How To Make a REAL Shepherd's Pie - Chef Jean-Pierre

Well, hello there, friends! I just finished making a real shepherd's pie. That's right, this time I made it with lamb. Remember, thumbs up if you like the video, subscribe to the channel, and ring that bell. Stay tuned, friends. It smells amazing in here. Well, we're doing it again this time, friends, but we're going to do it with lamb. Oh, boy. I did a video last year, my original shepherd's pie. Mamma mia, how many English people have to tell me, this is not a shepherd's pie if you do it with beef. Shepherds do not guard beef, they guard sheep. I know it, but in America, that's the way we make it. So, you know what? All of my English friends, because, boy, I have so many chefs that work in England, friends of mine that have called me and said, what are you doing? A shepherd's pie is made with lamb. I said, I know, I even said it in the video. Anyway, we got a lamb shoulder right there that I grounded. I got two pounds of meat, we're going to do it with lamb. And you can do it with whatever you want, but if you make it with anything but lamb, don't be calling it a shepherd's pie, otherwise you'll have the English police after you, okay? So, do whatever you want to do it. And then also, I heard about, you're not supposed to put the mashed potato in the bottom. I'm doing it anyway, okay? You don't want to put the mashed potato in the bottom? Don't put the mashed potato in the bottom. Put it on the top. It's up to you. And they say don't even put mushroom. I still put mushroom. You don't have to put mushroom if you don't want to. I'm going to put the mushroom. So, friends, I'm doing it, I'm going to do it in two pans because it goes a little faster. But at home, what you can do, you can do your onion and your mushrooms, take it away, clean your pan, and then do your lamb. I'm going to do them in two pans so it goes faster. Okay, for the video, otherwise it takes forever. I'm using clarified butter. You can use a good cooking oil. Don't use regular butter because you know it'll burn, right? So, clarified butter to start, or a good cooking oil, or a good avocado oil, or a grape seed oil, a high smoke point oil would be great. Okay, we want to make sure it's hot. We're going to sauté the onion. We're getting close to the temperature that I want. I want to make sure I'm hot. So I have one big onion. One, one, one big onion. You know, onion is always number one, eh? Everybody knows that. Always number one. So we're going to sauté the onion, get it all golden brown. Then we're going to put the mushroom. You don't have to put the mushroom. Remember, if you don't want it. And then I'm going to do the lamb right here. Now, it's very important, friends. And I know for most of you that I've seen my channel before, and there's a lot of you, but we have so many new subscribers. For all the new subscribers during the holiday, I think we picked up like 150,000 new subscribers in the month of December alone. So welcome to all of you. You may not know certain things, so I want to make sure I tell you. And for those of you that already know, get yourself a glass of wine, relax. We're having fun. And I'm going to be redundant, and everybody remembers, eh? So I got the lamb right here. I'm going to wait for my pan to be about 365. I really want the oil to be hot when I do it, friends, because if I don't do it when it's super, super hot, I'm not going to get what is it called? The Maillard reaction. This is a must, friends, the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is the caramelization of the protein, and that's what's going to give us flavor, okay? And so it's up to you, but I really, really recommend it. We're going to put also some rosemary and thyme. We're also going to put some garlic and fresh parsley. We'll put a little bit of flour later. And then we got some carrots cut in very small dice, as you can see. Very small dice. And I got peas, because it's traditional to put peas in shepherd's pie. You don't like them? Don't worry about it. Don't put them in. And I got a cup of tomato puree. And for stock, if I were to do it with beef, but I'm not doing it with beef, you use the beef stock. But since it's lamb, we don't want to use a lamb stock. Nobody got a lamb stock, so we use the chicken stock, all right? And I was going to say, for those of you who don't eat meat, use the vegetable stock, but you're not going to do this if you don't eat meat. And our beautiful English cheddar and a little bit of Parmigiano. All right, so we're going to sauté the meat here, friends. You hear that? Now this, friends, I can't express to you how important this is. Then we get this really, really beautiful caramelization here, friends. Let me get the salt and pepper