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.

Chicken and Dumplings

A few weeks ago, one of my friends, Danni, got appendicitis. A group of us went down to visit her in the hospital. It was fairly late, our bus wasn't arriving for another 45 minutes and we were starving so we headed down to the hospital food service area. They had some soup and dumplings. Personally I only got a single dumpling and some gravy which fetched an odd look from our cashier. The dumpling was split between 3 people and was so yummy that I just had to go back for more. Who would have known a lump of dough could be so tasty?

Ingredients
For Chicken Soup

• cooked chicken carcass 
• 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
  
• 5 cups boiling water
• 2 celery stalks, 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 large carrot, 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 t dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

For Dumplings

• 2 cups flour
• 2 T baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
  
• 1/2 t sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
  
• 1/2 c milk

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, start heating up the chicken pieces, letting it get aromatic along with the onions. Cook for about 5 minutes, the onions don't have to be soft yet.
2. Add the 5 cups of water to the chicken, and celery, carrots,  thyme and salt and pepper. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. 
3. While the stock is cooking, start making the dumpling dough. Mix all the dry ingredients together, and then the butter, and slowly mix in the milk until it forms a dough. Knead the dough maybe 8 times. Form the dough into 1.5 inch diameter balls. Set aside.
4. When the broth has finished simmering, fish out the chicken carcass pieces. Pick off any remaining meat and place in the broth. The broth should still have onion, carrot, and celery pieces.
5. Place the dough balls into the simmering water and place a lid on the pan. Do not open for at least 15 minutes as the dough is cooking in the steam. When the dumplings are ready they should float to the top, enlarged and fluffy. Check to make sure the insides are cooked by inserting a toothpick. If they are not done, cook for another 5-10 minutes with the lid on.
6. When the dumplings are ready, serve the soup and dumplings together immediately.

Salmon Provencal

This is what fresh fish should taste like. Simple but beautifully soft and succulent.

I got the recipe from Simply Recipes but again I made a few modifications.

Ingredients

• 2 Fresh Salmon Fillets
  
• Olive oil for baking Salmon
• 2 T Olive Oil
• 1 T Balsamic Vinegar
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• 1/2 t Dried Thyme
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 Springs Green Onion, chopped
• 1 Medium Tomato, diced
• 1 Garlic Clove, minced

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2. Place the salmon on a greased baking dish, drizzling olive oil on the fish. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the 2 Tablespoons of oil with the balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and thyme. Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice onto the salmon.
4. Place the salmon in the oven for 10-12minutes, until pink and just barely cooked through. There may be some cooked fat collecting around the salmon.
5. Serve the fish immediately topped with the green onions, tomatoes, and garlic and then the oil, balsamic mixture drizzled on top. Garnish with a lemon slice. 
6. Goes well over a bed of pasta, rice, or spinach.

Lemon Butter Prawn Pasta

I happened to have all the ingredients on hand so this was a delicious midnight snack after playing pool at the pub. It's incredibly easy to put together, I think it took me 15 minutes total. But it's also a recipe that demands top-notch ingredients.

I got the recipe from bbc , I changed it a little bit which I'll just retype here. 

Ingredients

• small handful of linguine or spaghetti (enough for 1)
  
• 1/4 c butter
  
• 1/2 c raw peeled prawns , preferably tiger prawns
• squeeze lemon juice
  
• small handful flatleaf parsley , roughly chopped
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Prepare your pasta according to the package directions.
2. When your pasta is nearly done, melt half your butter on low heat in a saucepan, then saute your prawns in the butter for about 1.5 min. 
3. Squeeze your lemon over the shrimp, and add the parsley and remaining butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another minute.
4. Take the shrimp off the heat immediately and try one to see if it's at the right consistency for you. Better to start off undercooking than to end up with rubbery expensive seafood.
5. If it's to your satisfaction just pour the entire prawn butter concoction over your pasta and enjoy!

Apple Turnovers

Well first off, college kitchens are not conducive to baking. I ended up making these turnovers without a rolling pin, pastry brush, or more importantly an oven. Instead, I made due with a good deal of palm pressing, a wooden spoon, and a microwave oven with an oven setting. Okay, so they ended up a bit underdone, but I blame the microwave oven.

Ingredients

• 1 large granny smith apple
• 2 T sugar
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1 sheet of puff pastry

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Hopefully, you got a sheet of puff pastry and not a block of it. If you did get a block, roll it out into a square like shape of about 14x14 inches (or larger) The dough should be 1/4" thick. Cut the dough into 4 7x7 inch squares
3. Cut the apple into thin wedges, the apple should make about 16. Coat these wedges in a mixture of the sugar and cinnamon. Make sure they are well covered.
4. Scramble the egg in a small bowl, and using a fork.
5. Brush the egg onto the edges of each of the puff pastry squares with a pastry brush.
6. Place 4 or so wedges onto each square. 
7. Now fold the squares over diagonally, to make little triangular turnovers. Be sure get all the apple within them, and then pinch the edges close.
8. Place the turnovers in the baking dish
9. Brush the tops of the turnovers with the egg wash, and cut 2-3 slits on the tops of the turnovers for steam to come out.
10. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Serve immediately

Simple Lasagna

Mmm. I think we all crave a good cheesy lasagna every now and again. My flatmates had just brought back two huge lasagnas in a row from home, and I decided to make my own. The one problem with lasagna is that they come in huge boxes of like 20+ noodles, and you can never use them all up, without having to buy another box. This recipe is really quick for a lasagna recipe. Makes a 9x9 pan.

Ingredients

• 8 Lasagna Noodles
• 1 lb Ground Beef
• 2 T ketchup
• 1 T mixed herbs
• 2 T fresh parsley
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 4 cups store-bought pasta sauce
• 3 large tomatoes, sliced

Instructions

1. Start off by soaking the lasagna noodles in hot water for about 15 minutes.
2. Mix the ground beef with the ketchup, herbs, parsley, and salt and pepper. 
3. Brown the beef mixture with the onion in a frying pan for about 7 minutes until the meat gets dark, and the pan is full of juices.
4. Place four of the lasagna noodles in a layer on the bottom of your lasagna pan.
5. Spread half the ricotta cheese on the noodles, and then half the meat fry. Top with 2 cups of pasta sauce and half of the mozzarella cheese.
6. Repeat with the remaining ingredients
7. Top the entire thing with the tomato slices and place in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

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!!