I love easy recipes, especially if I can use leftovers. Shepherd’s pie is no exception. If you have ground meat and leftover mashed potatoes, you are just a few steps away from a delicious, filling dinner the whole family will love.
Ingredients:
1 lb. combo of ground beef, pork, veal or lamb
4 cups or so of leftover mashed potatoes (or make some fresh)
1 egg yolk
1 tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 tbs. flour
2 tbs. red wine
3 Tbs. fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme and rosemary, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 Tbs. tomato paste
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup frozen peas
Shepherd’s pie is versatile. Throw in whatever veggies you love. Use whatever meat you prefer.
Directions:
Season your mashed potatoes to your liking with milk, butter, salt and pepper. Heat up in the microwave if cold. Stir in the egg yolk. This makes the pie have a nice crust.
Preheat oven to 375. In a sauté pan, heat some oil and add the meat, onion and carrot. Season with salt and pepper. Cook till meat is browned, about 10 minutes. Drain fat and sprinkle in the flour, cooking for about 1 minute to remove the raw flour taste. Deglaze with red wine and cook for 1 minute. Add stock, tomato paste, herbs and Worcestershire sauce. Stir in the peas.
Grease a casserole dish and add the meat filling. Top with dollops of mashed potatoes. Spread the potatoes across the top, trying to create a seal around the edges. I recommend putting a cookie sheet under the dish when you bake it in case anything bubbles over.
Bake for 30-45 minutes, until potatoes start to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving.
We recently spent two and a half weeks in Mexico where I spent a good deal of time watching the housekeeper cook. She used to run a restaurant from her home and one of her specialties is a dish called chilaquiles. It’s fried corn tortilla strips steeped in a red chile sauce. I thought the sauce would transfer well to an enchilada dish. I made a few twists and it turned out almost as well as Moña’s in Mexico. I wasn’t able to find the exact same dried chiles she used, but I used the kind from the Hispanic food section of the grocery store and it worked just great. Add in a little bit of slow-cooked beef, some rice, black beans and cheese and you’ve got yourself some amazing enchiladas.
Oh, and if you’re totally lazy, you could buy the sauce and just follow the enchilada recipe below. That’s what I did to obtain this pathetic photo. Trust me, it’s waaaaay tastier than it looks.
Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce with Slow-Cooked Shredded Beef
Ingredients:
3 plum tomatoes
4 medium-sized dried red chiles
3 cups water
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped fine
3 Tbs. flour
2 cups chicken stock
1 Tbs. chile powder
salt to taste
1 Tbs. chiles in adobo sauce, chopped finely
Directions:
Break the tops off the dried chiles and toss as many of the seeds as you can. Bring the water, tomatoes and chiles to a boil in a saucepan. Boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes.
Place one clove of garlic in a blender. With a slotted spoon, add the tomatoes and chiles, cover the blender and start blending. Slowly add the water from the saucepan and blend on high for a minute or so.
Mince the remaining clove of garlic. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook till onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and mix into a paste. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes.
Turn down the heat and add the blended mixture, chicken stock, chile powder, chiles in adobo sauce and salt. Bring to a simmer, turn to low and let bubble for 10 minutes or so. The sauce will be thinner than gravy.
If you prefer it thick, make a slurry with 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1-2 Tbs. flour and pour it in. Stir and let simmer for five minutes or so till it thickens.
Store in a jar in the fridge for up to a week.
Recipe for beef enchiladas
Ingredients:
1 thin, cheap cut of beef; about 1/2 lb.
olive oil
salt & pepper
dried oregano
smoked paprika
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 can black beans, partially drained
2 chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped fine
leftover brown rice (optional)
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, grated (for the top, optional)
tortillas (flour or corn)
Directions:
Coat the beef in olive oil and sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper, paprika and oregano. Place in a slow cooker and add the onions. Cook on low for 5 hours or so. It’ll be so tasty you might have a hard time getting it into the enchiladas. Shred the beef and set aside.
