Shepherd's Pie

     Shepherd’s Pie is a very involved dish with many ingredients and many dishes needed to make it. Because I was short on time and wanted to eat before 7, Christine was nice enough to assist me make this dish. I peeled about 2 pounds of potatoes while Christine chopped up a green pepper. Once I got a pot of water boiling, I threw the potatoes in and was lucky enough to be the one to chop up the onion. Tears welled up in my eyes as I was cutting the onion as Christine started peeling 3 carrots. I heated up some olive oil in a pan and sautéed about a teaspoon of minced garlic before adding the pepper, onion, and ground beef. I was waiting on the carrots but they joined the party a few minutes later. While the vegetable and beef mixture began to cook, I made a roux to start my gravy in small sauce pan. I melted two tablespoons of butter and added two tablespoons of flour. Once that was fully mixed, I added a cup of beef broth and two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. I dropped the heat to low and let that thicken up.

     Matt showed up around 6:30 and we weren’t even close to done so I had him join in on the fun and finish the mashed potatoes for me. I have never made the mashed potatoes like I did last night but they came out great so I think I will be making them like this from now on, but I will keep making changes until they are perfect. Once Matt had mashed the potatoes I added one egg yolk, ½ cup of chicken broth, two tablespoons sour cream and about a cup of Colby jack/cheddar cheese. Using a hand mixer, Matt mixed them up until they were silky smooth. Corn isn’t yet in season so I used a steamer bag from the frozen section and cooked that in the microwave.

     Finally, I could put everything together and throw it under the broiler to give the potatoes a little bit of a crust. I combined the gravy with the beef and vegetables and put that in the bottom of an oval pan. On top of that was the whole bag of corn followed by the mashed potatoes. I sprinkled some paprika on top of the potatoes and put it all in over for about 5 minutes until golden brown. It looked good once it was done, I just hopped it would taste as good as it looked. Everything mixed together when I scooped it onto our new plates, so it took some time to pick out the flavors from each piece of the dish. Like I said before, the potatoes were great. They were fluffy and had a light cheesy taste. The paprika added a little heat which went well with the heaviness once everything had combined. All of the vegetables gave the dish a lot of color and added a nice crunch to what could have been a mushy dish. The beef had little flavor which I think the gravy was suppose to make up for. The gravy didn’t really add much to the dish so I’ll need to fiddle with the recipe because it was after all, pretty basic.

     This definitely came out better than my previous attempts but I think I may switch out the ground beef for sirloin next time. Hopefully it will be worth the added expense that comes with the sirloin. Christine and Matt both seemed to enjoy it which is all that I could have hoped for. I thank both of them for assisting me; it was fun working with others on the same dish.

Rating: Yummy – Getting closer to a go to dish, needs work on the gravy though.

Chicken Stir Fry 2.0

     Getting home by 6pm at the absolute earliest really puts a strain on what I can make for dinner if I want to be done eating before 7pm. Stir fry is a quick and easy dinner idea that I have made before so a lot of this post will repeat my prior attempt. I made a few changes that I had hoped would be for the better but not all of them ended up not turning out the way I wanted them to. I began as I did before by boiling some jasmine rice and dropped the heat to a simmer while the chicken and vegetables cooked. I only seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper this time and left out the five spice.

     I let the chicken sit a while, while I started on the vegetables. I tried a different mix of frozen stir fry vegetables this time and liked this one better. Asian stir fry is the name of the mix and it contains water chestnuts, baby corn, snap peas, red peppers, and mushrooms. I sautéed the vegetables in a tablespoon of olive oil until they were heated through. Next, I added the chicken in with the vegetables and cooked it until it was no longer pink. I also bought a different sauce to go with the chicken and vegetables since I know Christine doesn’t really care for the traditional stir fry sauce. We agreed upon a Caribbean style sweet and tangy sauce which sounded good. Upon opening the bottle, it seemed a bit watery and not as syrupy as the previous sauce. I added it to the chicken-vegetable mixture and allowed the sauce to reduce to see if I could get a better consistency.

     The sauce never tightened up and I didn’t want to over cook the chicken so I had to go with what I had. Like before I laid some rice on each plate as a base and placed the chicken and vegetables on top. The chicken, vegetables, and rice were all cooked fine but the taste just wasn’t there. Leaving out the five spice took away the ginger flavor that was masked by the stir fry sauce last time. I still think the chicken needs something more but haven’t found what that is yet. The sauce that we went with was kind of bland and not saucy enough for my taste. I guess I’m used to the heavy sauces often found in Chinese cooking.

Rating: Fair – Some changes worked but others didn't.

