Lamb and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie – On thrifty splurges…

Tags

cremini mushrooms, lamb, leftover mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, one pot, Shepherd's Pie, stew

Perfect for a chilly day.

Just because you’re trying to save money at the grocery store, doesn’t mean that you have to live on just rice and beans your whole life. Every now and then you have to treat yourself to a little something-something.

If there’s a good deal on a more ‘luxury’ ingredient, snatch it up and make yourself something nice! I found a good deal on ground lamb for just $3.98 per lb as it approached it’s ‘sell-by’ date and I’m going to turn it into two yummy meals. It seems like my fireman was on the same page as me, because when he took a trip down the hill and visited a farmer’s market with his folks he found a good price on some nice cremini mushrooms. With some extra mashed potatoes leftover in the fridge, that seemed like the perfect storm for a nice shepherd’s pie.

What a pretty bag of funghi!

When you think about it, so many of our most beloved dishes were made to stretch out a little bit of something expensive or fancy.  Savory pies, every sort of dumpling under the sun, most soups, stuffed pastas, satays…  Just like every thrifty person since the dawn of time has figured out, if you can pick a dish that economically utilizes a more expensive ingredient, you can get a better bang for your buck.

This dish costs more than my usual dinner-fare, but I think it’s a really great value for the high quality ingredients. A splurge on fancy ingredients doesn’t hit so hard when you know you got a good deal; I think it makes it taste even better.

Lamb and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 2 – 4 – cost approx $2.20 per serving

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb gr lamb ($1.99)
• 2 cups cremini mushrooms, caps quartered and stems small dice ($2.50)
• 1 onion, small dice ($.25)
• 2 carrots, small dice ($.18)
• 2 ribs celery, small dice ($.10)
• 4 Tbs/ 1/2 stick butter ($.37)
• 1/2 tsp dry thyme
• 2 Tbs tomato paste ($.05)
• 2 Tbs flour
• 1/2 cup red wine ($.15)
• 2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup stock – doesn’t matter, vegetable or meat stock will be just fine
• 2 Tbs minced parsley (optional)

• 4 cups leftover mashed potatoes ($.75)
• 2 Tbs parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  In an oven safe large pan or pot brown the lamb, seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove meat, leaving the fat in the pan. Sear caps, over medium high heat and season with salt and pepper 8-10 min. Trust me! Get them nice and brown, only stir it a few times to get them happy and browned up.

Reduce the heat to medium and add in the butter, minced onion, carrot, celery, and mushroom stems and then sauté 5 minutes. Return the meat to the pan and cook 5 minutes more. Add the tomato paste and flour, cook 3 minutes.  Add in the wine, Worcestershire sauce and cook 2 minutes, then add in the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes. Taste to check the seasonings and add salt or black pepper if needed. Finish the lamb stew with the parsley.

Saucy goodness

Top with the mashed potatoes and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

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Creamy Feta Dip – another product of my Pinterest addiction…

Tags

chest freezer, chest freezers, chips, cream cheese, creamy, dip, easy, feta, feta dip, pita, vegetarian

 

Creamy feta spread on spicy falafel? Yes, please!

 

 

When life gives you a lemons, make limoncello.  (Or lemonade if you’re boring, whatever.)  Keeping that in mind, when the gods of the grocery bargains present you with a great deal, you have to snatch it up and make something delicious with it.  Something that I got a great deal on recently was some crumbled herb feta for just $1.40 per pound.  The catch? It was in a five pound bag.  So, out came my trusty food sealer and I portioned, labeled, and popped it in to the freezer.  In my experience, cream cheese, shredded cheese and crumbled firm cheeses freeze pretty well.

Lately, my fireman has been giving me grief about having (and filling up) two chest freezers.* In my efforts to reduce the contents of the freezers, I realized that I should make more of an effort to use that feta.  I was brainstorming on Pinterest and came across several recipes for feta dip.  Then I was off to the races.

