18
Feb
Posted by Edward Antrobus in Recipe Sunday | Tags :Cottage pie, Mashed potato, Meat pie, Shepherd's Pie, turkey | 2 Comments
When my wife said she wanted baked mashed potatoes, I instantly thought shepherd’s pie. While baked mashed potatoes make a great side dish to many meals, I felt like something a little different. Plus, shepherd’s pie saved me from having to decide on a separate main course.
Growing up, I always had shepherd’s pie with beef, but we have been moving away from red meat over the past year. Now beef is saved for special occasions, like prime rib for Christmas, the occasional steakhouse, and every so often a nice juicy burger. (Side note, if you are in Fort Collins, check out Big Al’s on Mountain in Old Town). But we have no beef in our refrigerator. So, I went with some ground turkey.
Of course, as my British friends would say, it’s not actually shepherd’s pie unless it uses mutton. Shepherds look after sheep after all, not cattle and especially not turkeys. So technically speaking, I made a ground turkey cottage pie. Cottage pie is kind of a catch-all for meat pies that are topped with mashed potatoes.
Ground Turkey Shepherd’s Pie
Author: Edward Antrobus
Recipe type: Main
Serves: 4
- Mashed Potatoes
- 4 medium potatoes
- ½ c. milk
- ½ c. butter
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- Turkey Filling
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 c. peas, cooked
- 1 c. corn, cooked
- 1 c. green beans, cooked
- 1 can turkey gravy
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Peel potatoes and chop into 1″ pieces. Place in large pot with water covering potatoes. Bring to boil and cook for 10-15 minutes until potatoes split easily with a fork.
- Drain. Add milk, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Mash until smooth consistency.
- While potatoes are cooking, place ground turkey in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
- In casserole dish, mix together turkey, vegetables, and gravy. Top with mashed potatoes and bake in oven for 15 minutes until potatoes start to brown.
3.2.1682
I have shared a turkey shepherd’s pie recipe in the past, in my first annual Thanksgiving leftovers recipe post. But this one is helpful for when you aren’t using up leftovers but want to make a meal from scratch instead.
23
Dec
Posted by Edward Antrobus in Recipe Sunday | Tags :Chinese, Jiaozi, soy sauce, turkey | 4 Comments
Lately, I have been trading my Tex-Mex fix for a hankering for Asian cuisine. Last week I made a Thai curry and this week I have pot stickers. My wife isn’t a big fan of pork, the traditional meat for potstickers. So instead, I made mine with ground turkey. Once you try these ground turkey potstickers, you may not want to go back to ordinary pork ones!
Potstickers are a traditional Cantonese appetizer, where they are called jiaozi. They are usually served as part of dim sum, which is roughly the Chinese equivalent of tapas.
One of the big problems that I tend to have with Asian cuisine is all of the ingredients that go into it. It takes 15 ingredients to make a green curry paste! If you don’t already have a fully stocked Asian pantry, the cuisine can be pretty pricey to prepare. That’s why, whenever possible, I will find substitutions. I will replace esoteric or expensive ingredients with those more likely to be found in the average kitchen.
For example, the first potsticker recipe I found called for fresh ginger, minced water chestnuts, green onion, and rice wine vinegar, in addition to more common ingredients. I made some updates and substitutions so that the only special ingredient you will need to purchase are the wonton wrappers. And at the end of the day, all wonton wrappers are are square noodles. With a pasta maker, you could make your own.
Turkey Potstickers
Author: Edward Antrobus
Recipe type: Appetiser
Cuisine: Chinese
Serves: 3
- ¼ lb ground turkey
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp powdered ginger
- ½ tsp pepper
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 egg, beaten
- 10 wonton wrappers
- Preheat oven to 350o.
- Mix together turkey, onion powder, soy sauce, ginger, pepper, garlic, salt, red pepper, a 1 TBSP of egg in bowl.
- Place wonton wrappers flat on cookie sheet. Spoon half an ounce (approx 1 tsp) of mixture into center of each wrapper and fold in half diagonally. Brush remaining egg over folded wonton wrappers.
3.1.09
While the pot stickers are in the oven, you can prepare this easy dipping sauce.
Potsticker Dipping Sauce
Author: Edward Antrobus
Cuisine: Chinese
- 3 TBSP water
- 2 TBSP white vinegar
- 2 TBSP soy sauce
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Mix all ingredients together. Serve with pot stickers
3.1.09
Tradditionally, potstickers are pan fried. You put them in a wok (or skillet with some water and oil and fry them until the water is evaporated away and they start to stick to the pan. Hence, the name. But I’ve been trying to cut out unnecessary fat, even if it’s just a little. So I bake mine instead. Some people worry that they will dry out and become hard, but I can attest to how moist and delicious they are when baked.
They do have a tendency of sticking to the cookie sheet however. One option would be to spray it with cooking spray first. Or you could just put down a layer of parchment paper on the cookie sheet before adding the wontons.
Have you ever tried making potstickers? What are your thoughts on all the ingredients that Asian dishes tend to require?
25
Nov
Posted by Edward Antrobus in Recipe Sunday | Tags :Recipe, Taco, Thanksgiving, turkey | 2 Comments
It has become a bit of a tradition around here to post a Thanksgiving leftovers recipe for the Recipe Sunday after Thanksgiving. Last year, I shared my mother’s turkey macaroni salad and the year before I actually posted 3 turkey recipes including another turkey salad, turkey tetrazzini, and a turkey shepherd’s pie (great way to use up the mashed potatoes, too!).
Lately, I’ve been on a taco and burrito kick. You may have noticed from all the Mexican inspired recipes I’ve been posting lately. So it didn’t take a lot of pondering before I came up with turkey tacos for this year’s annual Thanksgiving leftovers recipe.
Actually, this recipe wasn’t quite that automatic for me. I’ve made tacos with turkey before, but always ground turkey that I cooked for that purpose. I’ve used chicken breast before, so I’m familiar with using chunks of meat instead of crumbles. But again, always started with raw meat. I had never used an already-cooked meat before.
Luckily, it was pretty straight forward. The meat already has to sit in a hot pan while the water for the taco seasoning simmers down. Looked at it from one direction, I’ve always made tacos with cooked meat because I cook the meat before adding the taco seasoning!
Turkey Tacos
Author: Edward Antrobus
Serves: 2
- 1 tsp cooking oil or cooking spray
- 1 c. cooked turkey breast, diced
- ¼ c. water
- 1 TBSP Let’s Get Cooking taco seasoning
- 4 tortillas or taco shells
- ¼ c. chopped lettuce
- ¼ c. diced tomatoes
- ¼ c. shredded cheddar
- ¼ c. sour cream or guacamole
- Heat oil in medium skillet. Add turkey breast, water, and seasoning. Mix together. Simmer over low heat until sauce thickens to a paste.
- Divide meat evenly amongst shells. Top with lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream/guacamole.
3.1.09
There you have it, now you can enjoy your thanksgiving leftover turkey with a little Mexican flair instead of eating the same reheated turkey and stuffing every day for weeks.
Shepherd’s Pie
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