Drunken Shepherd's Pie

This picture is totally unrelated to the following recipe, except for the fact that the recipe invites substitutions and you should use ingredients that you have on hand.  I had fresh farmer's market corn to use, and while it wasn't from Pike Market in Seattle, you should get the idea.  Farmer's market fresh produce is awesome to throw into a shepherd's pie.

This weekend my cousin and sister and I decided to sit down and watch the replay of the royal wedding because of several reasons, but I'll keep it simple and just say that we're girls and we like things with crowns, pretty dresses and events where cake is involved.  In addition to the requisite stockpile of hard cider, I discussed throwing together a shepherd's pie with my cousin, another devoted cook and food lover. 

We succeeded in the best kind of way.

INGREDIENTS:

FILLING:
1/2 pound bacon
4 ears of corn
1/2 of an onion
2 celery stalks
1 pound ground beef
1 can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cup red wine
1 can of peas and carrots
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried garlic
Salt and pepper to taste

TOPPING:
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes
1 stick butter
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp. seasoned salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Wash and cut up the potatoes into 1-inch chunks.  Cover them with water and bring them to a boil, covered.  While they're cooking, get out your handy dandy cast iron skillet and cook the bacon until they're just crispy.  Rejoice, because we're going to use that bacon fat and everything is going to have a hint of bacon.  Set the bacon aside to cool.

Dice the onion and celery and carefully cut the corn off the cob.  You could always use canned, but I had 4 ears of fresh in my fridge and I think it had a lighter, sweeter flavor that really added a lot in the end.  Put the diced onion into the cast iron skillet with the bacon fat and cook until it's beyond translucent and starting to brown.  Add the celery and corn into the caramelly onion and season with a touch of salt and pepper.  Saute together for 5-10 minutes, until the celery takes on the same translucence as the onion.

In a large pot, brown the ground beef.  If you're looking to minimize the insane amount of calories that this dish probably has, you can drain some of the fat off.  We didn't, because we were drinking while we were cooking and wanted optimum calorie intake.  When the beef is browned, add the can of tomato sauce, the red wine, spices and seasonings.  Cook together for about 5 minutes, then add in the can of peas and carrots and the corn-celery-onion.  Toss in the crumbled bacon.  Stir it all together and let it hang out on low heat for a bit whilst you whip up them 'taters.

Drain the water from your fork tender potatoes and mash them up.  Cut the stick of butter into smallish chunks and stir it in with the milk, salt and pepper.  Whip as you will, either with a food mill (if you're feeling extra fancy) or a whisk (if you're feeling muscular) or an electric mixer (if you're feeling lazy and/or drunk). 

Dump the ground beef mixture into your big ol' casserole pan (a 9x13 might be a tight fit here, do you have anything bigger?  Go with that and save yourself the mess in your oven.)  Hopefully your potatoes have cooled a bit with that milk and aren't lava hot, because you're going to spoon the lot of them into a large Ziploc bag.  Just go with me on this.  It really is the easiest, cleanest possible way to get the potatoes on top of the meat.  Snip one of the corners of the bag off and pipe the mashed potatoes on top of the meat, covering the entire surface.  Sprinkle the Parmesan and cheddar over the potatoes and pop it in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is melty and the edge of the potatoes are starting to look golden brown.  Also, as a precaution against leakage (haha, ew) you'll want to put your casserole dish on top of a cookie sheet to catch any wayward drips.

Cool slightly so that it's not magma hot, serve and enjoy!  It's even better the second day.