Recipe for Shepherd's Pie with Beef, Ale and Mushrooms

A juvenile bald eagle sometimes joins us on our daily ski to Harpswell Cove but not when I bring my camera. 

My daughter took this photo of me.

Winter sports build up a big appetite. After Nemo dumped 26 inches of snow, I've been skiing every day with my friends and our dogs. My kids are on their school's Nordic Ski team. A crowd pleaser for the whole family is my husband's Shepherd's Pie. Henry (a Brit) crafted this recipe from his memory of the pub classic. The dark ale adds a special flavor, and Hobgoblin is one of our favorite British imports. You can also substitute another dark ale like Guinness; this dish is popular in Ireland too. The alcohol will evaporate with cooking so it's fine for the kids. I usually drink Hobgoblin with the meal and toast the marvelous chef. Cheers!

Ingredients:

1 ½ - 2 lbs minced beef (low fat eg 94%)

1 medium onion and/or 1 leek, chopped small

2-3 carrots, sliced

1- 2 stalks celery, chopped small

large handful of mushrooms, chopped to taste

½ tsp salt + fresh ground pepper

3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced

½  tsp fresh thyme (dried is ok)

1-2 tsps (approx) fresh rosemary, chopped fine (dried is NOT ok!)

2 tbs flour

1 tbs tomato paste

½ - ¾ 12 oz bottle Hobgoblin or other dark ale

¼ - ½ cup chicken broth

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce (or Soy Sauce, or steak sauce)

1 tsp redcurrant jelly

1-2 tsps dijon mustard

½ cup each of frozen peas + frozen corn

3-4 large russet potatos, peeled and quartered + some butter and milk

Cooking Instructions:

Set oven to 400%

Boil the potatos in lightly salted water till cooked (piercable by a knife, about 15-20 mins).   
Mash with about ½  tbs butter and some milk.

Brown the meat in a large casserole/dutch oven over medium heat with some olive oil, adding the onions/leeks, carrots, celery, mushrooms and garlic and finally the herbs and salt/pepper.

Add flour and stir together. 

Add tomato paste, then ale, cook till it reaches boiling (and the alcohol boils off) then add stock until you’ve got the right consistency (firmish)

Add mustard, worcestershire and redcurrant seasonings to taste

Cover and cook over v. gentle heat for 15-20 mins

Add frozen peas and corn

Put in a casserole dish, top with the mashed pots  (make sure the top is totally sealed by the pots, or the meat will spill over)

Brush lightly with butter (if wanted) and roughen the surface with a fork to get better browning plus crispier top

Cook in oven until browned, about 20 mins.

It tastes much better than it looks!

Click on the "recipe" label below to find more of Henry's recipes. He's a wonderful cook.

Recipe Watch: check out Gloria @ Canela's Kitchen. She posts her recipes in both English and Spanish. We have a special interest in her Chilean recipes since that is part of my husband's ethnic heritage.

Thai Turkey Meatballs Recipe

It's a challenge finding simple but healthy meals that the entire family will eat with enthusiasm. My husband's recipe for Thai meatballs served in lettuce leaves is his own marvelous creation. This dish is traditionally made with ground pork, but he switched to turkey to be healthier. The recipe is easy enough for our teenaged son to prepare in a half an hour, and everyone loves it. Leftovers reheat well in the microwave.

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs ground turkey
1  egg
¼ cup breadcrumbs
1/2 small red pepper chopped fine
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
2 scallions (or 1 small onion), chopped fine
juice of ½ a lime
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp Thai Fish Sauce
2 tbs brown sugar
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
pinch of chilli powder
ground pepper and salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together. 

Form into small ball-patties and shallow fry in 2 tbs vegetable oil for 7-10 minutes.
(Optional: add a drop of sesame oil to the cooking oil for extra flavor.) 

Serve in romaine lettuce leaves with bottled Thai Peanut Sauce 

or Thai Sweet Chili Sauce. Good with jasmine rice or naan bread.

