Homemade Chicken Shepherd’s Pie

First, let me start with a history on how the Shepherd’s pie came to be the masterpiece we’ve created at our home.  When my husband was deployed to Afghanistan, there were times when his platoon was in an area where the good old “mess hall” wasn’t really an option.  Putting together what they had, my husband made his men a version of Shepherd’s pie that they still talk about 5 years later.  The meat they got was hamburger cooked over an open fire, salt from a local vendor, instant potatoes, and whatever vegetables they could get ahold of.  Since coming home, we have made it many times (with a greater selection of ingredients!) and we’ve come up with this recipe, which we love to serve when we have guests.

Ingredients:

4 cups of seasonal vegetables, diced (we used onions, carrots, green beans and corn)
1-2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves aged garlic (ours were unintentionally aged!)
3 strips of thick cut bacon (we prefer to trim the fat off)
1 1/2 cup chopped chicken (leftovers are perfect for this!)
3 cups mashed potatoes (instant or real, prepared with Knorr Concentrated Homestyle Chicken Stock)
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups white wine
2 packets Knorr Concentrated Homestyle Chicken Stock
1 tsp smoked (or regular) paprika
1/2 tsp white ground pepper
1 TBS flour
1 egg
One small jar pimentos
Extra virgin olive oil

Prep Time: 45 minutes
Bake Time: 45 minutes (and SO worth it!)

Shepherd’s Pie Filling

Dice the vegetables, slice the bacon, and crumble the chicken into separate bowls.

In a skillet, heat 2 TBS olive oil, 2 minced garlic cloves and sauté bacon until crispy.  Next add ‘hard’ vegetables (carrots in this recipe, however, turnips, parsnips, broccoli, celery if those are the seasonal vegetables you prefer), and continue sautéing until the carrots are heated through, but still have most their raw crispness (three to five minutes).  Next add to the mixture the ‘soft’ vegetables (in this recipe, we used green beans, corn, and onion).  Heat through and remove from heat.  Place into a mixing bowl, drain and add the jar of pimentos, and set aside.

Shepherd’s Pie Sauce

Deglaze the frying pan with 1 1/2 cups of white wine (add it to the pan while the pan is still hot).  Bring wine to a simmer.  White cooking sherry will do nicely as a nonalcoholic substitute, if you prefer.  Add one 4.66 oz. Knorr Concentrated Homestyle Chicken Stock.  Whisk until evenly distributed.  Next, whisk 3/4 cup sour cream until evenly mixed.  Reduce heat and simmer.  Add 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp ground white pepper, and 1 TBS flour.  Mix well, and allow to reduce the sauce until thickened.  Pour over the Shepherd’s Pie Filling and fold both together.

Mashed Potatoes

If you are making instant potatoes, use Knorr Homestyle Chicken Stock instead of plain water.  If you are making traditional mashed potatoes, boil them in Knorr Homestyle Chicken Stock.’

Thoroughly beat one egg.  To temper the egg mixture (raise the temperature of the eggs without scrambling them), take about 1 tsp of still-hot mashed potatoes and whisk into the beaten egg.  When mixed, add 2 tsp more of still-hot mashed potatoes, and mix until the beaten egg becomes thicker and more velvety.  Pour the tempered egg over the rest of the mashed potatoes and fold them together.  Having the tempered egg in the potatoes, or even brushed over the mashed potatoes will allow them to crisp to a golden brown.

The Big Finish

Place the filling in your cooking vessel (ours was about 8’ x 10’ x 4’).  Spread the filling to an even depth and cover with the mashed potato mixture.  Smooth the potatoes and score with a fork. 

Bake at 350 degrees for thirty to forty five minutes (until the potatoes turn golden brown).  Let cool before serving, serves 4-6

First batch of kimchi

My husband and I decided we love kimchi enough to quit buying it and make our own.  Most Korean families wouldn’t even consider buying this every-meal side dish, but since we’re not Korean, I don’t feel too bad about buying it in the store premade.  However, its much more cost effective to do our own.  I looked up a few recipes and decided on one from epicurious.com.  Here’s how our version went:

1 gallon of water
1 head of Napa cabbage (on second look, this should have been 2)
1/2 cup salt

