Turkey Shepperd's Pie

On a cold night meat and mashed potatoes sounds like a good plan to me. This Sheppard's Pie is made with Turkey as an alternative to lamb or beef. This is really a Cottage pie because Sheppard's pie is traditionally referred to a pie made with lamb however, either way it's hearty, warming and full of flavour. Big Pete loves meat and mashed potatoes any night!

You will need:

• 1 pound of ground turkey - I used thighs.
• 1 onion - chopped fine
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 carrot -grated 
• 1 celery stalk - chopped in fine dice
• 3 cloves garlic - chopped fine
• 1 tbsp fresh grated horseradish (or in a jar is fine)
•  2 tbsp roasted hot chilies (you can use these from a jar or make your own)
• 2 tbsp dry porcini mushrooms- soaked in water and chopped
• 1 cup fresh mushrooms - chopped
• 1 tsp fresh thyme -chopped
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary - chopped 
• 1 tbsp dry herbs de province
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 tbsp flour
• 3-4 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 -1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 litre chicken broth
• 4 potatoes - boiled and mashed with butter and milk
• 2 tbsp Boursin cheese
• salt and pepper 

Gather and chop or grate your ingredients

Step 1: in a large saute pan start to saute chopped onions in some olive oil. Saute for 5 minutes on medium heat. You might just start to get a bit of browning around the edges at this point. Add carrot and celery and fry another few minutes.

Step 2: add the ground turkey and turn up the heat to cook meat. You will need to cook off most of the water. Since there is not much fat in turkey you may wish to add more olive oil to the pan.

 Cook 5- 10 minutes.

This is a fresh horseradish, however you can easily replace this with horseradish in a jar.

Step 3: add grated fresh horseradish and chopped garlic

chop roasted hot or sweet pepper and fresh herbs.

soak some porcini in hot water

Step 4: add chopped chilies, fresh herbs, mushrooms, dry herbs, tomato paste and flour. Cook a few minutes then add wine and cook to reduce for another few minutes.  Add chicken broth and allow gravy to thicken and cook.

Set aside in either one dish or two. I make one to eat and one to freeze.

Step 5: peel, chop, boil and prepare mashed potatoes. If you want some additional flavour add some herbs or some boursin cheese.

Step 6: layer some mashed potatoes on top of meat and gravy, add a sprinkle of herbs and bake at 375 degrees F until bubbling and hot. Approx 30 minutes.

serve with fresh bread and a salad.