Shepherd's Pie

Rolling back in from vacation I didn't have a lot of food in the house but I did have most of the ingredients to put together a shepherd's pie casserole type dish. This is both hearty and healthy as well as yummy. The peas, carrots, onions, green pepper, and mushrooms give it a lot of pretty color and flavor and the ground turkey with gravy holds everything together. Of course the mashed potatoes on top really help to fill you up too. I added in cheese and horseradish to them for a little extra zing. This is kind of time consuming to put together because of all the chopping but if you do that in advance you can have this on the table in about an hour. 

Shepherd's Pie

10 oz or more Frozen Peas

6-7 Carrots sliced thin

1 1/2 Onions diced

2-3 tablespoons minced Garlic divided

1 Green Bell Pepper diced

8 oz. fresh Portabella Mushrooms diced 

1 Gravy packet or 2 tablespoons Flour
1 1/2 cups (about) Beef Broth
1 lb Ground Turkey

7 red Potatoes diced

2 teaspoons Horseradish

3/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/2 cup Sour Cream

1/2 - 3/4 cup Milk

2 tablespoons Butter

Salt

lots of fresh ground Pepper

Oil

In a large pot of salted water bring potatoes to boil and cook until just tender.

Right before mixing

Drain and mash the potatoes with the butter, sour cream, horseradish, and milk until creamy then add in the cheese and one tablespoon garlic and mix. Set aside.

In a large skillet in some olive oil saute onions, mushrooms, two tablespoons garlic, and bell pepper until onions start to become translucent and caramelize - season with salt and pepper.

Onions and peppers before they have been cooked

Add in the ground turkey and cook until browned then sprinkle on the gravy packet or the flour and mix around until everything is coated then slowly pour in the beef broth and bring to a slow boil to thicken.

Gravy, yum!

Mix in the peas and carrots.

Pour into a 13x9 inch pan and top with the mashed potatoes.

Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes and let cool for 10 minutes or so before eating.

Serves 8 or more.

Curried Chicken Salad

All the tasty ingredients!

This chicken salad is the bomb. I was inspired by a curried chicken salad I had years ago in Chicago at a restaurant/non-profit called First Slice. They have a small restaurant that also serves food to homeless people and others who are experiencing hard times.

The chicken salad there was delicious, but it took me this long to get around to recreating it. The addition of yogurt helps keep the salad from being to sweet and also harkens back to cooked curries, where yogurt is a frequent ingredient. This is really a simple salad to through together and is great to take on picnics, make sandwiches with, or just to snack on plain. I made it a few weeks ago when my partner's folks were in town - we went to the everglades and picnicked - and they really loved it.

Enjoy!

Curried Chicken Salad
3 cooked Chicken Breasts chopped
4 Carrots grated
3 Celery Sticks chopped
4-5 teaspoons Curry Powder
1/2 - 3/4 cup dried Cranberries
3/4 cup Greek Yogurt
3/4 cup Miracle Whip
Salt
Pepper

Sprinkle raw chicken breasts with salt and pepper and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until chicken is done. Once chicken is done, chill the chicken breasts and then chop them up.

Ingredients assembled

Mix together the chopped up chicken with the carrots, celery, curry powder, cranberries, yogurt, and miracle whip.

Finished product on a sandwich

Store the chicken salad in the fridge and spread on your sandwiches at will. Makes about 8-10 sandwiches.

Balti Mixed Vegetables

Tasty healthiness!

These mixed vegetables are based on a recipe from my trusty Indian cookbook, Complete Indian Cooking, and they are the best. If you add in a can of chick peas this could easily be made into a main dish. This is not a spicy recipe, the flavors are actually pretty mild, more on the savory and slightly sour side from the lemon.

I like to make these when I have some veggies I need to use up and am short on time. Also, if I am running low on cash this is a pretty cheap meal and works quite well using frozen vegetables or fresh ones. And this is a very healthy recipe, that, with the addition of chick peas, is filling as well.

Spices all blended together

Enjoy!

Balti Mixed Vegetables
1 Onion diced
1 tablespoon minced Garlic
1 1/2 inch long piece Ginger chopped fine
1 1/2 teaspoon Chili Powder
2 teaspoons Coriander
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
2 teaspoons Curry Powder
1 1/2 lb (approx) Vegetables (I used Zucchini, Squash, Potatoes, Carrots, and Green Peas) chopped in small pieces 
2-3 Tomatoes diced
4 tablespoons Lemon Juice
Oil
Heat large frying pan with a little oil on medium heat; once pan has heated put in onions and saute for a few minutes then add in the garlic, ginger, spices, and chopped up vegetables; saute for about 2 minutes then add in the tomatoes and lemon juice and cook covered on medium-low for about 15 more minutes until vegetables are tender but not mushy. (I had to transfer everything into a pot once I had sauteed it for a few minutes because my skillet wasn't big enough). Serves 4-6 depending on whether you make it a main dish or not.

