Shepherd’s Patty Pie - Comfort Food The Whole Family Can Love

It’s winter, it’s dreary and it’s cold and we all want some comfort food, right? My problem is that my idea of comfort food and my guy's idea of comfort food are not the same thing. This week he asked for Shepherd’s Pie. I have made turkey shepherd’s pie that tastes like Thanksgiving dinner that I liked but other than that, it’s really not my favourite dish. He doesn’t like lamb so that’s out and I just find the basic ground beef filling to be boring. Don't send me hate mail because I think Shepherd's Pie is boring, okay? I want to make something that will make everyone happy so I had to put my thinking cap on.

my controversial beef patty pops

Why not make a filling that I really like and top it with some mashed something or other and just call it a day? What I really wanted was something that was a bit spicy, like a Jamaican beef patty and I thought sweet potato would give a nice balance to the heat from the scotch bonnets. Patty filling is the right consistency, it's spicy and he likes them as much as I do.

And that is how Shepherd’s Patty Pie was born. I took my usual beef patty filling and topped with it with mashed sweet potatoes and everyone got what they wanted.

Funny fun fact about my beef patties - A few years ago, Buzzfeed featured them in a list of Jamaican foods to try and my recipe went viral. I got hate mail and tons of terrible, horrible, no good messages because I used puff pastry, even though I clearly stated that I was aware that the using puff pastry was absolutely not authentic but I like it and it's easier than making patty pastry. GO ME LOL

Shepherd’s Patty Pie

Serves 6 to 8

Filling:
1/4 cup butter
500 grams ground beef
275 grams button mushrooms, chopped in the food processor
2 small onions, chopped
6 green onions, chopped, greens included
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 scotch bonnet peppers, seeded and chopped or to taste
3 tsp curry powder
1 tsp Jamaican allspice
1 tbls fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp kosher salt
A few grinds black pepper
1/4 cup panko
1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Mashed Sweet Potato:
Approx 900 g or 2 lbs sweet potato, peeled
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup cream or light cream
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp kosher salt
Few grinds black pepper
1 egg yolk

Directions for filling:
Throw the mushrooms in the food processor and grind to resemble coarse crumbs and set aside.
Now put the onions, green onion, garlic and scotch bonnet peppers in the same food processor and pulse until minced.

Melt the butter over med heat in a frying pan and sauté the scallion mixture for about five minutes until soft but not browned. Use a spatula to scrap the mixture into a bowl and then add the ground mushrooms and ground beef to the pan and cook it, smashing it all together with a spatula as you stir to mix them together.
When the meat is almost cooked, add the scallion mixture back into the pan and contentious to cook until there is no trace of pink left to the meat.
Throw in the curry, allspice, salt and pepper, panko, thyme and chicken stock and simmer over med low heat for about 5 minutes. If it gets too dry add a bit more broth or water. You don’t want it soupy but you want it to be moist.


Directions for mashed sweet potato:
Peel the potatoes and cut into a 1” dice. Place in a pot and cover with cold water, add a generous pinch of kosher salt and bring to a boil over med high heat and cook until tender.
Drain the potatoes and either mash with a masher or run through a food mill. Add the butter and mash well and then add the cream and salt and pepper and turmeric and mix well. Finally, stir in the egg yolk and set aside

Preheat the oven to 400F

Assemble and cook:
Add the meat mixture to a casserole dish, a deep pie plate or to individual ramekins and then top with the mashed sweet potato and spread the potato over the filling evenly.

Bake in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes until the filling is bubbling up through the potato. If you want it browned, turned on the broiler and let it brown but the sweet potato doesn’t brown as much as mashed potato.