Shepherd’s Pie
Rottentomato, owner of Shalampax’s Most Expensive Restaurant, has long heard great things about a dish called Shepherd’s Pie. Since first learning of this dish, he has wanted to prepare it for his restaurant guests. However, he has been stymied because no shepherds have ever visited our island.
But the joke was on Rottentomato because a quick Internet search would have told him that Shepherd’s Pie is traditionally made with ground lamb or mutton and it can be made with ground beef. Ground up shepherds are optional. In fact, it seems that almost any ground meat would be acceptable.
Rottentomato has now received this information from one restaurant patron who, surprisingly for a Shalampaxian, was curious. Consequently, as a substitute for ground shepherds, Rottentomato will be using ground up imported garden slugs as the meat base for his Shepherd’s Pie. The slug meat probably won’t be as tasty as the flesh of shepherds, but you have to take what you can get here in Shalampax because it’s very hard to find exporters willing to ship shepherds for use as recipe ingredients.
My understanding about Shepherd’s Pie is that it must be covered with mashed potatoes. It doesn’t really matter what type of meat you use–so slugs or shepherds or ground beef would be okay as long as you have the tater topping.
@Patricia: That’s good to know. Rottentomato will be pleased to know that he is not breaking any culinary rules by using either shepherds or slugs.