Shepherd’s Pie

I LOVE shepherd’s pie! Sometimes in summer I wish it was winter just so that I can make my all time favourite comfort food! This winter I want to eat nothing but shepherds’ pie and cupcakes!

This recipe from Exclusively Food is amazing! When I first came across this recipe, I was impressed by how many great reviews its got! And when I finally tried it, it definitely lives up to its reputation! This is a winter must eat dish! You’ve got to try this hearty pie!

COOKING SUMMARY: Chop veggies, fry them along with mince, pour in crushed tomato and stock, bring to boil and simmer for 15min. Pour meat mixture in an oven dish, topped with mash potatoes and bake for 20min! DONE!

Shepherd’s Pie (Serve 6+)

(adapted from Exclusively Food)

Meat Layer

• 20ml (1 tablespoon) oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 2-3 large carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
• 800g of mix beef and pork mince
• 3 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 ½  tablespoon plain flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 400g canned crushed tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup fresh or frozen peas

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large heavy-based pan or saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and garlic to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until vegetables have softened.
2. Increase heat to high and add mince to the vegetables. Cook, stirring and mashing mince, until the mince has changed colour and most of the liquid has evaporated.
3. Over medium heat, add tomato paste and flour to meat mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for one minute.
4. Add stock, Worcestershire sauce, crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid has reduced (about 15 to 20 minutes).
6. Cook potatoes (see directions below) while the meat mixture is cooking.
7. Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celsius (190 degrees Celsius fan-forced).
8. Stir peas into meat mixture and pour a ovenproof dish.
9. Top filling with mashed potato. Use a fork to create peaks in potato
10. If the dish you are using is quite full, sit it on a baking tray in case any of the sauce overflows during baking. Bake pie for about 20 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and potato is golden brown.

Mashed Potato Topping

• 1.5kg potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tablespoon of sour cream
• ½  cup grated cheese
• Salt, to taste

1. Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Cover saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until potatoes are soft.
2. Drain potatoes and mash with butter, sour cream, salt and milk
3. Stir in cheese until they are completely melted.

B e e f – S t r o g a n o f f

There were pros and cons living at college while I was uni.

I had the BEST time of my life

But I also had to put up with hospital liked food for 3 years.

Beef stroganoff was never one of my favourite. Since I have never had that before I started living in college, I had no idea what it’s meant to taste like! So for 3 years I was eating some BRIGHT ORANGE, BLAND stew thingy!

Not until one day when a friend invited me over for dinner, he cooked me something wonderfully creamy and tasty! I asked him what is it? And of course, you guessed it, it was beef stroganoff!

I like to cook things that are easy to manage and almost foolproof! lol And this dish falls into that category! Another good thing is that you can serve it with either rice, pasta or mashed potato!

Ingredients (MAKE 5)

(recipe from the book ”In the Kitchen”)

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• 500g Beef, striped
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 250g button mushrooms
• A bunch of green beans
• oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoon of paprika
• 250ml (1 cup) beef stock
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 500g spiral pasta, to serve

Method:

1. Heat oil in pan, cook beef on medium-high heat until it just browned. Cook in 2 batches. Transfer them into heat proof bowl.
2. Return to pan, add onion to cook for about 3min, then add mushroom to cook for a further 2-3 mins or until soften
3. Add garlic and paprika cook for further 1 min until fragrant.
4. Put in stock, worcestershire sauce, tomato paste. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, return beef to pan, simmer and cover for 20mins or until beef is tendered.
5. While beef is simmering away, cook pasta and steam green beans.
6. Return to pan, check seasoning, then add sour cream, stir to combine.
7. Serve with pasta and green beans.

NOTES:

1. Depends on how thick or thin your beef stripes are, simmer time is varied. Mine ones were fairly thin so 20min simmering time was wayyyyy too long for me, they came out not as tender as I would like them to be : ( so make sure you adjust the simmer time depends on the thickness of your beef! Check them every 5 mins or so until they become tender!
2. Since I was serving my stroganoff with pasta, I wanted to make the dish extra ‘saucey’. So I pretty much double the stock amount to 2 cups, 4 tablespoon of paprika, 3 tablespoon of tomato paste, 3 tablespoon worcestershire sauce. And lastly increased the sour cream amount to 1/2 cup. The sour cream will thicken up the sauce so if you like a thicker texture add in more, or just adjust it to your liking!