Meat-and-Potato Lovers' Shepherd's Pie
You can't go wrong with this updated version of a classic. Ground beef balances the highly flavoured lamb.
You can't go wrong with this updated version of a classic. Ground beef balances the highly flavoured lamb.
November nights are meant for enjoying the rich flavours of a stew made from root veggies and tender beef and topped with an epic potato crust.
Plump pork sausages, crispy Yorkshire pud and a rich onion gravy come together to make this family favourite.
An everlasting favourite of children, this dish is known and loved by most British people as sausages (the toad) cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter (the hole). But it wasn’t always so. In 1861, Mrs. Beeton described a version that used steak and kidney instead of sausages, while other early recipes called for cheap offcuts or leftovers of any kind of meat . The Art of Cookery (1747) even includes a recipe for “pigeon in a hole.” Sausages became integral to toad in the hole during World War I – perhaps as a way to
stop them exploding in the pan when frying – and the dish rapidly became a national hit.
This classic warm-you-up stew becomes even more comforting when made with well-marbled pot roast rather than the usual stewing beef. The fat melts slowly as it cooks, tenderizing the beef into juicy melt-in-your-mouth morsels. A slow finish in the oven gives the stew its rich, hearty texture.
The best part about this classic poutine? The gravy is made using store-bought broth, so you don't have to make your own. With a few added aromatics, it has all the intense, meaty flavour of homemade. If you're really pressed for time, use frozen fries and be done in about 30 minutes.
Full of tender meat in a thick sauce, this classic steamed pudding – the ultimate comfort food – is guaranteed to hit the spot.
Surely one of Britain’s national dishes, steak and kidney pudding has only been around since the mid-1800s. Beefsteak puddings had already featured on the British menu – indeed the poet and cook Eliza Acton’s own creation, Ruth Pinch’s Beefsteak Pudding, was named after one of the characters in Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens – but it wasn’t until 1861 that the first recipe for the pud that we know and love today appeared in Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. Cockneys often refer to this national institution as Kate and Sidney pud.
The secret to making this dish ultimately delicious is simple: Leave the cans on the shelf and use only fresh East Coast clams. For an even more spectacular chowder, serve it in bread bowls you make by hollowing out small round loaves or extra-large crusty hamburger buns.
This lamb dish is a wonderful option for Passover.
My family and I own a 16 acre farm of organic cranberries. When I saw the challenge was to use local products, I couldn't resist working with this wonderful, beautiful and tasty fruit. I serve these with roasted buttercup squashe. The sweetness of the squash blends well with the sweetness of onions and cranberries.