Shepherd's Pie for St. Pat's Day, A Book Review and the Weekly Menu

Ground lamb and tender vegetables in a savory gravy topped with mashed potatoes.  This dish is a great alternative for those who don't care for corned beef and cabbage this St. Patrick's Day.

Dingle Pie #SundayFunday #PiDay #StPatsDay

So here we are getting ready for St. Patrick's Day with the Sunday Funday Bloggers but it is also PI(e) Day tomorrow, 3.14, and the French Winophiles are celebrating Women History month so I wanted a dish that I could pair with a lovely red blend from Lirac.

My solution to this conundrum? This savory, delicious pie made with slow braised lamb in an herb gravy.

Pierogi Shepherd's Pie #BakingBloggers

This delicious one skillet dinner starts with ground beef  sauteed with onion and garlic, drenched in gravy with vegetables and topped with potato cheese pierogi before being finished off in the oven.  Delicious, easy, quick and convenient.  A perfect weeknight meal.

The Baking Bloggers are making dishes with ground and/or minced meats today.......

Lobster Pot Pie #FishFridayFoodies

We are celebrating the one year anniversary of Fish Friday Foodies.  It was last January that I decided to try to add more fish and seafood to my diet and asked my fellow bloggers if they would be interested in joining me once each month posting a fish or seafood recipe.  They not only agreed to join me but they also volunteered to come up with themes and take turns hosting each month.  I just love my blogging community.

Are you a food blogger who would like to join our group and post with us on the third Friday of each month?  We would love to have you.  Simply let me know in the comments below or by emailing me at wendyklik1517@gmail.com and I will add you to the group.

This month's theme was chosen by my friend and mentor, Stacy of Food Lust People Love.  Stacy challenged us to: 

"Bake us something cozy this month including your favorite seafood. Shortcrust, puff pastry, deep dish with mashed potatoes on top, hand pies, free form galettes or ornate decorated crusts, quiche, even vols-au-vent with seafood filling would qualify. Use one type of seafood or mix it up."

I have been wanting to make a Lobster Pot Pie for a long time now.  The idea of tender chunks of lobster in a creamy sauce with veggies and a crust sounds so appealing to me.  Unfortunately, my husband does not love seafood as much as I.  He will eat fish but prefers it fried.  He will eat small amounts of shrimp, scallops, crab and lobster but isn't crazy about it.  The way I have found to work around this difference of tastes is to serve seafood as a first course where the portions are smaller.

I decided to make these individual lobster pot pies for the first course of our family Christmas dinner where it was just us and our children.  Each year we try to have one dinner over the holidays where it is just our immediate family.  It is not always an easy task getting all of our kids together at one time. This year we were missing our eldest son, Chuck, who was on leave from the Navy for Thanksgiving this year but not Christmas.

I used premade, frozen puff pastry shells for the crusts of each pot pie.  This small shell filled with the creamy, savory filling was just the perfect size for a starter.

I boiled up 3 lobster tails, removed them from their shells and chopped them into bite size pieces before incorporating them into the sauce that started with a base of fennel and onions.  The sauce is a a roux mixed with clam juice and heavy cream.  Sweet peas are folded in at the end along with the lobster pieces.

I placed the bottom of the pastry into a small dish, smothered it with the lobster filling and topped it with the pastry disc.  It was a lovely presentation and a delicious start to our meal.

Individual Lobster Pot Pies

1 med sweet onion, chopped

1 fennel bulb, chopped

1 stick butter

1/2 c. flour

3 (8 oz) bottles, clam juice

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 c. heavy cream

3 lobster tails, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces

1 (12 oz) pkg frozen peas, thawed

1 pkg frozen puff pastry shells, cooked per package directions

Melt the butter in a large skillet over med high heat.  Add the onion and fennel, cook and stir until tender and translucent, about 15 minutes.  Add the flour, cook on low, stirring until nutty smelling and light brown, 3-4 minutes.  Slowly add the clam juice, stirring constantly until incorporated and starting to thicken.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in the heavy cream until smooth and silky.  Stir in the peas and lobster, cook gently until heated through.

Place the bottom of each pastry into individual shallow bowls, spoon the lobster mixture over each bottom and top with a pastry round.  Print Recipe

More wonderful Fish/Seafood Pies and Tarts

An InLinkz Link-up