Shepherd's Pie

This past week a couple of coldfronts hit South Florida. The temperature actually dipped to somewhere in the upper 30's Fahrenheit (about 3 degrees Celsius). Bbbrrrrrrr! It was C-O-L-D!

Those who are from northern USA, north America or Europe might find this laughable. Compared to the inches of snow and below zero temperature you get out there, 30's must be a heatwave for you. But for the true blue South Floridians (I'm not a native here but I grew up in a tropical island), 30's is definitely freezing! As they say, our blood is thinner.

I don't mind it being nippy once in while though. I welcome the change, especially the opportunity to take out my once-a-year winter-garb and layer on outfits, don chic coats or leather jackets, cute scarves, opaque stockings and wear those lovely high heeled boots!!! Afterall, it's always about fashion,isn't it? Next to food, that is. ;o)



When the temperature gets cooler, I always think of comforting food such as soups and stews. But this time around, I wanted something different, so I thought of one of my fave eats: Shepherd's Pie. Also known as "Cottage Pie", this English dish refers to a meat pie with a crust made of mashed potato.

Shepherd's pie is basically a casserole, traditionally made using ground lamb (hence, the name Shepherd, I think). But here in the US people commonly use beef instead of lamb. In my case, I went even further. I used ground turkey for my meat, to make the dish a bit more healthy. What I like about this dish (beside it being soooo good) is it's versatility. You can substitute the ingredients according to preference or availability. What more, this dish is even better the next day! If you'll have some leftovers, that is.

Mashed potato atop stewed ground meat and veggies? That's comfort food through and through!

I'm sending this dish over to La.Pi.S, Lasang Pinoy Sundays: LAYERED. La.Pi.S. is a weekly food photography meme hosted by SpiceS.



Shepherd's Pie

Meat filling:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 med onion, chopped
1 lb ground lamb, beef or turkey
1 tbsp flour
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz), drained, juice reserved
1/2 cup beef or chicken stock/broth
2 tsps Worcesteshire sauce
½ cup frozen peas, thawed
2 med carrots, diced finely
1 red bell pepper, diced finely
1 sprig rosemary, chopped

Topping:
4 large potatoes (about 1-1/2 lbs), peeled and chopped
2 tbsp sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream (or subsitute chicken/beef broth for healthier version)
1 egg yolk
2 tbsps fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
Dash of sweet paprika

1. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and pour them into a bowl.
2. Combine sour cream, egg yolk and cream (or broth). Add the cream mixture into potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth.
3. While potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat.
4. Add oil to hot pan with beef or lamb. Season meat with salt and pepper.
5. Brown and crumble meat for 3 or 4 minutes. If you are using lamb/beef and the pan is fatty, spoon away some of the drippings.
6. Add chopped carrot and onion to the meat. Cook veggies with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes.
7. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and juice of tomato and Worcestershire sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables. Stir in peas.
8. Preheat broiler to high. Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture.
9. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with paprika and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until potatoes are evenly browned.
10. Top casserole dish with chopped parsley and serve.

Gnocchi With Chicken Sausage

One Sunday morning, Mr. J and I found ourselves at home. This is not normal for us since our Sunday mornings are usually spent in church. Nope, we didn't skip; we just went a day earlier. We were invited to a Saturday night service to one of Mr. J's friend's church (that's a mouthful). We went and boy, was I thankful that we did because their guest speaker was awesome and spoke about a challenging and thought-provoking message on missions.

Anyway, before I digress here way too much, since Mr. J and I were home, I thought that it would be a good time for us to visit a local Farmer's market which I heared, takes place every Sunday from morning until noontime. We've never been able to go because by the time we're done with church, the market would already be over, or just about to be over. So off we go. I was so excited as I've never been to a Farmer's market here in Miami and this would be a first for me... Farmer's market, here we come!

Unknowingly, I was in for a great disappointment. When we got there, nobody was around - well at least the place where the market should be was empty. Where is everybody??? Well, to make a long story short, I learned that the market ended the week before. Apparently, the Farmer's market here only takes place during spring, from February to April, mid-April to be exact. The heat this year came a little to early so they decided to end the market earlier as it was getting to be too much for the farmers here in South Florida. My oh my... so much for the Farmer's market.

What now? Well, the next best thing to do is to go to Wild Oats (owned by the same company as Whole Foods). We were there for maybe a couple of hours. Going around the store made me feel a little bit better. So, my Sunday didn't totally suck...



Here's a dish that is remembrance of that fateful Sunday. The sausage you see is something that I got from Wild Oats that day. It is a roasted-pepper with apple organic chicken sausage. Hmmn... even the sound of that already tastes good, doesn't it? And you bet, it is... The sausage is a little spicy and sweet, hmmn.. perfect for the gnocchi and fennel. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I should add the red bell pepper since the sausage already has roasted-pepper in it. But I added it in the last minute anyway because fresh pepper would add a different taste to the roasted one. And of course, the red color just made this dish that much more attractive to the eye, don't you think?

As for the sausage, you can always change it up according to your preference. It's up to you, the sky's the limit.

Gnocchi With Chicken Sausage, Bell Pepper And Fennel
(adapted from Cooking Light)

1 (16-ounce) package vacuum-packed gnocchi
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
6 ounces chicken sausage*, casing removed and sliced
1 cup fennel, thinly sliced
1 cup red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup (2 ounces) Pecorino Romano* cheese, grated
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp butter*
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1. Cook the gnocchi according to package directions. Omit salt and fat. Drain the gnocchi but reserve 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Keep gnocchi warm.

2. Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Remove sausage from skillet using a slotted spoon.

3. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in pan. Add fennel, bell pepper, and onion to pan; cook 13 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add sausage, gnocchi, cheese, black pepper, and reserved cooking liquid to pan; cook 1 minute or until cheese melts, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter. Mix till butter is well incorporated. Add parsley for garnish.

*NOTE: As I mentioned above, you can always change up the sausage. Original recipe suggested basil and pine nut chicken sausage. For the cheese, you can also use Asiago cheese or Parmesan if you like. As to the butter, you can omit it. I just added a tad bit to mine for a richer flavor.