When it’s near dinner time, preheat the oven to 375′. Add the beans to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Mash with a potato masher and add the chopped chiles and some salt. Cook for five minutes or so. Heat up your leftover rice, if using. Coat the bottom of a square or rectangular baking pan with enchilada sauce.
Pour about a cup of sauce in a pie pan. Set up a little assembly line with the tortillas, sauce, work surface, beans, beef, rice, cheese and baking pan. Soak a tortilla in the sauce and place it on your work surface. Add small amounts of all your ingredients, roll up the tortilla and place it seam-side down in the pan. Repeat till the pan is full. Pour a cup or so of the sauce all over the enchiladas. I never put enough and they end up drying out on the edges, so really saturate the baking dish. The tortillas suck up a lot. Top with remaining cheeses. Place, uncovered, in the oven for 30 minutes, or until it’s all bubbly.
Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before serving, or, if starving, risk lava-hot amazingness.
Have you ever envisioned a meal and had it turn out better than you expected? This was one of those dishes. I had some leftover ground pork and a can of black beans in the cupboard, so I did a Google search for those two ingredients and found this recipe for mexican pot pie. I had everything the recipe called for, but I didn’t need to feed an army, so I halved it for just me and my husband and tweaked a couple of ingredients.
This casserole had deep flavors and just the right amount of spice and cheese. The cornbread topping was crusty on top and creamy underneath. A dollop of sour cream and this became an instant dinnertime favorite in our household.
Since the full recipe called for one egg, I just beat an egg and eyeballed half of it.
Feeds 4-6
Ingredients:
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/3 cup diced bell pepper, color of your choice
2 Tbs. jarred jalapeños, chopped
3/4 lb. ground pork (or beef)
olive oil
1, 8-oz. can of tomato sauce
1 Tbs. tomato paste
5 oz. frozen corn, thawed
1/2 can of black beans
1.5 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
2 tsp. yellow cornmeal
salt and pepper to taste
Cornbread crust:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1.5 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. melted butter
3/8 cup milk
1/2 egg
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/2 can green chili peppers (4 oz. can)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a small baking dish (mine was 1.5 quarts). In a large skillet, heat up a couple of tablespoons of oil. Add the onion, garlic, bell pepper and jalapeño and cook for about five minutes.
Add the pork and cook till the pork is no longer pink, chopping with a wooden spoon as you go.
Stir in the tomato sauce, paste, corn, beans, cumin, allspice, chili powder, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, cornmeal, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
For the cornbread batter, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add the butter, milk and egg. Stir until just combined. Add the cheese and chili peppers.
Place the filling in the baking dish and dollop the cornbread on top of the filling, spreading it out as you go. If you can’t cover the whole top of the pie, then fill in the holes with grated cheese.
Bake for 35 minutes or until the crust is baked and the filling is bubbling.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a cold beer.
My husband is back on his South Beach Diet kick, which is always fun for me because I get to try to cook yummy carb-free food. Months ago I found a recipe for chicken roll-ups with roasted red peppers, feta and pistachios with some sort of a lemon yogurt sauce. I was originally going to make this recipe, but I had to wing it when the lemon zest made the yogurt curdle. The sauce went down the drain and what I came up with instead was deeeelightful. My husband is always positive about my cooking, but tonight he said the veggies were the best he’d ever tasted.
Ingredients
Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2-4 roasted red peppers (jarred or make them yourself)
1/2 cup shelled pistachios, coarsely ground
1 tsp. smoked paprika
salt and pepper
1/2 cup crumbled feta
2 Tbs. olive oil
For the veggie side:
1 zucchini
1 golden zucchini (or whatever that yellow kind is that’s always next to the zucchini)
6 mushrooms
3 mini yellow and orange bell peppers
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. fresh thyme
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup chicken stock
smoked paprika
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix together the pistachio crumbs, feta, olive oil, paprika, salt and pepper till you have a tasty paste. Pat dry the red peppers. Rinse and pat dry the chicken breasts. Cut a deep slit in each breast as though you were going to butterfly them, but don’t cut all the way through. Stuff each breast with red pepper and the feta mixture. Close the slit with two toothpicks. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat and brown the chicken on each side. Place into a baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove toothpicks and let sit five minutes before serving.
