Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

I admit it. I'm usually not a fan of English cookery. Their sweets are marvelous, but most of their savory dishes always seemed a little bland to my taste. Not bad-tasting or anything, just overly placid. I always wanted to make a shepherd's pie, but all the traditional recipes I'd seen seemed to lack something. I came up with this version and loved it immediately. So it's not traditional. My apologies to the Queen.

Filling ingredients:

- 4 strips of bacon, chopped. I'm guessing about 3-4 ounces worth in weight.
- 1 to 2 lbs ground lamb or venison, depending on desired meatiness. You can substitute other ground meats, but you won't get the same distinctive flavor. Thankfully for my cheapskate nature, I have venison at my disposal and ground lamb is pretty cheap nowadays.
- 1 onion, chopped.
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 cup frozen green peas. I guess you could use canned, but I personally don't like the taste of canned peas.
- 2 ounces tomato sauce (half a can)
- 1 cup red wine
-4 ounces white mushrooms, sliced. FYI, mushroom stems are perfectly edible and taste just as good as the rest of the mushroom. Just cut off and discard the very tip of the stem, which may be a little dry.
- 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper to taste.

For the roux:
1 tablespoon of oil
1 tablespoon of flour

For the crust:
4 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
2 tsp. salt

I make this entire dish in a cast-iron skillet, simply because it's easier to throw it in the oven. You can also make it in a saute pan without a problem. But if you use a saute pan, just be sure to move the filling to an oven-safe casserole dish or baking pan before adding the crust and putting it in the oven.

First, the mashed sweet potatoes for the crust. I don't like to boil sweet potatoes for mashing. Unlike regular potatoes, they tend to get soggy. Instead, pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and put them in a shallow roasting pan with maybe 1/2 inch of water on the bottom. Bake them at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until soft. Put them aside to cool while you make the filling.

Put your cast-iron skillet or saute pan on medium-low heat and add the bacon. No oil should be needed; the bacon will render out its own fat as it cooks. After enough fat has been rendered out to coat the bottom of the pan (you can add a bit of vegetable oil or butter if needed) and the bacon is crisp, add the onions and the carrots. Turn up the heat to medium and cook until the carrots are slightly tender. Add the sliced mushrooms and saute for about 3-4 minutes.



Turn your heat up to medium-high. Put in your ground lamb/venison/whatever and saute until browned. Add the tomato sauce, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper. Turn the heat back down to medium, and let it cook until the meat is fully cooked and tender and the flavors are blended. It'll take maybe 20 minutes more.


While that's cooking, break out a small frying pan to make the roux. When making stew-type dishes, the most common procedures are to either dredge the raw meat in flour before cooking, or to add flour to the oil at the very beginning...both steps create a roux that helps thicken the sauce. I don't like to do that. Once you add the flour to a dish, it tends to require more frequent stirring and attention to prevent the sauce from burning or sticking to the bottom. I don't have that kind of dedication. So, I just bypass the issue altogether and just add roux at the very end.

Roux is easy to make. Just put the oil and flour in the little pan, stir it well with a wisk, and heat over medium-low heat. Be sure to stir frequently. When the roux has a slight brownish cast, it's done. It shouldn't take more than 2-3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and set aside.


Back to the filling. Add the peas to the skillet and cook for another 2-3 minutes. You want the peas cooked just until they're heated through. Overcooked, mushy peas aren't fun. Add the roux and stir quickly. The pan juices should thicken into a nice sauce. At that point, taste and adjust seasonings, then take the pan off the heat. The filling is done.


Now, turn your attention back to the sweet potato crust. I use my stand mixer, but you can use a bowl and a potato masher just as well. Get a knife, cut a slash down the length of each baked sweet potato and either peel off the outside skin or squeeze out the cooked inside. Either step will do the trick and should be very easy. Add the egg, sour cream and salt, then mash/mix/blend everything together until creamy.

If you cooked your pie filling in a regular saute pan, now's the time to move it to a baking dish. Take generous dollops of the sweet potato crust and drop it in intervals over the filling. With a spoon or spatula, spread it over the filling until the entire dish is completely covered. Pay special attention to the sides. You want the sides covered as well as possible, to reduce bubble-overs. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.