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Tag Archives: comfort food

Shepherd’s Pie

22 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by denisegan in Breakfast and Brunch, Dinner, Home Cooking, Lamb, Lunch, Mains, One bowl meal, Sauces

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Tags

autumn recipes, brunch, chives, comfort food, easy recipe, lamb mince, lamb sauce, lunch, mash, mashed potatoes, One bowl meal, pie, rosemary, sheperds pie, thyme, winter recipes, worcestershire sauce

I’ve been itching to have a go at making this pie for a while now! What’s not to love about creamy mashed potatoes and a hearty thick lamb mince ragu all in a single bowl? It’s a pretty balanced meal is it not? Carbs, protein and vegetables? Let’s forget for a moment about the amount of cream and cheese that went into it and label it as the ultimate balanced meal.

Comfort food. Easy to put together. I will definitely make this again! The recipe calls for peas and corn as well but I made do without them since I’ve got a picky eater on my hands today!

Ingredients 

Meat Layer

  • Minced lamb – around 700 grams
  • 2 carrots, diced into smallish cubes
  • 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
  • 1/2 cup fresh English peas (if you’re feeling lazy there’s always the frozen mixed vegetables option which has carrots, corn and peas all in one convenient bag. Use 1.5 cups of the mix then)
  • 4 cloves garlic finely minced
  • 1 cup minced onion
  • 3 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
  • 3 tsp thyme leaves
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup dry red wine
  • 3 tbsps Tomato puree, have an additional 3 tbsps on hand if you prefer more of it in the ragu
  • 2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce – other recipes call for 1 tsp, I found it insufficient and ended to my taste, so add to your taste
  • 2 tbsps all purpose flour
  • pepper to taste

Potato Layer

  • 700 grams peeled russet potatoes approx.
  • 200 ml cream
  • 30g salted butter
  • pepper to taste
  • 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
  • fresh thyme leaves

Cooking Instructions  

  • Heat up butter in a large deep skillet on medium high heat
  • Add the chopped onions first, and cook until translucent and starting to caramelise.
  • Add the garlic and fry for about half a minute or so until that’s soft
  • At this point if the mixture is getting a tad too dry, add a little more butter. After which we can now put the lamb mince into the pan to brown. Break up the meat into small pieces (the smaller, the smoother the ragu will be, but that’s only if you like it that way)
  •  Mix in the vegetables, we’re only adding them now as we don’t want to overcook them
  • Sprinkle the thyme and rosemary over the mixture and give it a good stir.
  • Pour in the red wine, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce and tomato puree and flour.
  • Bring the sauce to a boil and lower the heat to simmer for a couple of minutes. The flour should thicken the sauce in the process.
  • Turn the heat off and cover with a lid.

  • As for the potatoes, place them in a large pot and cover with cold water
  • Add salt to the water
  • Bring to a boil. Once they are pierced easily with a fork, drain them. Check in about 10 minutes, if the potatoes are still resistant to the fork the leave for a bit longer. However, take care that you don’t overcook them. Don’t want mushy potatoes!
  • Press the potatoes through a ricer (or mash them by hand) and put aside.
  • Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the cream. Bring this to a gentle simmer before adding the potatoes to the cream and mixing it all up. Season with salt and pepper.
  • (Additional step:- you can put the mashed potatoes through a sieve to get rid of all the lumps for that smooth mash)

Ladle the ragu into your prettiest deep dish (one that is oven-compatible). Sprinkle a layer of cheese over the ragu.   Spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the ragu like so.
After which you’re done. You can use a fork to create patterns on the mash which will turn out a little crispy after some time in the oven. My ideal meat ragu to potato ratio  is 3:1.

However, you can add more if you like your mash. Here, I decorated the top by squeezing the potatoes through a decorative nozzle.

Sprinkle some cheese over the top of the mash layer, and arrange some thyme leaves strategically into the top layer as a sort of garnish and for the fragrance.

Bake at 205 Celsius for around 20-30 minutes
Added some chopped chives before serving, just because I like chives.
  

Truffles Part 6 – Zafferano inspired Clear soup with winter vegetables and pastry with truffles and foie gras

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by denisegan in Breakfast and Brunch, Dinner, One bowl meal, Snack/Light Meals, Soup, Starter

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Tags

black truffle, chicken soup, clear broth, comfort food, easy, foie gras, pastry, Puff pastry, Soup, soup bowl, truffle, winter vegetables

IMG_0343

I was cracking my head on what else I should do with the remainder of my truffles. I had way too much for myself! Then my sister described a dish that she really enjoyed at Zafferano. I’ve never been to Zafferano myself, but what she described sounded just perfect as it was not heavy and full of cream and fat (well, excluding the foie gras that is). I had been pigging out on heavy, calorie-laden food while making all these truffle dishes. Clear broth sounded amazing then.

Ingredients (per person)

1) Half a foie gras slice, cut into chunks (well you can add more if you like, but remember this is going to be boiled and not seared, thus it would make the soup really oily if you add too much)

2) chicken broth to fill up to slightly more than half of the soup bowl that you will be using

3) 1/4 of a courgette,sliced and quartered

4) 1/4 of a large carrot, sliced

5) 1/4 a large onion, sliced or 3 inches of a white radish, sliced and quartered

6) Truffle shavings

7) 1/4 of a 500g Jus-Rol Frozen Puff Pastry sheet, rolled out in a square shape and trim the ends with a sharp knife. It should be large enough to cover the soup bowl

Instructions

1) Add the vegetables and foie gras to the broth and simmer for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are sufficiently cooked to your liking.

2) Meanwhile preheat your oven temp. to 220ºC or the temperature that is stated on the cooking instructions for your ready made pastry.

IMG_0318 IMG_0320

IMG_0322

3) Ladle out your soup into the bowl, I think it would be best if the soup was warm and not boiling hot because if it is the latter, the steam from the soup will cause the pastry puff sheet to sink down a lot more while baking. Mine totally sunk =(. Lastly add some sliced truffle into the soup. You could add the ends of the truffle, which is difficult to shave but too much of a waste to let go.

4) Place the pastry sheet over the soup bowl and make sure it is securely in place. Using a fork to make patterns (see picture below) helps to secure it in place. You can also go crazy with the patterns. 😉IMG_0324

5) Bake for 15-20 minutes until the puff pastry is all nicely puffed up and golden brown.IMG_0332

6) Told you my dough sank into the soup =(. With the middle bit sunken like that I had to save it somehow, so I draped a couple of sprigs of thyme and shaved the truffles on topIMG_0335 IMG_0340

7) It was really good! The pastry and soup together is so comforting ~ Would totally make this again.IMG_0355 IMG_0348 IMG_0343

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