Genji's Shepherd's Pie, a Family Recipe
a cook's prerogative and the tastes we hold dear
My English mother didn't cook much; she was an intellect, an academic, a PhD, and author. She was considered the top of her field in Medieval and Renaissance science and medicine. My Japanese father explained that he was not allowed in the kitchen growing up. So cooking was not a huge part of my life growing up.
We did go to sushi restaurants in the 1970s, before anyone in the US who wasn’t Japanese would ever consider eating raw fish. We also got care packages from Japan with lots of different kinds of seaweed and pickled vegetables and plums, rice crackers, rice cakes, confections, red bean sweets. We loved it but we didn't know any other Japanese growing up. Kids on the block asked, “Japanese. Isn’t that a kind of Chinese?”
Being in NYC, one can get all varieties of food pretty much from anywhere in the world at anytime of day. The matrix of cheap-expensive, basic-exotic is overwhelming – these days it’s mostly on the more expensive side, and post-pandemic, “the city that never sleeps” apparently sleeps now!
England, on the other hand, has been known, throughout most of my life, for its bad food, a reputation they’ve been trying to repair for decades. When visiting my English grandmother as a child, though, I loved teatime – little finger sandwiches with cucumber and egg salad, minced pie, scones, cream and jam. And, one of the few things my mother cooked on occasion, and my favorite, was Shepard’s Pie.
I don’t cook much, and when I do, it’s mostly utilitarian using a few techniques for making things delicious. My wife, Marissa and I actually do cook quite often for our family, but I mainly handle cooking meats, making salads, roasting vegetables. Anyway, these are all my excuses for not being a better cook, but recently I made a Shepard’s Pie. I recommend it. It’s good; it will fill you up. Pretty easy, cheap and delicious comfort food.
My Shepard’s Pie
This is going to be the worst instructional recipe ever. I measured nothing and used no formal recipe. I cooked it the way my mother would.
First make mashed potatoes. Use the potatoes you like (you could even use instant). I cut them up so they boil faster. Peel them after boiling if you don’t mind burning your fingers a little. Mash up those suckers! Season to taste with salt, pepper, and butter. If you have it, and want to, add some heavy cream (it’s worth it). If you like garlic press a clove in there.
Add oil to a pan and cook garlic and onions, then ground beef until brown. Pour out as much fat as you think is healthy (but leave some in for flavor). Season to taste, add some herbs (fresh is best).
Add frozen mixed vegetable or just peas and carrots or fresh vegetables. My mother always used frozen peas. I’ll also add that she always slapped this together like someone in hurry to get back to more important things!
Nancy Siraisi Put the meat and veg in a casserole dish, and cover it with the mashed potatoes.
Put in the oven to just brown the top a little. You can add cheese on top if you want.
Making this Shepard’s Pie recently brought up something else. Marissa took our daughter, Niko, out to a High Tea place (apparently it’s a new-ish thing with the teens, and I think Korean entrepreneurs?). Apparently they had Shepard’s Pie and Cottage Pie, but Shepard’s was made with lamb and Cottage was made with beef?! Marissa and I argued about this, she saying I was wrong (which I very well may be) but to me, my memory, and my mother’s instruction for Shepard’s Pie is to make it with beef!!!
I didn’t at first understand why I was so angry. I soon realized that this detail threatened a fragile piece of my life—my memory of childhood, my mother’s love and guidance, and the very small sense of heritage I feel from my English ancestry. Marissa didn’t understand this (she kind of loves proving me wrong). Honestly, I told her, I don’t care what anyone else says or does… for me, Shepard’s Pie will always have beef!
Dive in for more goodness…
Be sure to check out Genji’s piece, “3 Organic Music Cuts Served with a Free-range Emotion Medley & a Word Salad, Infused with Young Feels and Matured Memories.” and to learn more about FED’s entire Spring 2024 all-star line-up of musicians, artists, writers, growers, gleaners, cooks, and craftspeople headed your way this season, check out Special Guests.
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Thanks again for pulling up your chair. We look forward to sharing the meal with you!
Big love, Ashley
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