Category: World Cooking

Individual Shepherd’s Pie

Maybe it is the whole Covid thing or maybe it is just because it is getting colder here but I have been craving comfort food like nobody’s business.  My particular drug of choice has been potatoes.  I love them at the best of times but nowadays?  I have eaten them pretty much every day since lockdown.  And one of the best comfort foods around that has been feeding my potato addiction is Shepherd’s Pie!

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Normally when we make Shepherd’s Pie, it is the job of the Fussiest Eater in the World. He can’t cook much all that well but he knows how to do good British stodge to perfection.  And his Shepherd’s Pie is great.

But wait…I am probably making some assumptions here.  So let’s start with…

WHAT ON EARTH IS SHEPHERD’S PIE?

Shepherd’s Pie is a dish made of cooked lamb topped with mashed potato.  The same dish made with beef is called Cottage Pie or Hachis Parmentier if you want to be French and fancy.  Which usually is my default mode (wound up to eleven)  but today I am using lamb so common or garden Shepherd’s Pie it is!

Traditionally, this was made with the leftover lamb from a Sunday roast.  We usually use bought minced lamb for our Shepherd’s Pie but this time round, I wanted to, what they would call on the cooking shows, ELEVATE the dish, so I used some diced lamb.

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 A DIGRESSION ON WORKING FROM HOME

I was very pleased to read Yinzerella’s post the other day on the pleasures of lockdown.  I too am enjoying many of the aspects of being at home 24/7.  For instance I have

  • More time to spend with Oscar and Holly.
  • More time to read, to craft, to study, to do yoga and to blog!
  • Started to declutter and organise my life
  • Massively reduced my carbon footprint  The last time I filled my car with petrol was in March!  We got solar earlier this year so even though I am using more electricity by being at home, it is being paid for by the power we are generating.
  • Invented a push-up challenge and am doing a Buzzfeed core challenge.
  • More time to cook. 4-hour slow-cooked lamb on a Tuesday night?  Not a problem. Grapefruit brulee for breakfast?  You betcha!
  • Totally embraced my basic B instincts!  These faux fir booties?  I know,  so chav,  but wearing them made my feet warn for the first time in DAYS!!!!  I may never take them off!

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Anyway, back to the Shepherd’s Pies.  I slow-cooked that lamb for four hours with red wine and herbs and garlic and tomatoes until it was melt in your mouth tender.

Then I made mashed potato with heaps of butter and milk to top it, and then topped that with a heap of grated cheese!

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This was so good.  Tender lamb, cheesy mashed potato…what else can I say except if you are craving a cuddle in the form of food, make this straight away!!!  Of course, you can use this mix to make one large pie but I love small food so individual serves it was – one for each of us and one for lunch the following day!  This reheats beautifully so you can make a few extra to warm up for additional meals.

I cut the recipe in half for these pies because I only had 500g of lamb but the full recipe will make one large or 6 small pies (depending of course on the size of your small pie dishes).

The Recipe

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Individual Shepherd’s Pie

This hearty British dish combines slow-cooked lamb and cheesy mashed potatoes to make the most comforting of comfort foods

Ingredients

  • 60ml olive oil
  • 1kg diced lamb
  • 1 brown onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large carrot, finely chopped
  • 1 celery stick, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 40g plain flour
  • 250ml  beef stock (more if cooking for a long period of time)
  • 200 ml red wine (I used a cabernet merlot)
  • 145g tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 sprig of rosemary
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 kg potatoes peeled and halved
  • 50g butter
  • 175ml milk
  • 180g Cheddar cheese, grated
    Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add half the lamb and cook, turning as required until browned on all sides.  Transfer to a plate and repeat with another tbsp of oil and the remaining lamb.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until the vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute, stirring to ensure that the garlic does not burn.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook, stirring,  for 1 minute.

Gradually add the stock to the pan followed by the wine, stirring to remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Add the lamb, tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce, rosemary and bay leaves.  Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for between one to four hours – you may need to add more stock or wine if you are cooking for longer than an hour.

While the lamb is cooking, boil the potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes or until tender.  Then drain and return to the pan.  Add the butter and milk and mash until smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat the office to 200C.

