Celebrate St. Patrick’s day with this Shepherd’s pie, you get to dig in browned seasoned juicy ground beef and mashed potatoes…

Are you still surfing the internet trying to figure out what to make on St. Patty’s day? If so, you could stop searching now and it’s time to get into cooking. You just need ground beef, baking potatoes and cheddar cheese to make this fabulous shepherd’s pie that everyone is going to rave about.

I was kind of confused about what to call this pie, cottage pie or shepherd’s pie. Wiki says cottage pie is a meat pie made with minced beef, while shepherd’s pie is made with minced lamb. Then, why am I calling this dish which has beef in it as shepherd’s pie? Well, it seems that in Ireland they call a pie which has beef in it as shepherd’s pie. Alright, I think I am safe now. Whether you call it cottage pie or shepherd’s pie or if you wish to give it a different name, it doesn’t matter as long as it has either minced beef or lamb topped with creamy mashed potatoes and lots of cheese sprinkled over.

Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone!

Shepherd’s Pie

For making beef filling

• Ground beef- 2 pounds
• Carrots, diced small- 6, medium
• Celery, diced small- 2 stalks
• Onion, diced small- 1, large
• Thyme, dried- 1 sprig
• All-purpose flour- 1/4 cup
• Tomato paste- 1/4 cup
• Water- 3/4 cup
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- as needed
• Vegetable oil- 1 tbsp

For making Mashed potatoes

• Baking potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced- 5
• Whole milk or skim milk- 1 cup
• Sharp white or yellow cheddar cheese, shredded – 1 cup + 1/2 cup while baking
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

Step 1 Making beef:

• Preheat oven to 450 F.
• Heat oil in a wide non-stick pan or dutch oven over medium heat, add carrots, celery, onion and thyme.
• Saute the veggies until tender.

• Add all-purpose flour to the tender veggies and combine well.
• Add tomato paste and stir well.

• Now, add ground beef and cook the beef until it gets browned and cooked well.

• Add 3/4 cup water and let come to a boil.

• Lower the heat and cook the beef for few minutes and remove from the heat.
• Keep aside the beef filling.

Step 2 Making Mashed potatoes:

• Place peeled, diced potatoes in a wide saue pan, cover the potatoes with water and let come to a boil.

• Season the water with salt and lower the heat.
• Cook the potatoes until a fork goes easily into the potatoes.
• Drain the water from the cooked potatoes.

• Add milk and 1 cup cheddar cheese to the potatoes and mash the potatoes until smooth without any lumps using a wooden fork or spoon.

• Season the mashed potatoes with ground pepper and salt.

Step 3 Baking the pie:

• In a baking pan, pour the beef filling as the lower layer into the pan and spread it evenly.

• Drop the mashed potatoes over the filling and spread it evenly using a spatula.

• Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese over the mashed potatoes.

• Bake for 20 minutes until the topping has browned and the filling is bubbling rapidly.

• Let cool down for 5 minutes and using a spatula serve both the beef filling and mashed potatoes on each plate.

Tips:

• You could even make the pie in two different baking pans.

• You could make the beef filling and mashed potatoes one day ahead and bake it half an hour before serving it.
• Any leftover can be refrigerated after wrapping the dish with a plastic wrap.
• You could even add different kinds of veggies like peas, cabbage to the beef filling.

Paratha or flat bread stuffed with browned ground beef with a hint of saffron, which made it aromatic…

If you are planning to make this, make as many as you can, because you can’t stop with just two or three and the leftovers taste even more delicious.

I am a slacker when it comes to making homemade parathas, I always rush to the nearby Indian stores if I get the craving for parathas. Only two things I have to do with store bought parathas are cut open the bag and microwave or heat it on a tawa. And I don’t have to go through the long process or should I call the longest process of making the parathas from scratch. First major step is making the dough, which also includes messing up my counter top with wheat flour and sticky dough. Next part would be rolling the dough, I have to roll and roll till I almost faint. It doesn’t end with this, the final part would be frying the parathas, I have to stand in front of the hot stove until I fry all the parathas, this some times result in burning my hands while trying to hurry up. Finally, when fried parathas are ready stacked up on the platter, I will be mostly seen with my hair standing up and dusted all over with wheat flour. A huge phew!

