Lentil Shepard's Pie with Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Herbivores, do you ever play that game with yourself where you try to remember exactly what you were doing a year ago? You try to summon up the events of the day ("Well, it was a Wednesday, so at this time I was probably waiting for the bus...") and you try to remember how you were feeling and what lay ahead for your past self.

I've been doing that a lot lately for some reason, remembering my twice-weekly travels back and forth from Philadelphia to New York, the seemingly endless shuffle between work and school and back again, the world of culinary adventures opening up to me.

I am remembering learning how to properly cut an onion, how to use a wok, how to roll out a vegan pie crust, how to identify a myriad sea vegetables, how to put together Macrobiotic and Aryuvedic meals, how to make a beurre monte sauce (more on that later), how to make gluten-free pie crusts... the list goes on and on.

In short, after some time away from culinary school, the basic tenets are flooding back to me in a strange sense-memory way. I'm finding myself using the techniques I learned in an instinctual manner, which is, I suppose, the whole point of going to culinary school, graduating, and continuing to work in food. School is supposed to make these things second nature, supposed to make you produce quality food consistently, without much conscious thought.
And I still hear the voices of my instructors in my ear, even when I'm cooking alone. I hear Chef Barbara tsk-ing over my vegetable cuts ("Keep them uniform!"), I hear Chef Rich scolding me for salting my food only at the end ("Seasoning the food at the end of cooking is like putting on makeup after your date!") and I hear Chef Jay reminding me not to fussy with my salting ("Season from a great height!").

Back to the shepard's pie. January has been blowing icy blasts all over Philadelphia lately, so this seemed like just the thing to chase away winter's chill. And great minds seem to be thinking alike, as I'm seeing a ton of shepard's pies popping up all over the blogosphere. I fell in love with The Fig Tree's idea of using roasted garlic & goat cheese in the mashed potatoes, so I stocked up on lentils and taters and carrots and got cooking.

Alone in my kitchen, I carefully chopped all of my vegetables evenly, cooked my lentils just right and even got fancy with a piping bag for the mashed potato top. The whole time I was remembering and smiling to myself, marveling as my hands instinctually did what my brain had to painstakingly learn just one short year ago.

This isn't of course to say that you have to go to culinary school to make a shepard's pie. But parsnip munchers, the next time you're in the kitchen, use your cooking time as a meditation on all the things you've learned this past year, all of the tasks that at one time seemed so difficult and are now instinctual. Big or small, our experiences teach us how to be better people.

And that is something to be grateful for indeed.

Bain taitneamh as do bheil!

PREP TIME: about 30 minutes

COOKING TIME: about 1 1/2 hours

MAKES: about 8 one cup servings

INGREDIENTS:

for the base:

• 2 cups French green (Puy) lentils
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 medium onions, cut into 1/4" dice (about 2 cups)
• 2-3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4" quarter moons
• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, removed from stems and finely chopped
• 6 ounces crimini mushrooms, cut into 1/2" dice
• 3-4 leaves lacinato (dinosaur) kale, stems removed, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

for the top:

• 3 pounds Yukon Gold or russet potatoes, peeled and cut into even 1" chunks
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 4 cups water
• 1 head garlic
• 4 ounces herbed chevre or soft goat cheese, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup buttermilk, plus more as needed
• sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

for the sauce:

• 2 cups red wine
• 1 teaspoon honey
• pinch of sea salt
• 2 teaspoons dried tarragon
• 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the top of the head of garlic off and wrap the whole thing loosely in aluminum foil. Place in the oven and roast until fragrant and very soft, about 45 minutes. When garlic is tender, allow to cool slightly and squeeze out roasted cloves, discarding papery skins. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, cook potatoes and lentils. Spread lentils out on a sheet pan or clean counter and sift through them, discarding any stones or stems. Rinse lentils in cold water. Place lentils, 1 cup red wine and 2 cups water in a large, heavy-bottomed stockpot. Bring mixture to a boil and immediately reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until tender, about 30-40 minutes. When lentils are done, remove from heat, drain through a fine mesh and toss with a little olive oil. Set aside.
3. While lentils are simmering, place the chopped potatoes in another heavy-bottomed stockpot with 4 cups of vegetable stock and 4 cups of water. Bring mixture to a boil and immediately reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until potatoes are extremely tender, almost falling apart. When potatoes are done, drain liquid and place potatoes back into stockpot with a loose lid to keep them warm & moist.
4. While the lentils and potatoes are bubbling on the stove and the garlic is roasting in the oven, heat up 1 tablespoon olive oil in a saute pan until the surface of the oil begins to shimmer. Add chopped onion and saute until soft and browned. Add carrot quarter moons and fresh thyme and saute for 5 minutes more, until carrots just begin to soften.
5. Remove onions & carrots from pan and set aside. Heat up another tablespoon of olive oil in saute pan. Add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms have lost their liquid and begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add chopped kale and cooked onions & carrots to pan. Season with salt & pepper. Saute until kale turns bright green, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir cooked lentils into vegetable mixture and set aside.
6. Prepare the mashed potato topping: pass cooked potatoes and roasted garlic through a potato ricer. (Alternately you can do this in a stand mixer or even with a hand-held potato masher for more rustic results, but a potato ricer will get you the fluffiest topping). Stir in goat cheese and buttermilk until a smooth consistency is reached. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Prepare the sauce: in a small saute pan, combine 2 cups red wine, 1 teaspoon honey and 2 teaspoons dried tarragon. Bring mixture to a boil and reduce by almost half, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. When mixture looks thick (but not too syrup-y: be careful not to over-reduce!), reduce heat and half-remove the pan from the burner. Place the cold butter in the pan and continually swirl the pan until butter is melted. When butter is melted, turn off burner. Congratulate yourself for successfully beurre monte-ing a sauce!
8. Grease a 9" by 13" casserole dish. Place lentil & vegetable mixture on the bottom and spread evenly through the dish. Pour red wine sauce over lentils and vegetables. Place mashed potatoes in a piping bag with a large star tip and make whatever design you like on the top of the pie. Or you can simply spread the potato mixture over the lentils with a spatula and use a fork to make a cross-hatch design.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until mixture is heated through. Place casserole under broiler for 5 minutes (definitely keep an eye on it, though-- those things can take your food from brown to burned fast) or until top is crisped and browned.
10. Serve with a glass of red wine and toast to the new and amazing things you'll learn this year.

And because this post has made me all nostalgic, I couldn't stop myself from posting this wonderful video about my culinary alma mater. It may seem cheesy, but that place truly did change my life and I am so eternally grateful for my experience there. Check it out: