Shepherd's Pie

Ok, when my friend told me she was going to make me shepherd's pie for dinner after Bug was born I was a little nervous.  I always had shepherd's pie with meat, potatoes, and canned green beans.  This was awesome!  I gorged myself on it until I was absolutely stuffed and then ate some more.  I made it in a large corning ware dish and the 4 of us ate it in 2 days.  There was a lot of chopping, cutting and slicing so I would recommend doing more than you need and saving some for other dishes you may be making later in the week.


Ingredients:
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
9 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 medium onion, diced
3 medium carrots, sliced and quartered
1 celery stalk, sliced
1/2 lb mushrooms, quartered
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 tsp oregano
1 Tbsp salt, divided
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup canned low sodium beef broth
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
ground black pepper
4 cups mashed potatoes
1/4 c grated parmesan (optional)


Ingredients for mashed potatoes:
1 1/2 lbs russet potatoes
2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
6 tbsp butter
2 tbsp fresh parsley


Directions:


Peel and boil potatoes in water until soft.  Mash in large bowl with the salt, milk, and butter.  Cook until there are no or few lumps.  Add the parsley and mash it in.


Preheat oven to 375


Heat the olive oil and 2 tbsp of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrots, celery, mushrooms, garlic, oregano, and 1/2 the salt.  Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the tomato paste and cook until mushrooms are soft and tomato paste has turned brick red, about 8 minutes more.  Stir in the beef, the broth, the remain salt, the worcestershire sauce, and some pepper, breaking up any large clumps or meat.  Cook until the meat is no longer pink, about 3 minutes.


Transfer the meat and veggies to a 2 quart oval casserole dish and spread the potatoes over the top, leaving a 1/4" boarder around the edge.  Sprinkle with cheese and dot with the remaining butter.  Bake until potatoes brown and the juices bubble around the edge, about 40 minutes.  Cook for 10 minutes before serving.

Vicky