Sundowners

Back at Bailey Island, I watch boats sail by lobster pots. The summer’s heat feels less oppressive with a cool ocean breeze lifting my hair. It’s warm enough to brave the icy Maine waters without a wetsuit.

For a special treat, we’ll have lobster, coleslaw and mudpie parfaits at Cook’s Lobster House. After dinner we watch the sunset. It’s like being on vacation at home. I guess we do live in “Vacationland,” as it says on the license plate.

Rainbow colors reflect in the water. The sky is deeper than the sea.

The pink lavenders after sunset are even more beautiful than the orangey flares that precede them.

The moon shines over the twilight sea. Islands float on the horizon as the boat sails back into the harbor (click images to enlarge.)

photo of Stella (in her summer buzz cut) and me (in summer frizz)
by my friend Jennifer Mirsky

At home, we observe the British tradition of “sundowners”on our deck. My English husband prepares a Pimm’s Cocktail for guests. We grow borage in our herb garden for the edible purple flowers that garnish the cocktail. Beware: it is stronger than it tastes.

Recipe for Pimm’s Cocktail:
1 part Pimm’s No. 1 Cup to 3 parts Sprite (Lemonade soda in Europe)
thinly sliced cucumber, lemon, orange
garnish: fresh mint leaves and borage flowers

Cheers! Savor these last days of summer….

Julie & Julia Movie Review

Recipe for a delightful movie:
Ingredients:
1 blogger
Meryl Streep as Julia Child
2 good marriages
gourmet food
humor

Mix ingredients in Paris and NYC. Spice with a pinch of rejection. Then add 2 book deals. Serve to an audience of bloggers, cooks, gourmands and people old enough to have watched Julia Child on TV.

Julie & Julia is a movie about an ordinary woman, Julie Powell, who cooked her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (1961.) Julie cooked all 524 recipes in 365 days while working full time(!) She blogged about the experience. The other half of the movie follows Julia Child to Paris with her diplomat husband in the 1950s. Julia falls in love with French food, learns to cook at the Cordon Bleu and decides to bring classic French cooking to Americans by writing a cook book.



My mother used to watch Julia Child on TV, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking was on our kitchen bookshelf. After college, I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For special occasions my husband Henry and I shopped at Savenor’s, Julia’s butcher. We hoped to run into her near the ostrich steaks but never did.

Even though I can’t eat classic French cooking (I’m lactose intolerant,) Julia was my introduction to the love of fine food. There was the promise that gourmet food can be made by anyone. Well, anyone with a block of butter, a butcher knife and six hours spare time!

Reviews in The New Yorker and the NYT stated that the Julie/blogger part couldn’t match the Julia/chef part of the movie. The reviewers claimed that Meryl Streep doesn’t do a fine impersonation of Julia Child; she IS Julia. This was true. The screen lit up with Julia/Meryl in Paris. Julie's attempt to cook Julia’s recipes in just one year was a fun premise for a blog but didn’t work as well as a movie plot. Especially because the character in the movie was whiny and self-involved.

As a blogger, I was hoping to see more about the blogging community. Hollywood portrays Julie as an isolated journalist counting her comments and tracking her stats. My personal experience is that blogging is all about the interactive community of commenters AND other bloggers. True, Julie was blogging back in 2002, when most people didn’t even know what a blog was. There weren’t hyperlinks on the profiles to connect bloggers back then. But didn’t Julie have a few blog buddies?

I checked out a bunch of blogs before I started mine in January 2007; one was Julie Powell. Her blog was an inspiration to me, especially her fairytale story of going from “secretary” to “author,” thanks to her popular blog. Then Julie got a movie deal. In reality this doesn’t happen often, but this was a rare, true Hollywood moment.

One part of blogging that the movie captured well was the supportive/exasperated husband. They have an argument in which he shouts something like: “Are you going to put this fight on your blog?!” My husband thought this scene was hilarious. Henry, a master chef in our kitchen, loved all the cooking scenes too.

Bon appetit!

