I’m a little Scottish, a little Polish, a little Oklahoma Indian mix and some other stuff so I am truly an American MUTT. I am definitely a savory person so I always veer back to earthy foods traditionally found in England, Scotland, Ireland…ect. So, I was looking at these left over mashed potatoes in the fridge and some bison meat and wondering what I could do with them…… AVAST YE!!!! Shepherds pie! Alas, I had sadly never made one before. SO, I hopped on Pinterest to troll for ideas and none of them seemed fancy enough for me. As you may have picked up, I like to be different…it’s kind of my thing. I’ve also never been great at being the black sheep that everyone tried to make me out to be. I’m more like a shepherd of the black sheep… a leader of rejects and awesomely weird fuckers and party people. I won’t follow you when you jump off the bridge but I will drive you there, take pictures.. and then I’ll take your dumb ass to the hospital after you break a leg. I do what I want, not what others are doing… unless I want to… but I like to break a rule or two. Savy? Which led me to taking out the fucking peas (stupid ingredient) and adding shrooms.. because they’re fucking awesome. I used bison instead of lamb or beef, and leeks instead of celery, hominy instead of corn, added lentils, and some other minor alterations. Boy I’ll tell you what.. it was the bomb nom in my mouth! The minion ate 2 portions, the first mate ate two portions… and I had to wrap it up for the neighbors to try before I had 3 portions. As a modern pirate, I may take what I want, but I always give something back…and I always keep my accords. 
……in-greed-ients:
- 1 lb ground bison
- some EVOO
- 5 shallots
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, finely minced with that rad garlic thing I keep showing you….French garlic mincer plate
- powdered garlic too. Can never have enough garlic.
- a handful of baby carrots.. the skinny small ones, chopped chunky
- 2 stalks of leeks, washed well and sliced in rounds
- 5-6 baby Portobello shrooms sliced only
- 1 can of white or yellow hominy… I like the white ones.
- 1/2 can of lentils – for a more earthy badass meat base
- 1 packet French onion soup mix
- 1 small jar of pizza sauce (its just more zesty than tomato paste)
- powdered thyme
- turmeric
- rosemary sprigs
- 4-5 medium potatoes, skinned & boiled. (I’m assuming you don’t already have left over mashed potatoes but if you do… awesome. Use that shit.
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2/3 cup greek yogurt (instead of cream… because I try to be better…lol)
- 1 cup shredded parmesan
- ground Himalayan pink Salt & ground Pepper
- 1 egg (for egg wash)
…….Shepherd Magic:
- Heat some olive oil in a deep pan.
- Toss in the sliced shallots and garlic & sautee till it turns soft and translucent.
- Add the bison and cook till almost brown
- Once the meat is browned season the meat well with French onion soup mix and add pizza sauce. Add Lentils and stir well.
- Then put a lid on, lower the heat and let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes or so while you prepare the other stuffs.
- Peel, cut and boil the potatoes in well salted water. Then drain them and toss them in a mixing bowl.
- Start assembling the dish, spoon the ground beef mix in the bottom of a casserole dish, or small oven proof individual serving dishes. I used both a large dish and some ramekins as well.. for the minion and neighbors.
- Clean large deep pan and once again put olive oil in it.
- add leeks and carrots and more garlic. sautee until carrots are medium soft.
- you can mash potatoes now, Add the butter, parmesan, yogurt and some garlic powder to them while still hot and mash them with a potato masher. The fluffier the better. Still firm… but like clouds. Season it with salt and pepper.
- add shrooms and canned (rinsed) hominy, turmeric, thyme & salt to veggies and sautee for a few more minutes.
- Whilst waiting for the veggies to cook, spoon them taters into a piping device (because we like to be fancy as fuck).
- Now lay the second layer. The veggies.. THE REASON FOR THIS: is not every one likes veggies.. like my minion and my weird neighbor.. my dad… other weird people. SO you can leave this step out for them (see below). Also, it looks cooler to have layers. layers are the gods damned pretty.
- Now pipe 1 or two layers of mashed potato flowers (my way is cooler than just fork lines) all over the top. If you suck and you have to spoon it, flatten it a little over the top and with a fork make some lines on top…. the ridges are what will brown and form a nice crust.
- very very Lightly brush a little egg wash (an egg beaten with a teaspoon of water) on the ridges of the mashed potatoes. Pop it into the oven at 400F for around 10-15 minutes.
- Then stick them under the broiler for another few minutes (4-5) until the mashed potato topping froms a nice golden brown crust.
- Garnish with some fresh rosemary
I love this black sheep shepherds pie so much it’s actually getting printed and shoved into the real life Captains go to recipe book. I really hope someone tries this and comments their results and opinion. If not, fuckit…. I’ll be making it again and again anyway. My ass looking forward to running more to eat more of this. What ever cardio I can get…even if it is rolling down a hill fast.
