Shepherd Pie

I like to call Tuesday's "Chopped Tuesday". Tuesday is when they run marathon episodes of the greatest show ever (Chopped, of course) back to back and then hit you with a new episode. Bliss.

Also, I am the cheapest person on the planet. I hate to waste ANYTHING, whether its expiring food or leftovers. Ergo, I try to pull some crazy meal out of the fridge and pantry and use it up.

This week we had a lot of Colcannon from the St. Paddy's Day feast, but very little corned beef left. (Only enough left for a proper sandwich) I already made Boxty (Irish potato cakes) this morning, and by golly I'm using ALL of it. Enter Michael Symon's Shepherd Pie

You'll need:

4 cups of mashed potatoes
*I used 2 cups of Colcannon and boiled/mashed 2 more
1 Tablespoon Butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Yellow Onion (minced)
2 cloves Garlic (minced)
2 Carrots (diced)
2 Lb Ground Beef
Salt
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 cup Beef Stock
3 sprigs Thyme (leaves only)
2 cups peas (I didn't use the peas)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat the butter and olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, and garlic, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the ground beef and season with salt, breaking up, until browned, about 10 minutes. Mix in the flour, stock, thyme and peas into the mixture. Pipe mashed potatoes over top.

Bake until mashed potatoes are golden brown in parts, about 30 minutes. Mash together with butter. Let cool slightly before serving. Finish with parsley.

Now you have the recipe, allow me to share that this dish was absolutely delicious. Except for one thing. I screwed it up.
As I'm cooking this dish I kept thinking "man this is awfully runny...but maybe it will cook out". Finally I decided to re-read the recipe to see if I added too much of something to make it so loose.

And there it was.

There are TWO pounds of meat in this dish. Not ONE, as I prepared. Lol...

Oh well. Live and learn. It was still tasty, even if it wasn't as pretty as Chef Symon's version. ;)