You may be expecting something exotic or more extravagant reflected by the title, but I can assure, you are mistaken. This is nothing more than a very light spin on shepherd’s or cottage pie.

So, lets sort this out first. Shepherd, as you can imagine comes from the contraction of the two words sheep herder. Furthermore, shepherds pie is traditionally a lamb or mutton dish. Not to be confused with its cousin "cottage pie" which is made with beef. In the context of this dish, we are using goose therefore I’m calling it Borealis Pie. I know, lame right? Well, call it what you will, goose lends itself well to this heartiest of comfort foods. As with most of my minced meat recipes, I like to cut my whole muscle meat with some sort of fat. Bear fat, goose fat, or pork fat will do fine as well. 20%/80% is my typical balance of fat to whole muscle meat but a little more fat doesn’t hurt. On that same thought you can use bear, goose, duck, deer, elk meat, or pretty much whatever you have in the fridge.

This makes a fine pre-bake dish to freeze and take to camp with you. Reheat after a long day chasing whitetails or ringnecks but I can assure you if your camp is the type where everyone lives off PB&J’s and last years goose jerky, you’ll be a hero if you show up with this in your cooler.  

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of ground goose or meat of choice
• 1 cup butter cut into pats (approx. 1 tbsp squares)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• Approx. 2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme or basil (dried will work too)
• 2 cups diced carrots
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 3 lbs Yukon gold potatoes
• 2 ½ cups of beef or game broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: truffle oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil while peeling potatoes (add enough salt to the water so its noticeable on the tongue).
3. Cut the potatoes into 1-1 ½ inch pieces so they boil faster.
4. As potatoes boil, heat a large, high sided skillet or oven safe dish with lid over medium heat (a 12-inch-high sided cast iron skillet with a lid will works well). Add 2-3 pats of butter to the pan and let brown.
5. As the butter starts to smoke, add half of the onion and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook until it starts to brown.
6. Add carrots and half of the herbs, cooking until tender but not too soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the pan and set aside.
7. Add 2-3 pats of butter to the same pan. When the butter starts to brown, add the remaining half of the onion. When translucent, add the meat and brown.
   Pro Tip: Grey meat is NOT properly cooked minced meat. You need color which means you may have to "brown off" the meat in shifts which is totally fine in this context. Split it into thirds even if you find the meat is boiling more than searing in the pan.
8. Add broth and remaining herbs and bring the mixture to a simmer.
9. Mix corn starch into two tablespoons of water until it reaches a consistency of melted ice cream. Add to your meat mixture to thicken.
   Pro Tip: Instead of adding water to the corn starch first, take a small sieve and shake a little cornstarch onto the meat, mix, shake a little more, mix and continue until the mixture is as thick as desired. The thicker the mixture the more set the dish will be but be careful as it can make the meat seem dry.
10. Drain and mash potatoes, adding 2-3 pats of butter at a time until a creamy and shiny consistency is reached.
11. Add the rest of the herbs and salt and pepper to taste.
12. Assemble the pie by adding all the meat back on the bottom.
13. Layer on carrots, frozen corn & peas, and finish by spreading mashed potatoes atop evenly.
14. Bake for one hour or until the mash potatoes develop a brown crust. Drag a fork across the top to check for crispiness.
15. Optional: drizzle a half dozen drops of truffle oil on top if you have it before serving.