Shepherds Pie

     Shepherds Pie is a deceptive dish. It looks like it would be really simple. However, there's a fair bit of work that goes in to making this dish. It doesn't quite qualify as a PITA, but it's close. This particular version comes from my dear friend, Gordon Ramsay* over at Channel 4. While this dish is not terribly difficult to make, it is a bit labor intensive. It's worth the effort, as you end up with a delicious meal. As always, any notes or changes are in blue.

Shepherds Pie
via my close, personal friend, Gordon Ramsay

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (I actually have sea salt on hand! Amazing!)
• 1 lb. minced lean lamb (um...no. I'll be using lean ground beef. I'm not made of money)
• 1 large onion, finely grated
• 1 large carrot, finely grated
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp tomato puree (I hope that meant tomato paste, because that's what I used)
• Handful of thyme sprigs, leaves picked (not a chance. I used 1 teaspoon dried)
• 1 sprig of rosemary, needles chopped (I used dried here, too)
• 1 cup red wine (I used a dry. I hate drinking dry wines, so I use them for cooking)
• 1-1/4 chicken stock
• 2 pounds Desiree potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (I don't think that kind of potato is even real. I think Ramsay just made that up and figured nobody would call bullshit. I just used Russets)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 egg yolks
• Parmesan, for grating (or a handy plastic jar, for shaking, since I don't keep block Parmesan on hand)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C, Gasmark 4)

2. Heat the oil in a large pan until hot. Season the meat and fry in the oil over moderate to high heat for 2-3 minutes. Stir the onions and carrot into the mince then grate the garlic in as well. Add the Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree (paste) and herbs and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour in the red wine and reduce until almost completely evaporated (if you opened a new bottle of wine for this recipe, just go ahead and drink it while you cook. That way, if you screw up, you'll be too shitfaced to care). Add the chicken stock, bring to the boil and simmer until the sauce has thickened

3. Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, then return to the hot pan over low heat to dry out briefly. Pass them through a potato ricer (that's a gadget I do not own. I just went ahead and mashed them with my trusty masher) then beat in the egg yolks, followed by about 2 tbsp grated Parmesan. Check for seasoning (don't just point to it on the counter and shout, "There it is!" Add it to the potatoes if needed). 

4. Spoon the meat into the bottom of a large ovenproof dish. Using a large spoon, layer the mashed potato generously on top of the meat, starting from the outside and working your way into the middle (if you try to layer from the middle out, you'll rip a hole in the universe. True story). Grate some extra Parmesan over and season. Fluff up the mash potato with a fork to make rough peaks. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, until bubbling and golden brown.

Good times!

*Gordon Ramsay is currently unaware I even exist. 

Griddled Chicken with Chorizo and Butter Bean Mash via Channel 4

     I think part of the reason I like cooking so much is that I don't really know what I'm doing. Having no actual training, I have no idea if I'm doing something wrong. Unless the food comes out totally inedible I'm calling it a victory. This sort of became my attitude towards cooking. "Close enough is good enough" became my motto. It's served me well so far.
     A prime example is this recipe I pulled off Channel 4 when I was just starting more serious cooking. I misidentified ingredients, I left stuff out. Changes were made. The results were indisputably delicious. It doesn't have to be right to be good. So here is one of my first real attempts at cooking. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Griddled Chicken with Chorizo and Butter Bean Mash
via Channel 4

Ingredients

(The original recipe is only intended to serve one. Double all ingredients if you're serving for two. The butter beans should be fine for two people without doubling)

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (preferably free-range or organic) (I used two. They were not free-range or organic. I guess technically frozen chicken breasts from Aldi count as "organic" inasmuch as they are not "synthetic.")
• Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 ounces chorizo (Spanish sausage), sliced (So I grabbed out a tube of Mexican chorizo. This is when I learned that Spanish chorizo and Mexican chorizo were not at all the same thing.)
• ½ small red onion, peeled and sliced (I used yellow)
• ½ small red pepper, deseeded and sliced (pretty sure I used red peppers from a jar)
• ½ small yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced (Yellow peppers were nutty expensive. I used green.)
• ½ garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped (I used a whole clove.)
• ½ small red chilli, finely chopped (I used 1/2 teaspoon of red chili flakes)
• 1 tsp sherry vinegar (At the time I figured red wine vinegar was close enough)
• 3-4 fresh basil leaves, roughly shredded (Not something I had in the house. I went with 1/2 teaspoon dried basil.)

For the Butter Beans

• 14.5 ounce can butter beans, drained and rinsed in a sieve (I actually had a can of these lurking in the back of the cabinet!)
• ½ small garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped (I don't understand this "half a small garlic clove" nonsense. That's just weak. You can't live in fear. I used a whole clove).
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. Heat a griddle pan (I used a nonstick fry pan. I had no idea what a griddle pan was at the time) on the hob (Hob? What the hell is a hob? Hobgoblin? Hobnails? I'm hoping they mean the stove, because there's not really anywhere else in the house to heat a pan). Carefully cut the chicken horizontally almost all the way through the middle and open out (butterflying was not in my skill set at the time. The chicken was getting cooked as is.) Season with salt and pepper.
2. Drizzle the chicken with half the oil and add to the pan. Fry for 4-5 minutes then turn over and cook on the other side for about 3 minutes more until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Add the remaining oil to a frying pan and cook the chorizo, onion and peppers for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the garlic and chilli for the last minute of cooking time.
4. Tip the butter beans into a saucepan with the garlic and add 5 tbsp of water. Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 minutes until then beans are hot, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, add the olive oil and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Season to taste.
5. Pour the vinegar into the pan with the chorizo and vegetables. Simmer for a few seconds. Stir in the basil and season.
6. Spoon the butter bean mash onto a plate and top with the chorizo sauce and chicken. Serve.

Good times!

On Gordon Ramsay

     I am not kidding when I say that Gordon Ramsay is one of the main reasons why I cook. I'm not talking the FOX TV Gordon Ramsay. I'm talking the BBC Gordon Ramsay.  If you've only watched Ramsay on FOX, all you've seen is a Scotsman screaming profanity. Don't get me wrong, he screams profanities on the BBC as well. However, he also imparts a great deal of useful cooking knowledge there as well.

Like when to use a nonstick pan.

     While much of what he cooks is complicated, with expensive, hard to find ingredients, he does do quite a bit of far less imposing cooking. His Cookalong Live series of videos on the Channel 4 website offer outstanding tips for the aspiring home cook. These videos walk you through everything from making pastry crusts, to cooking whole meals, to simply sharpening a knife. I also enjoy his show "The F Word." The format is like a variety show. It's hugely entertaining and each season follows him raising some animal or another to eat at the end of the season.  Good times.

     So what's the point of this little diatribe? Mostly to fill in the Friday post. But really, I'm babbling on about  Ramsay because it appears that he's honest and passionate about his cooking. He wants everything to be just right. And then there's a quote you'll hear endlessly: "Simple, honest food, made from locally grown ingredients". That's what I'm looking to do here. It doesn't have to be spectacularly complicated to be spectacularly good. Whatever it is you're cooking, just use the best ingredients you can and cook it right. Enjoy!