However, last weekend I had an emergency paratha craving. First thought I had was, get the store bought ones. Second thought was, too lazy to dress up and drive to the store. Third thought was, to kill the craving. Fourth thought was, make homemade paratha from scratch. Guess what? I went with the fourth thought; yay, yay. Once I started making the dough, I got in to the paratha groove. I stuffed the parathas with browned ground beef and added saffron to make it even more aromatic. Store bought parathas might taste good, but homemade parathas are the best and healthy. Obviously, there was a huge mess in my kitchen after the successful paratha making. And guess who volunteered to clean it up? My hubby dear, of course after devouring the parathas

Ground beef saffron stuffed and folded Parathas

Ingredients:

For making the dough:

• Wheat flour or Atta- 3 cups
• Warm water- 1 1/2 cups
• Salt- two pinches
• Vegetable oil- 2 tsp

Preparation

Step 1: Making the dough

• In a large bowl add warm water, salt  and add wheat flour slowly and mixing it with the end of a wooden spoon.

• Combine everything well and transfer the dough on a flat platter or wooden cutting board.
• Using your hands, knead the dough thoroughly for about 5 minutes until soft and smooth.
• Knead the dough into a round shape and pour oil on top, combine it one more time.

• Keep aside for 10 minutes.
• To prevent the dough from drying out, cover the dough with wet paper towel or clean wet kitchen towel.

Step 2: Making the ground beef saffron stuffing:

Ingredients:

• Ground beef- 8 oz
• Onion, minced- 1 medium
• Cumin seeds- 1tsp
• Chilly powder- 1tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Saffron, soaked in water- a pinch
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- 2 tsp

Preparation:

• Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add oil, add cumin seeds and saute till it gets aromatic.
• Add minced onion along with salt to the oil and saute till tender.

• Add ground beef to the onions and break the beef without lumps using a wooden spoon.

• Let the beef cook well and turn brown.
• When the ground beef starts to brown, add chilly powder, fennel powder, coriander powder, garam masala and saute for few minutes.

• Finally add saffron soaked in water to the browned beef and mix well.
• Add cilantro, remove from the flame and let cool down.

Step 3: Rolling the parathas and stuffing it

Ingredients:

• Kneaded wheat dough
• Wheat flour for dusting the dough
• Browned ground beef saffron for stuffing the parathas

Method:

• Make large balls out of the kneaded wheat dough and keep aside.
• Place the ball on the rolling mat or a board dusted with wheat flour.

• Roll the dough into a round shape using the rolling pin.

• Place 1 tbsp of beef stuffing on to the middle of the round dough.

• Fold  the two ends of the dough with the stuffing on the middle and press the dough to stick it.
• Now, fold the other two ends and press the dough on the top to seal it.

• Flour the stuffed, wrapped dough and roll it into a square shape, roll it up and down first and then sidewise.

• Repeat this and roll the rest of the dough and stuff it.

Step 4: Frying the Beef stuffed parathas:

Ingredients:

• Ghee- enough for spreading the parathas while frying it

Method:

• Heat a tawa or non-stick skillet over medium heat, spread the pan with little ghee and place a paratha on it and let it turn golden.

• Flip it to the other side, spread little ghee and using a spatula press the paratha, it would puff up slightly.
• Fry on both sides until it turns golden brown, adding ghee according to your needs.

Parathas without the stuffing.

• Follow the same method for making the dough.
• After rolling the dough ball into a round shape, fold the two sides of the round dough.

• Now, fold the ends as well and press on top to seal it.

• Dust the folded dough with wheat flour and roll into a square shape, roll side wise first and then up and down to make the square shape.

• Fry it on the tawa by spreading ghee on it.

Serving:

• Serve the beef stuffed and folded parathas with Raita or your choice of sides.
• Plain parathas can be served with chicken curry, lamb curry or vegetable korma.

