Hearty, but not Heavy -- Shepherd's Pie

fun fact: my apartment is so cold, the sauce oil in my instant noodle packet congealed.

fun fact II: my apartment is so cold, that even after two hours on the counter, the butter barely softened.

fun fact III: a space heater works more effectively when you put it in an open area, instead of cramming it into a tiny little space...(i.e., the room is warmer now that the space heater isn't trapped under my desk where my feet are)... :P

Wellll, it's been extra cold these past two days (DUDE, snow in the bay area!  last time this happened was... 3 or 4 years ago?  yeeah), and I was extra hungry today, so I reeeally wanted to try this Shepherd's Pie recipe I saved from Allrecipes~  Since I made a slightly altered and somewhat reduced version, I'll fully explain it here.

Essentially, this shepherd's pie was layers of stuff:
mashed potatoes au gratin (= cheese topping ;D), over
mashed carrots (plain), over
fully-cooked ground beef and onions

Because I am lazy (and because I've had a box sitting around since the beginning of the school year..), I used instant mashed potatoes...the dried flakes that come in a packet, that you add to milk, water, and butter.  IT IS DELICIOUS, no matter how weird it is... and it worked just fine for this recipe.  meh.

 Ingredients (for approx. 1 qt. casserole, a fairly small size, especially convenient for households of...one)

• 1 packet from the box of seasoned mashed potatoes (enough for 2 people, it says..)
  
• 1/2 a shallot, minced
• 2 carrots, chopped into large pieces (you might actually want another half or whole carrot)
• 1/2 an onion, chopped (I used a "sweet onion"..it looked yellow?)
• 1/2 lb ground beef (I'm not sure how much I actually used...it was probably more)
• 1 tbsp. flour
  
• 1/4 c. beef broth
• 2 tsp. Hoisin sauce
  
• Several generous handfuls of grated cheddar cheese
  
• oil for frying, milk/butter/water for potatoes (follow the instructions, yeeeah), a little bit of salt

Note: I was also going to add some canned corn, but the leftover corn from a can I opened...a while ago (maybe two weeks?)..was ALREADY MOLDY.  :(  ewww.  greenish blue spots and all, yo.  Instead, I added a layer of zucchini slices (1/2 a zucchini) to the individual casserole.

HOW-TO:

Depending on how long it takes for your oven to heat, and how long you take to make the layers, remember at some point in the recipe to preheat your oven to 375°F.

1. Boil some salted water, and when it's rolling right along, add the carrots, and wait for the water to boil again.  Boil until carrots are soft-ish (approx. 5-7 minutes).  Dump out the water and mash the carrots until lumps are whatever you will tolerate. Laver 2, ready!
   
2. Make the mashed potatoes; while still warm, add a handful (according to the original recipe halved, "2 tbsp") of cheddar cheese.
3. Saute the shallots in a liiittle bit of oil  until they are fragrant and starting to go clear.  Remove from heat and add into potato/cheese mixture.  Layer 1, ready!
4. Heat some oil over medium, medium-high heat (depends on how patient you are, ahahaha...), and cook the onion until pieces are clear.  Add the ground beef and cook till well browned.  At this point you can either pour off the fat, or just leave it in the pan like a certain lazy recipe writer (hey, I bought the 90/10 instead of the 80/20 for a reason..gosh, what we're willing to pay for convenience..).
   
5. Sprinkle flour over beef and stir in until you don't see anymore white powder.  Cook for 1 minute, then add the beef broth and Hoisin sauce (the original recipe called for ketchup, which I don't have--not even stolen packets from In-n-out or McDonald's or the dining commons, sad, I know).  Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.  Or slightly longer than that, depending on how long you forget about it. >_>;;;
6. Remove beef from heat. Layer 3, ready!  Now it's time for casserole-assembly.  HOW EXCITING.
7. Because homemade frozen food is infinitely cooler than commercial, store-bought, chock-full-of-preservatives frozen food, I followed the process described in this Just Bento article (it's really short, no worries) to make a bunch of muffin-tin sized pies that I can nuke(or toast)-and-eat through finals week (instead of wasting hours upon happy hours cooking).  I made eight muffin-sized (..in a muffin tin), and one individual dinner-sized one (typical Marie Callendar potpie-size?) in a 2-cup round pyrex container.
   
   
   
8. Pour the beef and onions into the bottom layer, spread some mashed carrots over that, top with a scoop of mashed potato, cover generously with cheese, and pop it in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  It is recommended that you check on it after 15 minutes, and every 3-5 minutes after that it remains in the oven.
   