Meanwhile, chop the zucchini into 1-inch pieces. Slice the mushrooms and mini peppers. In the same pan you browned the chicken, add the veggies, thyme and lemon zest. Cook the veggies for a few minutes then add the stock. Add the paprika, salt and pepper to taste and cook till the stock disappears and the veggies are soft. Top with crumbled feta.
Winter’s a-coming and that means it’s soup and stew season. Gotta stay warm, especially when we’ve been having these unusually early El Niño-like windstorms lately. Here’s a great recipe to hunker down with. I found it on Pinterest and as usual, added my own little flair (i.e., meat).
I wasn’t sure what the blogger meant by “white sauce mix.” Normally, I’m averse to using prepackaged stuff in my cooking, but I thought I’d try it out and I used one dry packet of alfredo sauce mix. It turned out to be a delightful soup base and boosted the other flavors quite well.
Creamy Tortellini Sausage and Mushroom Soup
Serves a whole bunch of people — like 12?
Ingredients:
1 packet of dry alfredo sauce mix
4 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
1.5 cups crimini or baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1/2 an onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. or so dried basil
1/2 teaspoon or so dried oregano
some sprinkles of cayenne powder
salt and pepper
one 8-oz package of dried tortellini
1/2 package of frozen spinach
4 Italian sausages
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
Directions:
Combine the sauce mix, water and chicken stock in a large Crock Pot. Add the mushrooms, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, cayenne, salt and pepper and set Crock Pot to low for 4-5 hours.
Stir in the dried tortellini. Cook on low for another hour. Meanwhile, heat the frozen spinach in a small pan with water till it’s thawed. Strain and squeeze out the water. Set aside. Cook the sausage thoroughly and slice up.
Add the spinach and sausage and continue cooking till tortellini is al dente. Add the evaporated milk and cook till soup is hot again. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan and crusty bread.
I sometimes have to remind myself why I started this blog in the first place. I can never remember how I made something and I need a catalog of all my creations. That is my excuse for the poor photography for this post.
I grew up in a gourmet kitchen. We ate pesto, caviar and porcini mushrooms. You’d nary find a casserole on our dining table. But for some reason, my father could never master fried rice. It was always too much oyster sauce or something didn’t seem right.
I just assumed it was impossible to make tasty fried rice at home unless you have some sort of Asian granny teaching you her family secrets.
I was wrong. I CAN make yummy fried rice, and although the secret ingredient is not traditional, I have to say that Benihana knows what’s up — butter. Mmm…besides bacon, butter makes everything amazing.
I guess it’s not much of a secret since the chefs make it right in front of you, but I found a great copycat recipe and decided to try it out. You, too, ought to try it.
My recipe is a little different from the one I found, but I ate about six servings worth. It’s carbalicious!
Benihana Fried Rice
Serves about 6
2 cups uncooked rice
2 carrots, cut into small cubes
1 onion, cut up small
7 tablespoons butter
4 green onions, chopped
2-3 eggs
2 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
salt and pepper
vegetable oil
toasted sesame seeds (if you’re up to it, but I didn’t bother)
Directions:
Cook the rice according to the package’s instructions. While it’s cooking, heat a wok or large skillet over high heat. Once hot, add about a teaspoon of vegetable oil. Crack the eggs into the pan and swirl around with a spatula thus scrambling them while they cook. Once fully cooked and slightly brown (I like when it’s like that), remove from pan and set aside. Let pan reheat and add a couple of more teaspoons of oil. Add the chicken and cook thoroughly till browned a little. Remove from pan and set aside. Reheat the pan and add the butter. Once melted, add the onions, carrots and green onions and cook till carrots are tender to your liking. Add the rice, eggs and chicken to the wok. Sprinkle the soy sauce all over the rice till everything is thoroughly coated. I’m assuming it’s about 1/4 cup, but I eyeballed it. Next, lightly sprinkle the rice with fish sauce (maybe about 1 teaspoon). Toss everything thoroughly and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with steak and lobster à la Benihana.
Alaska Knit Nat 