Shepherd's Pie

Who would have thought this blog would see three recipes in a row! I've gotten so sick of eating the same old stuff that I've had to actually try cooking, which is a big deal for me. Tonight was Shepherd's Pie, another recipe from the February issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Ingredients:

For the topping:

1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 parsnips (6 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup plain fat-free yogurt

For the filling:
1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds lean ground turkey
Course salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Tbs. fresh thyme
3/4 tsp. chipotle or regular chili powder
2 Tbs. plus 1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
6 ounces frozen peas (about 1 1/2 cups)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Make the topping:
Place potatoes and parsnips in a medium saucepan, cover with water by 2 inches, and bring to a simmer.
Cook until fork tender, about 20 minutes.
Drain, reserving 2 cups cooking liquid.
Pass potatoes and parsnips through a ricer.
Stir in yogurt and 3/4 tsp. salt. Season with pepper.

Make the filling:
Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.
Cook onion, celery, carrots, and garlic stirring, until tender, 10 to 12 minutes.
Add turkey; cook, breaking up any large pieces, for 5 minutes.
Stir in 1 1/2 tsp. salt, thyme, and chili powder.
Whisk together cornstarch and reserved 2 cups of cooking liquid; add to turkey. Boil for 1 minute.
Stir in peas.
Transfer to a 2-quart round or oval baking dish; top with potatoes.
Bake until bubbling and top is browned, about 35 minutes.

I made some changes to this: I used ground bison instead of turkey because we love the flavor of this meat. I also used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans, corn) instead of the chopped carrots and frozen peas. And I didn't have cornstarch, so I used all-purpose flour to thicken the sauce instead. I ended up using only 2 parsnips instead of 3 and needed a 3-quart casserole dish to fit all of the filling instead of the recommended 2-quart.

All of that said, this was SO good! It's definitely something I will make again. I will probably go with just peas and carrots next time (Mike wasn't completely thrilled with the corn, but I liked it) and I may try a mix of ground lamb and bison for a little different flavor. Cornstarch would make the sauce thicker and less soupy. This will be our go-to recipe for mashed potatoes in the future, too. The parsnips aren't overwhelming, but add a nice complement to the potatoes, and the yogurt adds a really nice, rich flavor without using butter.

This is the perfect meal for a cold night and could easily be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated and then put into the oven at dinner time (let it come to room temperature first so you don't crack your casserole with a sudden temperature change.

Breakfast Quinoa

I bought an issue of Martha Stewart Living a week ago and have been really enjoying reading it. There are some great recipes and this one caught my eye, so I decided to try it since we were actually home this morning (a very rare thing!).

I didn't see this recipe on the web site yet, but that may be because it just came out in the magazine. There are lots of other quinoa recipes, though, if you happen to really like this particular grain.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole or low-fat milk, plus more for serving (I used soy milk instead and it worked well.)

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

3 Tbs. light-brown sugar, plus more for serving

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon, plus more for serving

1 cup (1/2 pint) fresh blueberries, plus more for serving

Directions:

Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add quinoa, and return to a boil.

Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until 3/4 of the milk has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Stir in sugar and cinnamon. Cook, covered, until almost all the milk has been absorbed, about 8 minutes.

Stir in blueberries and cook for 30 seconds.

Serve with additional milk, sugar, cinnamon, and blueberries.

This was SO good! I'm not a huge oatmeal fan, so I don't tend to make hot cereal, but this was fantastic. The grains have a really nice texture after cooking and the flavor is a bit nutty and mixes well with the sugar, cinnamon, and fruit. Personally, I really like the flavor of cooked soy milk and would choose it over regular milk any day, but that's just me. One tip - be sure to watch this closely because it can boil over very quickly. I stirred it occasionally as it was cooking, and that worked well to keep the foam down.

Zucchini Börek

Mike and I love Anthony Bourdain's show "No Reservations". The latest episode was shot in Istanbul and featured some incredible-looking food. We knew nothing about Turkey (heck, I didn't even know where it was, which isn't surprising coming from me since I have absolutely no knowledge of geography) and certainly didn't know what constituted Turkish food, so we were happily surprised to hear about dishes combining elements from all of our favorite kinds of food. Okay, not so much the sweetbreads and testicles, but the other stuff sounded really tasty.

One of the dishes that he ate at someone's home was called zucchini börek. It's basically phyllo dough layered with a zucchini and cheese mixture and it looked really amazing. I decided to see if I could find a recipe for it, and low and behold, the internet provided. "Almost Turkish Recipes" has the below recipe, which I made for dinner tonight and served with a green salad and Aidell's Garlic and Gruyere Cheese sausages.

Ingredients:

1 box of phyllo dough (about 14 sheets) or 2 boxes if using double sheets

Filling:

4 cups of grated zucchini

3 eggs

1/2 cup finely chopped dill

1/3 cup finely chopped mint or 3 Tbsp. dried mint flakes

1/2 cup crumbled white Turkish cheese or feta

1 Tbsp. paprika

1 Tbsp. or less black pepper

salt to taste, depending on how salty the cheese is

1 tsp. spicy red pepper flakes (optional)

For brushing phyllo:

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt (any fat content)

Directions:

Thaw frozen phyllo according to package directions.

Mix all filling ingredients together in a bowl and let sit for 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime, grease an 11 x 13 or 11x11 baking sheet or line with a Sil-pat.

After sitting, filling will be very wet. Squeeze excess liquid out and put into a separate bowl.

Add yogurt and olive oil to the liquid and mix well. This will be used to brush the phyllo.

Place a phyllo, wide side facing you, on the counter. Brush it with the yogurt mixture.

Place a second phyllo on top and brush it with the yogurt mixture.

Note: Phyllo is very thin, so you may want to use 2 sheets together instead of one. If you decide to use double sheets, you will need at least 28 sheets total.

Place about 1/7 of filling along long side of phyllo and roll tightly into a long, thin cigar shape.

Coil roll into a tight spiral on the baking sheet.

Repeat brushing, filling, rolling and coiling 6 more times, until all of filling has been used.

Brush top of borek with remaining liquid.

Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 50 minutes.

Cut into triangle pie slices to serve.

I had never worked with phyllo before, so the first couple of rolls were a bit tricky to deal with. I also just used single sheets instead of double, making it that much harder. Once I got the hang of separating the sheets and layering them, though, it wasn't difficult, just time-consuming, to put this together. It has an interesting combination of flavors, that actually went quite well with the sausages we used. I think if I made this again, I would double the cheese in it since we couldn't taste it at all.

There were several other börek recipes on this site that I think I'd prefer to this one. There is a spinach version that sounds very good and another with ground beef that I'd like to try. It was fun to try something really different, though, and got us out of the rut of eating the same dishes over and over and over.

Happy New Year!

First off, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a very busy December, so I didn't get to post much. I'll be catching up with all of our activities, so please bear with me. Here's a brief recap:

My parents came to visit when I had my surgery, which was a big help for me and Mike and great fun for the kids.

The older kids had all of the Christmas activities at school, including the all-school program and their classroom parties.

I had all of the Christmas prep to do with my foot still bandaged and in the surgical shoe.

The kids participated in the Christmas Eve mass and we had friends over for dinner afterwards.

We travelled to San Diego right after Christmas to spend a week with Mike's parents.

And now we're home again and getting back into the routine of school and activities. The holidays were much too short for all of us, so it's been a bit of a struggle to get back into it all. That's probably a sign of a good vacation, though!