Leftover Shepherds Pie (Empadão)

Remember how I mentioned that my brother had 2 favourite dishes? Bife a Cavalo and Shepherds Pie or Empadão, in Portuguese. I’ll have to admit this was one, and still is one of my favourite comfort foods. I can still remember distinct times when my Mom would ask us what we wanted to eat and we’d say “empadão!” 95% of the time. She wouldn’t make it all the time, and I understand why. It’s generally a long process; making the meat mixture on the stovetop, cooking and mashing the potatoes and then baking the whole thing. Well, I decided to cut out a step and used leftover chili and roasted vegetables from lunch time as the filling which left me only having to boil and mash the potatoes. Overall the results were pretty good. My family was happy with the fact that food was ready quickly and that it wasn’t just warmed up chili from lunch. My brother had his beloved empadão and no food went to waste.

Ingredients

• Leftover meat, could be BBQ, chili, stew, whatever, be as creative as you like
• Cooked vegetables, I used roasted peppers and asparagus, but you could use canned or frozen mixed vegetables too.
• Potatoes for mashing, here’s where you’ll have to eyeball it. I used about 8 medium sized potatoes which made enough mashed potatoes for a 9” square baking pan. It depends on how much filling you have. However, it’s better to make more mashed potatoes, you can use the extra as another layer in your empadão, or keep it to make some soup tomorrow
• Butter, a few tablespoons
• Milk, about a ¼ of a cup
• 1 or 2 eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.

2. Bring a pot with water to a boil and add the potatoes and some salt. Cook for 10 minutes or so, or until you can easily pierce the potatoes with a fork

3. Drain water from the potatoes and begin mashing with a potato masher. Add a tablespoon of butter and a little milk and keep mashing. Check the consistency of the mashed potatoes and taste them to see if they need more salt. Add more butter and/or milk if they’re not smooth or creamy enough for you.

4. Once the potatoes are mashed to your liking, get an appropriately sized baking pan and layer the meat mixture and vegetables on the bottom. Then smooth over the mashed potatoes.

5. Beat the eggs and apply as an egg wash on top of the potatoes before putting it in the oven.

Layering the mashed potatoes over the leftover meat and roasted veggies

The Shepherd's Pie baking in the oven...the egg wash makes it brown to a pretty colour :)