Two Meals in One - Barbacoa Beef Tacos and Shredded Beef Shepherd's Pie

Over the past year, I've gotten better and better at manipulating slow cooker recipes to work with my pressure cooker. This one's a keeper. If you don't have a pressure cooker, follow the recipe as directed, and use a slow cooker instead. I used a 4 lb brisket, and cooked the meat in the pressure cooker on the "stew" setting for about an hour and 45 minutes. After shredding the meat, serve in corn tortillas with sour cream, salsa, and diced avocado. There were plenty of leftovers after the three of us had about 2 tacos each, which was good, since I needed the leftovers for the second recipe the next day.

Blending Up the Ingredients for the Sauce

One of my favorite blogs, The Food in My Beard, posted a recipe awhile back that I've been dying to try, but alas, have been too lazy, because it requires slowly cooking short ribs in the oven. I decided to use the leftovers from the tacos in his version of Shepherd's Pie.

 Ingredients
Leftover shredded beef
A bag of frozen corn
1/3 of a red cabbage, chopped
3 tomatoes, diced
3 fresno peppers, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
A drizzle of olive oil
5 cups mashed potatoes (see this post for recipe)
Shredded cheddar cheese



Preheat the oven to 400F. In baking pan, layer the leftover beef on the bottom, being sure to add some of the cooking juices. In a mixing bowl, blend together the corn, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add on top of the shredded beef layer.  Top with a layer of mashed potatoes and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the top is slightly crispy and the juices are bubbling. Get ready for your mind to be blown...