A recipe: Samosa inspired Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Samosa Pie

a seasonal farm fresh feast

Featuring New Roots Farm Pastured Lamb, Nice Farms Creamery Yogurt and Farm Fresh Produce.

Samosa Pie: Who doesn’t love a samosa? They are one of my favorite Indian foods, but I am always so sad because I devour a serving—there is never enough samosa to fill the fried (vegetable filled) pocket of joy in my heart and stomach . This recipe deconstructs a samosa and turns it into a family sized main dish and adds a lamb twist. It is somewhere between a casserole, a shepherds pie and an Indian samosa. I based this recipe off of the Foodess’s Samosa Pie recipe—but tweaking it to feature more Indian flavors and ground lamb. I also highly recommend the raita on top!

Ingredients:

1-1.25 lbs New Roots Farm Ground Lamb (This recipe also works with 50/50 grassfed lamb and grassfinished beef-you can also do a larger batch just use more spices and potatoes)

3-4 tbsp ghee

1 yellow onion diced

3-4 cloves of garlic minced 

3 tbsp of your favorite curry powder (my favorite is Oaktown Spice Shop’s Persian Lime curry)

1 tsp turmeric (use ½ tsp if your curry blend has a lot of turmeric in it already)

1 tsp garam masala

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 tsp Asafoetida (optional, also known as hing, adds a buttery leek flavor) 

1.5-2 pounds of potatoes (peeled and chopped into .5 inch pieces)

1 cup of good broth/stock (I use chicken)

1 cup of fresh or frozen peas

½ cup of chopped fresh cilantro

1 sheet of puff pastry (either purchased or homemade—I hoard Trader Joe’s frozen puff pastry which is available around the holidays specifically for this type of project. Do yourself a favor and buy a bunch of these this fall when they are in stock. They are also great for pot pies.)

Yogurt Sauce: This is basically a raita—an Indian yogurt sauce that is used on a variety of meat and vegetable dishes. You can make it your own and mix up the flavors—raitas are often made with fresh mint, cilantro, cucumber and spices

1 cup of Nice Farms Creamery plain yogurt (or another whole milk yogurt—not Greek)

1 tbsp lemon juice (or more)

Chopped Cilantro (1-2 tbsp)

.25 cups of grated cucumber

1 tbsp. amchoor powder (if you don’t have amchoor add some fresh chopped garlic, some cumin, or red pepper) Amchoor is made from unripened mangos and is citrus-y and tangy

Instructions:

Heat butter or ghee in a large sauté pan, add the onion and cook until golden and it starts to caramelize—add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. 

 Add the ground lamb to the onion and garlic, browning it and adding the dry spices (curry, turmeric, garam masala, pinch of salt and some pepper). Cook until the ground lamb is browned. Once the lamb has browned thoroughly add the chopped potatoes and broth. Make sure there is enough broth to cover the bottom of the pan and keep the mix from sticking. Cover the pan with a lid and cook until the potatoes are tender. You will want to stir occasionally while the potatoes cook. 

When the potatoes are done use a potato masher to gently mash the potatoes. You can do this in the pan with a hand held masher, wooden spoon or back of a large fork. You don’t need to mash all the potatoes and will want to leave some larger pieces—this is just to make the mix a bit fluffy and give it more of the texture of samosa filling. Stir in the frozen peas and chopped cilantro. Taste and adjust seasonings and salt as needed. 

Transfer the mixture to a baking dish (8x10/2qts), spreading the mixture evenly in the pan. Roll the puff pastry out and cover the dish—pressing the edges and using a fork or knife to make steam vents. 

Bake at 400 degrees until the crust is golden brown on top. 20-25 minutes. While it is baking mix the yogurt sauce ingredients together and let the sit until you’re ready to serve. 

Serve the pie with large dollops of yogurt sauce on top.