Sponge Cake Recipe

I’m not usually baker. My creative outlets are painting, photography and writing. I often get distracted by a new idea and leave things to burn. Plus I have a suicidal mixer. It vibrates across the counter, making a terrible racket, and tries to take a dive. I don’t bake often enough to justify the cost of replacing it (the beaters are warped.)

I bake a sponge cake for family birthdays, just like my mother did for us. She got the recipe from my Jewish grandmother, who had adapted it from Meta Given. Something got lost in translation. Actually, it was the opposite of lost. My mother accidentally doubled the sugar, and the result was divine.

The cake isn’t that sweet (it tastes tart from the lemon) but the sugar creates a crunchy crust. It does not need frosting. Note that there is no cooking fat/oil in the recipe. This cake is a traditional Jewish delicacy, especially if you use leftover Hanukkah candles for the birthday child.

Maybe the reason I dislike baking is because this recipe is a killer. To make the sponge light and spongy, you need to resift flour and master the technique of cut and folding batter into the egg whites. I learned by watching my mother.

While baking, the cake rises almost like a soufflé. My mother used to say it would collapse if we made too much noise (ha!) That bought an hour and a quarter of silence, especially because my brother and I had our tongues engaged licking mixing bowls. That was back when moms didn’t freak out about salmonella. It’s interesting how hazards haven’t increased but our awareness and fear have.

It’s a pain getting the cake out of the tube pan. I often wonder if a spring-form pan would work better, but I’m a creature of habit.

I’m also a creature of careless mistakes. I planned to post this recipe when I made it last time, but it was a disaster. The cake didn’t rise, or rather it did rise in the oven and then collapsed while it cooled. Was my mother right about the noise after all? It still tasted good, but the texture was too dense and heavy.

I figured out the mystery this time. There were two cans of baking powder in my pantry: the fresh one, and one that was so old it had a sticker from Star Market in Massachusetts. We moved to Maine 12 years ago. This is why I should not bake anything more complicated than brownies from a mix. Still, this cake is so absolutely delicious, that it’s worth the effort. I baked it for my daughter's 12th birthday this month.

Sponge Cake Recipe (adapted from Meta Given)

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp D.A. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
6 extra large eggs, separated
1/4 cup cold water
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind, packed tight

Use 10 inch tube pan – do NOT grease. Start oven 10 mins before baking at 325 F.

Sift flour, measure, resift 3 times with baking powder, salt and 3/4 cup sugar. Put egg whites into a 4 qt. mixing bowl and set aside.

Put egg yolks into a large mixer bowl, add water and lemon juice then beat at medium speed until thick and spongy (see bubbles) in about 4-5 min. Without stopping beaters, add 3/4 of remaining sugar gradually and vanilla and beat until the mixture is again thick and spongy. Turn mixer to lowest speed and add flour in 4 portions, scraping sides and bottom of bowl constantly with rubber scraper. Beat until batter is just smooth. Now stop beating. Add lemon rind to yolk mixture.

With a rotary beater (or hand electric) quickly beat egg whites until stiff enough to form shiny peaks. Then beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar gradually until whites form shiny peaks that curve at tips (above photo.) With a rubber scraper, cut and fold yolk mixture into whites, lightly but thoroughly. Flow batter into pan.

Bake 1 hour at 325 F and then test: the cake springs back when touched lightly if done (usually 1 1/4 hours.)

Remove from oven and invert over large funnel or bottle. When just cooled (30-45 mins.) remove from pan. Serve with vanilla ice cream (Haagen Dazs is best) and fresh sliced strawberries.

Happy Birthday to my daughter!

Blog watch: It’s fun to connect with bloggers from far away. Sapphire in Japan blogged about a beautiful sculpture garden in Hakone and a horrible theft of a Henry Moore sculpture. The crime defies imagination both as to the means and the ends. Another newbie to my blog, Delwyn@a hazy moon posts gorgeous nature photos from Australia. Phoenix@Talking to Myself blogged about her new hometown of Delhi. Cynthia@Oasis Writing Link in Puerto Rico also gave us a tour of her hometown. Mama Shujaa revisited Nairobi, where she grew up. Globe trotting is so easy in cyberspace.

