food post!
Nov. 24th, 2009 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gmonkey42In honor of the Heroes Thanksgiving episode, I made two pies for dinner! One of which doesn't have a crust so I don't know why it even counts as a pie but whatever.
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie
The leftovers of which I am eating for lunch right now! This makes about 3 servings.
Ingredients:
1 russet potato
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
a squirt of garlic paste from those tubes you can buy in the produce section. Or about 1 clove roasted garlic (garlic is optional)
As usual, the quantities are estimated. It was actually a splash of milk and a blob of butter.
or instead of the above, use up some leftover mashed potatoes!
a couple handfuls of sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup vegetarian ground "beef"
a handful of shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
whatever fresh herbs strike your fancy (I used oregano; savory is also nice with mushrooms)
1 packet vegetarian brown gravy
1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Peel and cut up the potato into chunks roughly 1in3. Boil a pot of water and cook them on medium heat until they're tender when you poke them with a fork.
3. Mash the potato with milk, butter, and garlic if desired. Set aside.
4. Heat olive oil on medium, add mushrooms and toss with soy sauce. Notice you have some fresh oregano in the fridge; throw some in. Cook mushrooms until they just start to get tender; set aside.
5. Totally forget to include the onion.
6. Prepare the vegetarian gravy per package directions. Set aside.
7. Squeeze veggie ground beef out of its tube and realize it sticks together too much. Throw it in the now-empty pan with whatever olive oil remains and cook it a little to make it more crumbly.
8. Mix carrots, beef, mushrooms and herbs in a bowl.
9. Spread mixture in a loaf pan. Pour gravy over mixture - it'll sink in. You'll have a little gravy left over. Spread mashed potatoes on top.
10. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes. Everything is pretty much cooked and safe to eat to begin with, you just want to get it warm and bubbly.
11. Broil for a few minutes until the potatoes start to brown. Serve hot.
12. Eat while watching Heroes and waiting for your sweet potato pie to bake.
******************************
WTF Sweet Potato Pie
This one was more messed up than even my usual recipes but it turned out really nice.
Ingredients:
1 sweet potato (2 cups mashed)
3 Tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cups milk (I used whole milk because I bought whole milk for my risotto that I'm going to make for Thanksgiving)
1/2 cup light whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 9in pie crust
1. Go shopping in the morning for ingredients: buy crushed nuts with the intention of adding them to the homemade pie crust.
2. Realize it's 5:30pm and you're just heading home from the lab; stop at the store again to buy ready-made crust.
3. Preheat oven to 375°.
4. Cook the sweet potato like the potato for Shepherd's Pie. Take your handy potato mashing tool and mash it up.
5. Realize that if you add the eggs now, the hot potato will cook them. Wait until potato cools a little. Add eggs.
6. Add all the other ingredients and mix it up. Misread the recipe and add 3/4 cup cream instead of 1/2 cup. Just throw in spices and vanilla without bothering to measure them. Think maybe one potato wasn't quite 2 cups. Dump in a couple scoops of canned pumpkin to thicken it up a little. (The mixture will still be a fairly thin liquid, this is OK).
7. Pour mixture into ready-made pie shell for lazy bakers and verrrrry slowly lift it into the oven without spilling any. (There will be some mixture left over, what with the milk screwup and extra pumpkin)
8. Set timer for 50-60 minutes. Yeah, did I mention this would take about an hour? I hope you're not too hungry!
9. Poke the pie with a toothpick to make sure it's done. (If the toothpick comes out clean, it's done. If pie mixture sticks to it, cook the pie a few more minutes and check it again)
10. Enjoy your slice of pie while watching Heroes and marvel at Sylar's ability to eat an entire pumpkin pie all by himself.
Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie
The leftovers of which I am eating for lunch right now! This makes about 3 servings.
Ingredients:
1 russet potato
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
a squirt of garlic paste from those tubes you can buy in the produce section. Or about 1 clove roasted garlic (garlic is optional)
As usual, the quantities are estimated. It was actually a splash of milk and a blob of butter.
or instead of the above, use up some leftover mashed potatoes!
a couple handfuls of sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup vegetarian ground "beef"
a handful of shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped onion
whatever fresh herbs strike your fancy (I used oregano; savory is also nice with mushrooms)
1 packet vegetarian brown gravy
1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Peel and cut up the potato into chunks roughly 1in3. Boil a pot of water and cook them on medium heat until they're tender when you poke them with a fork.
3. Mash the potato with milk, butter, and garlic if desired. Set aside.
4. Heat olive oil on medium, add mushrooms and toss with soy sauce. Notice you have some fresh oregano in the fridge; throw some in. Cook mushrooms until they just start to get tender; set aside.
5. Totally forget to include the onion.
6. Prepare the vegetarian gravy per package directions. Set aside.
7. Squeeze veggie ground beef out of its tube and realize it sticks together too much. Throw it in the now-empty pan with whatever olive oil remains and cook it a little to make it more crumbly.
8. Mix carrots, beef, mushrooms and herbs in a bowl.
9. Spread mixture in a loaf pan. Pour gravy over mixture - it'll sink in. You'll have a little gravy left over. Spread mashed potatoes on top.
10. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes. Everything is pretty much cooked and safe to eat to begin with, you just want to get it warm and bubbly.
11. Broil for a few minutes until the potatoes start to brown. Serve hot.
12. Eat while watching Heroes and waiting for your sweet potato pie to bake.
******************************
WTF Sweet Potato Pie
This one was more messed up than even my usual recipes but it turned out really nice.
Ingredients:
1 sweet potato (2 cups mashed)
3 Tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cups milk (I used whole milk because I bought whole milk for my risotto that I'm going to make for Thanksgiving)
1/2 cup light whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 9in pie crust
1. Go shopping in the morning for ingredients: buy crushed nuts with the intention of adding them to the homemade pie crust.
2. Realize it's 5:30pm and you're just heading home from the lab; stop at the store again to buy ready-made crust.
3. Preheat oven to 375°.
4. Cook the sweet potato like the potato for Shepherd's Pie. Take your handy potato mashing tool and mash it up.
5. Realize that if you add the eggs now, the hot potato will cook them. Wait until potato cools a little. Add eggs.
6. Add all the other ingredients and mix it up. Misread the recipe and add 3/4 cup cream instead of 1/2 cup. Just throw in spices and vanilla without bothering to measure them. Think maybe one potato wasn't quite 2 cups. Dump in a couple scoops of canned pumpkin to thicken it up a little. (The mixture will still be a fairly thin liquid, this is OK).
7. Pour mixture into ready-made pie shell for lazy bakers and verrrrry slowly lift it into the oven without spilling any. (There will be some mixture left over, what with the milk screwup and extra pumpkin)
8. Set timer for 50-60 minutes. Yeah, did I mention this would take about an hour? I hope you're not too hungry!
9. Poke the pie with a toothpick to make sure it's done. (If the toothpick comes out clean, it's done. If pie mixture sticks to it, cook the pie a few more minutes and check it again)
10. Enjoy your slice of pie while watching Heroes and marvel at Sylar's ability to eat an entire pumpkin pie all by himself.
