Shepherd’s pie with beef, lamb and sweet potato mash
- Preparation 1 h
- Refrigeration 3 to 4 days
- Cooking 1 h 20 min
- Servings 6
- Freezing Absolutely, 3 months
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🥧 Why I call it deluxe
I called it deluxe because there’s lamb in it, cheese, sweet potato. This is not my boring little pâté chinois. It comes straight from the fact that I like adding things to a traditional dish. The structure never moves: meat on the bottom, corn in the middle, mashed potatoes on top. Every layer just goes up a notch.
🐑 Lamb, shiitakes and savory
1 lb of medium-lean ground beef, 3/4 lb of ground lamb. The lamb is what gives the depth that beef alone never has. The chopped shiitakes melt into the filling and leave a woodsy note behind them. And savory, the herb of Quebec tourtières, lands in there like it always belonged. Nobody puts savory in a shepherd’s pie. I do. Add a third of a cup of amber ale reduced with the vegetables, just enough to taste the malt without tasting beer.
🍠 The house pâté chinois
The mash is half sweet potato, half Russet: the sweet ones soften it, the Russets hold it together. The corn comes double, kernels and creamed stirred together before they go in, because that’s how it tastes best. On top, 7 oz of grated Gruyère that goes under the broiler until the crust turns golden. Then it’s ready. It’s a weekend dish, real comfort food, and it assembles beautifully ahead of time.
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🥔 Forty-five minutes for the potatoes, yes
That’s three times longer than what you’ll read anywhere else, and it’s on purpose. These are cubes of sweet potato and Russet, and they have to be properly cooked, not just fork tender. A potato with any bite left gives you a grainy mash that refuses to spread. I also drop both kinds in the same pot at the same time. No staggering, no fuss.
💧 A dry mash, or nothing
Drain them well, then put the potatoes back in the hot pot for two minutes before smashing. Leftover water always finds its way out in the oven and soaks the corn layer.
🔥 My 12 minutes in the oven assume everything is piping hot
This is the part nobody explains, and it’s exactly where people get burned. When I assemble, everything is boiling hot: the meat comes off the stove, the mash comes out of the pot, the corn was just stirred together. Those 12 minutes at 400°F are not there to cook the dish, they’re there to seal it together. The broiler builds the crust after that, and you’re done.
If you assemble ahead and the dish comes out of the fridge, forget that number. Count a solid 40 minutes for the centre to get properly hot. You can pull it out 20 minutes early to save a bit of time, but I wouldn’t go lower than that. A lukewarm centre is what happens when you copy a baking time without knowing what surrounded it.
🍺 The amber ale, and the fat you throw out
The third of a cup goes in with the vegetables, before the meat. You drain the fat after the meat and yes, a little liquid leaves with it. Even after draining the fat, the flavour is still there: the carrots, celery and mushrooms already drank it. A non-alcoholic amber does the same job if you’d rather keep it out.
🧀 The broiler is a matter of seconds
Grated Gruyère browns fast and burns faster. Stay right by the oven on that one.
🌽 Mix the corn before, not in the dish
Kernels and creamed corn in a bowl, stirred, then spread. Layer them separately and the cream sinks into the meat while the kernels stay dry on top.
🇨🇦 Did you know
The name likely comes from China Pie, a dish served in the town of China, Maine. Quebec workers are said to have tasted it there and brought it home. Nothing to do with China the country.
✅ What do I serve with my shepherd’s pie?
Homemade fruit ketchup, full stop. It’s the classic Quebec side for pâté chinois and nothing else replaces it. Next to it, homemade pickled beets for the acidity that cuts through the lamb. And if you want the same dish built the long way, there’s my red beer braised beef shepherd’s pie.
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Ingredients
- 2 big sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 big Russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- Olive oil
- 1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, cut in half then sliced
- 3 celery sticks, cut in half then sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) dried savory
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) amber ale of your choice
- 3 1/2 oz (100 g) shiitake mushrooms, chopped
- 1 lb (450 g) medium-lean ground beef
- 3/4 lb (350 g) ground lamb
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) butter
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) 15% country style cream
- 1 can (398 ml) two-colour corn, drained
- 1 can (398 ml) creamed corn
- 7 oz (200 g) aged Gruyère cheese, grated
- Dried parsley
- Salt and ground pepper
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Preparation
- In a big pot filled with boiling salty water, pour the potatoes and cook for 45 minutes, or until ultra fork tender. Pour in a strainer, drain and return in the pot. Set aside, heat off.
- Meanwhile, in a saucepan at medium heat, add 2-3 tablespoons (45 ml) olive oil and cook onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes while stirring.
- Add the carrots, celery, savory along with a small drizzle of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper then toss well. Continue cooking for 5 minutes while stirring often. Add the beer and mushrooms then continue cooking for 5 minutes.
- Preheat the oven at 400°F (200°C).
- Add the meat in the saucepan and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, while breaking in small chunks, until it is not pink anymore. Season with salt and pepper. Drain off fat and set aside.
- Heat back the potatoes at medium and smash well. Add the butter and melt while stirring / smashing non stop. Add the cream, then stir. Taste and rectify seasoning if necessary.
- In a big bowl, combine both cans of corn and set aside.
- In a 9” x 13” baking dish, add the meat mix and spread well. Pour the corn mix and spread well again. Add the potatoes and spread like a ninja. Cover with the grated cheese then sprinkle some dried parsley, to taste.
- Place in the oven and cook for 12 minutes. Crank to BROIL and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese is golden! Remove from oven and let rest a couple of minutes before serving!
Because the creamed corn already does that job. A traditional shepherd’s pie leans on a gravy built from stock, tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce to keep the filling moist. Here, the layer of creamed corn sits right between the meat and the mash and releases its own moisture in the oven, so the filling never dries out.
That’s the Quebec way of building this dish, and it’s why my version has no peas, no Worcestershire and no roux. Add gravy on top of the creamed corn and you end up with soup under your mash.
The card says 1 h 20 of cooking and that surprises people, because the oven only runs for 12 minutes. The 1 h 20 is the total: 45 minutes of potatoes in boiling water, about fifteen minutes of vegetables and meat on the stove, then 12 minutes at 400°F (200°C) and 2 to 3 minutes under the broiler.
If the dish is assembled hot, the way I do it, 12 minutes is plenty. If it spent the night in the fridge, count a solid 40 minutes in the oven.
Absolutely, for up to 3 months in the freezer. In the fridge, assembled or as leftovers, it keeps 3 to 4 days without any trouble.
The easiest route is to let it thaw overnight in the fridge before it goes back in the oven. At that point you’re well past 12 minutes: give it the same solid 40 minutes so the centre comes back up to temperature, then crank the broiler at the end to bring the cheese back to gold.
Pâté chinois is essentially the Quebec cousin of hachis parmentier, with two differences. Pâté chinois has a layer of corn between the meat and the mash, and it carries no lyonnaise sauce. Two dishes, not two versions of the same one.
If it’s the French one you’re after, I have my hachis parmentier with ground beef and Gruyère, and my red wine braised beef parmentier for the long version.
The classic pair is homemade fruit ketchup and homemade pickled beets. The first brings the sweet and spicy note that answers the corn, the second brings the vinegar that cuts the lamb and the Gruyère. A green salad with a sharp vinaigrette does the same job if you have nothing pickled on hand.
And if you’re wondering what to cook next time around, my red beer braised beef shepherd’s pie is the same spirit, stretched over an afternoon.
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