   
   
9. Remove it when done.  If you want to freeze anything, let it cool to room temperature first (or if your room is like mine, it's near equivalent to a refrigerator..oh wow, the temperature's below freezing outside..32°F), then pop the mini-pies into the freezer.  If you have room, you can shove the whole tin in, or if there isn't as much space, carefully remove the pies from the tin and freeze them on a plate or something.  After they're thoroughly frozen, put in a freezer bag (I haven't bothered with foil yet...we'll see how that turns out) and leave in the freezer bag until the next time you're hungry.  While you're waiting for the to-freeze-pies to cool, though, enjoy the rest of your pie fresh, warm and toasty. :)

A tip I learned from Joy of Cooking about cooking stuff in muffin tins (not sure if it only has to apply to muffins, you know?):  if there are any empty cups, fill them with a few tablespoons of water before baking; this prevents stuff in the filled cups from getting too dry.  It also allows for more even heat distribution throughout the pan. :)  That's usually a good thing in baking, yeah?

Fun Fact Finale: I have an unfortunate tendency to forget about the stuff I put in the oven, especially when I start using the laptop while waiting for it to cook. :P  Thanks to this, many cookies have come close, and some lost, to burnt disaster.

Bento!!

I'm finally putting that absolutely lovely gift basket of bento supplies into good use.   THANK YOU AGAIN!! ♥ it was like finding a baby on the porch...only much quieter and less worrying. ;D

My favorite online bento resources:

Lunch in a Box -- the emphasis on food safety, healthy cooking, and speed-packing are ♥

Just Bento and Just Hungry -- same owner, similar excellent material; special emphasis on diet/healthy bento

Cooking Cute -- one of the first sites I found; sadly inactive for more than a year now, but still full of useful info, some neat recipes, and lovely pictures

Freakin' Tasty Bento -- this is actually a link to a specific entry: "Bento for Cheap Bastards"; it's a nice little reality check with practical advice :)

all links in food item names go to recipes~

Bento 1!

Top (actually it's the bottom compartment, haha~): white rice (sprinkled w/ green onions post-photo)

Bottom: mini banana-choco muffin; dried mango slices; mock-Italian hamburger halves; balsamic-stir fried bell peppers

(sad story: I flipped it off the table while I was eating, so the mini-muffin and some of the mango slices became not-edible ;-;  oh well.)

 

Bento 2!

Left: Curry-fried rice -- heat leftover curry in frying pan, add rice, heat thoroughly and stir until fairly dry; there was a layer of plastic wrap b/t the rice and the container so it wouldn't be as smelly :P

Right: Trader Joe's gyoza over spinach; one slice of dried mango; chocolate mochi squares; fruit jelly cups

 

Bento 3!

This is the triangular onigiri case~ :)

Top: Soboro-stuffed onigiri (soboro is easy!  awesomely tasty!  eat it with plain rice for dinner!)

Bottom: Hard boiled egg (not cut very cleanly..>_>;;), blanched snow peas

the persimmon is table decoration :P

 

Bento 4!

Left: blanched bok choy stalks and leaf-rosette; tamagoyaki w/ nori filling; leftover pasta and sauce

Right: gingersnap halves; dried mango slices; fruit jelly cup; frozen-then-reheated curry-flavored beef and potato croquettes

 

Bento 5!  BIG (3-person) picnic lunch~

Top: Soboro-stuffed (rounds w/ seaweed wrap), plain rice onigiri (triangles); chicken; zucchini

Bottom: dessert tray; balsamic green beans and red bell pepper pieces

Lemon Chicken Nuggets and Pan-fried Zucchini (used Country Crock margarine--ahahaha yeah i know i said i never use it in baking, but i do use it in sandwiches and stuff--instead of oil)

 Dessert: Coconut jello (from a packet; I added less water than recommended so they'd be a little firmer) and blueberries

And then, because this meal was just too healthy, we went and ate $1-a-scoop ice cream. :]

Pumpkin flavor = oooomgsh good.  Next time you come to Berkeley, we're going!!

Meat Bake a la Olaf and Meatballs

So I remember Olaf describing to me a meal that he had from time to time, a sort of personal comfort food. Here's my version of his meat bake, it was pretty good. I ended up mashing it all together on my plate and while it looked gross, was pretty delicious. I had extra meat so I made some meatballs for subs. Makes 2 servings and 6 meatballs.

Meat Bake!

• 1 large sweet potato
  
• 1/2 lb ground beef
  
• 1/4 c diced onion
  
• 2 cloves garlic minced
  
• 1 T dried thyme
  
• 2 T olive oil
  
• 1 T fresh parsley, and some extra for garnish
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 large tomato sliced

1. Poke some holes the sweet potato, and then microwave on high for 20 minutes.
2. While your potato is cooking, mix together the ground beef, onion, garlic, thyme, olive oil, parsley and salt and pepper. It's gooey but doing it by hand is more fun.
3. When your potato is done, slice it in half, and scoop out the insides. Mash this up and spread along a small baking dish. Layer your tomato slices on top, and finish with a layer of your meat mixture, about a 1/2 inch thick. You'll have extra meat leftover to make meatballs with.
4. Place your dish in the broiler at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or when meat looks done.

With your extra meat feel free to make some meatballs. I made six 1-inch ones which I just fried in olive oil for use in meatball subs later.