Karin's Week Forty-One Recipe: Sheperd's Pie in a Bundt Pan

Recently I've had a hankering to bake something in my Bundt pan. It hasn't been used in a while, as I've been doing my baking either in cookie format, or in the more standard 8x8 or 9x13 format. While looking through my Bundt Classics cookbook, I found a section on savory recipes, including one for Shepherd's Pie. After mentioning this to Nate, he liked the idea so much that he made real mashed potatoes for it while I was at the store. I will warn you that this project is not for the faint of heart - it makes a LOT of shepherd's pie.

Shepherd's Pie in a Bundt Pan

Crust
3 c prepared mashed potatoes
1 egg

Filling
2lb ground beef
1/2 c chopped onion (or so)
1 (8oz) pkg mushrooms, sliced
1 c sour cream
1/2 c catsup (or tomato sauce with Worcestshire if you do not like catsup)
2 T prepared mustard (we used brown horseradish as that is what we had)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Heat oven to 400deg. In large bowl, stir together mashed potatoes and egg; mix well. Using back of spoon, press 2.5c of potatoes in bottom and 3/4 way up sides of 10 or 12c Bundt pan; reserve remaining potatoes. In large skillet, over med high heat, cook ground beef, onion and mushrooms, just until meat is no longer pink; drain well. In same skillet, stir in reserved 1/2 c of potatoes and all other filling ingredients. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake at 400deg for 35-40min, or until hot in center. Cool upright in pan 10min. Invert onto serving plate. 10-12 servings.

Taste-wise this version of shepherd's pie tasted great. Very much like my stroganoff recipe in fact; although the serving size is a bit off as we ate about 40% of it between the two of us. The challenging part is getting the pan inverted onto the serving plate. I needed Nate to do this as my hands weren't big enough to handle 2+ lbs of meat and potatoes. Impressively, the potatoes really did make a crust, and I took a picture to prove it. Next time, however, I think we'll make more potatoes - 3c was really not enough to make a good crust all the way around the pan. I'll also grease the middle spindle, as the pie did not want to release from the middle. This could be an impressive dish for a family get-together.