Wild Mushroom and Carmelized Onion Shepherd's Pie

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

(I drafted this a couple of days ago, decided to wait to post it until I had the pics uploaded - here you go!)

Just finished assembling this recipe; it's in the oven for the final cooking step now. I didn't take any step-by-step shots, but I'll try to get a good shot once it comes out of the oven, and once we get some out to eat...


A *lot* of prep work involved in this one! The cooking itself isn't hard, just many, many steps. I think the website says you can do this in 1.5 hours, but I'm thinking you'd have to be really on it and multitasking, with a sous chef, to make that happen. I prepped the potatoes (peeled & cooked) on Monday night, which saved me 1/2 hour, and I started cooking right when I got home at 6pm - it's 8:18 now and I've been sitting down for about :15 minutes.


The verdict? Really, really delicious! And I'm not even a super big fan of mushrooms. I saw a comment (luckily after I'd already started the process, the day after I'd made the potatoes and already had all the ingredients) that the person found it slimy and not good - that was not my experience at all. I even had to subsidize with a small quantity of dried mushrooms which I rehydrated (I'd misread the quantity of mushrooms needed - it is a LOT), and it still came out really, really tasty. Also, to save some money (wild mushrooms are crazy expensive), I used a mix of 2-4 oz packages of wild mushrooms and then 6 oz of button mushrooms and some loose shitakes to make up the rest of the 1-1/2 pounds you need. I wouldn't sweat the particulars too much on which type of mushrooms, as long as you can have a variety. Good stuff! This may or may not be on the make-again list... John and I both loved it, but I rarely have hours to spend prepping and assembling a meal. Maybe next time I'll sub in some roasted root vegetables. If there is a next time... We'll see!