1 head of garlic, minced
1 chunk (around 2-3 inches) of fresh ginger, minced
1 bunch of green onion tops, finely chopped
1 daikon radish, sliced into thin strips
1/3 cup Korea chili powder (we used a Thai chili powder, I think it may have been spicier)
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 tsp red chili powder (used for color, in hind sight, may have been overkill)

Core the cabbage and cut into chunks.  Dissolve the salt in the gallon of water and add the cabbage.  This needs to soak for 2-3 hours.  Make sure the cabbage is fully submerged.  While it’s soaking, you can prepare the rest of your veggies.  When the time is up, drain the cabbage.  You could use a salad spinner to dry the cabbage.  Since we don’t have one, we used a dish cloth to get the cabbage fairly dry by patting and squeezing it.  Don’t crush your cabbage!!

I had to check to see exactly what a daikon radish looked like.  They look like big fat white carrots, but pack much more of a punch.  We peeled and chopped this guy up, then added it along with the rest of the ingredients to a large steel pot (it doesn’t get cooked, it was just easier to mix in a big container).

(pardon the cell phone picture!)

Once you’ve added all the ingredients, you can mix with your hands.  Most recipes suggest using gloves to keep your hands from turning red.  After it’s mixed, go ahead and place in the containers you like.  It can be left out for a few days to ferment, after that it can be stored in the refrigerator for around 3 weeks.  After the 3 weeks or so, it becomes too strong to eat alone, but could be used for soups or other recipes.  Personally, this batch was pretty spicy (read: very clear sinus) and from what I understand will only get stronger.  We should have used 2 cabbages instead of one, which may have mellowed it out a bit.  Now that we have the recipe down, we’ll work on improving it!!  I’ll let you know how that goes in the future.  Enjoy!!

Are you hungry yet?

My husband is the cook.  The chef.  Not me.  I open a mean box of Tuna Helper, and I have about 2 things I cook really well.  The rest of our fabulous dining is courtesy of Daddy.  He just seems to know what would work together, what seasonings to add.  I just stand back (and do the dishes after) and wait for the results!!  While I’m standing back watching his chef knife fly, of course, I have my trusty camera and some dermabond. 

Last night we made a HUUGE batch of stir fry.  Two batches, in fact.  One chicken, and one beef.  He found a HUUGE wok to cook in, and rigged this garbage can cooker to hold it over charcoal.

  In case you aren’t sure of the size of this enormous thing, check out Piper….  No, we didn’t cook her, she’s a bit too skinny.

Once the cooking apparatus was designed, the veggies were cut.  By the way, did I mention it was in the upper 80’s at dinner time.  Not really my idea of grilling weather, but I wasn’t the one standing over the hot food.

Our sauce staples for any good stir fry – oyster sauce and a really good soy sauce.

Hungry yet?  How about now….

This was a seriously amazing meal!

Want the recipe?  I may divulge….later ;)

Choke Cherries – again!!

I originally posted these couple of pictures last August, but this year with all the rain and heat our choke cherries are early!! I have to go pick.  Tomorrow we head to my Mother-in-law’s place to can rhubarb jelly, strawberry/rhubarb jam, and something with cranberries (I don’t know that we plan on making with them yet).  So enjoy a few shots from last year’s harvest while I get some new ones!!

We have a choke cherry tree in our yard that always produces massive amounts of berries each year. I usually try to pick what I can reach. This year I plan to get up higher and harvest as much as possible. My first excursion into syrup and jelly last year went SO well and we loved all the jars of tart tasty toppings. I was pretty proud of myself for canning for the first time!

I will post some recipes soon!!

Bubble Tea

If you’ve never heard of it, Bubble Tea is a very popular asian treat with shops in food courts worldwide.  Except anywhere near our tiny town, that is.  Bubble Tea comes in tons of flavors from the drab (wheat flavor anyone?) to the super fruity (lychee or papaya smoothies for example).  They are served with pearls (you know, the bubbles!) or without.  The pearls are tapioca pearls in various flavors and you use a really big straw to suck them up!  Since we don’t have any place near by to treat the kids, I bought the pearls and made our own.

  

I purchased Green Tea flavored tapioca pearls at the local asian food store and boiled them per the directions on the back.  They take a while to cook, so make plans to spend at least half an hour on them.  While they boil, you can start your green tea (I use the coffee maker).

