Cottage Pie... Shepard's Pie?

No matter what you call it, it's a peasant dish where us broke asses on a budget can throw meat and taters in a baking dish with whatever veggies we have on hand and make it look fancy.

I'm going to list off everything I used for this recipe, but have fun with it, man. You can use sweet potatoes or butternut squash instead of yellow potatoes. You can do chopped chicken or steak instead of ground beef. You definitely don't have to be as extra as me with the pearl onions but... you should still use the pearl onions. They're essentially little flavor bombs that rock my nips and I love them in any stew, soup, or savory dish I can fit them into.

Why the iron skillet?

Everything is just better in an iron skillet. Also... like I said I'm on a budget. I literally own one pot, a baking sheet, and an iron skillet. Those are all of my cooking dishes. How much more does a person need anyway?!

Mashed Potato Crust Ingredients:

5 medium sized yellow potatoes (peeled)

1/2 cup cold ghee (or butter)

2 teaspoons sea salt

Stew Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 red onion (chopped)

1 cup pearl onions

3 cloves chopped garlic

3 stalks chopped celery

2 large carrots (chopped)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cups beef broth

1 teaspoon celery salt (or pink sea salt but the celery salt is the tits)

1 tablespoon ghee or butter

Directions:

Boil your potatoes first as this will take a mother****er of a long time

In your iron skillet (that you have already added a tsp of ghee to because you're smart enough to not let shit stick to your skillet), add all of your veggies and let them cook on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. Then add in your ground beef and cook until browned.

Add your tomato paste and stir like a mofo to get that thick ass goop evenly distributed. Then add your remaining ingredients. Cook until everything has reduced (about 10 minutes)

Let the stuff in your iron skillet cook on low heat while you probably still have to wait forever for your taters to be mashable.

When your potatoes are soft af, use a potato masher (if you don't own one get one, they're cheap) to beat the hell out of them until they're mostly mush. Then add your salt and ghee and continue mashing until your potatoes are thinned down and creamy.

Use your tool of choice to scoop and spread the potatoes on top of the stew in the iron skillet. When the potatoes are evenly distributed and you have a good crusted top, use a knife to glide across the crust to create whatever design you want. This makes the pie look cool and rustic. Plus, when you create height to certain areas, it makes the peaks of the crust nice and crispy!

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the crust starts to brown. To make it super crispy, hit it with a high broil for 5 minutes after it's baked.

Let it cool for at least 1 hour! This shit will be hot!