April 5th: (Venison) Shepherd's Pie

My father-in-law is a hunter. This is a foreign concept to me. Guns. Killing. Animals. Eek.


Okay, I know, I know, I eat meat all the time; I should be at one with the death of the animal that leads to the meat on my plate. However, I practice thought avoidance a lot when it comes to eating flesh. I can't bring myself to go see those Body World displays, not because cadavers freak me out, but because their musculature resembles steak. Ew. Humans and animals are not different enough from one another.


For months now, I've had venison--ground and steak--in my freezer, a gift from the aforesaid hunter. I haven't been sure what to do with it. Today, I finally took the plunge, and turned one package of the ground deer meat into a Shepherd's Pie.


Big sigh of relief ... it tasted okay. In truth, I don't like ground meat of any kind, and that's why Shepherd's Pie was a good choice: lots of other flavours to mask the ground meatiness. Though I was thinking as I was eating it (and loving the top cheese-potato-corn layer) (with visions of Bambi dancing through my head) that I really should figure out a vegetarian, beany bottom layer and just be done with the ground meat. But in any case: this is a good Shepherd's Pie recipe, and you could use any ol' meat you like:


Deep Dish Shepherd's Pie

• 6 medium potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
• 1/4 cup (125 mL) milk
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) butter
• 1 lb (500 g) ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup (250 mL) grated Cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 cup (250 mL) salsa
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp (5 mL) Tabasco
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
• 1 398-mL (14 oz) can cream style corn
• avocado, sour cream, Cheddar cheese for serving

1. Place potatoes in a medium pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until tender. When potatoes have finished cooking, turn off heat, drain pot and return to hot burner. Mash with milk and butter. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F (190C). Coat a large frying pan with oil and set over medium-high heat. Add beef, onion and garlic. Break up meat and cook until no longer pink, 5+ min. Stir in 1/2 cup (125 mL) cheese, salsa, flour, Tabasco and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir often until flavours develop, 5 min.
3. Turn beef mixture into a 9-in. (23-cm) deep-dish pie plate and spread evenly over bottom. Cover with cream style corn, spreading evenly. Spoon potatoes over top and spread over the entire pie plate, which will be quite full. Smooth as best you can.
4. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, about 5 min. Turn on broiler and leave for another 5 minutes, watching closely, until cheese starts to get bubbly.
5. Serve with avocado, sour cream and more cheese to taste.

Serves 6-8.