30 Minute Mondays Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients

• 2 pounds russet potatoes (about 4 medium) peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 pound ground lamb, or ground beef
• 1 small onion, diced fine
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 TB flour (if you can't have flour, use organic corn starch or arrowroot or potato starch)
• 1 TB tomato paste
• 2 cups homemade chicken stock (if using ground beef, use beef stock)
• 2 tsp. fresh thyme, minced. (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
• 2 tsp. organic Worcestershire sauce
• *1/2 tsp. balsamic --only if using beef stock
• 3 TB unsalted butter- melted
• 2/3 cup half and half - room temp or slightly warmed
• 2 cups frozen, organic peas and carrots. I steamed my own peas and cut my own fresh carrots. It added another 7 minutes to the total of this dish.

Directions

1. Cover potatoes with 1 inch of well salted water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer and cook until fork tender- about 10-15 minutes.
2. While potatoes simmer, cook lamb in a large skillet over medium heat until almost cooked through. Season with a few pinches of salt and some black pepper. Cook for about 2-3 minutes. Drain lamb or beef and reserve 2 TB of the fat. Set lamb aside.
3. Add the reserved TB of lamb or beef fat to the skillet and return to medium heat. Add the onion and a scant 1/2 tsp. salt and some pepper and cook the onion until softened, about 4-5 minutes.
4. Stir in the flour and tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour is fully incorporated. About 1 minute. **Don't panic as this starts to stick to the bottom of your pan, and act like it's burning a little. You want the tomato paste and flour to cook for a full 60 seconds so just keep cooking. When you whisk in the stock, you will have a chance to scrap up everything that stuck to the bottom of the pan while you were "roasting" the flour and tomato paste.
5. WHISK in the stock, thyme and Worcestershire sauce (and balsamic if using beef stock), scraping up any cooked on bits of goodness. Bring to a simmer. Return the drained lamb to the skillet, cover, and cook over medium-low heat until sauce is nicely thickened, about 6-8 minutes.
6. Drain potatoes, return to the pot and mash until smooth using a potato masher or hand mixer. Stir in the melted butter and 1/2 cup of the half and half, season with salt and pepper, stir then taste.
7. Add the rest of the half and half if the potatoes are too thick (they won't spread if they're thick and gummy). Keep warm, while the lamb mixture is simmering.
8. Stir in the peas and carrots to the lamb/beef mixture and simmer until heated through about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste (if needed).
9. Pour the mixture into individual bowls and top with the mashed potatoes, OR just top the mixture in the skillet with mashed potatoes and serve it from the skillet, family style.