December 2012 Daring Cooks' Challenge: Paté Chinois (Shepherd's Pie)

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2012 Hostess is Andy of Today’s the Day and Today’s the Day I Cook! Andy is sharing with us a traditional French Canadian classic the Paté Chinois, also known as Shepherd’s pie for many of us, and if one dish says comfort food.. this one is it!

I absolutely love Shepherd's Pie, so I was quite excited to discover my first Daring Cooks' Challenge would be Paté Chinois, a French Canadian version of this comfort food.  Usually, when I make Shepherd's Pie, I use leftover beef from a roast and make gravy from the broth.  Then, I mix in frozen vegetables, pour the mixture into a casserole dish, top it with mashed potatoes and toss it in the oven until it is warm and the potatoes are browned. 

For this challenge, I chose to follow Andy's recipe almost to the letter.  There were 3 changes in my version.  I doubled the garlic to 2 cloves, substituted almond milk for the milk, and sprinkled cheese over the mashed potatoes.
 

Paté Chinois
Serves 6-8 
Prep Time: Approx. 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ lbs (1 kg) lean ground (minced) beef
• 2 onions diced
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1¾ cups (115 gm) (4 oz) mushrooms diced
• ½ teaspoon (2 gm) dry mustard powder
• 2 teaspoons (8 gm) prepared horseradish
• ½ cup (120 ml) red wine (optional)
• salt and pepper
• 19 oz (550 gm) can of cream corn
• 2 ½ lbs (1 kg) potatoes
• ½ cup (120 ml) milk
• ¼ cup (55 gm) (2 oz) butter 

I doubled the garlic, and only needed one container of the mushrooms.  The butter is not pictured.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. Wash potatoes and cut into quarters (I peeled the potatoes first.)

3. Boil potatoes until tender (about 20 minutes). Drain.

(While the potatoes were cooking, I began working on the beef.)

 

4. Mash potatoes with butter and milk.  Set aside.

5. In a frying pan, brown the beef with the onions, garlic and mushrooms.  Season with horseradish, mustard powder, and the optional red wine.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until well done and no pink remains.    

 (Note: I cooked the beef, onions, garlic and mushrooms until no pink remained, drained the fat from the pan, and then added the horseradish, mustard powder, red wine, salt and pepper.  I cooked the mixture for another minute or two.)

6. Evenly spread ground beef over the bottom of an ovenproof casserole dish.

7. Top with creamed corn.  (I used 19 ounces.  Next time, I will use both cans.)

8. Spread mashed potatoes on top.  Use a fork to make drag marks for decoration.  (I also added a bit of grated cheddar cheese.)

(At this point, I covered the dish and put it in the refrigerator.  All I had to do was bake it for quick meal the next night.)

9. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until heated through.

 10.  Put under broiler for 2-3 minutes, until the potatoes are browned.

11. Serve and enjoy! 

   

 

Even my pickiest eater ate his meal.  In the future, I plan to more garlic and fresh rosemary to the meat, add peas and carrots to the creamed corn layer, and add a parsnip or two to the potatoes before I boil and mash them.

I would love to thank Andy for hostessing this challenge and for sharing her family recipe.  My mind has opened to all kinds of variations to one of my favorite meals.  

 

Whoo Hoo! I am now a member of the Daring Kitchen

Earlier this week I received the log in I needed to access The Daring Kitchen and learn about the monthly challenges!  Yesterday, I was able to log in and view the secret Daring Cooks challenge for December and I purchased the ingredients.  Today was the reveal date.  However, it appears I managed to give myself a stress fracture while training for my first half marathon - which I had planned to run on Sunday.

With doctor's orders to stay off my feet, I did not think I would be able to make the meal this week.  However, at 8:30 this evening, I thought of a way to follow the doc's orders and still participate.  I sat on a bar stool in the kitchen to prepare the meal.  Due to the late hour, I prepped everything.  Tomorrow, I plan to bake my meal.  So, I will be posting a day late.  Under the circumstances, I'm okay with that.

It has been a while since my last post.  For the record, everyone LOVED the applesauce mentioned in my last post.  (I still plan to cut back on the sugar next time.)  However, the ribs were not a huge hit.  I do not believe the recipe was to blame.  The beef short ribs tend to have so much fat, none of the recipes we have tried have really won us over.

