It's Not Pizza

The beautiful thing, is that it took no effort at all. I made it up as I went along. Well,I should never say it took no effort, the actual process took about an hour and a half of flailing around in the kitchen, but I didn't really have to think about it, it just came together.

You'll need:

three pounds of wax potatoes
three large leeks
1 cup cream
another cup of cream
1 package of butter
Dubliner cheese
gruyere
salt, lots of it
fresh ground pepper
four pounds of meat
fistful of shallots
two cans of concentrated beef broth (settle down)
more salt
more butter
more cream

Have you figured it out yet? Sheperd's Pie, my friend. Upscaled for your snobby palate.

Brown off all the meat, salting with a heavy hand. Simultaneously, peel and boil off all the potatoes. Use waxy potatoes, not russets or baking. Salt the water well. This is a celebration of salt! While you're draining the meat, sautee the leeks and shallots together.

When the potatoes are done, drain, put them back in a huge bowl and start fustigating the potatoes. Add in the full extent of butter.

Salt, salt, salt.

Add cream until it hurts a bit less in the shoulder, but not so that it resembles traditional, creamy mashed potatoes. These potatoes should have chunks and a hearty rustic feel. They should also carry a ton of flavor. Butter and cream and salt as necessary until you want to shovel it into your mouth. Then you know it's ready. Set it aside.

Take the browned meat and throw it back into the pan with the shallots and leeks, sweated off to perfection by now. Stir it all together, and add two cans of the beef broth concentrate. If you have some demi base, throw it in. If you want to use consumme, go crazy, just use something that will impart a beefy flavor, hamburger alone won't do it.

Simmer for a spell. I went nuts and added some cream for extra flavor, salting along the way. At the very end I added flour to thickent it a bit. Remove from heat after about five minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Fill the bottom of a pyrex dish with the meat, and press it down a bit for structural integrity. The potatoes, because they are not whipped up into a fluffy pile, will be a little laborious to spread on top of the meat without mixing it. Who cares? This is the ultimate peasant dish. It doesn't need to look like Escoffier himself made it.

Shred gruyere or cheddar or parmesan or whatever on top and broil for a few minutes, just to brown everything. Remove and let cool. Dig in!