     

When the pearls are ready I added them to about 2oz of milk (more or less to your taste) then added the tea to the milk and pearls.   It is usually lightly sweetened with honey or sugar to taste.  It is also usually served cold, but ours didn’t have much time to cool!  The kids were unsure at first, but really liked it!

      

Quail Eggs and Bento Boxes

I know, I was a little intimidated at first.  Those who’ve never had anything but store-bought bleach white eggs might be, too.  Since I started packing the kids Bento Boxes for school, I’ve been trying to diversify what they eat.  Quail eggs are a perfect, and quite common, addition to a Bento Box.  They are tiny, bite sized and a nice little addition of protein,  not to mention Omega-3 and Omega-6.  My kids really like hard boiled chicken eggs, so I was eager to find quail eggs to add to their Bento Box routine.  Even though we live in a small town near a slightly larger town, I was able to find fresh quail eggs at our friend’s Asian food store.

Of course I didn’t know how long to cook them, so I had to look it up.  All you need is five minutes in boiling water, followed by a cool rinse.  One site suggested you add white vinegar to the water to further soften the shell. 

 

When I removed the shell, they were rather tough to peel without ruining the boiled egg whites inside.  Peel with caution!! I ruined a few eggs (still edible, just not pretty!) but managed to have enough for two Bento Boxes.  They fit neatly into a flexible silicone muffin cup.  Below you can see the size difference between the quail eggs and one chicken egg.

Add a sprinkle of seasoned salt and they are ready to go…. As for this Bento, it needs a little more color!  Along with the quail eggs are Hello Panda cookies and a blueberry bagel with fruit cream cheese.  I tucked in some cherry tomatoes, grapes, and a couple to carrot sticks to round it out! Enjoy your lunch!!

Friday Fragments

It’s FINALLY FRIDAY!!!  Flush the fragments floating in your frontal lobe to facilitate a fabulous Friday full of fun, festivity, and function. Well, minimal function anyway.  Mrs. 4444 hosts Friday Fragments just for us!!!

• I got some new shoes!! Those cool rocker-bottom kind that are supposed to exercise your thighs and butt into shape just by walking around.  I put them on and I didn’t feel any different.  I wore them all day, around the house, on a walk, to school with the kids…. no problem.  I was wondering if they actually work.  I got my answer the next morning.  My butt felt sore. My butt. My thighs. My calves.  It felt like…well… like I exercised or something.
• I like watching Phineas and Ferb, but don’t tell my kids….

• JC used his Go-Go-Gadget arms to reach an empty beer bottle I had sitting on the counter.  At least I thought it was empty, until he was slugging down the last sip and spilling it on his shirt.  I immediately decided it was bath time as we were planning on going to Grandma’s that night.  The last thing I need it to show up with a baby reeking of beer.  “Hope he sleeps well for you!!!” Just trying to maintain my Mom Of The Year status!
• I didn’t see Grey’s Anatomy last night.  I’m about a season behind, so you all just shut it until I get caught up, mmm’kay?
• I’m preparing myself for a movie I want to see soon.  One involving the undead and shape shifters and stuff.  No, not the HBO one….the other one.  Why hasn’t anyone said the HBO one is just an adult sexed up swearing version of the teen version?  Do you get what I’m saying here??? I feel like I’ve read these Sookie books before, only there was a lot more teen angst going on.  I hope these adult books end differently….
• So I was putting fresh clean line-dried pillow cases on my pillows and noticed that one set of pillows has tags on both ends.  WTH???  How am I supposed to decide which end to stuff into the case first?  I was really thrown.  So I ripped one set off.  Problem solved.  I shouldn’t get so worked up.
• A shot of AM as a Rat in the Pied Piper…
• I’ve been trying to be good and eat healthy, but I slip up sometimes.  Like chowing down an entire order of Mozzarella sticks from DQ while they are still too hot.  I call it “Diner’s Remorse”. 
• So we climbed into the van to leave for the Youth run last night.  It had been about 75-80 degrees all day.  The vas smelled like…welll….ass.  I blamed the kids on their reluctance to throw out all their fast food wrappers even when I asked them repeatedly.  I gave them a lecture.  It wasn’t until I was sitting in the driver’s seat that I noticed it.  The crock pot.  From Saturday night at work.  Dirty. In. The. Sun. My bad.
• The two big kids ran the Fargo Youth Run 1/2 mile (the Fargo Marathon is Saturday morning, and its actually accredited to be a Boston Marathon qualifier!).  PM was disappointed that she didn’t run, a few of her friends we know that are her age did run.  She wants badly to do what the other kids are doing, and especially what her big siblings do.  I saw a few wheel chairs (powered by parents) in the mix, but she doesn’t need a chair.  She just can’t run.  I am going to look into some way for her to participate next year.  When I Twittered about it, Barbara at TherExtras mentioned adapted bikes…. research time.  Anyway, here’s our newest medal winners:

