Irish Shepherd's Pie

This is one of the 4 recipes that I presented to the Daring Kitchen cooks for the December 2012 Challenge. You can check out the full file with all the how-to pictures here:  Paté Chinois

Recipe Source: Originally found in Homemakers Magazine (Nov. 2007) and now found online at FreshJuice.ca

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Ingredients:

• 2 ½ lbs russet baking potatoes 
• 3 lbs boneless lamb shoulder or leg, cut in 1 ½ -inch cubes 
• 3 carrots, chopped 
• 1 parsnip, chopped 
• 1 large onion finely chopped 
• 8 oz mushroom, sliced 
• ½ cup chopped parsley
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour 
• 1 bay leaf 
• 1 ½ tsp salt 
• 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or ½ tsp dried thyme 
• ¼ tsp ground pepper 
• 2 cups stout or dark ale 
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed 
• 2 tbsp butter
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Steps:

1. Peel potatoes, cut in half and place on the bottom of the slow cooker
2. Mix lamb and vegetables together in a bowl.
3. In a large bowl, mix flour with parsley, salt, pepper, thyme and nutmeg.  Add lamb and vegetables, and toss to everything is evenly coated.
4. Add this mixture to the slow cooker.
5. Pour in stout. Cover and set slow cooker.
6. Cook for approx 10 hours on low or 5 hours on high.
7. Remove potatoes with a slotted spoon to a bowl.  Don’t worry about the bits of lamb or vegetables that go with it, they enhace the flavour.
8. Stir in frozen peas
9. Transfer meat, vegetables and sauce to a oven proof casserole dish. I left mine in the slow cooker, as the insert comes out and is oven proof.
10. Preheat oven to 475°F.
11. Add milk, butter and nutmeg to the potatoes and mash them together.
12. Spread mashed potatoes over the stew.
13. Bake in oven for approx 15 minutes, until potatoes are browned.

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