Bison (a.k.a. buffalo) is available at some natural foods stores, specialty foods stores, and farmers' markets.
Ingredients
Makes 6 servings
Filling:
Mashed-potato crust:
Garnish:
For filling:
Step 1
Whisk first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add bison; toss. Heat large pot over medium heat. Add bacon; cook until crisp. Transfer to paper towels. Add 2 tablespoons oil to pot; increase heat to medium-high. Working in batches, cook bison until browned, adding more oil by tablespoonfuls as needed. Return to same bowl. Add chopped onion, carrot, celery, and garlic to pot; cover and cook until vegetables soften, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add wine; bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add broth, tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme, sage, reserved bacon, and bison. Reduce heat to low. Cover; simmer until bison is tender, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours (beef may take 1 1/2 hours).
Step 2
与此同时,煮珍珠洋葱的大平底锅boiling salted water 2 minutes. Transfer to bowl of ice water; trim and peel.
Step 3
Transfer bison to rimmed baking sheet. Cut meat off bones; cut meat into 3/4-inch cubes. Add parsnips and turnips to pot with bison sauce. Simmer until tender, stirring occasionally, 10 to 15 minutes. Add pearl onions; cook 5 minutes. Return meat to pot. Season with salt and pepper.
For mashed-potato crust:
Step 4
Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling lightly salted water until tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Drain. Heat milk, butter, and cream in medium saucepan until almost boiling. Rice potatoes into large mixing bowl; add milk mixture, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and whisk until smooth and slightly cooled, about 2 minutes. Whisk in egg.
Step 5
Preheat oven to 400°F. Spoon bison filling into 3-quart (13x9x2-inch) baking dish. Spoon mashed potatoes over; smooth top to cover completely.
For garnish:
Step 6
Beat egg and 1 tablespoon water to blend. Brush over potatoes, then sprinkle cheese all over. DO AHEAD:Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
Step 7
Bake pie until top is browned and filling is heated through, 30 to 40 minutes (50 to 60 minutes if chilled). Let rest 10 minutes.
What to drink:
Step 8
Try a full-bodied red, like the 2007 Auguste Bessac Crozes-Hermitage (France, $20), with the shepherd's pie.
Nutrition Per Serving
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Reviews (15)
Back to TopFor a shepherd's pie, this is a pretty good beef stew. You see, that's the problem. It is way yonder too liquidy. Either cut the liquids in half, or simmer uncovered so that it reduces by half. As is, the volume is far larger than can ever fit inside the 3 quart baking dish it calls for and spreading the mashed potatoes over the top is essentially impossible.
pjcamp1
Atlanta, GA
5/5/2013
Made this last night-- excellent stew, would definitely make this again. I had one major problem-- my mashed potatoes sunk intomthe stew while cooking in the oven. As leftovers, I have a stew thickened by pureed potatoes rather than a separate stew and potato topping. So next time I would just serve the stew and potatoes separately. I also added some quartered white mushrooms tom the stew with the parsnips and turnips. I found thismto be a nice addition. Thismrecipe makes A LOT,
dudleycz
Boston, MA
2/12/2012
Time consuming and not a conventional shepherd's pie, but excellent all the same. Used beef short ribs, omitted the turnips, used regular bacon; worked great. Can just treat the filling recipe as a really good beef stew recipe.
darwin2468
Calgary, AB
2/5/2012
Excellent. Made it with beef short ribs. Could use the filling recipe as a recipe for beef short ribs. Omitted turnips. Filling seemed a bit liquidy, thickened it with some flour. Seemed to call for a bit too much cream/milk/butter for mashed potatoes, I just added as much as needed to get the right consistency.
darwin2468
Calgary
12/11/2011
Like some of the other reviewers, I took the "easy" route, and made the stew the night before, then heated it and served it over mashed potatoes. Everyone really liked it - the gravy was exceptionally tasty. A few steps I took to shorten the prep time: I used bison stew meat, already cut up (no need to cut it off the bone later); I did not cook the pearl onions separately - I used Trader Joe's frozen and they are peeled already. I threw them in with the parsnips & turnips after about 30 minutes, and all turned out well. I'm not sure what the point of putting them in later was - they stewed 90 min. to 2 hours with everything else and nothing was too mushy. It did make a LOT, and would be good served over wild rice for a lower fat option, or with a good crusty bread.
