Chipotle-Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

Morita chiles are red, fully mature Chipotles. This gives them a unique, medium – hot smokey flavor which is popular in many Southwestern dishes. These can be added to sauces (including Mole) to add smokey flavor and maintain the red color of the sauces. These peppers are about 2-4 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and have a deep brick reddish brown color. The word Chipotle translated to smoked chile. Consider the Chipotle a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hottest). Scoville heat units 7,000-25,000.

Suggested Use:
Use Morita in enchilada sauces, chili, stews, barbecue ribs, and corn bread. Their smoky quality combines well with poultry, meats and fall squash.

Heat Scale
Submit Recipe

Ingredients:

Topping:

1 (7 oz.) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2-1/4 pounds peeled sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. cracked black pepper

Filling:

2 pounds ground sirloin
cooking spray
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 Tbsp. steak sauce (such as A-1)
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

To prepare topping:

Remove 1 chile and 2 tsp. of sauce from the can. Reserve the remaining chiles and sauce for another use. Coarsely chop the chile.

Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring them to a boil and cook for 15 minutes or until very tender. Drain the potatoes and place in a large bowl with the chopped chile, 2 tsp. of adobo sauce, milk, salt and 1/4 tsp. of pepper. Beat the potaqtoes with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.

To prepare filling:

Cook the beef in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove the beef from the pan and drain.

Heat the pan coated with the cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot and garlic and saute for 8 minutes or until tender. Return the beef to the pan and stir in the peas and remaining ingredients. Cook for 2 minutes.

Spoon the beef mixture into a 3-quart casserole dish and top with the sweet potato mixture, spreading evenly. Bake at 400F for 30 minutes or until it has thoroughly heated.

Yields 8 servings.

Recipe from Cooking Light Magazine, August 2002.