OK, so once again I found myself trying to decide on something to make for dinner. Last night I had taken a couple pounds of ground beef out of the freezer, so I knew what ever I was making was going to have ground beef in it. I dug out my recipe box and started my search. Why is it, you can have 100's of recipes, but when you look through them you cannot find anything you really want. Since I went through my recipes several times and nothing jumped out in my face and made me say, "Yes, this is what I want". I took my search to the internet. I was looking for something different. I didn't want burgers or a pasta dish with ground beef, a Mexican dish with ground beef. I decided to check out Rachael Ray's web site. Shepherd's Pie caught my eye, but I really do not like that dish. Something about taking ground beef, with a tomato sauce, a veggie on top of that, then mashed potatoes to seal it all in just doesn't appeal to me. When I first spotted her recipe for Shepherd's Pie I almost passed right by it. Then I stopped and noticed the "Burgundy" in the title, so I pulled it up, read the ingredients and said, "Yes, this is what I want".
I gathered all my ingredients, but found I was missing a few. I simply made some adjustments. This ended up to be just as good as it sounded. I would have never thought about making a gravy with wine for the ground beef instead of the normal tomato base that is added to a Shepherd's Pie. This turned out wonderful. I will definitely make this again. I am not sure why, but it turned out a little thin, but it was nothing a little Wondra couldn't fix. I do think the next time I make this I will add more carrots.
Ground Beef and Burgundy Shepherds Pie
2 1/2 lbs. potato's (peeled and diced)
1 T. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 slices of bacon
2 lbs. ground sirloin
2-shallots (I didn't have shallots, so I used one medium onion, finely chopped)
1-small carrot (finely chopped) (I used 3 medium)
1/2 lb. button mushrooms (quartered) (didn't have any, so I used more carrots)
1- bay leaf
2T. fresh thyme (chopped) (didn't have fresh, so I used 2 1/2 t. dried)
salt and black pepper
1 1/2 C. red burgundy wine
2 C. beef stock
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
4 T. butter (divided)
2 T. flour
1/2 to 2/3 C. whole milk or half & half (used half & half)
2 t. parsley
2 t. chives
1 T. Dijon mustard (rounded) (didn't have, so omitted)
1- egg (beaten)
Boil potatoes until tender. While potatoes are cooking, take a large dutch oven and cook bacon until crisp, add ground beef and cook until well browned. Add shallots, carrots, mushrooms, bay leaf and thyme. Cook 7 to 8 minutes until onion and carrots are tender. Add wine and scrap drippings, let simmer until reduced, about 2 minutes. Add stock and Worcestershire sauce.
In a small pan, melt butter and combine with flour to make a roux. Whisk about 1 minute. Pour into meat mixture and stir to combine and thicken.
Preheat broiler with rack in the middle of the oven.
Drain potatoes and return to pot. Mash with 2 T. butter, whole milk or half & half, parsley, chives, Dijon, salt and pepper. When you have mashed to desired consistency, stir in your beaten egg.
Pour meat mixture into a casserole dish, spread potatoes over the top and place under broiler until browned.
The changes I made, I felt were minimal. They probably didn't change the flavor from Rachael's. As I stated earlier, I will definitely use more carrots next time. I did add more butter to the potatoes, but that was a personal preference. Also, as I stated earlier, this was a little thin, I am not sure what happened, if you have this trouble just whisk in some Wondra. This was a very good dish. Enjoy!!
Saffron
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