• I didn’t realize until the pictures that I gave MD the wrong number to wear.  I had a matching one for each kid in case I wanted to run with them, and at the end we couldn’t collect them without the matching number.  Cool.
• I am doing the 5k tonight with my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and nephews.  (By “doing” I mean walking briskly.)  I decided to take the little kids in our big bike stroller/trailer thing.  It has bike tires and pushes easily.  Plus there’s room for two and snacks.  My snacks perhaps.  My brothers-in-law are running the half marathon Saturday morning.  No thanks on that!
• Don’t forget to enter to win a $200 gift card from BlogHer and Flip Video just by sharing a moment you wish you’d had a video camera.  It’s my first big giveaway, so please stop by!!!  My ad-free review blog is “All That Other Stuff…”

Presenting: Grilled Cheese-Stuffed Red Peppers!

These have to be the best thing I’ve made in a long time.  I am proud to say I came up with most of the recipe myself.  After Googling different stuffed pepper recipes I decided to go out on my own.  Those peppers with the stuffing made almost entirely out of rice are just not for me.  Any filling I eat needs to not be just a “filler”, I want it to really be tasty, too!

Recipe List (these are all approximate, that’s usually how I cook)

6 Long Sweet Red Peppers (bought as a pack at Sam’s Club/Costco)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (you know, EVOO!)

3/4c. bacon ends and pieces (most fatty stuff removed)

1 med onion, diced

1 additional Red Pepper, diced

6 oz. Pepper Jack cheese

4 oz. Mozzarella cheese

5 Babybel cheeses

1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

3 1/2 oz. box of Panko bread crumbs 

I started with long red peppers that I washed and took the tops off of.  Fortunately, these peppers are really only seedy at the top, so just sneaking a knife around the neck will get rid of most of the seeds.  There are a few down further in the pepper, but a few flicks with my fingers and I had knocked them out.

I cut one pepper up to use in the stuffing later.

Once I had the rest cored, I drizzled the EVOO over them and sent them out to Hubby to grill.  He said they were only on about 5 minutes, turned once.  I didn’t cook them before the grill so they will still be just a bit firm.  We don’t want them falling apart when they’re stuffed!

 

 

While the peppers are waiting for the grill, I started on the stuffing.  I first browned the bacon.  We use a pack of “ends and pieces”.  Most grocery stores carry something like it.  There are no flat pieces of bacon, they are simply the leftovers pieces that won’t fit in a regular sliced bacon pack.  Usually there is a lot of meat and the fat can be easily removed for cooking.  It’s economical AND slightly more healthy than regular bacon slices.

Once the bacon is browned, I added the onion and the chopped red pepper.  Sautee them until they are a bit soft.  Next comes my favorite part….cheese!

I cubed the Pepper Jack, Mozzarella (or buy the already-shredded!) and cut the Babybel into slices.  I used about 1/2 c. of grated Parmesan cheese as well.  All of these went into the pan on low heat until they melted.

About this time, my peppers came back in from the grill, I set them aside while I added the last ingredient.

 

Once the cheese is well melted, add the Panko bread crumbs.  Sure, you can use other types, but the Panko are light and crispy and add nice texture to the stuffing!  I’m not terribly cautious, I just dumped the whole thing in then mixed it up.

 

 

 

Mmmmm… we’re almost there.  I took my still hot grilled peppers, held them with a clean towel, and spooned the mixture into the peppers, making sure to get all the way to the bottom.  I was quite generous with the stuffing and still had enough to stuff all 6 peppers.

That’s it! They’re ready to serve!!!  I can’t say this is the healthiest dish we’ve ever made, but everyone needs a treat once in a while…and there is a vegetable under all that cheese!!!  Enjoy!

Are you making them? Let me know! I’ll add your link to the bottom of this post.