Bay
CrossingsCuisine
Barclay’s Sheppard’s Pie – a Scottish
Tradition
By
Mary Swift-Swan
Barclay’s Restaurant and Pub,
located at the corner of Broadway and Water Sreet, at the edge of
Jack London Square, is the "Cheers" of Oakland with a
California difference. The food alone is a worthy reason to visit
often enough that "everyone knows your name." The original
Barclay’s Restaurant and Pub is in the Rockridge area, where
Berkeley, Oakland, and Piedmont meet. In October of 2002, owner Gene
Bromstead and Executive Chef Bill Foley branched out to open a
second Barclay’s in Jack London Square. Both places were created
to provide an extensive menu of micro brew beers and great food. To
make it fun, they host a Barclay’s beer club that rewards those
that try the rotating variety and new beers. Approximately 150 micro
brews rotate through regularl, with 21-30 available any given day;
over time, hundreds of new beers have been tried. A bell is rung
when prizes are earned accompanied by pub patrons cheering.
Barclay’s, by design and intent,
has "Restaurant" as the central part of the name. This is
their stated commitment to provide truly good food as well as good
beer. Chef Bill selects specials for the day from among his
repertoire of family favorites, wonderful in-house rotisserie meats,
and his extensive background in fine restaurants. With 28 years in
professional kitchens, he can cook anything and, in turn, has
trained his steady staff. Hank and several others have been with
Barclay’s since the Rockridge restaurant opened 11 years ago.
Whether it’s a hamburger or succulent lobster special, both
kitchens follow Chef Bill Foley’s motto: make sure each dish is
cooked just right.
In these times, the rising cost of
living has many home chefs returning to basics. Sheppard’s Pie, a
classic Scottish tradition, brings together good basic ingredients
to create a hardy and savory dish. It is loved as a comfort food
year round. Sheppard’s Pie appeared as an occasional special in
lieu of rotating pot-pie varieties. Jack London area patrons
requested Sheppard’s Pie so frequently that Chef Bill has made his
Scottish grandmother’s recipe a signature dish at the Jack London
Barclay’s.
| Meat
Filling |
|
Preparation time 15 min.
Cooking time 1 hour
Serves 6 using a
casserole or individual crocks.
1 lg Yellow onion–diced
2 clv Garlic chopped
1 lb Lamb stew meat
1/2" cubes
1 lb Beef stew meat
1/2" cubes
1 c Frozen peas
3 Carrots – diced
2 T Olive oil
1/2 c Cooking Sherry
3/4 c Water
2 Bay leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste |
|
|
|
Roux |
|
2 T Unsalted butter –
melted
2 T Flour |
|
|
|
Mash Potatoes |
|
4 lb Red Potatoes, washed
and quartered leaving skin on
2 clv Garlic chopped
2 T Unsalted butter
1/4 c Milk – low fat,
whole milk or buttermilk all work
Salt and Pepper to taste
Parmesan to sprinkle on top |
Step One
Heat
olive oil in a large heavy bottom pan over medium heat. Add onions
and garlic – sauté for 1 minute to sweat out juices to mix with
the olive oil. Bring up the heat to medium high, then add lamb and
beef. Brown meat on one side. Add cooking sherry carefully and stir
well. 
(SAFETY
NOTE: Using a tall pan helps prevent flame up from alcohol in the
sherry.) Then turn and brown on a second side. Add water and bay
leaves, then reduce heat to low. Cook meat mixture on low for 1/2
hour until meat is tender.
Step Two
Put potatoes and garlic in a pot
large enough to fully immerse potatoes adding an inch of water on
top. Boil potatoes until soft, then drain (15 min.) Add butter,
salt, and pepper and mix until smooth; then set aside.
Step
Three
Add peas and carrots to the meat
mixture and season the broth with salt and pepper. Make up the roux
to thicken the broth. (TIP: Hot roux makes the best sauce, blending
without lumps.) When smooth, add to the meat mixture and stir. Keep
watch and add water if needed to adjust thickness continuing for 5
minutes to fully blend flavors.
Step Four
Put
meat filling into a casserole dish or six individual crocks. Top
with mashed potatoes while still warm. Sprinkle with grated parmesan
cheese and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees finishing the last
five minutes with top heat to brown the tips of the potatoes for an
appetizing appearance.
After removing the dish or dishes
from the oven, allow to set for 5 minutes. While the
crocks or casserole rest, prepare a simple green salad to serve with
Barclay’s Sheppard’s Pie.
Chef
Bill Foley
To earn money while going to
college, Bill worked in a restaurant. It was his good fortune to be
hired by a top French restaurant outside of Philadelphia in a town
called Media. It was there he became an understudy to the former
chef for President Nixon. From waiting tables and washing dishes, he
became a lead chef. After finishing college with a political science
major, he continued working at the restaurant for eight years,
eventually overseeing three restaurant kitchens and a catering
company. At age 25, 20 years ago, he headed west to take a break
from his intense schedule. He worked at Heavenly Valley in Lake
Tahoe, where he could ski or hike during his time off.
He had followed a lady to
California , so when she headed to Berkeley for graduate school, he
left Tahoe. That is when he truly fell in love with the San
Francisco Bay Area and its outlying communities. She eventually went
back to Philly and Bill moved to Contra Costa County, where he still
resides with a delightful lady named Carolyn, who loves good food
and good wine or beer. Bill smiled with warmth and appreciation that
seemed to reach to his toes when speaking of Carolyn’s sense of
fun.
"Cooking at home is great
place to play. Carolyn and her 25-year-old daughter, who lives with
us and works at Barclay’s, are both good cooks." He chuckled
while imparting this, patting the few extra pounds that he’s
accumulated from sharing experiments in dining and fun in the
kitchen with his family. He said, "At home when I cook, I tend
to cook simpler meals lacking the valued help of Feliz."
(Barclay’s efficient dishwasher.) "With Feliz, I can hand him
pans as I use them allowing full freedom and a constantly clean
place to work. I sometimes make up marinades or sauces here to take
home because Feliz is a pleasure to work with and Barclay’s is an
efficient kitchen with room to be creative."