Salmon Sandwich Spread

Fresh veggies!

This spread is based on a recipe I used to make as a teen for lunches, and I remembered it when my partner mentioned that he was tired of eating his typical meat and cheese sandwich at work. It is especially great if you feel iffy about the taste of tuna (which I do) and also if you want to incorporate more fish into your diet but at a more affordable price. This spread is super tasty and you can throw it together in about 15 minutes and it will keep just fine for a few days so it would be handy to take to work for cheep lunches.

I have work on the brain today because I just found out that I am finally starting my part-time job tomorrow! Excited to finally be working again.

Anyway enjoy the spread.


Salmon Sandwich Spread
1 14.75 oz can Salmon drained
6 oz Cream Cheese softened
6 Green Onions chopped fine (bulb and all)
4 Carrots grated
1 tablespoon garlic chopped fine
2 tablespoons Miracle Whip
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
3/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 teaspoon Fresh Ground Pepper
Dump salmon into a medium mixing bowl and mash up add in the other ingredients and stir until well mixed. Make sandwiches! Makes about 6-8 sandwiches depending on how much you use.

Caramelized Carrots

These carrots are from the 2007 America's Test Kitchen Cookbook, created by the fine people behind the fabulous cooking magazine Cook's Illustrated. Aside from the recipes, which are always the best, they go through and analyze how they perfected the recipe and what makes it good, what mistakes were made, everything. It is like having a window into a cook's mind - great for someone who is just starting out cooking and wants to understand the mechanics behind what happens in the kitchen. Also, their product reviews are the best - they go through and rank different products by overall best product and best product by price. They always give good reasons for why a product is picked and it isn't always the higher end stuff that ends up being ranked the best.

Anyway, these carrots are super yummy, the sweet glaze caramelizes perfectly in the oven, and the carrots have a nice crunch before the softness inside.

A lovely accompaniment to any dinner. Enjoy!

Caramelized Carrots
1 1/2 lb Carrots cut in 2-3 inch pieces and quartered
1 1/2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 tablespoons Butter melted
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 -1 teaspoon Fresh Ground Pepper
Cut ends off of carrots. Cut into 2-3 inch pieces then quarter those pieces (the carrot pieces should be small so that they are crisper and caramelize better). Put carrots into a medium mixing bowl and toss with all of the other ingredients. Spread in a single layer onto a large cookie sheet.

Carrots about to go into the oven

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 475 degrees, stirring once or twice while baking.

Creamed Broccoli Curry Casserole

Just Out of the Oven

I had a lot of broccoli I needed to use up last night and, fortuitously, I remembered having a really delicious casserole at a party a couple of days ago that contained said ingredient. I called the woman who made it and got the recipe: this casserole is based on that recipe, with modifications based on what I had available. I substituted potatoes for cauliflower, sour cream for mayo, and cream of chicken soup for mushroom. My point being that you can generally substitute or leave out quite a few things, if you put a little thought into it, without sacrificing flavor.

The casserole turned out great! Very rich and creamy. Enjoy.

Creamed Broccoli Curry Casserole
2-3 Bunches Fresh Broccoli (or one 12 oz. Frozen Broccoli) chopped
4-6 Carrots cut into sticks
2-3 Potatoes cubed
1 10 oz can Cream of Mushroom Soup (or other cream soup)
4-6 oz. Parmesan Cheese (or italian cheese blend)
2 tablespoons Butter
2 tablespoons Sour Cream (Mayonnaise)
2 tablespoons Curry Powder
Salt
Pepper
Croutons
Briefly steam broccoli, carrots, and potatoes (for about 5 minutes); drain any excess water. Put vegetables and potatoes in a baking dish and mix in the soup, cheese, butter, sour cream, curry powder, salt, and pepper. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 then put croutons on top and sprinkle with more cheese if desired and bake for another 15 minutes.

Potato Soup

So, I now have a house full of people (or had, my brother and his boyfriend left today). But when I had a house full, six people in total, I needed something filling that I could make a lot of too feed them, therefore I made potato soup. I can't believe I actually had to use a 5 lb. bag of potatoes, but I did. This recipe definitely feeds six, probably twice over, which was great for me because I didn't want to spend all of my time in the kitchen. ^_^

This soup is delicious. Hearty and satisfying and still quite healthy (even with the bacon, which you can leave out if you want to). 