Tips:

• For healthy parathas, avoid using ghee or use very little.
• You could even make this without folding it, just roll the dough into a round shape and fry this, this will give you Chapatis.
• Leftovers can be refrigerated. Heat it in the microwave or on stove top before having it.
• Rolled dough without the stuffing can be stored in the refrigerator for a week. While storing this in an air tight container, dust wheat flour in between each rolled dough, this will prevent the dough from sticking together.

Beware; these beef balls will make you go insane…

Basketball, Volleyball, golf ball and beef balls are lined up in front of you, which one will you pick??? I can hear the unanimous screaming from all of you “Beef balls, beef balls, beef ballsss…

When the beef balls came out of the oven well done and browned, my husband who was calm and humble until that time, transformed into a selfish and greedy being. For the first time, he couldn’t wait till the beef balls got a neat presentation and did few posing in front of the camera. He begged me and bugged me like crazy for these beef balls. Can’t blame him, it’s the beef balls that made him insane. Finally, I was forced to throw few beef balls into his mouth just to make him shut. In just seconds he finished it and sneaked into the kitchen to gobble up other beef balls too. Gosh, what’s the matter with this man? I screamed. And I had to wind up the photo session real fast.

This recipe is adapted from Rachael Ray. These are the same meat balls, which are used for making the popular “Spaghetti and meat balls”. I ignored the spaghetti and just made the meatballs. This could be served as a finger food or as an appetizer, either way there will be a high demand for this and will vanish from the platter in just a matter of seconds.

Beef Balls

Ingredients:

• Groung beef- 1 pound
• Minced garlic- 1tsp
• Worcestershire sauce- 2tsp
• Egg, beaten-1
• Bread crumbs- 1/4 cup
• Grated parmesan- 2 handfuls
• Italian seasoning- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Non-stick cooking spray- to grease the baking sheet

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 425 F
• In a large bowl, combine ground beef, minced garlic, worcestershire sauce, egg, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, ground pepper and salt.

• Make medium sized balls out of it.

• Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and place the balls on it.
• Bake the balls for initial 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes of baking, turn the balls to the other side and bake for another 10 more minutes.

• Take the balls out of the oven, insert a tooth pick into each balls and serve hot with ketchup or any other sauce.

Tips:

• You could even make patties out of this seasoned ground beef and bake it.

• Baked beef patties can be used for making burgers, place the patty between the hamburger buns and top it with grilled onions, pickled cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, lettuce and smear the buns with mayonnaise.

If you are searching for a fancy appetizer to impress your friends, here’s one from my cook book: Baked Beefy Potato…

A real fancy appetizer you could make for super bowl party – Baked potato with a twist! While having the potatoes you also get the bite of beef stuffed inside it. This definitely makes the perfect appetizer, especially for a super bowl party.

I first baked the potatoes, then scooped out the flesh and mashed it with heavy cream and added browned seasoned ground beef with it. Stuffed the potato skin with the beefy mashed potatoes and gave them a final baking.

Watch the magic: this is going to be the fastest selling appetizer and your friends will be curious to know how it’s made. Make sure to keep the recipe print outs for them or send them here

Beefy Potato:

Ingredients:

• Potatoes, whole- 4
• Heavy cream, fat free- 1/2 cup
• Butter, slightly melted- 2tbsp
• Cheddar cheese- 1/4 cup
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Parsley leaves, chopped- 1 handful

For making Beef:

• Ground beef- 8 oz
• Onion, minced- 1
• Garlic, minced- 1tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 4ooF.
• Wash the potatoes and pat dry with paper towel. Prick the potatoes all over with a fork.

• Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 50-55 minutes or until tender.

Preparation of Beef:

• In the meantime, heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add olive oil.
• Add the ground beef to the oil, add ground pepper and salt,  saute it until it turns brown and well cooked.

• Add the onions and garlic to the beef and saute until onion turns tender.
• Add cumin powder and saute for few minutes.
• When the beef has cooked well, remove from the flame and keep it aside.

Stuffing:

• After 50-55 minutes, take the potatoes from the oven and let cool.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
• Cut the top part of the potatoes horizontally and scoop out the flesh from the potatoes leaving behind little flesh on the skin. Don’t break the skin of the potatoes.

