Earl Cooks Shepherd's Pie—DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

Shepherd's Pie topped with a generous pat of real butter

Until I was married, I had never had nor do I remember ever hearing of Shepherd's Pie. But my wife introduced me to it and I developed an affinity for it. She has never much cared for green peas, and until a few years ago, I didn't care for green beans, a common substitute for peas. So what I remember her using is broccoli. I like broccoli. I like it raw, I like it cooked and I even like it riced, but according to recipes I looked at nobody considers it Shepherd's Pie with broccoli. This got me to wondering "what exactly is shepherd's pie and what are the traditional ingredients"? Rachel Ray says one thing, Gordon Ramsay another. So I dug deeper into its history and found that originally it was designed to use up leftovers, particularly roast! Well I just happen to have a bit of leftover roast and the veggies I used cooked with it. Here is what I did and what I will never do again!
—I started with the leftover roast, removed all of the fat and diced it into ¼" dice. The leftover vegetables I diced up but they were too soft, and really just dissolved into the dish. I didn't have leftover potatoes, so I made a package of potatoes and added about ½ cup of sour cream and one egg yolk, and mixed that into the potatoes which will become the topping. I also made a gravy from a packet which I enhanced with some broth from the roast. Veggies in the dish, meat in the dish and gravy added, I then topped with the potatoes and decorated with a fork. Lastly, I added smoked paprika to the top. I covered it and baked covered for 20 min. at 375℉. I then removed the lid and baked for another 20 minutes to brown the top.
Results
I quite liked it. I topped it with a generous pat of butter, but my wife didn't! She thinks I can eat anything and have an iron constitution, so as the saying goes, happy wife, happy life! That's not why you shouldn't try this at home though. The vegetables were too mushy. It needed to have uncooked veggies added. The potatoes were pretty good as was the meat, but next time I will try the trraditional American version with ground beef and peas (I love peas). I will still be eating the leftovers, which I guess are leftover leftovers or leftovers²!