Once the lamb is cooked, measure it out into 6 small (1 cup capacity) ovenproof dishes.  Top with the mashed potato and then with the grated cheese.

Cook in the pre-heated oven until the cheese is golden brown and melted – around 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

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What is your go-to comfort food?  I hope you get to have some this week! My next post  will also be comfort food but of the cake variety,,,,

Have a good one and stay safe!

 

Quince Salami

I bought a fresh quince to make the quince blancmange and then realised I did not need it.  So, what on earth was I to do with a quince?  I got out my recipe spreadsheet and searched for quince. In the end, I narrowed my search down to three things – Quince Salami, a Chocolate, Quince and Almond Tart, and a Chicken Liver Pate with Pickled Quince.  Turns out I had everything I needed for the quince salami already in the house.    Even with restrictions here easing a bit, we are still being told to stay at home as much as possible. So why go out to shop if you don’t have to?


Quince Salami 1

The Quince Salami is a version of the membrillo or quince paste that you would serve on a cheeseboard. What makes it a little more interesting is that you can add the same fruit and nuts that you would serve on your cheeseboard into the “salami”. The idea of it is that when you cut through your quince roll, the chunks of fruit and nuts resemble the flecks of fat and flavourings that you see in a regular salami. The resemblance would be even closer had my quince turned the dark red that some quinces do when they are cooked.

Quince Salami 2

The reason quince turn red when they cook is due to tannins in their flesh.  Mine did not have enough tannin so only turned an apricotty colour which was quite beautiful but not that red I was looking for.  It tasted so good though!  And is a really cute and different addition to a cheeseboard.

Quince Salami 3

I LOVED this with some blue cheese.  The sweet fruitiness of the salami with a hint of crunch coming from the almonds was perfect against the salty blueness of the gorgonzola.  I cannot wait to try this with some brie or Camembert when I venture out to the shops again!  The fruit I used were dried sour cherries and some dried apricots.

However, if you are not a cheese lover and / or have a sweet tooth, another way you can serve a quince salami is to roll it in some sugar, then slice finely and serve as a petit-four with coffee.  This is the serving suggestion in the recipe I used. I thought it was already sweet enough so took it in a more savoury direction.

The Recipe

The recipe for Quince Salami comes from the book Classic British Cooking by Sarah Edington. She traces the history of quince marmalade, upon which this is based to way back to Tudor times!  Here it is:

Would you prefer this as a sweet dish or as a cheeseboard accompaniment?

Have a great weekend everyone. Stay safe!

 

 

 

Going Brazilian

So, I did something a bit different last week.  Cooking wise I assure you!  One of our Melbourne restaurants, Atlas Dining is surviving lockdown by sending out food boxes based on a theme.  Included in the price of the ingredients are a series of masterclasses with the chef, done via Youtube showing you how to cook each meal.  There are also written instructions for those who prefer to read rather than watch.  I chose the Brazilian Food box because I have never eaten Brazilian food and thought it would be a great way to introduce myself to that cuisine, learn something new and eat some delicious food along the way.  Win, win, win!

 

Brazilian 1

I was so excited when the box was delivered!  It was like food Christmas!  The food was all of the highest quality and there was a LOT of it.  I ordered the singles box because the Fussiest Eater in the World was working on most of the nights I intended to cook.  However, there was enough left over each night for me to have for lunch the following day.

And, to be honest, I am still eating some of the veggies!

Sausage Feijoada

Meal one was a Sausage Feijoada (pronounced Fey-zwah-dah) for those like me who have no knowledge of Brazilian food!  This is apparently one of the most common dishes in Brazil.  It is a stew usually made from mixed meats and black beans.  Our version was made from sausages and it was 👌.  It was served with a little salsa made with the most delicious guava dressing!!!  This was my favourite meal of the week.  It was so tasty and only took about 20 minutes to cook.

Brazilian 2

I am sure that a traditional Feijoada would take hours to cook and so this was a “dumbed down” of it but TBH, I don’t care. I was looking for an entry into the food of Brazil and this provided the perfect way to dip my toe in without getting too overwhelmed!  Atlas had also done a lot of the work by pre-preparing the black bean mix which was delicious!

