Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

A note before you get started: This recipe will need three cups of stock. If you have leftover lamb, use the pan drippings and make up the difference with vegetable stock to equal three cups. If you are roasting your lamb per these instructions, pour two cups of water into pan with the drippings and cooked vegetables from roasting and cook down and then strain. You should have about two cups. Add one more cup of vegetable stock to equal three cups. Discard any fat that floats to the top.

If roasting your lamb, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place onion, carrots, celery, rosemary and thyme in bottom of roasting pan and set lamb roast over vegetables. Rub lamb with oil and coat with salt and pepper. Pour water in bottom of pan and roast uncovered for two hours. Cool lamb to room temperature and make pan drippings as described above.

Trim lamb of any fat or gristle and cut into large pieces. Place a few at a time in a food processor and pulse a few times to shred into pieces but not so much that it is ground too fine. Continue until all lamb has been shredded. I started with a four-pound boneless half lamb leg and after roasting, cooling and trimming, I had 2 ¼ pounds of usable meat, which when shredded with the food processor, yielded about seven cups of meat. Set this aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large skillet with high sides, or a medium Dutch oven, place oil, onion, carrot and celery and sauté over medium high for four minutes. Add garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper and cook for one more minute. Add tomato paste and cook for another minute.

Reduce to medium and add flour and cook for two minutes.

Add cooked shredded lamb, pan drippings and stock and bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat to low and cook covered for 20 minutes.

Remove lid and cook for 20 more minutes on a low to medium heat burner.

While lamb mixture is cooking, boil potatoes until tender and drain. Place cooked potatoes back into pot and turn on burner long enough to evaporate any water. Remove from heat and mash with butter, Crème Fraiche, salt, pepper, garlic power and cheddar cheese. Set aside.

Add uncooked corn and thawed peas to lamb mixture and heat for one minute.

Pour lamb mixture into a 10x13x3-inch casserole dish and top with the mashed potatoes, smoothing with a spatula.

Sprinkle a little paprika over the top and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes until hot and bubbly. (You might want to place a sheet of foil under casserole dish to catch any drippings.) If you’d like, place casserole under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the top before serving.