Tag Archives: Irish

Infamous Vegetarian Cottage Pie

Posted on by

I think I’m a pretty good cook, but I’m still never certain if it’s just me that loves my food or if everyone else actually thinks it’s good too.  Thursday was a good sign when this vegetarian cottage pie recipe that I made up disappeared first at my St. Patrick’s Day dinner party…with both vegetarians (vegetarians for life *and* vegetarian converts) AND meat lovers gobbling it up.  Kinda crazy!

The secret to this recipe is getting the right texture for the filling, somewhat like ground beef.  I used a mixture of 1 part crumbled tempeh to 1 part crumbled extra firm tofu to 1 part finely chopped mushroom mix (1 part shiitake mushrooms to 3 parts crimini/baby bella mushrooms).  The flavor mix of the mushrooms and tempeh almost creates a very earthy flavor.

For this recipe, I recommend using a dish that can be put used on both the stove and in the oven (like a Le Cruset– thanks mom!), but you could probably make it in a pot then put it in a casserole dish.  The recipe will seem kind of complicated, but once you get going it’s pretty easy.  Just remember to do all your prep (making the mashed potatoes, vegetable chopping, mushroom chopping, getting all your supplies out) before you turn on any heat!

I can’t say this recipe is a perfect, exact replica of what I made.  It probably needs some fine tuning, but it’s also pretty forgiving.  You can add more liquid or butter or whatever as you go along, just keep tasting it to see if it tastes right to you. Since there’s no meat, you don’t have to worry too much about getting ecoli or salmonella!

Infamous Vegetarian Cottage Pie

(makes enough for 2 pies, or 1 1/2 large pies, feel free to scale or make extra to freeze)

Ingredients

For filling:

  • 1 block tempeh (~8 oz)
  • 2 small block (1/2 standard tofu package) of extra firm tofu (~6 oz)
  • 4 fresh shiitake mushrooms (you could use reconstituted dried, but the flavor will be stronger) chopped very finely
  • 14 crimini/baby bella/brown mushrooms (chopped very finely)
  • 4-6 tbsp soy sauce (prefer a mixture of regular and dark soy for color)
  • 4 shallots
  • 2/3 stick butter
  • 1/2 cup of white flour
  • 1/3 cup vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (most Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies; if you’re a lacto-ovo-pesco vegetarian, I guess you could just use regular W. sauce.  I used chinese black vinegar; if you use that, use more than the W. sauce.)
  • 3 tbsp vinegar (preferably cider or red wine)
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (Italian), dried is not a good substitute
  • 1 tbsp dried thyme (or more fresh)
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage (more if dried)
  • 1 onion, largely diced (2″ pieces)
  • 4 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and roughly minced
  • 1 carrot, diced medium (1″ cubes or smaller)
  • 1 cup frozen peas (defrosted and drained)
  • 2 green onions, chopped roughly.  Leeks could would work too.

For the topping:

  • 2-3 cups Mashed potatoes (I made mine with unpeeled boiled yukon golds with butter, milk, salt, pepper added until a thick rough consistency)
  • Paprika for color

Prepare the mashed potatoes beforehand.  I like mine with the skins on– it has more vitamins and more textural intrigue– but if you’re paranoid, you can peel the potatoes.   I took about 6-8 potatoes and cut into large chunks (I cut mine into 4 to 6 pieces depending on the size) and boiled them until they were soft when stabbed with a fork.  Then I drained off the water, let them dry for a bit, then threw them in a bowl and mashed them with about a stick of butter, some milk (maybe a cup?), and salt and pepper using a pastry cutter (I don’t have a potato masher).  Voila!

First prep all of the vegetables.  I put the mushrooms together and ran them through the food processor until finely chopped, but you could do this with a knife too, it’ll just take more time.

Prep the ground protein.  Tempeh, if not frozen, is very easy to crumble into a ground meat like texture using your hands.  Just make it so there aren’t any big chunks.  I crumbled one package of tempeh (apparently 8 oz) with 1 small package of extra firm tofu (if you’re using a package like one of these from House Foods, I’d use half the package– 6 oz)  crumbled finely using my hands.

Season it with soy sauce, a little brown sugar (optional– helps offset some of the bitterness of the tempeh), mix it well, add the mushrooms and some salt and pepper.  Set aside.

In your stove top safe, oven proof dish (or just a pot), add the butter and shallots and sautee until the shallots are clear and slightly golden/carmelized (over medium/medium-low heat).  You can see here that I tried browning the ground protein/mushroom mix first– I don’t think that’s really necessary, so I’m omitting that now.

When the shallots are done, add the flour to the butter/shallot mixture and turn the heat down a little bit.

Using a fork, mix the flour into the butter with a fork until it absorbs all of the fat (as in a roux).  Mush it around to make sure there are no lumps, just a very thick slightly browned paste.  Keep the heat on medium low.  This paste will be used to thicken the gravy/sauce.

Add the Worcestershire sauce and vinegar.  If you tried to brown the protein mixture like I did, you’ll need to use the sauce to deglaze the pan.  If not, just mix it thoroughly into the flour/fat mixture using a fork, making sure there are no lumps.