Pumpkin Vatapa

This was meant to be the meal for the third night but I decided to move things around because the Fussiest Eater in the World was going to be home on night 3.  He  is not really one for vegetarian food in gen and pumpkin in particular!  He does like a steak however so the switcheroo occurred.

Again, this was quick and easy and so delicious.  It’s kind of a Brazilian curry.  It is late autumn here and these meals were perfect comfort food for cold nights!  The vapata was served with a  little salsa and two mixes sprinkled over the top. The salsa brought some freshness, the mixes brought some crunch.  All in all this was delicious!

Because I made these out of order, I did not realise that one of these mixes on the top was also meant to be used with the beef dish and I used it all on the Vatapa.  My suggestion here would be that if you are doing something different, to watch all the videos before cooking anything just so you know exactly what to use and when!

Brazilian 4 - Pumpkin Vatapa

Carne Churrasco

Night three was a gorgeous marinated steak with parmesan polenta and a corn salsa and more of that brilliant guava dressing!  It was a bright, colourful and luxurious way to finish off a superb three nights of food!

Brazilian 5

I loved cooking out of the Brazilian box, so much so that I have already signed up for the American box which is coming out in a couple of weeks!  As soon as lockdown is over I definitely want to try some more Brazilian food.  And who knows, one day when all of this is over maybe even travel there to sample it in situ!

Tell me, have you eaten Brazilian food? If so what can you recommend? Are there any must-haves I need to try?  What about the desserts?  I might try to find some delivery options!

Also, for any Americans reading this what would you include in an American food box?  Two meat meals and one vegetarian?  I would like to see how close your ideas line up with what’s in the box!

All props to Atlas Dining for such an innovative solution to life in lockdown!  The meal box could not have been more welcome!  At a time when all the days seem the same it brought a bit of vibrance that made me feel a little like this!

Have a great week everyone!  Stay safe!

 

Not Quite Seeni Sambol

Seeni Sambol is a Sri Lankan side dish, served as an accompaniment to rice, curries and hoppers as per the photo below.   It is an integral component of lampries, which despite Covid-19, mum and I made this year at Easter, as per our normal habit.  I made the seeni sambol this year, something we never really do as it takes so many onions!  I used 8 onions to make mine and in the end, there was not enough for all our lampries and we ended up having to use a shop-bought version as well!

Please don’t judge my hoppers, I am playing with a recipe which I will post on here as soon as I have it right!  The main ingredient of Seeni Sambol is onions.  Put very simply you caramelise them down add some spices and voila – there you have it.

Our 2020 lampries.  This is a SriLankan meal consisting of ghee rice, lampries curry, eggplant pickle,seeni sambol, prawn blachan and frikadeller which mum and I cook annually.  We make enough to last the year, packing individual servings into foil packets and putting them into the freezer to reheat and eat whenever the mood takes us!

Lampries

What I am trying to say is, that I know a bit about Seeni Sambol.  So, when I saw that there was a recipe for it in the Good Housekeeping World Cookery Book, 1972 I was intrigued.  My gut feel is that books this old do not do justice to “ethnic” recipes.  But for the sake of the blog, I was willing to give this one a go.

But, because WordPress loves a subheading,  let’s break it down a little.

The Title

The actual title is fine.  In that, all words are spelt correctly.

It’s the subtitle that made me pause.

And call my mum.

“Are you meant to just eat Seeni Sambol with prawns?”

“No.  Why?”

“No reason”.

So fail on the title.  Seeni Sambol actually means sugar sambol and relates to the sweetness of the caramelised onions and the sugar you add towards the end of cooking to balance out the flavours.  No prawns at all.  Whatsoever.

Seeni Sambol 4

The Ingredients

There are two very non-traditional additions in these ingredients.  Tomatoes play no part in seeni sambol and neither does milk.

You probably could not have got fresh milk in Sri Lanka in 1972 – it would have either been evaporated or coconut milk.  Either way, I inadvertently left the milk out of my version.  I added the tomatoes though.

There is also an ingredient that is used in a traditional Seeni sambol called a Maldive Fish which is a cured dried fish which adds protein and umami flavours to the Seeni Sambol  If you want to make this, and you cannot find Maldive fish, you can substitute Asian fish sauce.   Or you can leave it out altogether which is what they do in vegetarian versions.

