Shepherd's Pie

If the British are known for one thing in their cooking, it's for being about as exciting as a toothache.  But if you like meat and potatoes, forget about going anywhere else, because these folks have this market cornered.  Bangers and mash, kippers and neeps (technically a turnip, but same deal), shepherd's pie, meat pasties - you name it, and folks from the mother land have taken a stab at it.  And by and large, they screwed it up.

That's right, I said it.  I entertain your rebuttal in the comments.  Despite this, I still like British food, because sometimes a man needs to just eat a bunch of meat, served in stew form, with naught but the most basic of flavors.  But in searching for a good Shepherd's Pie recipe, I came across some that I might feed to a dog, but none that I would feed to a diner who wants more than just 'people food'.  So I had to borrow from the French and add some flavor to the recipes, as well as adjust the preparation method to get the most out of the different ingredients.  I even tried to get fancy and pipe my potatoes on the top of the stew, but that didn't quite work out, as we shall see.

Shepherd's Pie is a simple recipe, consisting of a meat stew with a mashed potato crust.  To be proper, I actually made a "Cottage Pie", since shepherd's don't really raise beef but mutton or lamb, but nobody calls it that so I'll stick to my guns on this one.  The dish came about as a way to spread the usage of the potato as an edible staple for the poor in England - kind of like the American history of corn syrup (or, if you go back far enough, whiskey), but a little bit more wholesome.

The finished Shepherd's Pie, with one serving briefly removed and replaced before I remembered to take a picture

Shepherd's (actually, Cottage) Pie
from nowhere in particular, designed by me for a change

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
•  2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1.5 pound ground lamb or beef
• 1 cup beef or chicken broth (use good stuff if you can - I used homemade stock)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh or dry rosemary (fresh is greatly preferred)
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1 cup frozen peas
• salt and pepper, to taste

For the potatoes:

• 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup milk (any fat content)
• Kosher salt to taste

 

Get your ingredients ready.  The list is fairly short.  If you have mashed potatoes left over from something else, the list becomes even shorter.

Grind your meat with a coarse blade.  You don't have a meat grinder?  Maybe your butcher will do it for you, if you flash a little skin.

These three ingredients represent the shortcomings of English food - aromatics, and complex flavors.  Garlic, rosemary, and red wine turn this from mess hall chow to something you could serve to a weary chef.  Or shepherd, I suppose.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large sauté pan over high heat, heat the oil and brown the meat in 1-2 batches.  Season with salt and pepper during browning, and be sure to keep the heat high and not just boil the meat.  You want to see some brown bits, even if it means things sticking to the pan for a while.  Meanwhile, bring the potatoes to a boil in salted water. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes; drain.

To the pan with meat, add the onion and carrot, and cook until softened, 3-4 minutes.  Add garlic, and cook until moisture has been released from onions and carrots are beginning to soften, another 4 minutes.  Add the red wine and boil until liquid is mostly evaporated, 4-5 minutes.  Add the broth, tomato paste, and rosemary, and reduce the heat.  Simmer until the juices thicken, about 10 minutes, then add the peas.

Here's the mix, after reducing out the wine, browning the meat, and adding all of the vegetables and aromatics.

Mash the potatoes with the butter, milk, and salt, and set aside.  If you want to pipe them, prepare a piping bag after letting the potatoes cool slightly, and get a tip that will let you dispense a good bit of potato at once.  Or, use my cheap method:

Don't have a piping bag?  Use a zip-top.  Just put the potato in...

...twist the bag to squeeze the potato down to the corner, and then cut off the corner and pipe.  Focus on putting pressure on the bag from the top, with the part of your hand between your thumb and index finger.  Keep twisting the bag to keep air out of the piping section.

So close!  But I ran out at the end, and had to spread the potato on after all of the effort.  Next time I might put a real tip on the bag to get something that doesn't look like a bunch of uncooked breadsticks, or something worse.

