Welcome to the column to go to when you’re a broke, tired college student in a dorm. As promised, I am remaking one of the items I had from Mulligan’s. I’ve decided to attempt a remake of the Shepherd’s Pie.

You’ll need: one pound ground lamb, one small minced onion, one drained can of peas and carrots mix, two large cubed (peeled or unpeeled) potatoes, two tablespoons tomato paste, two tablespoons garlic butter, two tablespoons rendered bacon fat, one tablespoon cream sherry, half a cup shredded cheddar cheese, three beef bouillon cubes, one bay leaf, seasoned salt, parsley, rosemary, sage, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika and chives.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Set one stove eye to medium low and the other to high. In a cast iron skillet, brown your ground lamb on the medium-low eye. Add your chopped onion, peas and carrots. Cook until your onions are soft and translucent. Then, add your tomato paste and sherry. Mix, and then season to taste with the above seasonings. Let simmer, then turn off the heat. Drain excess grease with a paper towel and flatten the meat mix.

In a separate pot, boil your water on the high heat eye and add the beef bouillon cubes. Boil your potatoes until fork tender. Drain, but leave some of the broth in the pot. Add the butter and bacon fat. Then mash into mashed potatoes. Once your potatoes are mashed to the desired consistency, salt, and then layer on the lamb mix, smooth and even. Salt again and top with the cheddar and chives and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Photo of a Mulligan’s inspired Shepherd’s Pie. (Amythyst Morris/East Tennessean)

Some interesting notes to compare my remake.

-Mulligan’s has a much more herbal flavor than my own did, meanwhile the cheddar and bacon flavors were much more present in mine.

– Lamb really does make the difference. Part of the reason I chose to remake this dish in particular is that I already have experience making cottage pie. The only true difference between Cottage and Shepherd’s Pie is that Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb and cottage pie is made with beef.

-Also to note, I definitely noticed that there was a texture difference between Mulligan’s Shepherd’s Pie and my normal Cottage Pie, hence the attempt of a remake. Mulligan’s is much more crumbly in texture than my own, and even though I remedied that in the actual making of this compared to my normal, my own was still more silky, even with attempted corrections.

-Finally, mine ended up having more vegetables and mashed potatoes, probably why the above happened. This can be further whittled down to make it even closer next time. 

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