Shoot from the Hip

Let’s start with this: Ben is doing well. Hip shmip. Urological concerns meant he spent a week at home with a catheter, but now he is foot-loose and fancy-free. We even got to finally (fourth time’s a charm) visit my parents in Virginia, a trip that had been put off three times. We are striving for normalcy around here, but we are tired. So tired. We made it through the initial medical crisis on adrenaline, but we have not actually caught up. My hopes are pinned on summer.

I have been cooking with Ben (or at least taking orders) for a month, but this is the first time I could actually manage to pull together a meal and a post since he broke his hip. I asked Ben what he wanted to cook, and after a slight pause, he said he wanted shepherd’s pie because he had made it with friends at the Center for Independent Living. I was so excited to get an answer other than “steak” that I immediately agreed.

Though I know and understand the theory of shepherd’s pie, I had never made it myself, so I had my work cut out for me. I decided that I just couldn’t handle following an actual recipe, so I resorted to my Zen cooking technique. Here’s how it works: you come home from work, you sit, you read through many versions of recipes for the desired food on the internet, you absorb them as best you can, you check your supplies, you close your computer, and finally, you shoot from the hip. Here’s what we did.

Shepherd’s Pie

For Potatoes:

2 large potatoes

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup cream

1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded

1/4 cup parmesan, grated

For Meat Mixture:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

3 carrots, chopped in 1/4 inch rounds (or half-rounds if large)

1/2 pound pearl onions, frozen

1 – 1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon thyme, dried

1/2 teaspoon rosemary, dried

Salt and pepper to taste

2-3 tablespoons flour 

1 to 1/12 cups beef broth

1/2 to 1 cup frozen peas

1. Cut potatoes into 1/2 inch chunks and cook in boiling, salted water until soft (about 10 minutes). Drain and process with hand blender, adding butter and cream until smooth and fully blended. Stir in pepper jack cheese.
2. While potatoes are cooking, make meat mixture. Heat oil over medium heat and add carrots and onions, cooking a few minutes. Add ground beef and cook until no longer pink. Add Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, thyme, rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook a minute or two. Sprinkle flour on top, stir, and cook a minute or two. Add beef broth, and simmer. Add peas and cook a minute or two.
3. Spray casserole dish with cooking spray. Pour in meat mixture. Dollop mashed potatoes on meat mixture. Top with parmesan cheese.
4. Bake about 20 minutes at 350º. Switch oven to broil and broil until potatoes are golden brown, a couple minutes.

Our results were surprisingly good considering we were shooting from the hip.