Spread or pipe the potatoes over the meat mixture, then crosshatch the top with a fork.  Bake until golden, 30 to 35 minutes.

The 'pie', after dragging a fork to create a nice browning surface

The finished pie, not quite as browned as I would like, but every bit as delicious as a hearty French stew

Cantonese Chicken in Black Bean Sauce

Nothing says Valentine's Day like cheap Chinese food; you might as well make it at home instead of ordering in while you watch Dr. Who and complain to your friends about being single.  Any day playing with new ingredients is a good day.  And a day where my Chinese food tastes like it's been cooked by a guy who came here on a boat, doesn't speak English, and hasn't cleaned his wok in 3 years is an awesome day.  So this chicken cooked in a Cantonese-style black bean sauce was pretty much the high point of last week, and I wanted to share.

Chicken in Black Bean Sauce - a Cantonese mainstay.  This one is from a newer version, loaded with vegetables and a bit more flavor.  See notes at the end.

Unless you've lived under a rock for your whole life, you've probably heard of Shrimp in Lobster Sauce, and maybe even ribs or clams steamed in black bean sauce.  This method of cooking is prototypical of Cantonese cuisine, and has been called 'fish-cooked' because the black bean sauce is so commonly served with fish dishes.  But I wanted to start simple, with chicken, in a standard recipe I found in an old book on Chinese regional cuisines.  No substitutions, no tweaks, just the bare bones recipe.  And I wasn't disappointed.  Fermented black beans are the star of this dish, a salted bean sold in vacuum-packed bags at most Asian grocery stores.

The instructions are short and sweet, but the process is critical.  Make sure you have everything at the ready before you heat up your wok.  This is a quick dish, and can be ruined by overcooking.  And when it says rinse the fermented beans, do it - these beans don't mess around, and rinsing them turns an overly pungent, hyper-salted taste into a more mild, savoury kick that's unlike any other ingredient I've come across in Chinese cooking.

Black Bean Garlic Chicken (Cantonese "Fish-Cooked" Chicken in Black Bean Sauce)

by Martin Yan

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/4 cup chicken stock or broth
• 2 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed, drained, and mashed
• 1/2 cup diced yellow onions
• 1 green onion (green part only), cut into 1" lengths
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp dried chili flakes
• 1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tsp water

Get your stuff together before you start.

Toss chicken in 1 tbsp soy sauce and cornstarch.  Let stand for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, stir stock, rice wine, 2 tsp soy sauce, and sugar together in a small bowl.

Heat a wok over high heat.  Pour in oil and swirl to coat sides.  Add chicken and stir-fry until no longer pink, 2.5-3 minutes.

Stir-fry up those chicken bits.  And ignore that massive box of brownies on the counter - they're not for you.

Cook the chicken until it's mostly done, keeping in mind that it will cook another 3 minutes or so afterwards.  2-3 minutes here should do it.

Add the black beans, yellow onions, green onions, ginger, garlic, and chili flakes.  Stir-fry 1-2 minutes.  Pour in sauce and dissolved cornstarch and cook, stirring, until sauce boils and thickens, 30 seconds.  Serve immediately.

Stir-fry with the beans and aromatics after chicken is mostly cooked through

The sauce is a bit hazy, so I might use tapioca starch next time.  Trust me, it's better than the restaurant equivalent, unless you live near one of the few Chinatowns left with actual Chinese people in it.

Here's another take from a few months later, with red bell pepper added as well

Update (5/12/13): I have since made this dish a few more times, with bell peppers and a few more vegetables.  To cook the dish this way, first quickly stir-fry half of a bell pepper and whatever other vegetables you like in a bit of oil, then set aside.  Follow the recipe until just before adding the sauce.  Now add the vegetables back in, and pick up where the recipe left off.  If you're adding a quick-cooking green like bok choy or spinach, add that just before adding the sauce, and stir-fry for another 30 seconds before moving forward.