Post 2 seems harder than Post 1. So many small things happen on a day to day basis ... i am not sure what is interesting, I think I need an angle.
I have a book ... well almost a recipie book that i have been writing. I need to edit it but have not found the time ... so each day I will edit the recipie that has helped me get through the day and pop it on the blog.
Your probably thinking it is odd that to say a recipe helped me get through the day but I find this with food. I want to feed my family good, homemade food and spend quality time with them ... it can be and often is a struggle to do both. So this blog will show you how I attempt it.
Today Shepherds Pie is my saving grace.
We have had a bit of a weekend ... cake making with children on Friday followed by friends for dinner. Family lunch yesturday followed by a dash up the motorway to pick up heart broken friend who had been unceromoniously dumped on hoilday by her boyfriend of six years ... back for comfort takeaway (homemade food was just not going to cut it) and X Factor.
So Sunday, lunch with friends and their little boy. Having not seen my children as much as i would like over the weekend I want to head to the park rather than be stuck in the kitchen. Shepherds pie allows me to do this. If I make it i batch cook, freezing small and large pies in either oven proof dishes or when i run out metal disposable trays that an Indian takeaway comes in.
I have a shepherds pie for six in the freezer, it is defrosting on the side and I am heading for the park, I will serve it with peas from the freezer and apple puff pie (ready rolled pastry, slices of apple, sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon)
SHEPHERD'S PIE - Serves 12
Ingredients for pie
2 kg Mashed Potatoes, 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, 2 Large onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 1kg Beef mince, 2 Tins chopped tomatoes, 1 Beef stock cube dissolved in a cup of water, 2 Tablespoons of tomato puree, 2 Level teaspoon of cumin seeds, 2 Tablespoon of honey, Salt and pepper
- Turn the hob on to medium, place onion and oil in a frying or sauce pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, add the garlic and cumin and fry for another min. Add in the mince and brown. If any of the ingredients are getting too hot and you think it might burn have a cup of water next to the pan while cooking and add a few drops to cool it all down.
- Once the meat is brown, add in the chopped tomatoes, sugar, beef stock cube, honey and tomato puree. If you have any fresh tomatoes throw them in too.
- Simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally and then add the salt and pepper, cook for another 5 minutes then take the mince of the heat
- While mince simmering start cooking the potatoes, recipe below
- Once the mince is cool pour it into an ovenproof dish, the mince should be 3cm deep and put a 2cm layer of cool mashed potatoes over the top of it. If the mince is quite watery don’t put all the liquid into the pie as it may boil over when cooking. You can always use the watery bit as a sauce on pasta with cheese for quick meal for children.
- Let pie cool and put in fridge/freezer till you need it.
- Once needed but defrosted pie in middle of oven at 200 and cook for 30-40 minutes until the top is golden and crispy.
Cooking notes
This recipe will make enough for 12 portions, it is up to you what size dishes you put them in. I normally do one large one for six then six individual portions for the freezer which are great for emergency meals for the children or if a baby-sitter comes over and needs feeding. The ratio I use is 3cm of mince to 2cm of mash.
If you run out of mash, which sometimes happens if you are being a little generous with it, have Smash at hand. Make it with milk add butter and frozen chives from freezer and no one will know.
Adapting
If you don’t like cumin then remove it and add in a glass of red wine and add in a couple of sprigs of dried herbs, i love rosemary and thyme.
Mash - Makes 2kg
2Kg Potatoes (I tend to use white), 200 mil Full fat milk, 4 Tablespoons butter, salt and pepper to taste
- Peel and chop the potatoes into 3cm chunks, they need to be the same size so the cook evenly. This should leave you with 1800g of peeled and chopped potatoes
- Cover them with water and bring to boil, turn down to a gentle simmer for about for about 20 minutes until they are soft. When they are cooked you should easily be able to put a fork through them
- Drain potatoes
- Add the milk and butter to the pan, let it heat up. By heating the milk you get a much smoother mash.
- Take the pan off the heat and pop in the potatoes with salt and pepper and mash. If the mash is to thick for you then you can always add extra cold milk.
- When you are happy with the consistency of the mash and confident there are no lumps in it, get a fork and beat the mash for 30 seconds, it makes it really smooth
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