Until tomorrow, have a great night!

-Renee

Cinnamon Rolls and Applesauce

Cinnamon and sugar filled, with maple icing

The lure of cinnamon rolls!

If we happened to have a child in our household that has found it incredibly difficult to get out of bed and get moving in the morning, then let me assure you, the lure of a homemade cinnamon roll with breakfast would work wonders! (Note, I say "if" we had that problem.  I would never post about such an issue on a public blog.  What kind of mother would I be?! *wink*)


Last week, I splurged.  I bought The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl and a set of 3 Goose Berry Patch cookbooks.

Orange marmalade and brown sugar filling with orange icing

One of my boys' favorite treats is a trip to a bakery for a fresh cinnamon roll.  So, when I saw The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe, I knew I had to make them.  (The book gives a variation of the recipe, so I made some of both.  Please note: I cooked mine at 375 degrees and some were brown in as little as 13 minutes.  Also note, that the book states it makes 40 to 50. I made 42 - I will be freezing some today!)  These are so sweet and rich, one-half a roll will be a serving in our home.  They are absolutely delicious!!! Yum!

Espalier Apple Tree (with 4 types of apples)

I also harvested apples from our apple tree to make homemade applesauce!  I used the Brown Sugar Applesauce recipe from the Goose Berry Patch cookbook 101 Slow Cooker Recipes. 

The men in my home have not tried the applesauce yet.  In my opinion, it is a bit too sweet; however, I should note that we normally purchase unsweetened applesauce.  I made it to use in a granola recipe.  I will be sure to let you know how that turns out!

Applesauce - prior to mashing

Today, I will attempt the Honey-Mustard Short Ribs recipe in 101 Slow Cooker Recipes.   We purchased half of a beef, and I must admit that my grilling attempt with the first package of beef short ribs was not a big hit in our home.  (I think we prefer pork ribs over beef ribs; the beef short-ribs seemed so much greasier.)  So, I am hoping for the best tonight!  (However, if my family does not like it, the blame will fall on the particular cut of meat, not the recipe - which sounds yummy!)

He Might Like It

"Why am I starting a cooking blog?"  That is the question of the day.

I have one blog already, that I sometimes struggle to keep updated.  Living My Dream began as an opportunity for me to post my goals and keep myself accountable, but I fear it has turned into an on-line journal of my crazy quilting adventures.

This morning, I was searching for new ideas for a relish tray when I stumbled upon the blog, A Fridge Full of Food... and Nothing to Eat.  (I loved the name!)  The relish tray was a part of a post about a Daring Bakers' challenge to make bagels (yum!)  My curiosity sparked, I googled "Daring Bakers" and discovered it had evolved into The Daring Kitchen. (Of course, I bookmarked the page with the bagel recipe first...)

Did I want to register at The Daring Kitchen and participate with baking and/or cooking challenges with the Daring Bakers or the Daring Cooks?  Yes, yes I did.  Of course, that meant beginning another blog... and the hard part, a name for that blog.  I kept thinking of the variety of foods I would be attempting to make each month, and wondering if my pickiest eater would like any of them - there had to be adventurous recipes he might like, right?  Every time I try cooking something new, I find myself thinking, "He might like it..."

Being the only female in our household of four, I figured there would be three "he's" that might like what I make.  A Google search failed to find a similar name... and that is how this blog was born.

And who am I?  My name is Renee.  Though I enjoy writing and sharing on-line, I am still a skeptic when it comes to sharing personal information with the world.  So, my family consists of my wonderful husband, Monkey (our 15-year-old) and Mutt (our 12-year-old.)  Monkey received his nickname when he was only a year old.  He and his dad picked out a stuffed monkey toy, and his daddy made up a fun "Funky Monkey" song.  He does not even mind if we slip and call him Monkey in front of other high school students.  As for Mutt... it is not a nickname that I easily slip into, but he likes it better than my play off his real name.  When he was 7, he asked me to change his nickname to Piggy.  I told him I simply could not and he would understand why later.  He responded by demonstrating how well he could oink,  We settled on Mutt, as he loves ALL kinds of dogs.