Helpline: Why Does my Sponge Cake Collapse?

1. See Phillip's second comment below: inversion helps cake firm up as it may collapse when hot - do this until it cools.
2. Along the same line, opening the oven too many times to check the cake will cool it and might make it collapse.
3. You forgot to add a rising agent like baking powder/self-rising flour or it has expired.
4. Not enough egg white. If using smaller, organic eggs, try adding 1 or 2 extra egg whites (not the yolks).
5. Not beating the egg whites enough or letting them sit too long. Use an electric beater or enlist a helper if you get too tired.  The whole prep should not take more than hour.  Bake immediately.  The cake can sit all day until you eat it.

Crystal Spring Farmers' Market

This farmers’ market sunflower is my first photo with my new Nikon D80 SLR camera. The rest of the shots were taken with my small point-and-shoot Canon Elph SD800, which was a better fit for a bike ride to a local farm. Our panniers were overflowing on the way home with vegetables, scallops, turkey, bread, eggs, goat cheese, flowers and . . . hey, who ate all the brownies?

During the summer and fall, Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick hosts the farmers’ market on Saturday mornings. It’s a mile and a half outside of town with just one steep hill. I call it family fun, but I think my kids only peddle along for the fresh baked brownies and blueberry bars. A return to blue skies called us to venture out after a boring week of unpacking boxes from our sabbatical in England.

The Brunswick Topsham Land Trust preserves the antebellum farm, all 322 acres of it. The Kroeck family farms organic vegetables and sheep using sustainable methods. The 1860’s farmhouse was recently renovated by volunteers, including my friend Mark Wild. Mark also did a lovely job remodeling our house. He’s great with period details.


Brunswick has many 1920’s homes and some that are older. There has also been a fair bit of suburban development. A few years ago Brunswick passed a Smart Growth Ordinance that protects open spaces while encouraging development in the town growth areas. I spent Election Day gathering signatures at the voting polls and also helped organize support for it.

Brunswick’s protection of rural and wild spaces is part of what makes this town so special. Suburban sprawl is changing the face of Maine like much of America. Brunswick still holds onto its classic New England charm even beneath the surface.

One of my favorite parts of Crystal Spring Farm is the maple-lined drive. The farmers request that visitors stick to the miles of public trails and not enter the farm. There are live electric fences and other hazards. Because it’s a working farm, dogs aren’t allowed except at the market. That’s a big difference from England where dogs are welcome almost everywhere. Dogs, however, can be shot if they trouble the sheep in England.

Crystal Spring farmers’ markets is surprisingly diverse. You can get Chinese food as well as fresh seafood.













Farmers set up tents to sell their produce. The organic competition is fierce. Buckwheat Blossom Farm won’t even use tractors. Go horse power!

The produce varies in presentation too.
Some farmers like things neat and tidy:

Others allow the vegetables to look recently uprooted.
Everything is so fresh.

In past years a trebuchet was reconstructed from medieval diagrams to launch leftover pumpkins at targets for a hunger relief fund-raiser. I set a scene there in my novel S.A.D.. Coming home has brought my words back to life. Even when I’m not writing, I feel like I’m walking through the pages. My plot and characters are fictional, but the story is set in a real place that I know well. It would be hard to improve upon Brunswick and Harpswell.

Bath Municipal Band photo by Angel Franco, NYT

On Tuesdays and Fridays the farmers’ market is at the Brunswick town green, called the mall. The green is the thumping heart of a small town. A brass band that plays in the village greens of Brunswick and Bath was featured in Monday’s New York Times. You can click hear (that’s a pun not a typo!) for the music. Dan Berry’s column focuses on “obscure and well-known corners of the U.S.” Guess I’m not in NYC or Oxford anymore!