here, okay? Very important, friends, that we get this caramelization because caramelization is flavor. So salt, pepper, and you watch. We're going to wait until it's beautiful golden brown, friends. This is a step that you cannot skip. So many people do it. They're poaching the meat. They're missing an amazing opportunity to give a great flavor. So by all means, my friends, I want you to wait because we're going to get this beautiful caramelization, okay? So I'm going to continue doing this. I am going to continue sautéing my onion, and when the onion starts to get golden brown, when the onion starts to get golden brown, then I'm going to add the mushroom to it, and I'm going to cook all the water out of it, all right? So I'll be back in a few minutes. The lamb will be beautiful golden brown. The onion will be nice caramelized, and the water will have disappeared from the mushroom because I'm going to cook them in there, all right? So I'll be back in a couple of minutes, friends. You see, friends, I want you to see. Look, at one point, you see all that water right there. We've got to get it all out, you see? That's why you do it in a frying pan because if you do it in a pot, you try to do it in a pot with a high side, it takes forever for this moisture to escape. That's why I do it in a frying pan, you see, friends? So don't get discouraged. It will. All that water will go, and it's going to be replaced with beautiful caramelization of the protein, okay? So we're going to continue doing it. I just wanted to show you so you don't get discouraged when you see all that water. Say, how am I going to get golden brown in there? Just be patient. Okay, friends, look. No more water, you see? No more water at all. All right? So now, you see? Beautiful color, caramelization. Smells amazing, yeah? So now, look. The mushrooms, they're done also. You see? We're going to put them in here on the side. Let's continue working with this beautiful meal we have right here. So we're going to put our thyme and our rosemary. Right there, thyme and rosemary. Then we're going to put about a quarter cup of flour, friends. We're going to mix all this up. Mix it up well. And the water's going to absorb the water that we're about to put in and the liquid we're about to put in. It's going to bind the whole thing. So the sooner we put the flour, the less of an opportunity we have for the flour to smell, to taste like goo. The longer you cook the flour, the better off you are. That's all. That's what I was going to say. All right, so now our flour is mixed up together. Now we're going to put our wine. Now there's some chefs that don't put any wine in there. It's up to them. I like to put about a cup and a half of good red wine. Remember, friends, cook with the wine you're willing to drink, okay? If you don't drink with it, don't put it in the food. You don't get any better. We're going to let the wine evaporate. Then we're going to put a little bit of garlic. Smells amazing. The wine, look at all the wine has evaporated already. That was a quick reduction, very quick reduction. A little bit of chopped garlic. Then, friends, we're going to put our carrots, chopped carrots. They need to cook. We're going to put our tomatoes. We're going to mix all this up. And then we're going to add our chicken stock, all right? And then, friends, we're going to be gentle with this. We're going to cook all this probably 20 minutes, 25 minutes. And then we're going to get a beautiful, nice texture. Beautiful, nice texture. Now, our mushrooms and our onion are already cooked. They're already done, so we'll add them at the end. And we're going to put this right there. We're going to put a little bit of the parsley in. We'll add some more later on. And then at the last minute, we're going to put our peas. And then we'll put the whole thing together when it's nice and thick. We want it to be thick, so we're going to cook all this. And now you don't want to do this too fast, so we're going to reduce the heat. We're just going to let it cook until it's nice and all together, nice and thick. And then we'll put the peas and the mushroom. We'll mix it all up, and we'll have a beautiful mix down, all right? So let me put a little more salt and pepper. I put salt and pepper as I did as I sautéed the meat. But we want to put a little more in here. All right, so we're going to let this cook. Let it reduce. And when our carrots are starting to be tender, we are good to go. I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Okay, friends. The final ingredient to put it together. Well, one, we must have the Worcestershire sauce, for sure. I don't necessarily like to overcook it. There's no reason for it. But you've got to put a lot of it. Now, that's really important, the