Thursday, March 24, 2011

Epic Sheppherd's Pie






Holy shit, another blog post. No, I'm not dead. Yes, I'm apathetic in maintaining this blog, still surprised anyone reads it. Well motivation has hit me like a Louisville to the face ever since I got my newest cookbook (a recommendation from my kitchen schooled bro) Culinary Artistry.

So now that my living situation involves feeding ravenous boys on the shoestringiest of budgets, I decided it was time to call out the old timey favorite of Shepperd's Pie. Simple ingredients that are usually on hand, and sometime nice to have leftovers of that will eventually get eaten or frozen for another lazy day.

What you will need:
Beans- black, pinto, azuki, white
TVP or red lentils
cooked red quinoa (1pt quinoa 2pts h2o)
kale
onion
wheat free tamari or soy sauce
frozen veggies- carrots, corns, peas, anything you like
red potatos
daiya or chreese vegan cheese.. or both
olive oil, Earth Balance
garlic
hickory smoke seasoning
almonds
Vegemite (optional)
salt/pepper


+Depending on how epic you want your pie to be, you can make the beans accordingly, or just make a bunch to freeze some later, which is much easier than guestimating. Cook off the beans, adding a little hickory smoke seasoning to the water as well as a bit of tamari.

+In a lidded container, mix 1pt tamari with 3pts water and several hickory smoke squirts, deposit almonds for soakage. These will be chopped up for sprinkling on top later.

+Dice onion, sautee in olive oil over medium heat til caramelized, add chopped kale and add a little tamari and about 1T of water, or just enough to help steam the kale. Cover until kale turns bright green.

+Meanwhile, bring a large pot of cold water and diced red potatoes to a boil, remember if its non-stick add salt after it has come to a boil as not to pit the pot. Let simmer until potatoes are tender.

+To this large sautee pan, add TVP/lentils, cooked beans, quinoa. Season with s & p, Vegemite, then transfer to a large casserole dish, packing down evenly.

+Layer thawed veggies over the bean mixture, season with a little s & p.

+For my pie, I mixed the Chreese up, and then added Daiya mozz. Make your own epic cheese(less) sauwce, just make it dank. Add this to your mostly drained potatoes when they're done. Mash everything together, use a hand mixer if you've got one, or just a whisk. You can break off onto a number of flavour profiles from here. Cheesy dill potatoes, cheesy chipotle potatoes, throw some tomato paste in there and herbes de provence if you're really feelin frisky.

+Layer these whippy potatoes over the veggies, smoothing them out so that all corners are covered. Then sprinkle the chopped marinated almonds. Put your pie in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, let that shit cooool doooown before you try to eat it though, or you'll burn your tastebuds off... not that that's happened before...

Good luck with your pie!! Happy eating!