Potato Soup
5 lb Yukon Gold Potatoes cubed
1 lb Carrots diced or sliced
3 Onions chopped
5-6 Celery Stalked chopped
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 lb Bacon 
3 tablespoons Flour
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Put cubed potatoes and carrots in a very large pot and put in water until just covered. Add in some salt and pepper and put on medium high to bring to boil. Meanwhile, saute celery and onions until onions are translucent and start to brown then add to the pot. Fry bacon until crisp and crumble into the soup. Add in the cream and let cook on medium low until everything is soft. If the soup isn't thick enough for your taste add in the flour and simmer on low for a while longer until thickened. Makes about 10-12 generous servings.

Curried Carrot Raisin Cuscus

I originally made this with chicken but realized it wasn't really necessary to have the extra protein for this meal to come out just fine. This is a great meal to throw together when you are short on time or tired, it only takes about 15 or 20 minutes to prep and 20 minutes to bake. Made it tonight since I was feeling under the weather and wanted something quick and wholesome on the table. 

This is not a spicy curry (provided you don't use a spicy curry powder), it is very much a savory dish with a pleasant sweetness from the coconut milk and raisins. As far a curry powders go, there a huge variety, especially if you go to an indian-american store that specializes in those products. Your basic curry spice that you get at an american grocery is going to be not spicy most likely, because it is marketed to please more sensitive palettes. If you can get to a store that sells a variety of curries and masala spices I would recommend it because there is a lot of variation in the spice composition of these spice blends. All curries are not the same! The curry powder I am using right now is called Madras curry powder and the brand name is Parivar. 

The Curry I use

Curried Carrot Raisin Cuscus

Cuscus

1/2-2/3 cup Raisins

1 box Cuscus

2 cups Chicken or vegetable broth

Boil raisins in broth and add Cuscus. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes as per package direction.

Other filling

1 15 oz can Chickpeas

4 carrots grated

1 onion chopped roughly

1 cup Coconut milk

1 1/2 teaspoon Ginger

4 teaspoons Curry

salt

pepper

Saute onion and carrots with a little olive oil and sprinkle spices on. Grease a 13x9 inch pan with olive oil and toss cuscus mixture, sautéed onions and carrots, chickpeas, and coconut milk together. Add in more spice to taste if necessary. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes or until heated through. Makes about 4-6 servings depending on how hungry people are.

Savory Meat Galette

I have wanted to make a meat pie for years but for some reason never got around to doing it. Well a few weeks ago I finally did make one and it was just as awesome as I thought it would be. I've always seen meat pies made with steak but I opted for ground turkey because that is what I had in the freezer; I also decided to add a few more veggies into the mix, including green peas, which are pretty much my favorite go to vegetable. 

All of the recipes I looked at for inspiration showed this glorious food being baked in a pie plate but I thought it would look cool as a free form pie, a.k.a. galette - also, I didn't think the thing would fit into a standard 9" pie plate. I was a little nervous about making a galette because I wasn't sure if it would stick together or if the filling would spread out while cooking; happily the galette stayed exactly as I shaped it an looked really nifty, kind of rustic and homey. 

Galette before it is baked - isn't it cool!

Anyway, below is the recipe for the filling along with my standard pie crust that I have been making for years. This crust has never disappointed me. Although I have heard many people talk about how difficult it is to make pie crust, this recipe has always been kind to me and all the pies I have made with this crust have turned out perfectly, nice and tender and flaky - just the way I like it. 

Savory Meat Galette

6 oz Frozen Green Peas

16 oz Ground Turkey

5 Red Potatoes diced

1-2 Onions diced

4-5 Carrots chopped

1 ½ cups (approx) Chicken Broth

2 tablespoons Flour

Olive Oil

Salt

Fresh ground Pepper

Pie Crust (Recipe below)

Roast Potatoes, carrots, and onions in a 400° oven drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper for 20 minutes. Cook turkey in a frying pan until browned. Coat peas with flour and put into frying pan with the cooked turkey, continue to cook while adding in broth on low heat to make a gravy. The gravy should just coat everything in the pan with enough to still coat the roasted vegetables. Roll out pie crust until it is slightly thicker than it would normally be for a fruit pie. Put crust onto a large cookie sheet and pour meat and vegetable mixture in the middle, then shape the pie dough around the mixture to form a galette (a fancy name for a pie that is shaped free form). Bake at 375° for about 50 minutes or until crust is browned on the top and sides. Let cool for a few minutes before slicing open and enjoying.

