Shepards' pie - Crust help

[herr_oberst]

Anyone have a decent recipe for the crust on a Shepards Pie? I'm happy with my filling (Keef Richards' style with a few more diced onions on top of the spuds before baking) but the crust always falls a little short.

(Easy recipes are a real plus in my book, too!)

Thanks for your help. I'll send pix of the winner.

[Jim Bremner]

phillo dough?

[TimT]

No crust for shepherds pie usually, top it with mashed potato, and cook till the the potato starts to brown..

[Wilywilly]

+1 on Tim

[Tobra]

This thread makes me want chicken pot pie for some reason.

[The Gaijin]

Yup, what Tim says. A proper crust is on something like a steak and kidney pie..


Anyway, me old Auntie paints melted butter on top - this helps with the browning I suppose..

And don't worry about over-cooking it, it is an Ol' English recipe.

[targa911S]

yep...no crust. ever.

[tabs]

Brush Egg Yoke on crusts for a nice Golden Brown colour. Then if you want fancy schmancy you can use food colouring before brushing with the Egg Yoke and the colour really comes out an deep & rich .

[jyl]

You can do the brush with butter thing then just briefly pop the pie under the broiler to brown the buttered mashed potatoes. Very briefly!

If you want a crust, just because, then puff pastry is dead easy and pretty. Buy it ready-made and frozen.

[Jagshund]

Why did I think this was a Vash thread?

[masraum]

Crust?? Huh.

I've considered posting a thread about Shepherd's Pie before, but apparently forgot. I'd like to see everyone's recipes.

I grew up on a very simple Shepherd's Pie.

Ours was ground beef, onions, and green/bell peppers cooked, then add Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup to that mixture. Top with mashed potatos. Top the mashed potatos with sliced cheese, warm to ensure that the cheese is melted.

I was at a "Celtic Fair" once where they were serving some. It was a similar style of meat mixture (essentially a hamburger stew) except that the stew had all sorts of veggies in it. Then, instead of a layer of mashed potatos, they were sort of mixed into the stew like dumplings. It was very good.

Now, I like to add more veggies and a little cayenne to give the stew layer a little kick, but I still top with mashed potatos and cheese.

The whole family loves it, except that I'm the only one that likes more veggies and cayenne.

[imcarthur]

As above, there is no magic. No crust. Use whatever cooked beef you have, add gravy & whatever you want with it & top with mash & bake until slightly browned.

Ian

[HardDrive]

Holy lordy lordy is this thread making me hungry.