Overall though, the ingredients are pretty close to home.  Just forget the tomatoes and the milk if you want to keep it real!

Oh, and btw?  No prawns.

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The Method

Seeni Sambol

So, it all seems legit until…WTF why are they talking about Prawns? There were no prawns in the ingredients so why are there prawns in the GD recipe???

There are no prawns in Seeni Sambol.  And that’s not just me saying that.  That comes direct from my mum.  And I may be an idiot who knows nothing but she knows Sri Lankan cooking!

So, this is kind of a shambolic recipe.  However, if you ignore the magical prawns that do a disappearing act in the ingredients and reappear in the method and the milk which has no place here what so ever. this is not a bad recipe. I didn’t even mind the tomatoes in the final dish!

Here is the full recipe:

Seeni Sambol 11

And here is a better one from chef Manu Fieldel.  This is a vegetarian version so does not contain the possibly hard to find Maldive Fish.

Hope you are having a good week!  Stay safe friends…the light at the end of this tunnel seems to be appearing!

 

Tijuana Sunset and Buenos Noches – Two Evening Themed Cocktails

Ola people of the internet! Today we are celebrating all things Mexican with a couple of cocktails, the Tijuana Sunset and the Buenos  Noches both from Cantina.   Regular readers would know what I have set myself a task to cook through this book by the end of the year.  Readers from the way back would know that this book and I have a troubled past.   Too cheffy, too complicated, too many hard to find ingredients have been my complaints of this book in the past.

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Let’s kick things off early in the evening with..wait for it…we need some sort of fanfare…ah…here he is…

Da da dadada…TEQUILA!

The Tijuana Sunset

This is billed as “A sophisticated take on the tequila sunrise”.

Okay fine.  But IMHO, the only thing that makes a tequila sunrise any good is that gorgeous ombre effect of the grenadine and the orange juice. And if you are going to call that drink a sunset then that ombre effect needs to run the opposite way to the sunrise right?

 

Well, it is totally missing from the Tijuana Sunset so I guess the way the gradient goes is immaterial right?

Now, bear in mind I made both of these drinks in iso at a time when even generally easy to come by ingredients were scarce on the ground.  Blood orange juice was an impossibility.  I decided to sub in Blood Orange Soda instead of Blood Orange Juice and Soda.  Did this affect the colouring?  Possibly.  However, as there is no picture in the book I suspect that they also did not get that beautiful colour array.

Looks may be one thing but taste is another.  And when it came to taste the Tijuana Sunset was OMG….100% delicious!!! 😍😍😍. Tangy from the lime, a little sweet from the soda, a nice kick from the tequila and the touch of salt was GENIUS. I loved this so much I immediately made another which I garnished with a little slice of jalapeno.  This made it even better!

Tijuana Sunset2

I loved the Tijuana Sunset.  I just wish it had a different name so there weren’t those expectations of what it was going to look like!

Wait up.   Hold on.  Do you think that by making the claim that it is a “sophisticated” take on the Tequila Sunrise that the authors are trying to say that the beautiful orange to deep red shading is somehow unsophisticated?  Are they making fun of my love for a drink that looks pretty as well as tasting delish?

OMG…see what this book does?  It makes me crazy!  Or maybe that’s life after what now…seven weeks in iso?

Buenos Noches

Now this one looked the biz! It is a Mexican take on an Irish Coffee which is a drink I hold dear.  And on paper it sounds delicious.  Chilli infused tequila, cinnamon infused coffee…sign me up!

Buenos Noches1

 

Okay, so truth be told.  This was one of the worst things I have ever put in my mouth.  Particularly because I had to wait 3 days for the tequila to infuse with the chipotle.

I actually cried after tasting this. Which I admit is an extreme reaction. But, at the moment, when our lives are so restricted, something that I was looking forward to for THREE days and which turned out to be a bitter disappointment might actually be worth a tear or two.

I felt this was bitter and flat.  It lacked any sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the coffee and the heat of the chilli and had no zestiness to bring the bitter and hot flavours together.

Buenos Noches2

I’m calling Goodnight Irene on the Buenos Noches.

But here’s that recipe. Just in case you have really repressed emotions and need to cry over something dumb instead of the horror that is the world as we know it.

Have a great week!  Stay safe!