Worcestershire sauce, friends. Well, I've got a mushroom right there. Our mushroom and onion are now already cooked. You see? Let's put it all in there. Voila. Ah, I made a mess right there. Man, I made a mess everywhere. Let me take this out of here. You, come back over here. All right, and now we've got to put our peas. And all we've got to do is give it a nice mix. Reduce the heat. And it smells amazing, friends. If you were here right now, you wouldn't believe it. It really, really smells amazing. The pan is a little small, but like I said, I like better to use a fry pan. So it's nicely, it's easier to do the caramelization of the meat instead of a pot. And with a pot, it's just going to take longer. You can do it with a pot, friends. Do it with a pot. If you don't have a big fry pan like that, do it with a pot. Don't worry. But like I said, it's a lot easier to get the evaporation of the water in a fry pan than it is in a pot. See, it's looking beautiful, isn't it? So I did some adjusting, salt and pepper. And it was a little soft in the salt, but Worcestershire sauce is going to be pretty salty, friends. So now we're going to test it. It's probably hot. Ha-ha. Oh. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Ooh. Okay. So now, oh, it's delicious. So now I'm going to put it together, friends. I did beautiful mashed potatoes. I put it in a pastry bag because I find it's easier to put in a pastry bag. You know, a pastry bag, you can put it in a baggie or you can just put it by hand. Put a few months in there of mashed potatoes, and then you can spread it out. The pastry bag, it's easier for me. But, you know, don't worry about it if you don't have a pastry bag. I find it easier, that's all. Okay. But do it however you want to do it, friends. Put a little layer on the bottom. I know there's a lot of controversy about I don't put a layer on the bottom. Well, if you don't like it on the bottom, then don't put it in. I like it. So I'm going to put one on the bottom. It's really up to you. And what I like about putting one on the bottom, friends, is we put this here. You stay over here for a minute, okay? I can put a layer of cheese. Let me get a spatula so I do it nice. You see? We put this right there. I do it nice, right? Let's do it as nice as we can. You're not going to see it, really. But you're going to see when you cut a slice of it, friends, you see? So, okay. So what we do, we clean like that. We clean the sides so we have a clean side. All right. Very good. So now, stay over there, you. Now we have an opportunity, friends, to put some beautiful English cheddar right here as a base. So I have a crust, if you will, of mashed potatoes. And I got this beautiful cheddar cheese. Then I'm going to put the meat. Then I'm going to put more potatoes. Do it however you want it. You don't want to put the potato in the bottom? I'm putting it in the bottom. I'm not coming for dinner. If I were coming for dinner, please put the mashed potato in the bottom. I like it. There we go, friends. Now, you have to be careful now because you don't want to mess it up. So what you do, you put it on here. You be gentle for your bottom layer, friends, okay? Be gentle, right? I'm going to put all this like this. And then we're going to put one more layer of mashed potato on top. Oh, in the mashed potato, friends. The recipe for the mashed potato, Jack is going to give you a link right there, friends. And the only thing I did different to those mashed potatoes was I added three egg yolks at the end. Okay, I added three egg yolks at the end. And what that's going to do, that's going to make them nice and rich. And it will also make a nice prettier color at the end when we brown them, okay? So this, I told you it was two pounds of meat, right? And you know what I do is in the recipe, friends, I write the exact size of the lasagna pan that I'm using. I will write the exact size so you'll have it if you want to make that because that's a mamma mia. I made a mess. We don't want to show this mess that I made. There we go. You see, two pounds of meat is perfect for this, for this mold right there, whatever size that is. I'll have to give you the exact measurement, friends. All right, pack it in. Pack it in. I got my oven going at 350. Depends on the oven. You can go between three and a quarter and 375 at the most, okay? And make sure you adjust your seasoning, friends, with salt and pepper, right? And we're going to take this this way. And now we're going to take our pastry bag and I twist it without leaving my two fingers here. So then we can continue our topping. And doing it with a pastry bag, it makes it really easy to put it on there with a pastry bag. So you don't mess up your meat and mix it because you're not supposed