How about a feature on obscure but skilled chefs? Here’s what my husband, Henry, crafted on Saturday night from farmers’ market ingredients. Even the kids liked it.

HENRY'S CILANTRO AND LIME SCALLOPS RECIPE:

1 lb fresh scallops
1 red pepper chopped

Marinade:
Juice of 1 lime
3-4 tbs soy sauce
1-2 tbs mirin (sweet rice vinegar)
1 tsp grated ginger
Handful of chopped cilantro (coriander)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp crushed red pepper

Marinate for about an hour, then drain
Heat oil and a few drops of sesame oil in a wok or heavy skillet
Stir-fry, adding fresh chopped red pepper for about 3-4 minutes max.
You can serve over noodles with dipping sauce (below)

Noodles in Dipping Sauce

1 pkt noodles: soba, udon or capellini or whatever

Sauce:
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tbs brown sugar
Optional: About 1 tbs grated daikon or radish

Garnishes (All optional)
Grated ginger
Scallions, cut finely on the diagonal
Nori (dried sushi seaweed) cut finely into strips (use scissors)
Shiso leaves, cut fine

Heat sauce ingredients (except daikon) together slowly till simmering.
Cook noodles and put in bowls
Add the daikon to the sauce and ladle some over the noodles
Add garnishes

Enjoy!

Henry's Lobster Cakes

While on a writing spree, I wish I could hook my computer up to an I.V. Why not? It could be the next thing after i-pod and i-phone. I have trouble stopping to eat let alone to cook. Luckily I’m married to an excellent chef.

Henry Flipping Crepes

Henry’s lobster cakes can be made from frozen lobster for those of you from away. Try to get Maine lobster since Maine has the most rigorous regulations to ensure sustainable fishing. Frozen or canned Canadian lobsters could be egg laying females. The brand Henry buys at Hannaford's is packaged in Portland, Maine. Lobsters don't have central nervous systems (like bugs)and are only high in cholestrol if you dip them in butter. Hold the side-order of guilt!

Lobster Cakes:

1 seven ounce tub Cozy Harbor lobstermeat (cooked):
chopped fine.
2 small shallots, very finely chopped
1/4 of a red pepper very finely chopped
1/4 cup regular breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp butter
fresh cilantro, finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
splash of martini/vermouth (optional)
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
Old Bay Seasoning, chili, thyme
evoo (extra virgin olive oil)
Use a non-stick pan (scanpans are great.)

Combine lobster, seasonings & cilantro, breadcrumbs, lime juice and bind w/egg.
Fry shallots and red pepper in evoo at very low heat. Sprinkle w/thyme.
Add cooked shallots + peppers to lobster mixture.
Deglaze pan w/vermouth and add to mixture.
(Refrigerate if needed)
Form into golf-ball sized patties and roll in panko.
Makes about 9 or 10 patties.
Fry till brown in evoo and 2tsp butter.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:

3 peppers
2-3 onions
1 clove garlic
1/2 tin Italian tomatoes
1 tbs mango chutney
1 tsp sugar
fresh basil or cilantro (or both)
thyme
1/2 tsp crushed coriander seeds
1 tbs evoo,
1/4 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs butter

Toss peppers in 1/2 tbs evoo, 1/2 tsp coriander seeds, S&P.
Roast at 400 for 30 mins.
Caramelize onions: cook in 1 tbs butter, covered, seasoned with thyme and S&P, till liquid releases. Cook uncovered till liquid evaporates.
Add 1 tsp sugar and caramelize till tasty brown.

Melt 1/2 onion with 1/2 tbs evoo in heavy saucepan.
Add garlic, cook 1 min. Add toms, simmer.

Puree 2/3 peppers and 1/2 onions in blender w 1/2 tbs evoo
and 1/4 tbs balsamic vinegar.
Coarsely dice remaining peppers.
Add pepper sauce + chopped peppers to tomato sauce,
w/ mango chutney, basil.
Cook through. Season.

Garnish lobster cakes with cilantro and/or basil. Serve on capellini with a side salad and white Bordeaux: