The Need To Know Classic That Is: Shepherd's Pie

Let's get this out of the way now - a true shepherd's pie is made with ground lamb; when ground beef is used, it's called a cottage pie. Over time, ground beef became the filling of choice, and lamb was used less frequently. This is why the two names are used interchangeably.  Originating from the British Isles in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, shepherd’s pie was a way for people to save and make their money, and leftover food last longer. Early versions of the dish used a pastry shell at the bottom and top to hold everything together; over time, potato slices were used at the bottom, eventually making their way to the top as mashed potatoes. So if you ever see ground lamb (or ground beef) on what constitutes a sale nowadays, use the recipe below. 

Ingredients

1 kg Russet potatoes, peeled
700 g ground lamb or beef
225 g carrots, diced
200 g canned chopped tomatoes
125 g white mushrooms (optional)
30 g butter
15 g flour
5 g frsh sage, chopped
240 mL beef stock
45-60 mL milk
5 mL Worcestershire sauce
2 onions
2 garlic cloves, crushed
salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Place whatever meat you're using in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan with no cooking oil, and gently cook until the meat begins to brown.
2. Add the onions, carrots, and garlic and continue gently cooking everything for about 10 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two. Gradually stir in the beef stock and the tomatoes and bring everything to a boil. Add the Worcestershire sauce, the sage, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. In another pot, boil the potatoes in salted water until they're tender, then drain thoroughly, and mash, beating in the butter, some salt and pepper to taste, and enough milk to give the potatoes a good consistency for piping. If you don't have a piping bag to spread the mashed potatoes, there are alternate ways to do it.
4. Stir the mushrooms (if using) into the meat and taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Pour the meat into a shallow ovenproof dish. Pipe the potatoes evenly over the meat. 
5. Place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until it's piping hot and the potatoes are golden brown.

Memories of Dominica

Recently I had the chance to visit the island of Dominica. For those who aren't good at geography, I'm talking about the tropical island near Barbados known for its rainforests, mountains, and black-sand beaches, and not the island near Cuba known for producing cigars, bananas, and major league baseball players. While on the "Nature Island of the Caribbean", I was introduced to breadfruit. Found mainly in tropical regions, breadfruit grows on trees and gets its name from having a texture similar to baked bread when cooked. Breadfruit when dried can be ground into flour, is rarely eaten raw because of its high starch content, and can be cooked the same way you would cook a potato. If you're in the mood for a savoury casserole, consider the recipe below.  Who knows, maybe you'll like it enough to take a trip to the tropics and chop down a breadfruit to eat as I did.

This blog is dedicated to Peroma Xavier.

Ingredients

1 breadfruit (Check Caribbean grocery stores or Whole Foods for one)
360 mL evaporated milk
115 g medium cheddar cheese, grated, with some reserved for topping
75 g Monterey Jack cheese, grated
75 g onions, diced
45 g butter
25 g all-purpose flour
7 g ground mustard
6 g fresh parsley, chopped
2 g salt
1/4 scotch bonnet pepper, diced
1 pinch ground nutmeg
ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Cut off the stem part of the breadfruit, then rest that flat side down on your cutting board and cut the breadfruit into wedges. Peel the skin off with a potato peeler or sharp pairing knife. Remove the spongy center of the breadfruit so that you’re left with a wedge that is all breadfruit meat.
3. Rinse the wedges with cool water, then place them in a deep pot and cover with water. Bring everything to a boil, add the salt, and let everything cook for 20 minutes until it’s tender.
4. In another saucepan, heat the butter on low heat, then as it melts add the flour and let it cook for about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the evaporated milk, then turn up the heat to medium and whisk. Add the parsley, scotch bonnet pepper, ground mustard, Monterey Jack cheese, most of the cheddar cheese, onions, nutmeg, and as much black pepper as you see fit. Cook for a few minutes until you have a thick and smooth sauce.
5. Slice each wedge of cooked breadfruit about 1/4 inch thick, then place a layer onto a greased cooking dish. Add a layer of cheese sauce, then another layer of sliced breadfruit, and top with the remaining cheese sauce. Sprinkle on the rest of the grated cheese on top.
6. Place on the middle rack of a preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes before eating.

Legends of Canadian Pastry: The Saskatoon Berry Pie

The Sweet Canada: Domestic stamps series

If you haven't heard of Saskatoon berries, it's probably because of the part of Canada you live in. Also known as serviceberries, the Saskatoon berry (Amelanchier alnifolia) is a deciduous native shrub that grows not just in Saskatchewan as you would expect if you know your geography, but also in parts of western Ontario, British Columbia, and the Yukon. Like the city it's named after, the sweet, fleshy fruits take their name from a Cree word, and were used by both Aboriginal people and early colonizers. With a lifespan of 30 to 50 years, saskatoons are hardy plants that can survive winter temperatures of up to -50 to -60º Celsius. The berries are a good source of antioxidants, have similar nutritional properties to other dark-coloured berries, and can be used in jams, syrups, and pie fillings. Gas prices may keep you from heading out to this year's Saskatoon Berry Festival but the recipe below will allow you to enjoy this legendary Canadian pastry any time you please.

Note: Blueberries can be substituted for Saskatoon berries, but actually saskatoons can be ordered frozen online, just remember to thaw them before use.

