My favorite "Pie" recipe.

My last post about coming up with a starchy meat casserole to please my carnivorous family mentioned Shepherd’s Pie, which I’ve been craving to make again (although I don’t have a massive quantity of people around to gobble it up this time). Hence I will share this recipe I came up with in college, which is a slight variation of the traditional English dish, which basically consists of ground lamb (hence the name “shepherd’s” pie), onions, carrots, peas, and a mashed potato topping that’s baked until crisp. I usually throw it some grated cheese into the mashed potato mixture and reserve some to sprinkle on top, which makes the dish crispier and more delicious.

I’ve never been a huge fan of peas, so I altered the traditional pea/onion/carrot veggie mixture by swapping them out and putting more (and more nutritious) veggies instead, which include red peppers and zucchini, giving the dish a brighter color (cause let’s face it, shepherd’s pie does not appear to be such an exciting dish) and bolder flavor as well. I honestly could have just eaten the vegetable layer as a dish (and I did end up reserving some of the mixture as I was making it in the skillet).

Another variation I did was the layering of the recipe. Traditionally, the veggies are mixed in and cooked with the beef, but I cooked them separately after the beef gets browned and removed from the skillet so that they sauté nicely in all those meaty leftover juices. Yummy! And then to arrange the dish, I first layered half of the beef mixture, thenthe shredded cheese (another variation) topped with the rest of the beef, then the vegetable mixture, and finally the mashed potatoes , which I spiked with a few spices like paprika and cayenne pepper. Oh my word… deliciousness!! The cheese becomes super gooey within the meat and absolutely wonderful. If you don’t like it, you’re going to hell.

Shepherd’s Pie

 

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds yukon gold potatoes, cut into chunks (peeled or unpeeled)

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2 tbsp. oil

• 4-5 tbsp. butter

• 1/3 cup heavy cream

• 1 1/2 – 2 pounds ground beef or lamb

• 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

• 2 tbsp. tomato paste

• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

• 1/2 cup beef stock

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 red bell pepper, julienned

• 2 zucchini, julienned

• 2 carrots, peeled and grated

• 1-2 tsp. Hungarian hot paprika

• 1 cup grated white cheddar cheese

• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

(1) Preheat oven to 375 F. In a pot, cover potatoes and one of the garlic cloves (crush it first) with enough water so that it covers them by an inch. Add some salt and bring to a boil, reducing eventually to a simmer and cooking until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the taters, return to the pot, and mash together with the heavy cream and 3 tbsp. of the butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

(2) In a large pan on medium-high heat, combine 1 tbsp. butter with 1 tbsp. oil. When the butter has melted, add the beef, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. When it begins to brown, add the worcestershire sauce. Stir in the tomato paste and saute for just a few more minutes, since you don’t want the meat to dry out (as it will also be cooking in the oven). Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Season and remove the mixture to a bowl using a slotted spoon.

(3) In the same pan, add another tbsp. butter and oil and sauté the onions until almost tender, then add the red bell pepper, carrots, zucchini, and 1 tsp. paprika. Cook until tender, about 10 minutes, and remove from heat.

(4) To assemble it all, take a 9 x 12 baking dish and first layer half the beef, pressing it down to pack it all in. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cheese on top, then pour the rest of the beef mixture over it, sprinkling 1/4 cup of cheddar on this layer as well. Next, add the sautéed veggies and top with the mashed potatoes. “Rake” through the potatoes with either a fork or the back of a spoon to form decorative peaks. Sprinkle the remainder of the cheese and paprika over the top of the potatoes and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the edges on the potatoes turns golden brown and the cheese melts inside.

Pleasin’ my fellow Poles with a casserole.

Casseroles are fantastic. They are so easy to make in terms of monitoring cooking, since all you have to do is layer everything in a dish/baking pan of some sort and throw it in the oven until it gets all bubbly and delicious. And unless you’re making your own lasagna noodles or something, they’re difficult to mess up… even if it doesn’t always come out so nice and neat or it falls apart while cutting, who the hell cares!!? It’s a casserole for cryin’ out loud! The messier the better, in my opinion. Gives you proof that all those delicious flavor combos melded together quite well.I developed the following recipe last year while still living at my mom’s house. As you know, I love cooking and trying unusual foods/recipes, but my family does not share this same affinity. In fact, they probably have the blandest palettes ever, and this does not surprise me. Polish cuisine is not known for its spices and flavors, just heartiness. Everything is meat and potatoes, no surprises, and the only seasonings they use is salt and pepper (and occasionally paprika, if feeling a little adventurous). Most of the time delicious, but also pretty boring. Consequently if I ever made anything Mexican, Indian, or remotely spicy/complex, they would often turn their noses away at it. How rude! They seemed to like when I made shepherd’s pie, so I developed another recipe with the same basic food groups – meat and potatoes – with a little bit of spinach to sneak in a vegetable. I call it my “please the poles potato casserole.”

Please-the-Poles Potato Casserole

 

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish

• 2 tsp. olive oil

• 8oz. fresh spinach, washed, dried, and stemmed

• 1/2 pound Italian sausage, broken out of casing into small pieces (you can use any combo here… I used 1/2 sweet and 1/2 hot Italian, and it came out awesome)

• 1 large vidalia onion, peeled and sliced thinly

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 and 1/2 pounds russet potatoes (about 3 medium ones), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

• 1/3 cup heavy cream

• 1 tbsp. cider vinegar

• dash of nutmeg (do not omit this… it does wonders)

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1/4 tsp. black pepper

• 1 cup of shredded Gruyere cheese

Directions:

(1) Preheat oven to 400F. Butter a 6×9 or 8×8 baking dish.(2) Heat one of the teaspoons of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, and add the spinach to cook, about 3 minutes or until just wilted. Transfer the spinach to a strainer and drain it. Let it cool, and then squeeze out remaining liquid and chop up a bit.

(3) Wipe the skillet clean, and then add the sausage chunks to it, cooking over medium high heat again until browned, about 6 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the sausage to a bowl so that all the juices remain in the pan. Add the other teaspoon of oil to the pan to heat, then add the onion, cooking until golden. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about one minute. Scrape the mixture into the bowl with the sausage.

(4) Meanwhile, place the potatoes in a large pot and add enough water to cover them by an inch. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes depending on how big the chunks are. You may want to pierce them with a fork or just bite into one to check. Drain the potatoes, wipe the pot dry, and throw the potatoes back in along with the butter, heavy cream, vinegar, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Mash everything up, and then stir in the spinach and 1/2 cup of the cheese.

(5) Transfer the potato-spinach mixture into the prepared dish, then top it with the sausage-onion mixture. Sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese. Bake until the potatoes are hot and the cheese is golden and bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before serving or you might burn the roof of your mouth!

Smacznego!