*Note: on chest freezers.  I don’t want you to think that we have anything against chest freezers; in fact, I have found having a chest freezer to be a great help in keeping a grocery budget.  When you get a windfall or an amazing bargain, it really helps to have a place to keep it.  My first chest freezer is probably the most used/useful wedding gift that we got, and I was quite excited when my Dad said he didn’t have space for his one any more.  My fireman’s thought (which I totally agree with) is that if I can get everything into one freezer we can un-plug the second one and save on our energy bills.  Then, when someone in the family bags a deer or has an epic fishing trip we can plug #2 back in!*

I used my yummy feta dip in a kind of Greek-themed mezze platter dinner with flat bread, spicy falafel and tzaziki sauce.  The fireman dubbed this dinner ‘a keeper.’  This dip/spread would be wonderful in any sort of sandwich or wrap or as part of an appetizer spread with garlic toasts or pita chips.  I had half of it left over and I think I’m going to add it to some scalloped potatoes or something…

Creamy Feta Dip

Makes 2 cups and serves 4-6 – cost approx $1.86 per batch or $.37 per serving

Ingredients

• 4 oz cream cheese ($.12 – yet another great deal I have stashed up in the freezer)
• 8 oz feta ($.70)
• 2 Tbs minced parsley – any sort of herb that you like would be great
• 1/2 lemon’s juice ($.20)
• 1/4 cup olive oil ($.59)
• salt & black pepper – to taste, be sure to taste first, feta can be salty and depending on the brand you get you may note even need the salt

Pay attention now, because this one is really tricky.  Put everything in a food processor and blend it up.  Taste and adjust for seasonings.  If you like pepper, maybe garnish it with a little more fresh cracked pepper…

Deep Frying 102 – The beer battering

Tags

beer batter, deep fryer, deep frying, fish, fish and chips, fried, frying, rellenos

This is the final installment of ‘what happened to that first batch of oil in my new deep fryer.’  So far, I’ve made zucchini sticks, deep fried mac’n’cheese, some buffalo wings, and a batch of doughnuts.  Not too shabby.  After each day that I used the fryer, I strained that crud and lost little bits out of the oil and cleaned the fryer before returning the oil.  When I was done, I kept the fryer bucket covered and in the fridge.  (Any cool and dark place will do just fine though.) Cleaning everything out in between uses and storing it properly will make your oil last much longer.

The last things to be fried before the oil flew up to the great dump in the sky were some chili rellenos and fish and chips, both of which were beer battered.

Let me take a minute here to say that the fish was the last thing to be fried and also the last thing to be dipped in the beer batter before both the oil and batter were thrown out.  The batter because of the fear of germs and the oil because fish makes it smell funky.  Doughnuts with a hint of halibut?  No thank you.

To beer batter something, you just toss it gently in seasoned flour (just like Three Stage Frying!) and then dunk it into the beer batter.  Batter has a hard time sticking to moist items, like stuffed chilis or fish pieces, and the flour helps the batter stick to the ingredient to be fried.

These were just some roasted pasilla chilis that were stuffed with cheese, hot peppers, onions and corn.  A happy little vegetarian dinner.  Sorry, no recipe it was some windfall ingredients that I had a while back and popped into the freezer a month ago and I have no clue what it cost to make it.  Don’t be ashamed of your thrifty-ness and and creative ability; if your friends know about it, they will start giving you things they’re not clever enough to use up or don’t have the time for.

Here’s my fish and chips, made from some halibut that my Daddy slew up in Alaska.  Any white fish that you like would be great.  I did oven fries because shit was just getting a little to real around here with the new deep fryer.

Basic Beer Batter

Makes 3 cups, which is enought to fry quite a few things – cost approx $1.24 per batch

Ingredients

• 1 egg ($.16)
• 1 can cheap beer ($.58, yep I know, really cheap beer)
• 1 1/2 cups flour ($.25)
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• Pinch salt

Just mix everything together until it’s almost lump free.  I like to store my batter in a tall, slim container so that I can get maximum dunkage and minimal waste.

This beer batter will keep in the fridge for a day or so, I wouldn’t push it more that 2 days though.

Doughnuts! – I <3 my fryer

Tags

apple butter, deep fryer, doughnuts, filled, fresh, home made, James Beard, nutella, pastry cream

All Hail the might one: James Beard!  I whipped up a batch of doughnuts using the recipe from his “Beard on Bread” book. (A book that I stole from my father, so sorry, sorry that I’m not sorry.)  If you’re looking for a starting point for any dish, after asking your Grandma, next look for recipes from people named Beard, Child or Waters, (listed alphabetically, not in order of preference.) I’ve yet to be disappointed.  Mr. Beard’s doughnuts were no exception.

This is less of a recipe and more of a sales pitch for in-home deep fryers, jeez I love having one.  This was my first go at doughnuts, thank goodness I had my fireman to help!

We just rolled out the dough and cut it into squares (only because I don’t have any circle cutters…) then dropped it into the fryer.  They aren’t a really pretty shape, but who need looks when you taste so damn good?

A fireman approved afternoon snack!

Some were stuffed with pastry cream and topped with Nutella, the nectar of the gods.  The rest were stuffed with apple butter and topped with powdered sugar, you know, to be healthy.