Flaky Pie Crust Recipe (Taken from “The American’s Woman Cook Book” circa 1938)

1 ½ cups Flour

½ teaspoons Salt

½ cup Cold Butter (can use shortening or for extra flavor cold bacon grease)

4-5 tablespoons Ice Cold Water (can sometimes take more – add more as needed)

Put flour and salt into a bowl and cut in the butter with a pie cutter until the butter is in roughly pea sized shapes. Slowly add in water (you don’t want to add to much water or over mix the dough) mixing quickly with a fork until you can shape the dough with your hands and it mostly stays together. The dough will seem a little dry but if you shape it into a ball with your hands and it sticks than it is wet enough to roll out. Roll the dough out until it is less than a ¼ inch thick (the dough should be thick enough to handle whatever you put into it without tearing or breaking). Plain crust should be baked at 400°, but if it has a filling follow the temperature directions for that.

Note on the pie crust: Not mixing the dough too much is very important to a flaky pie crust because the little pellets of butter that aren’t completely mixed into the flour are what make the crust “flake” while baking – making it tender and yummy. 

Beans are Awesome

So, I would just like to write a quick interlude about beans. I make them all the time but I never seem to get a picture of them or the random recipes I make using them, hence putting off a post on beans, but I figure "what the hell," I will write about them anyway. I pretty much stick to making black beans because they go in almost anything (I think). I soak them all night because in my experience they still take a good 6 or more hours to cook completely, which means I have to be home or make them in a crock pot and I don't currently have a crock pot. Buying and cooking dried beans make sense to me because it is a lot cheaper and more efficient than canned beans. Anyway, while I am simmering the beans (never boil them too harshly because you end up having to add too much water, for no real reason) I usually add in a generous amount of chopped garlic as well as cumin, coriander, chili powder, salt, and pepper - also, sometimes a splash of olive oil. The last batch of bean I made I used coriander for the first time because I read this article in the Washington Post about how well coriander and cumin go together - the author was correct, together they add a wonderful savory flavor to foods.

Black Bean Soup

Once the black beans are done (they should be soft and the bean broth should be viscus), I usually made an assortment of casseroles and nacho like dishes with them. The casseroles are usually layers of beans and sautéed onions/peppers/garlic and sometimes tomatoes and/or corn layered with cheese and corn tortillas or chips, depending on what I have on hand. This time around I made a bean soup with carrots and turkey sausage that came out quite good and I served it with corn bread and sour cream. Here is a picture of it on the right.

Also, here is a basic recipe for the casserole I was talking about along with more info on how I make the beans.

Southwestern Black Bean and Rice Casserole

3 cups (approx) Seasoned Black Beans*

1-2 cups cooked rice (I used leftover rice from another meal)

1 Onion diced

½ lb. Turkey Sausage (optional)

1-2 teas. Coriander

Salt to taste

4 oz Habanera Cheddar Cheese grated

4 oz Pepper Jack Cheese grated

10-12 Corn Tortillas

Sauté diced onion and sausage in a frying pan on medium high until onion is browned and sausage is cooked through. Then add in the rice and coriander and sauté until rice has absorbed some flavor and has softened up (about 5 minutes). Mix rice mixture and beans together. Lay about 4 corn tortillas down into a lightly greased 13x9 inch pan and spoon on a layer of the bean and rice mixture and top with cheese. Repeat twice. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350°. Serve with salsa and sour cream if desired.

*I made a pot of seasoned black beans the day before to use for this. I soaked the beans overnight and then the next afternoon (when I got home from work) I drained them and started them cooking on medium heat. I put about 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic in them and about 2-3 teaspoons of cumin, a little cayenne pepper and salt and cooked them for about 4-8 hours until the beans were soft and there was a thick sauce from the beans cooking down. 

Szechuan Vegetarian Stir Fry

All the ingredients assembled

I made this stir fry for friends on Friday and everyone agreed it was awesome! :) It's a great way to get in lots of vegetables and still be full at the end of the meal since the fried rice helps to beef up the stir fry. This is pretty spicy but it also has some hints of sweetness; however, if you don't like hot food very much I wouldn't put in the Sriracha chili sauce. If you do like spice then you will love Sriracha chili sauce. This stuff is magical; even when my mouth is burning from it I still want more. It has this incredible garlic/chili flavor that I have never tasted in anything else.

Have fun cooking!

Szechuan Vegetarian Stir Fry

3 cups chopped Broccoli

1-2 cups Snow Peas

1 8 oz. container sliced Water Chestnuts

2 Carrots grated

½ chopped Purple Cabbage

1 ½ inch piece Ginger grated

1 tabl. minced Garlic

House of Tsang Szechuan sauce to taste (I used about a third of the bottle)

Sriracha chili sauce to taste

Fried rice

Oil

Fry garlic and ginger on medium high heat for about 2 minutes. Add in water chestnuts (with water) and broccoli and sauté for about 7 minutes while adding in seasoning. Add all other vegetables and cook until heated but veggies are still somewhat crispy (about 10 minutes). Serve over fried rice.