyme, rosemary, and nutmeg. Let those cook and keep stirring until the liquid thickens to almost a gravy. This takes about 5 minutes. You can add in salt and pepper at this time to get it to the right taste.

Pur your meat and veg mixture into a casserole or baking dish.

Cover your meat mixture with the mashed potatoes and fluff them just a bit with a fork. Cut up 2 Tbs. of butter into small pieces and put on top. Cover with paprika and then grate some parmesan cheese on top if you like. If you're gonna do it gluten-free, you'll need to grate it yourself.

Place the shepherd's pie in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Let it sit for about 10 minutes to cool before serving (it's HOT!).

Normally, I would not pair shepherd's pie with anything because it's a meal in itself, but we have SO MUCH squash and zucchini right now that I just cooked some up for the side.

So, there it is! A 100% gluten-free and organic meal. I will say that this dish would be best in the winter or late fall, but I just really had a craving for it the other day and I had all of the ingredients so I figured "why not?" This is not the shepherd's pie that I make for Irish Thanksgiving (that one is very time consuming), but this was a good substitute to meet my craving.

Hope you enjoy!