Shepherd's Pie

This is really easy if you have an oven-safe saute pan.

Ingredients

• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 lb ground lamb (or whatever)
• 1 tsp fresh or dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1c chicken stock
• 1c peas
• 2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks of roughly the same size
• 1/2c or so milk
• 2 tbsp butter

Set the potatoes boiling in a pot. In a separate saute pan, add the carrot, celery, onion, and meat. Cook over medium heat until the vegetables are tender and the meat browned. Then add the herbs, tomato paste, and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add the peas. Toward the end of the cooking, preheat the oven to 375. When the potatoes are done, drain the water and add the milk and butter and mash. Salt to taste. Spread the mashed potatoes over the meat and vegetables in the saute pan and spread to create a layer of mashed potatoes. Use the tines of a fork to texture the surface (optional, as far as I can tell). Throw the whole thing in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until lightly golden or you can't stand it anymore (what happened for us). Serve.

Thoughts: This was really easy, if a little time consuming. I think the lamb was really good. If I weren't using lamb, I would go with a mixture of pork and beef, probably. I can't think of much I would change about this, although I might consider upping the rosemary or adding some thyme or something.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Green Pea Soup with Tarragon

This was devised as a way of salvaging another recipe we made. When we prepared this Julia Child recipe, we wound up with like 2 lbs of cooked peas left over.


Ingredients

• 2 pounds of leftover cooked peas (or else frozen, whatever)
  
• 1 red onion, chopped
  
• 4c vegetable broth
  
• 3tbsp dried tarragon... unless it's pretty freshly dried, in which case 2tbsp. Otherwise 3tbsp fresh.
  
• plain nonfat yogurt for serving
  
• 1 round of ham (4oz?), cubed and fried for serving
  

Saute the onion in a soup pot with some olive oil until tender. Then add the broth, peas, and tarragon. Cook until the peas are done or at least warmed through - about 5-8 minutes, depending on whether they're frozen. Remove from heat and put it through a blender until smooth. Return to heat and simmer, adding a little extra broth as desired until it's the right consistency. Stir in the ham. Correct seasoning. Serve with yogurt drizzled on top.

Thoughts: We've made pea soup before in a couple of different ways, but this was actually really good. The tarragon worked really nicely, and the soup was actually thick enough. This was the first time I really felt like the ham complemented the soup, too. All in all a really good recipe. I'd make it again.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Mexican Rice

Ingredients

• 1c extra long grain white rice, rinsed until water runs clear
  
• 1.25c water
  
• 2 to 2.5tsp chicken bouillon (or veg, but I wouldn't recommend it)
  
• heaping .5tsp ground annato seed
  
• .5tsp cumin
  

Wash rice and put it in a pot with the water over medium-high heat. Don't stir it more than once or twice, and only briefly. When the water reaches a low boil, cover the pot and turn heat as low as it will go. Let sit for 15 minutes. In the mean time, combine the seasonings in a separate bowl. Add no more than 1tbsp water and stir to dissolve. When the 15 minutes are up, pour the seasoning-mixture into the rice and stir to coat. If the rice looks like it needs a little more time, cover and continue to cook. Otherwise, re-cover and turn the heat off. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so. If you want, once it has been sitting for 5-10 minutes, you can add a little NEUTRAL oil and turn the heat back on, frying the rice lightly.

Thoughts: When we made this, we used 1.5tsp chicken stock. We're trying to copy the rice that they have at Casa De Lara in Madison, WI. We were very close, and we decided it just needed a little more salt. In the future, we could add chopped up carrots and peas, as well. Possibly we could cook them separately and then stir them in when the seasonings are done.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Split Pea Soup with Ham

Ingredients

• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
  
• 1 cup precooked ham, grilled and chopped.
  
• 1 large leek, rinsed and chopped
  
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup green split peas, rinsed
  
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 5 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 5 and 3/4 cup chicken broth

Heat oil over medium high heat. Add the chopped ham and grill until it gets a little caramelized. This should take 5-7 minutes. Remove the grilled ham and set aside.
Add a little more olive oil to the pan, if needed, and add leek and bay leaf. Saute until leeks are wilted but still bright green, about 3 minutes. Add the split peas and stir to coat them with the olive oil. Add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low, cover, and let simmer for around 35 minutes, or until the peas are tender.
Remove from heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove about 1 cup of the soup solids and put in blender. Add 1/2 cup of the broth. Add 4 tbsp of the dill and the frozen peas. Puree until smooth. Return the puree to the soup and bring to a boil again. Add the ham and mix until it's evenly distributed. Remove from heat and sprinkle with fresh dill. Eat.

Thoughts: This was a pretty straight-up recipe and it was also pretty easy. Also good for you; it didn't require any cream or anything. Plus ham is actually surprisingly lean. So all in all, pretty healthy. The original recipe didn't actually call for ham, but we figured you can't REALLY have split pea soup without ham. Unless you're like, a vegetarian, or trying to keep kosher or something. But the ham really added an extra flavor and texture dimension to the soup that I think the soup definitely benefited from. I would definitely make it again. The dill was also a good touch. Dan thought there was a little too much salt, probably because of the chicken stock.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Matzo Ball Soup

My own recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2c matzo meal
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1/2c fresh parsley, finely chopped (or maybe 1/4c dried?)
  
• salt and pepper (but mainly pepper)
  
• ~6c chicken or vegetable stock
  
• Whatever vegetables you think go in soup (I tend to use carrots and peas)
  
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into smallish strips or chunks (optional)
  

First, prepare the matzo balls. In a bowl, combine the matzo meal, the eggs, the oil, the parsley, and add a liberal amount of salt and pepper. Now you have to add some water to this mixture so that it will loosen up. ~2tbsp minimum. The more water you add now the fluffier the matzo balls will be later. This is a personal preference thing. Some people like them more compact. You pick. Anyway, once you've mixed up the matzo ball batter, put it in the fridge.

Now, bring the stock to a boil. Add the vegetables and, if you're using it, the chicken. By now, the matzo ball batter should be nicely chilled. Get it out and spoon it into the boiling mixture. I use a small ice-cream scoop with a quick-release, though you could use two normal spoons if you're good. Once you've spooned in all of the matzo balls, turn the soup down to a simmer and cover. This prevents them from drying out on top.

After five minutes, you can check on them. I couldn't tell you when they're done, I just keep looking until they look right. They don't take very long, but also you can pretty much over-cook them as long as you want and nothing too bad will happen. At some point they'll start to fall apart.

Thoughts: I've made this a lot. One thing you can do is add cayenne pepper, paprika, or, hell, I dunno, curry to the matzo balls. Go crazy. One time we put peas in the matzo ball batter itself. I didn't really like that. Anyway, there are a lot of options if you aren't excited about just parsley. Still, this recipe is hard to screw up and if you keep a thing of matzo meal on hand you'll pretty much always have the ingredients you need.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - it's kind of a standard at this point.