Meatballs

     I have made meatballs from scratch a number of times but they never come out the way I want them to. Last night however I think I got on the right track. Many of the recipes I find call for eggs and bread crumbs but with those you are making meatloaf. Yes meatloaf and meatballs are kind of the same thing but not quite. I decided to wing it and just start adding ingredients into the bowl. Here is the recipe for those of you who would like to try it:

1 lb. Ground Beef 80/20

¼ cup Bread Crumbs

3 tbs. Parmesan Cheese

¼ tsp. Garlic Salt

¼ tsp. Onion Powder

¼ tsp. Parsley Flakes

¼ tsp. Crushed Red Pepper

     I was able to get 11, one inch meatballs with the ingredients above. While I got the water coming to a boil, I put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan on medium high heat. Once the oil started to spread across the pan I added the meatballs. Only cook the meatballs enough to give the edges a bit if a crunch. Do not over cook them because you will let them simmer in sauce for about 15 minutes. This second round of cooking will get them cooked all the way through. I decided to add a whole jar of Wegmans Classics brand portabella mushroom sauce to the meatballs. Let the sauce and meatballs simmer until your pasta is done. I had a box of ziti in the pantry so I went with that instead of spaghetti like I had planned.

     The meatballs definitely had a kick to them, which I liked, but I agreed they were a bit on the spicy side like Christine said. They were cooked pretty close to where I wanted them but I think I left them in the pan too long during the first step. Next time I will have to make them bigger so I can get the crunch on the outside without cooking them all the way through. As for the spices, I think they need a little adjusting but these are definitely worth making a second time.

Rating: Yummy - A work in progress that will get better

Chicken Stir Fry

     Not being able to get out of work on time doesn't allow me much time too cook if I want to eat at a reasonable time. This was the story tonight but I had planned ahead by picking out something I knew I could make quickly. I love Chinese food but it is very bad for you so I made this healthier Chinese dish. As soon as I got home I put some jasmine rice in a one and one half cups of water and brought that to a soft boil. While that began to heat up, I cut up a large chicken breast and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and five spice. In a large skillet I began to heat up stir fry oil on a medium heat.
    Once the rice began to boil, I covered it and dropped the heat to low. After about five minutes I added the seasoned chicken to the oil and stirred frequently until cooked through. Wegmans has a variety of frozen vegetable mixes used for stir frying. I went with the Hong Kong mix which contains broccoli, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and snap peas. Add these to the pan with the chicken along with about one third cup stir fry sauce. The Asian section of the grocery store has a pretty good selection of sauces that you can use depending on your taste. I lowered the heat down to keep everything warm while I waited for the rice to be done.
    When the has absorbed all the water, turn the heat off and let rest for about five minutes and then fluff with a fork. I spooned some out to make a base on the plate and then poured some of the stir fry mixture on top. I bought some soy sauce to go on the rice because the sauce doesn't saturate the rice very well.
Rating: Yummy - With so many choices of sauces, meats, and vegetables you can let your imagination run wild.

Meatball Cookies

     For Easter we made "meatball cookies" as Christine's family likes to call them. No they aren't made of meatballs and they aren't shaped like meatballs either. The recipe is calls for a basic Italian cookie and this is where meatball comes in. Like myself, her family are equal opportunity offenders. The actual name for these cookies should be birds' nest cookies.
     The topping is where you need to start because the coconut needs time to dry out. For this step all you need is coconut and green food coloring. Mix the two together and spread out on some aluminum foil until dry. The green coconut represents the nest part of the birds' nest. Jelly beans that have been cut in half lengthwise go on top to represent the eggs. We found some speckled jelly beans that looked very similar to actual birds' eggs. We used three jelly bean halves per cookie which gives a nice bit of sweetness to each bite.
     To keep the egg filled nest on top of the cookie, we made butter cream frosting from scratch. I didn't realized how few ingredients go into butter cream frosting but the majority of it is confectioners' sugar. Milk, vanilla, and butter are mixed in until it starts to firm up enough to spread. Spreading the frosting on each little cookie is the most time consuming part of the whole process.
     The base for the nest and eggs is a basic Italian cookie made up of flour, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and butter. Mix these until combined enough to spoon onto cookie sheets. You have to watch these bake because they can burn very easily. They should only be about the size of a half dollar when they are done.
Rating: Fair - I felt that they needed something more because the cookie was too basic. Everyone seemed to enjoy them though

Chicken Scampi

Click Here For The Recipe

     I love Italian food and dishes that are quick to make and this recipe for chicken scampi was the perfect fit early last week before the late nights that were to come later last week. Many of you have probably heard of shrimp scampi and this is essentially the same thing only using chicken instead. I liked that I could cook everything in one pan.
     I used about half as much butter as this recipe calls for just to make it a bit healthier. I did however use almost double the amount of olive oil because I like the sweet taste it gives food when you sauté things in it. Other than those two changes, I followed the rest of the recipe as written. Using fresh herbs would kick this dish up to the next level but I only had dried, so I used those. Some users suggested using a half of a cup of white wine before letting the chicken simmer. Once the chicken is done simmering, I tossed it in some cooked angel hair pasta. As a final touch I added diced Roma tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.
     Christine and I both liked this but agreed that it was missing something. We would eat it again without making any changes, but what is the fun in that? I think adding the wine and using fresh herbs would be a great way to make this dish when I make it again.
Rating: Yummy - I may tweak this recipe a bit but I will make this again.