Ingredients

1 9 inch/23 cm. pre-made pie crust
(If you have a favourite homemade pie crust recipe, feel free to use it; if you need one, here's a good recipe.)
760 g fresh Saskatoon berries
150 g white sugar
25 g all-purpose flour
15 g butter
60 mL water
30 mL lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
2. In a large saucepan, simmer berries in the water for 10 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice with berries. Combine the sugar and flour together in a medium bowl, then stir into the berry mixture. 
3. Pour mixture into either a pre-made pie crust or a pastry-lined 9-inch pie pan. Dot with butter. Top the pie with more crust, then seal and flute (crimp) the edges.
4. Bake the pie in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 175°C and bake for an additional 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Legends of Canadian Pastry: The Sugar Pie

The Sweet Canada: Domestic stamps series

This Thanksgiving weekend, consider ending your holiday feast with a dessert rooted in French culture. For the early settlers of Québec, brown sugar was rare, and it something needs to be sweet, maple syrup was the only available sweetener  While the tarte au sucre is a common pastry in France, the use of maple sugar or syrup is what gives the French-Canadian version its distinct taste. With the recipe below, you can quickly see why this treat has been enjoyed for centuries.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Ingredients

1 pre-made pie crust
(If you have a favourite homemade pie crust recipe, feel free to use it; if you need one, here's a good recipe.)
1 egg
375 mL amber maple syrup
125 mL 35% heavy cream
15 g cornstarch
15 g unbleached all-purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Adjust the rack in your oven to the lowest position.
2. Combine the cornstarch and flour in a bowl. Add the maple syrup and whisk until the mixture is smooth and the cornstarch has dissolved completely. Add the cream and egg. Whisk everything until smooth and pour into the prepared pie crust.
3. Bake for at least 45 minutes or until the filling has set. A good test is to shake the pie back and forth a bit. If the center is still liquid, it needs to bake some more. When shaking produces a movement that looks like soft pudding, it’s ready. Let cool at room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving.

How To Celebrate Pi Day Without Baking

Mathematicians have been telling us for centuries that pi is the symbol used to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, just as bakers for centuries have been telling us that pie is a baked dish made with a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a sweet or savoury filling. On March 14, Pi Day is celebrated, allowing math and dessert fans to indulge in their love of both. You don't have to be good at math to take part in the fun, nor do you have to have amazing baking skills to take part. With this recipe below, you'll have ample time to calculate the area of all the circles in your home to your heart's content.

Ingredients:

480 mL heavy cream
15 mL fresh lemon juice
260 g graham cracker crumbs
100 g blueberries
100 g raspberries
100 g unsalted butter, melted
50 g sugar (use first)
25 g sugar
1 can (415 mL) sweetened condensed milk, chilled
1 can frozen lemonade concentrate (do not thaw)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176 °C). In a medium-sized bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and the melted butter. Press the mixture firmly on the bottom and up the sides of a 23 cm pie pan. Bake for 7 minutes and let it cool completely.
   (Note: This step can be skipped completely if you use a pre-made graham cracker pie crust and follow the instructions that come with it.)
2. In a cold medium-sized bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks begin to form. In another bowl, mix together the condensed milk and the frozen lemonade. Gently fold the lemonade mixture into the whipped cream, then pour the filling into the crust. Stick the pie in the freezer and let it for 4 hours or freeze overnight.
3. About an hour before you're ready to serve the pie, toss the berries in a bowl with the sugar and the lemon juice. Set them aside until you ready to serve the pie. Let the pie come to room temperature for at least 10 minutes before cutting, then top each slice with the berries.

Carpe Diem Eating - Desserts Stuffed in Other Desserts

Carpe diem is a Latin saying that is usually translated to mean "seize the day", and interpreted to mean make the most out of the time you have by doing something extraordinary - YOLO, as the kids used to say. Carpe Diem Eating is about food combinations that shouldn't work but do; food creations that work so well, you're amazed they haven't been done before; and food creations so extravagant and extreme that you owe it to yourself to try it. This leads me to a poker game I regularly attend. Two of the best home cooks I know were there, and as the chip stacks rose and fell at a recent game, the conversation turned to one of their attempts at making the dessert sensation known as the pake, or piecakein - a pie baked into a cake. Jay, the game's host, had tried to make a coconut cream pie inside a Swiss chocolate cake, with a plan to do the same but with a Devil's food cake the following weekend. He said the coconut pie would have been better if he had pre-baked the pie crust to better support everything as it had sunk during the baking process. Tim, the other cook, suggested using a pie with a top crust for better results. Soon all sorts of tasty combinations were being through about: a caramelized banana pie inside a peanut butter cake; apple pie inside a spice cake; strawberry rhubarb pie inside a lemon cake; coconut cream pie in a pineapple upside-down cake. I was fascinated listening to this, mostly because I do very little baking at my house, and also because I was looking at a 7-4 off-suit at the time, with the blinds at 800 and 1600, a dwindling stack in front of me, and hitting nothing on the flop. Both insisted making the pie/cake combo was as easy as finding a recipe for your favourite pie, and baking a cake around it using your favourite box of cake mix, and the method did remind me of a dessert I have tried in the past from the Vulgar Chef's "Eat Like Shit Cookbook".  I like it because my baking skills are not to the point I can bake a pie on a whim, and the pre-baked goods I use as the substitute are just as good. Here is the recipe, edited for those who don't need the shock value of profanity in order to cook.

Oreo and Peanut Butter Stuffed Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 box red velvet cake mix
• 1 package OREO^® cookies
• 1 jar peanut butter

1. Mix the red velvet cake mix according to the instructions on the box (I like to use milk instead of water, and substitute melted butter for the cooking oil). 
2. Drop a small amount of the cake mix into the slots on your muffin pan.
3. Cover an OREO^® with some peanut butter. Stack another cookie on top of it and cover that with some peanut butter as well. Drop the cookies into one of the slots on your muffin pan. Cover with more red velvet cake mix (completely) and bake according to the instructions on the box. To make sure they are fully cooked, stick a toothpick in the cupcake- if it comes out clean, you're good to go.