to mix those two. Okay, friends? You're not supposed to mix them. You're not supposed to. Do whatever you want to do. Don't worry. You know, the English recipe policy stuff. But I have so many English friends out there. I got the support. Not to worry. We're in good shape. They're going to be happy. Oh, you finally know how to make a shepherd's pie. You were making a cottage pie before or something like that. I forgot what they call it. It doesn't matter what they call it. Here it is, friends. All right? So now we take a spatula and we make a nice, eh? You're going to say, well, it was nice. Well, you know, if you do it with a pastry bag with a star tip on it, you can make it really nice. Also, from the beginning, so you don't have to do any other stuff that I'm doing. Right? Make it nice. I'll show you. We're going to make it nice. There you go. I got too much of it. You stay out of here. We're going to make it nice, friends. See? Right there. I told you I used to do drywall, right? Yeah, look. Not bad for a drywaller. There you go, friends. You see? Right? So now what we could do is, because we've got nothing else to do, a little bit of this, a little bit of this. See? And voila. And then we're going to pop it in the oven. We're going to put a little more cheese on it. And then we're going to pop it in the oven. Voila. We'll put a little more cheese on there, a little bit of cheddar, a little bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano. And then when it's beautiful golden brown, we're going to take it out. We're probably going to have to wait a little bit before we can cut it, because I'm not going to burn myself. I do it all the time. A little bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano on top, and we're going to cook all this until it's beautiful. All right, friends. We'll be back when it's out of the oven, beautiful golden brown. See you in a minute. Okay, folks. I'm going to take it out of the oven. Oh, yes. That's a beauty. Oh, mamma mia. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So now, friends, you're going to leave it in the oven about a good, depends. If you just made it and you're going to eat it right away, you can put it in the oven maybe a half hour. But if you take it out of the fridge and you're going to reheat it, you're going to eat it, right? Then you've got to reheat it until the internal temperature, and you use one of those. Whenever you're reheating anything, friends, it doesn't matter what it is. It could be stuffed bell peppers. It could be a potato gratin. I don't care what it is. You use a thermometer like this because you don't reheat anything over 150, 155 degrees because you can't eat it anyway. It's too hot. If you're reheating something, then you need to cook it again, which means 150, 155 is enough. So always go in there with a thermometer to make sure you have the right temperature. It's really important. All right, friends? And now we're going to let that rest for a little while because I'm not going to burn myself because it's really hot. And if at the end you don't get the color you want, put it in the broiler for a minute. Keep an eye on it. Don't go do something. Turn on the broiler. Stay right there. Don't put it too close to it so you get some nice caramelization. Okay? So we're going to wait a minute, and then we're going to cut a nice piece of it. Okay, friends. I let it cool a little bit because otherwise it's too hot. It's cool enough so I can handle it. So I'm going to cut a piece. Now, the longer you let it go, let it go. The longer you let it rest, the better of a slice you're going to get, friends. Because otherwise, you know, it's going to be difficult to make a nice slice out of it. It's not exactly a pie. Okay? I know it's got mashed potato in the bottom, but it's still going to be difficult to make a beautiful slice out of it. You see right there, friends? It smells amazing, and it's still got smoke coming out of it. Smoke. That will be steam coming out of it. Let me take this out of there. You see? And, oh, yes. It looks amazing, friends. It looks absolutely amazing. I'm very excited. You see, the potato in the bottom doesn't do that much. The beautiful thing about the potato in the bottom is that I can put the cheese on top of it. So, uh-huh. Oh! Mmm! You know, I think I even like it better with lamb. So, for all my English friends, I hope you like it. We got even English cheddar in there. Remember, thumbs up if you like the video, friends. Subscribe to the channel. Don't forget. And don't forget to ring that bell. Thanks for watching. We'll see you in the next few days with another fantastic video. It's delicious. Mmm! Oh, I'm going to eat that whole thing. It's delicious. Mmm! It's good. Oh, man, it's good.