Happy National Pi Day! (March 14th, 3.14 = pi, get it?)

Ok it was totally a coincidence that I had a craving for shepherd’s pie yesterday, but we ended up going out for sushi. After loading up on some sake and a delicious chirashi bowl, I came home still thinking about the heartiness of a shepherd’s pie. So there I was, 9pm at night, boiling and sauteing away, just so I can bring some for lunch at work today. I used whatever I had in the fridge so the ingredients might vary from what a traditional pie would have. I also didn’t make a gravy for the meat mixture nor did I top it with cheese. But all that aside, It’s a simple and comforting dish, especially great for a cold rainy day.

Yes, it’s purple! Your eyes are working just fine. I had purchased a bag of purple potatoes from the farmers’ market during the weekend and I was quite excited to use them. Purple potatoes have much more antioxidant than regular white potatoes. They are rich in vitamins and are great energy-boosters. And yes, they taste just like regular potatoes!

Once boiled and mashed, the potatoes had a greyish-blue hue instead of purple. But once baked and crusted, they will have a deeper and prettier hue.

I used the tip of the spoon to press into the potatoes to create this scaly look. I should’ve made deeper indentations because the potatoes puffed up in the oven, and the patterns weren’t very obvious.

Shepherd’s Pie

Meat mixture:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef (substitute this for lamb and it’d be equally tasty)
1 onion, diced
3 stems celery, diced
2 carrots, diced to small cubes
1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and chopped to small pieces
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp tomato paste
salt + pepper to season

Mashed Potatoes:
~1.5 lb potatoes (I used purple potatoes)
2-3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp good sea salt
freshly ground black pepper to season

1. Boil potatoes in salted water for 10-12 minutes until fork tender.

2. Drain potatoes, and add in cream, butter, salt and pepper and mash away. I ran the potato through a ricer first, then combine with the other ingredients to mix.

3. In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat olive oil. Add the ground beef, brown and crumble them for 3-4 minutes. Add in onion, celery, carrot dices, and cook for another 3-4 minutes until the meat is cooked through and all the vegetables are translucent. Stir often. Add in the tomato paste and worcestershire sauce, stir and cook for another 2 minutes.

4. Add in kale pieces, incorporate until wilted. Pour the meat mixture into a baking dish.

5. Top the meat mixture with the mashed potatoes. You can be fancy and pipe the potatoes like Duchess potatoes style, or simply smooth it out and use a fork to dab little peaks so they will brown nicely in the oven.

6. Bake in a 400F oven for 30 minutes until the top is nice and brown.

7. Garnish with chives or parsley and enjoy!