Shepherd's Soup?

mashed potatoes melted into my "soup"

For New Year's day I made some mashed potatoes and my eyes were bigger than our appetites.  Needless to say I had some leftovers and was wondering what to do with them when I saw a Jamie Oliver recipe (from my new xmas gift to myself "Jamie Oliver's Great Britain") for Shepherd's Pie.  I think this is the first recipe of Jamie's that I have tried that did not work. My pie turned out more like a soup. I'm not totally blaming Jamie as I made a mistake in that I should have drained off the fat from the beef (see below - what I pulled off after the whole thing was cooked but before I put on the potatoes)

It tasted good, like a potato soup with ground beef, so I'm going to revise his recipe and suggest you try this next time you have some leftover mashed potatoes.

Shepherd's Pie serves 4

1 onion finely chopped
2 carrots diced
1 tablespoon each olive oil & butter
1 pound lean! ground beef (he used veal, but that's tricky to find, I would just try to find a good grass fed beef)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon thyme

too much greasy liquid

1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup beer
zest of half a lemon
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 and 1/2 to 2 cups leftover mashed potatoes

Saute the onions and carrots in the oil and butter in a large dutch oven until soft. Add the beef and cook until mostly done - DRAIN off the fat! S&P and put in the bay leaf, thyme and flour and cook for a couple minutes more. Pour in the beer and lemon zest and cook over low heat with lid askew for about 45 min. Here's where the other recipe is off - he said "add enough water to cover the meat by 1/3 inch - Now that's where the soup came in! Anyway, you may need to add a little broth so it's not completely dry - so watch it and stir every now and again while it's cooking. Finally add the cream and cook an additional 10 min - taste for s&p. Sprinkle over the cheese and then top with mashed potatoes and try to make a pretty design with a fork. Place in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 min.

Post Note: I probably shouldn't say this but when I was serving this into our bowls Rich said - "it looks like vomit" - at least it didn't taste like it! I assure you this revised version will not.