Now gradually mix in the vegetable broth, integrating it into the paste that you made before.  Make sure that the floury mixture mixes thoroughly with the broth using the fork, because this creates a gravy.  You want this gravy to be thick.  If it’s too thin, add more flour and make sure it gets mixed in to where there are no lumps.  If it’s too thick (paste-like rather than gravy-like), add more broth or even just water.

Bring the heat back up a little bit and keep stirring intermittently.  Add in the herbs and mix them into the gravy mix.

Then add in the onions and garlic and mix thoroughly.

Then add the carrots, green onions, and peas.

Lastly, add in the protein mushroom mixture.

Once mixed in, it’s going to look kind of terrible, but the meat version would too, I assure you.

If you’re just using an oven-safe dish, you can just smooth this down and put the mashed potatoes on top, sprinkling with paprika.  If you’re not baking in what you just cooked in, transfer the filling to the oven-safe pan and smooth it on the bottom, then add the potatoes and paprika.  I try to use slightly more filling than mashed potatoes.

Because everything is pretty much already cooked, you just need to broil it for 10-15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Let cool a bit before serving.

Stew > Sleep

Posted on by

This will be the second or third day of sleep deprivation, I’m not entirely sure.  Last night was due to contemplation about my future, having just received acceptance from one graduate school.  Tonight is the onset of preparation for my annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner party, the celebration of the palest 1/4 of my heritage.  Tonight meant starting the process of an awesome stew to feed at the very least 12 (luckily stew is one of those things that really is better left over, so I can keep it in the fridge for a day or two and reheat it thoroughly).

Tomorrow will be more preparation (making the base for vegetarian cottage pie, prepping vegetables, boiling potatoes, and hitting up the gym so the fact that I may have enjoyed tasting these things and sipping on a beer won’t show in my thighs.  Thursday, of course, is S-day, with moderated debauchery in the form of a massive dinner party (my neighbors have been warned/invited).  Friday I’ll be amazed if I’m still alive.

Granted, I’ve never been to Ireland, but the internet is fabulous place that lets us all reconnect with our past in interesting and often culinary ways.  Here’s my synthesis of how to create a decent Irish lamb stew for 12 people:

Irish Lamb Stew

(for 12)

You’re going to need a very large stock pot for this one.  There aren’t any potatoes, because I usually serve potatoes as a side since it’s an excuse to make champ.

  • 6 lbs leg of lamb (boneless), cut into 2-3″ cubes. Could use lamb stew meat if where you live is fancy enough to carry cheap cuts of lamb.  (I had to drop $35 for the leg…)
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 leek (washed carefully and sliced into 1″ pieces)
  • 6 turnips (2″ dice)
  • 1 parsnip (1″ rounds)
  • 4-6 carrots (1″ rounds)
  • 1 yellow onion (3″ dice)
  • 1 celery root (2″ dice)
  • Frozen peas (1 c)
  • 2 cups pearl barley (optional)

And for the seasoning/sauce:

  • 1-2 c Worcestershire sauce (ok, so I didn’t have any, so I had to use Chinese black vinegar…I’m a horrible person, but it works in a pinch even if it’s a bit thinner.  It’s also vegetarian!)
  • 2/3 c flour
  • 2 bottles of beer (anything will do, as any alcoholic Irish person could tell you)
  • Salt (kosher or sea)
  • Black pepper
  • Thyme
  • Sage
  • Parsley (preferably Italian)
  • Bay leaves
  • 5 or so cloves of garlic (I also threw in a shallot just ’cause)
  • A whole hell of a lot of water
  • Maybe more flour

Cut the lamb into cubes and toss in a bowl with generous amounts of salt & pepper.

Heat up the pot with the butter & vegetable oil until it’s visibly bubbly.  Throw in the lamb cubes.  You’re going to need to stir this a lot and drain off the water about every 5-10 minutes (save this in a pot or bowl!!).  Draining off the water is important, otherwise your meat will never brown.  Keep cooking until the lamb has a nice dark brown color on at least a few sides of each cube.  Remove lamb to a bowl or somewhere, saving fat in the pan.

Add to fat Worcestershire sauce, and the reserved lamb juice that you had drained off.  Use this to deglaze the pan.  Throw in the leeks and cook them until the leeks are nice and soft.   Add in the 2/3 cup of flour, move it around so it absorbs all the juices and creates a roux (a paste-type thing).  Add beer to the roux, stirring frequently.  Taste this and add salt and pepper as needed.  Note that you want this sauce to taste a little more bitter/salty than you would think, because the parsnips, turnips, carrots, and onions all bring a lot of sweetness to the stew.

Now you add the lamb back in, along with the vegetables and spices (thyme, sage, etc.)  Add garlic.  Add a lot of water, enough to cover all of the contents.   This is when I threw in the barley, too.

Let simmer for ever and ever and ever and ever (we’re talking hours here), until there’s noticably less water and it looks like a stew and the meat is tender.  You can add more flour if you need to to thicken the sauce more, but I’d advise whisking it into a paste separately at least with some water, to keep it from making lumps.  A second batch of roux using lard or butter would be better still.

A slow cooker would be great for this, but unfortunately, who really has room to store a slow cooker big enough to hold food for 12 people?