• Reserve the skin of the potatoes for stuffing.
• Mash the scooped potato flesh using a potato masher or a wooden fork without any lumps.

• Add the heavy cream, slightly melted butter, ground pepper, salt and cheddar cheese to the mashed potatoes and combine everything well.

• To the mashed potatoes add the seasoned browned ground beef and mix well.

• Stuff the potato skin with the beefy mashed potatoes and sprinkle with parsley leaves.

• Place the stuffed potato skins on greased baking sheet.
• Bake the stuffed potato skins for another 20-25 minutes.
• When it’s done, place on a platter and serve.

Tip:

• You could use fat free heavy cream and fat free cheddar cheese.

I have been on a blogging spree for the last couple of weeks. I am surprised to see that I have blogged on almost everyday. This is quite impressive and at the same time I sincerely wish that this dedication lasts forever, as I am the kind of person who would get distracted by some other activities pretty easily. Since I am observing fast for this month, I hardly have any energy to involve in other outdoor activities like tennis, swimming and camping which I do during summer. So this pretty much explains my indoor presence and my indulgence in blogging for the last couple of weeks.

Today, I woke up by making up my mind to dedicate some time for cleaning my computer, I saw ‘my picture’ folder in my computer flooded with the food pictures that I have clicked over the years. It’s big time I had to organize the pictures , label them to different categories and back up the pictures, there was a lot of work than I thought. After all the cleaning ceremony, I was relieved to see everything was in place in my computer. While organizing the pictures, I came across many food pictures, some of which generated  myriad of feelings in me.

One such dish that made me slip in to my childhood days was ‘spicy beefy’ which my mom used to make often. This is more of a pickle type, so it could be preserved for several days. After making this, my mom would store this in an air tight container in the refrigerator, with the sole intention of having it for few weeks. But the fun part is in our house it never lasted even for a day, me and my sister along with our dad, would empty the jar as if we were on an eating competition. For us, this was more like a snack rather than a pickle, we would open the refrigerator every now and then and would heap a spoonful of beef and would throw it into the mouth. We do this until we empty the jar. Now, when I make this in my kitchen, my hubby would take the role of emptying this as soon as he can. Today I am going to reveal the recipe of this spicy beefy goodness. You could store this in an air tight container and keep it in the fridge for few weeks, also this is a really good dish to take it with you when you are away from home, you could have it as a dry side dish. Trust me, you are also going to witness how fast this would get emptied.

Ingredients:

Beef( cut into cubes)-1 pound

For marination:

• Chilly powder-2tsp
• Turmeric Powder – 1/2tsp
• Fennel Powder- 1tsp
• Pepper Powder- 1tsp
• Salt- as required
• Vinegar- 2tbsp
• Oil- for deep frying

Preparation:

• Marinate the beef with the above ingredients and cook it in pressure cooker with little water. Drain off any excess water.
• Deep fry in the oil till it becomes brown.

• Garlic- 150 gm
• Ginger- 15ogm

Fry ginger and garlic in the same oil used for frying the beef until it turns golden brown and keep it aside.

For sauteing:

• Chilly powder – 1tsp
• Fennel powder – 1tsp
• Pepper Powder-1/2 tsp
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Vinegar-1/4 cup
• Oil, used for frying the beef-3tbsp

• In  a deep bottomed skillet, pour the oil and put all the masalas: Chilli powder, fennel powder, pepper powder, salt and fry this in the oil in low flame. Be very careful while frying the masalas, saute it until it becomes light brown and avoid burning it.
• When the masalas turn light brown, immediately add the fried beef to this and saute.
• Now add the fried ginger/garlic to this and mix into the beef.
• Finally add vinegar and mix everything.
• Garnish with curry leaves.
• You could serve this hot or store in an air tight container and keep it in the refrigerator and have it as pickle for few weeks.

Tips:

• While sauteing the masalas, make sure you turn on the exhaust, otherwise the smoke would build up in the kitchen and you would start sneezing.
• You could control the spice level of this dish as per your needs. Since this is more of a pickle, it is usually made spicy.