• Capital: Dublin
• Population: about 4 762 000
• Area: 70 273 km²
• Currency: Euro

For my Irish recipe I made a classic. Shepherd’s pie! Shepherd’s pie is composed of 2 layers. The first one is delicious lamb and vegetables in some gravy and the second one is mashed potatoes with a little bit of cheese to make it golden brown. Here is the recipe.

Shepherd’s pie

Ingredients:

• 1.5 pound lamb (I used leftover leg of lamb but ground lamb works perfectly too)
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 4 springs thyme
• 1/4 cup frozen corn
• 1/4 cup frozen english peas
• 3/4 cup red wine
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 3 large russet potatoes
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 cup sharp cheddar

Directions:

First, prepare all your ingredients. Grate the onion, the cheddar and the carrots. Chop the rosemary leafs, remove the leaves form the thyme sprigs. Peel the potatoes, cut them in half lengthwise and then in quarters. Finely chop the garlic. If using leg of lamb meat, finely chop the meat. Measure all the other ingredients.

In a large pot, put the potatoes in salted cold water, turn on the heat on high and bring to a boil covered and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer the potatoes until you can easily poke them with a fork.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat some olive oil on medium high heat in a saute pan. Add the lamb and cook for 4 minutes. Add the onions, garlic and carrots. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Push all the ingredients to the side creating a space in the center of the pan. Put the tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Stir in with the lamb, onion and carrot mix.

Add the rosemary, thyme, peas, corn, Worcestershire sauce and red wine. On high heat, reduce the wine by half.

Add the chicken broth and cook for about 5 minutes or until the sauce starts to get thick. Add salt and pepper to taste.

When the potatoes are cooked. Drain them and mash them using a potato masher. Add the butter and mash some more. stir 1/2 of the cheddar in the potatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

In a baking dish, pour in the lamb mixture. Cover with the mashed potatoes using a spatula. Using a fork make some marks on the top of the potatoes and finish them by adding the rest of the cheese on top.

Put in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Serve with a side salad.

Bon appetit!