potatoless!

It's been a week, so lot's to share!

First, I had to come up with a game plan to get rid of the potatoes!  SUCCESS! I cooked a couple big ol' batches of shepherd's pie and beef stew.

The stew was a Michael Smith recipe, from the Best of Chef at Home cookbook.  The shepherd's pie was my own recipe.

My mise en place for the stew

Michael Smith's Beef stew

Ingredients (this is a slight variation from Michael's recipe):

• 2 lb stewing beef
• 1 can whole tomatoes (don't bother chopping - they'll breakdown in the cooking process)
• 1 900 ml tetrapak of Beef Stock (I used PC organic)
• 1/2 bottle of red wine (I used Jackson Trigg's Cabernet-Franc)
• 2-3 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 2-3 medium sized potatoes
• 1-2 parsnips
• 1/2 turnip slash rutabaga 
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary  
• a couple dried bay leaves
• 2-3 Tsbp of canola oil
• S&P

Instructions

1. Heat canola oil in a nice big pot over med-high heat (it cannot be non-stick)
2. In batches, sear the stewing beef until nice and brown.  Make sure you only have one layer of beef in the pot at a time - the beef will steam rather than brown if the pot is too crowded.
3. When the beef is done, get rid of most of the oil, leaving a tsp or two in the pot.  Do NOT wash that pot!  All those delectable little brown bits stuck to the pot are exactly what you want to keep for a richly flavoured stew.
4. Turn down heat to med-low, add onions and garlic and sautee until translucent.
5. Add the red wine to deglaze - meaning the wine will lift all of those yummy brown bits off the bottom of the pot - scrape 'em all off to incorporate them in the stew.
6. Add EVERYTHING else.
7. Simmer over low heat for as long as it takes to make that beef tender.  It took me 3-4 hours...i wasn't really paying attention to the time.  
8. Remove the rosemary twig and bay leaves, add any salt and pepper as needed.

This would make a great slow cooker recipe.  You could do steps 1-6, and then add it all to a slow cooker for the day.

The stew was a big hit.  Rich and full of great flavour.  I would probably add something green at the end next time - some peas or spinach I think, I just didn't have any at the time.  Michael's recipe actually called for double the amount of veggies that I used.  He suggested adding half at the beginning of the cooking and half near the end of cooking - to keep them more firm.  I thought there were already a prefect amount of veggies in the stew after it was done cooking, and they weren't mushy at all, just soft, like you'd expect in a stew.  I froze the rest of my prepped veggies for another stew or soup this winter.

Now, the shepherd's pie

Mirepoix 

Da Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 lb extra lean ground beef
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1 carrot diced
• 1 celery stalk diced
• 1 onion diced
• 1/2 can tomato paste
• 1 cup beef stock
• 3-4 medium potatoes - peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 cup(ish) frozen corn kernels
• milk
• 2ish Tbsp margarine or butter
• S&P

Instructions:

1. Over medium heat, brown ground beef in a large skillet - once browned, drain the fat and set aside
2. In the same pot, add canola oil - once heated , add carrots, celery, and onion and sautee until they start to soften
3. Add beef, tomato paste, beef stock, cover, and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.  Remove lid, and simmer for another 10 minutes until mixture has thickened.
4. In the meantime, boil or steam potatoes until soft.
5. Mash with margarine or butter, and milk (add a Tbsp or two at a time), until smooth and fluffy.
6. Add S&P to taste to meet mixture, and potato mixture.
7. In an oven proof dish, layer ground beef - corn - and mashed potato mixture.
8. If you baked it immediately, it should take about 20 minutes at 350 F.  If you refrigerate before cooking, I did 45 mins at 350F.

This was pretty good - I didn't season it quite enough and had to add S&P at the table.  Also, I think I would make the ground beef a little saucier, needed a touch more moisture...extra beef stock and tomato paste would've done it!  Good flavours though!

I served this shepherd's pie when my sister Shannon came to visit this week. Alongside, we had....

Dilled Potato Beet Soup

and...

Sauteed Savoy Cabbage with bacon

Both of these sides were deelish!

The dilled potato beet soup was the recipe from the GFB included in my last delivery.  The savoy cabbage was on-the-fly.

Dilled Potato Beet Soup (I varied the recipe slightly - the original called for double the stock...I knew it would be WAY too much and the soup would be too thin)

Ingredients:

• 3-4 medium sized beets, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3-4 medium sized potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped.
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 900 ml tetrapak of veggie stock.
• 1/4 c chopped fresh dill
• S&P to taste
• sour cream and additional chopped dill for garnish

Instructions:

• Over med heat, melt butter, and sautee onions and dill for 2-3 minutes
• Add potatoes, beets and stock
• Simmer over med-low heat for 30-40 minutes (until beets are soft enough to puree)
• Puree with a hand blender right in the pot (or in batches, use a regular blender).
• Add S&P to taste, and garnish as you see fit!

This was so simple, and had such an interesting flavour...and good gracious, beets make food beautiful don't they?  It was rich and earthy, with a fresh dill flair!  Instead of sour cream, adding whipping cream to the soup itself would also be delicious.  I would make this again for sure!

Sauteed brussel sprouts with bacon

Ingredients:

• 1/2-3/4 head savoy cabbage
• 4-5 slices of bacon sliced
• 1 Tsbp EVOO
• S&P to taste

Instructions:

1. Slice cabbage into manageable sized strips
2. Use a steamer basket or a couple inches of water in the bottom of a large pot, and steam cabbage for 3-4 minutes.
3. In the meantime, sautee bacon until crisp and remove with a slotted spoon (do not use a non stick pan).  Discard all but 1 tsp of of the bacon fat.
4. Over med-low heat, add evoo and steamed cabbage to the bacon pan, stirring to remove all the brown bacon bit from the pan, sautee for 2-3 minutes until heated through
5. add S&P to taste, transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with bacon.

The savoy cabbage was surprisingly tender, and so sweet, especially the inner yellow leaves.  There was only a very mild bitter flavour on the darkest green leaves, which really added to the overall flavour of the dish.  Buy savoy cabbage!! it's SO good! I will definitely buy it again...and use it in a stir fry or something, a really great option for adding different greens to your diet.

Of course the bacon made this dish sing, but I would even do sauteed savoy with garlic in the future for a healthier option!

This was the end of GFB #2...overall I feel I made great use of what I got.  I was left with one head of garlic and 4 grapefruit, which are still looking good - I will try to use this week!  In terms of waste, there was really none - only about 1/4 of the savoy cabbage head got tossed.

Moving on! I'm really looking forward to using my new organic GFB!  I wonder what the feature of the week will be?!

Happy Eating!