DawnJM
Corvallis, Oregon
1/25/2011
Correction: I meant add MORE cheese to the potatoes for a richer dish. :-)
kldckldc
12/31/2010
The "filling" made a very yummy stew. We ate it sort of "inside out" in that I served the stew over the mashed potatoes, instead of putting the potatoes on top and baking it in the oven. Let me clarify. Made the stew a day ahead mostly following the instructions. I used bison stew meat chunks instead of meat on the bone, and left out the turnips and parsnips since I didn't have any on hand. The stew sat in the fridge overnight which added to the flavors. Made the mashed potatoes (minus the egg) on the second day when I was heating up the stew. Added the cooked pearl onions after the stew was heated, and let them simmer about 10 mins. To serve, I put a blob of mashed potatoes in a shallow dinner soup bowl and ladled the stew over the top. Sprinkled with a bit of chopped parsley for a nice presentation. Although it was very flavorful, the dish was a bit "tomato-ey" for me, and the fresh sage flavor was not very pronounced. Overall, I would make this again. I'm guessing you could add cheese to the potatoes if you want an even richer dish.
kldckldc
Clifton, VA
12/31/2010
Flavor was really good for the sauce and I agree with others that a loaf of some nice crusty french bread would be good to have on hand. As a shephards pie - it was ALOT of work. I would recreate the sauce profile into a beef stew, but wouldn't make this again as written.
lmcashbaugh
Woodstock, IL
10/10/2010
This recipe is absolutely fantastic. It is on the short list for impressing anyone. The best thing I have made from this site to date. Made it for four people and it was the topic of convo for the whole night. Awesome. That said it entails a lot of effort, time, and money. :o) Oh yes, also grossly unhealthy.
Bobby_boy777
St.John's, Newfoundland
9/7/2010
I used ground buffalo meat and a hearty Chilean red wine. The result was nothing short of spectacular! I'll definitely be making this again. Roll on Fall/Winter, it will be the perfect chilly evening dinner
namwoc
3/7/2010
This recipe is wonderful. Such a fabulous sauce, you will definitely want some crusty bread on hand to make sure you get every last bit of it out of the pan ;o) I made this recipe with bison steaks (the store only had ground bison and bison steaks). I used 24 oz of bison steak (approx. $22), far less than what is called for in the recipe but it still made a substantial dish. As others have posted, this makes much more than 6 servings. I broke it up into 8 servings. If you are just having this with no other side dishes or bread, then 8 servings is probably perfect. If you are having other food with this then it would definitely feed 10 easily. When I make this again, I may omit the potatoes on top and just make it as a bison or beef stew and serve it over brown rice or with crusty bread or just do baked potatoes or mashed potatoes on the side. The sauce thickened up nicely for me. I think the key is to put the browned meat back into the flour dish after browning as the directions say (although I had to read it several times and I think that's what they meant). The extra flour helps it to thicken up. I also didn't cook mine as long because I had the steaks and didn't want them to get tough. This recipe is definitely a keeper. If you love rich sauces, you will love this recipe.
Anonymous
Fairfax, VA
2/21/2010
Yes, I spent $$$ on the bison, could have used suggested alternates, but then I thought, why? It was FANTASTIC! I made the stew the day before and let it sit overnight. Made the potatoes next day, while stew came to room temperature, put it together and into the oven. Our best friends came over for dinner, brought a nice Chateaunuf, and raved about the dish. My husband & I enjoyed the leftovers a week later on a cold night. Servings says, 6, it's more like 10.
Anonymous
Houston, TX
2/9/2010
An unusual take on shepherd's pie as I know it. To me, this is a great stew recipe, covered with mashed potatoes. Really very tasty but quite a bit of work for what is essentially gourmet shepherd's pie that would probably cost $60 in ingredients if purchased at the farmer's market if made as written. I think I would prefer it as just a braised meat dish with mashed potatoes on the side. I used bison long ribs as I had them in my freezer, and I could not find parsnips, pearl onions or baby turnips at the grocery store. I used regular turnip and extra diced onion and it really was very tasty. The turnip melds nicely with the other flavours. Needed to use extra thickener as it was quite fluid. Also, if this is 6 servings, they would be HUGE servings.
Anonymous
Calgary, Alberta
2/3/2010
Made this with beef chuck. Everything worked well. Perhaps because I'd smelled this cooking for hours, it seemed a bit tastless, but the guests loved it. The turnips and parsnips added a lot of flavor. I'm not sure I'd make it again,though.
Anonymous
Seattle
2/1/2010
我们这吃晚饭。我们没有bison, so used beef instead. Even so, it's delicious! The filling was sort of liquidy; we followed the directions exactly. The ratio of potatoes to filling seemed short, but in the end we decided that it was fine - although next time I might add more potatoes or short the filling a bit.
Anonymous
Alexandria VA
1/31/2010
