Veg Shepherd's Pie

I remember when we were teenagers, our mother used to nag us to no extent whenever she was cooking something so that we’d stand beside her and learn how to cook the dish… reluctantly we’d follow her to the kitchen and both me and my sister would start pretending to be one of those cookery-show host, “ab hum es mixture main masala add karenge..” and laugh our hearts out.

I recently got married and my sister had flown down from Canada to attend my wedding. Since the day she landed, all we did was raided every store, boutique and mall out here to shop for my wedding. We were meeting after 3 ½ years and had so much catching up to do which thanks to shopping and more shopping we couldn’t completely accomplish. So we decided a list of must-do things that we had to complete come hell or high water, amongst which one was cooking together.

So one afternoon my parents were out of town and we finally got to stay back home and take a break from all the preparations. We spent the entire morning playing with my then 9-month old niece, Aarna who is an absolutely delightful child and when we got hungry I decided to whip up a quick and easy meal for my sister who between changing nappies and feeding baby food helped me with preparing shepherd’s pie by changing my humble shepherd’s pie into interesting mini shepherd’s pie cups.

I had come across this recipe in youtube and added a few more ingredients to make it a little more spiced. It’s a good dish to have on a day when you are feeling laid back and relaxed.

Ingredients:

4-5 medium potatoes peeled and mashed

2-3 cups of vegetables of your choice boiled & diced

(carrots, green beans, peas, baby corn, corn kernels, mushrooms, broccoli etc.)

1-2 large spring onions & spring onion greens chopped
1 large onion diced

1 capsicum diced

 1 cup milk

1-2 tbsp oil

2-3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp all purpose flour

1- 1½ tbsp cream

Salt

Pepper

Mixed herbs

1 tsp ginger & green chilli paste

5-6 cloves of garlic finely chopped

Method

1.    Firstly nicely peel and mash 4-5 potatoes, make sure that no chunks remain.

2.     After the potato is mashed add 1-1 ½ tbsp of cream and about 1 tbsp of melted butter, further add salt to taste, 2 pinches of pepper and some red chilly flakes. Mix all the ingredients and put aside.

3.    Now for the pie-mix, in a thick bottomed pan add 1-2 tbsp of oil, once the oil is heated add finely chopped garlic sauté for a few seconds and then add the chopped onions. Once the onions have turned into a nice pinkish brown add the ginger-chilli paste, spring onions, capsicum and all rest of the vegetables and sauté till they are nicely cooked.  

4.    Once the vegetables are cooked, add some salt to taste, 2-3 pinches of pepper and some mixed herb powder.

5.   Then in a separate bowl add 2-3 tbsp of softened butter and mix in about 1- 1 ½ tbsp of all purpose flour. Now stir in the said mix into the pan. Once done add the milk to the vegetables and stir for a while. In about 2-3 minutes the milk will start to thicken. Turn off the flame once it has thickened into a nice thick sauce.

6.  Now take an oven proof bowl of your choice and grease the same with butter. Pour in the vegetable mix. Now take the mashed potatoes and carefully layer it on top of the vegetable mix. Flatten it with the help of a flat spatula so that it covers the top of the entire bowl. Now take a fork and press the same around the edges of the bowl to give the mash a nice design.  

7.    Put the bowl in the oven till the mashed potato is baked into a nice golden brown and then gorge!

Shepherd pie cups:

Now for making shepherd pie cups all you have to do is that instead of layering the mashed potato on top of the vegetable mix you have make small cups of the said mash and then pour 2-3 spoonfuls of the said mix into the cups, topple with cheese and bake in the oven for a while.

1.    For making the mashed potato cups, take a cup cake mould pan or separate cup cake moulds, either of which you may have and grease the same with butter.

2.    Now take about 1-2 tsp of mashed potato and line the insides of the moulds so that they take the form of potato cups which can be filled with vegetable mix.

3.    Keep the potato cup reasonably thick and once the mash is slathered on the mould prick the bottom with a fork. Once all the moulds are slathered with the potato mash put it in the oven to bake till they turn golden brown.

4.    Once the cups are baked take them out of the oven and let them cool down. Once cooled de-mould the potato cups. Now pour in adequate amount of the vegetable mix that we prepared (as shown above) and topple with some shredded cheese. Put the pie cups back into the oven and bake till the cheese turns golden and take out of the oven and your pie cups are ready. 

Cheesy Pasta with Cheese Chilly Toast

Whenever my parents asked me to cook dinner, it would invariably be pasta… so much that it become the other way round and so whenever my parents were in the mood of having some pasta, they’d ask me to cook them dinner.

Pasta is the ultimate comfort food for me. I think it is one of the easiest dishes to prepare and also one of the most versatile. There are a lot of variations that one can do with pasta. I’ll start with my all time favourite – Pasta in white sauce, which I prefer to call Cheesy Pasta. The trick here is the white sauce. Preparing the white sauce is pretty easy and it comes handy in a lot of dishes (you’ll see me using it in a lot of recipes).

Almost always my pasta is accompanied by a cheese chilly toast which goes really well with the mildly herby taste of cheesy pasta.

Cheesy Pasta:

Ingredients

1 cup Pasta (preferably penne)

500 ml Milk

2-3 tsp All purpose flour

1 tbsp Butter

1/3 tsp Sugar

½ cup Cheese

Pepper

Salt

Oregano

Chilli Flakes

Mixed Herbs

Method:

1.    Boil some water in a pan, add about a tsp of salt. Once the water comes to a boil pour in the pasta and let it boil till about 10 minutes or till it is perfectly cooked. (Keep checking so that it doesn’t under or over cook). Once cooked drain all the water, pour a tbsp of oil (any oil would do) mix it well and put it aside.

2.    For the white sauce: mildly heat up a thick–bottomed pan, add the butter and let it melt. Once the butter is melted add flour to it and whisk it well (do not let the flour brown).

3.    Once the butter and flour is whisked well and forms into a smooth thick paste, start to add the milk slowly (preferably your milk should be warm). Stir the milk and the mixture nicely till no lumps remain.

4.    Once the milk is added whisk the mixture and dissolve all the lumps that may get formed. Once the sauce is smooth, let it simmer on medium heat to thicken to your desired consistency. Next add some salt to taste, some pepper to taste as well, about 1/3 tsp sugar, throw in some oregano, mixed herbs and chilli flakes as per your taste and lastly add some grated cheese (preferably cheddar) to get that nice herby and cheesy flavour. Feel free to add or eliminate the cheese, herbs and oregano etc as per your taste buds.

5.    Once the mixture thickens, turn off the stove, add the boiled pasta to it, mix it well and serve. You can garnish it with some grated cheese and herbs on the top.

Tips:

I prefer to use and electric whisk for smoothening the sauce and removing lumps. A hand whisk will also do the trick but the electric one makes the job much easier.

Cheese Chilly Toast:

Ingredients:

1-1  ½ cup grated cheese (cheddar)

½ cup white sauce

2-3 green chillies, finally chopped

Salt

Pepper

Method

1.    Heat the white sauce and throw in the grated cheese, finally chopped green chillies, some salt and pepper to taste, turn off the stove once the cheese has melted well and the mixture is smooth and thick.

2.    Your cheese chilly spread is ready, spread it on your toast or bun and rellish.