Thai Shepherd’s Pie

Thai Shepherd’s Pie

Ingredients

For the mash:

1 Butternut squash (

2 sweet potatoes

2 large potatoes

1 can of coconut milk

1 bunch of fresh coriander

salt, pepper, grated nutmeg

I bag of grated cheese (red cheddar?)

For the meat préparation:

1 kg minced lamb meat

2 onions

2 carrots

1 clove of garlic

1 cube beef broth

1 large glass of water

Chopped parsley

Salt, pepper according to taste, thyme, bay leaves 

Olive oil

1 teaspoon of green curry paste
1 handful of pine nuts

Preparation

Brush the squash with olive oil. Bake on an oven plate at a 160 ° C (320 ° F)

Peel potatoes and sweet potatoes and cut into large chunks.

Add to the plate with the squash ½ hour after the start of cooking. Leave to roast for another 45 minutes.

Let the squash cool and remove the skin and seeds. Put in a salad bowl with the roasted chunks of potatoes and sweet potatoes. Crush with a potato masher.

Add coconut milk, grated cheese, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, chopped fresh coriander. Reserve.

While cooking vegetables, sauté chopped onions with diced carrots in a little olive oil for about 10 minutes on medium heat.

Sauté the minced meat in a pan with olive oil for about 15 minutes over high heat. Toss and turn often and break the lumps of meat.

Add the meat to the vegetables. Add beef broth cube, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, green curry, the glass of water, chopped garlic, 4 bay leaves, fresh or dried thyme, pine nuts.

Cook on low heat for about 1 hour. remove the lid the last half hour to thicken the sauce. Remove the bay leaves.

In a large gratin dish, spread the meat preparation. Pour the puree in the middle of the dish and spread to cover the meat. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs (or not!).

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

Hachis Parmentier façon Thaï

Hachis Parmentier façon Thaï

Ingrédients

Pour la purée:

1 courge "Butternut" (ou Doubeurre en français)

2 patates douces

2 grosses pommes de terre

1 boite de lait de coco

1 botte de coriandre frais

sel, poivre, muscade râpée 

1 sachet de fromage râpé (Cheddar rouge)

Pour la viande :

1 kg de viande d’agneau hachée

2 oignons

2 carottes

1 gousse d’ail

i cube bouillon boeuf

1 grand verre d’eau

Persil haché 

Sel, poivre selon goût, thym, laurier 

Huile d’olive

1 cuillère à café de pâte de curry vert
1 poignée de pignons de pin

Préparation

badigeonner la courge d’huile d’olive. Mettre au four sur une plaque à 160°C (320°F)

Éplucher les pommes de terre et patates douces et les couper en gros morceaux. 

Ajouter sur la plaque avec la courge ½ heure après le début de la cuisson. Laisser rôtir pendant encore 45 minutes. 

Laisser refroidir la courge et enlever la peau et les graines. Mettre dans un saladier avec les morceaux de pommes de terre et patates douces. Ecraser avec un presse-purée.

Ajouter le lait de coco, le fromage râpé, le sel, le poivre, la muscade râpée, la coriandre fraiche hachée. Réserver.

Pendant la cuisson des légumes, faire revenir les oignons hachés acec les carottes en brunoise (coupées en petit dés) dans un peu d’huile d’olive pendant environ 10 minutes feu moyen.

Faire revenir la viande hachée dans une poêle avec de l’huile d’olive environ 15 minutes à feu vif. Retourner souvent et casser les morceaux. 

Ajouter la viande aux légumes. Ajouter le cube de bouillon de boeuf, le sel, le poivre, le persil haché, le curry vert, le verre d’eau, l’ail haché, 4 feuilles de laurier, du thym frais ou sec, les pignons de pin. 

Laisser cuire à feu doux 1 heure environ. Découvrir la dernière demi heure pour faire réduire la sauce. Retirer les feuilles de laurier.

Dans un grand plat à gratin, étaler la préparation avec le viande. Verser la purée au milieu du plat et étaler pour recouvrir. Saupoudrer de chapelure. 

Mettre au four 45 minutes.

Déguster !

Stuffed Tomatoes, Eggplants, Red Bell Pepper…

The recipe can be used for either one or any combination of vegetables. Courgettes can also be stuffed that way.

Ingredients:

4 bell peppers
Or
4 tomatoes
Or
4 eggplants
Or
4 zucchini
Or
Any combination of the above

Stuffing:
1 green tomato cut in small cubes
1 green bell pepper cut in small slices
1 onion shredded
2 garlic cloves crushed
Bunch of parsley leaves shredded
2 cup of rice (arborio or basmati)
1 cube of vegetable stock
2 eggs
1 spoonful of corn flour
Salt, pepper, paprika
Olive oil
Optional: minced meat 200 g
Veal, pork, chicken or a mix of any of them

Carve the vegetables so you can stuff them.
Prepare the other vegetables and either fry them (in a wok?) in olive oil starting with the onions and adding the rest 5 minutes later. Let it stir for 15 minutes.
Or mix all your vegetables with a little olive oil, spread them out on a tray and place in oven for 1 hour 160C (320F) and let them roast.

Cook the rice with two volumes of water for one volume of rice and 1 cube of vegetable stock.

When all the ingredients are ready and have cooled down, mix in a bowl the cooked rice, the vegetables, the garlic, the parsley, the eggs, the corn flour, salt pepper and paprika plus the meat if you are going to use it.

Fill the vegetables with the stuffing. Use the “cap” of the vegetables on top or add some breadcrumbs. It there is too much stuffing (almost always the case!), spread the extra quantity on the oiled dish you’re going to use to roast the vegetables. Cover the stuffing with breadcrumbs.

Add the stuffed vegetables, drizzle with olive oil and let it cook in the oven at 160C (320F) for 1 hour or longer until cooked and a little brown.

Bon appétit!

Cabbage and sweet potatoes soup with Thai green curry

1 green cabbage
1 sweet potato
2 carrots
2 yellow onions
1 red onion
5 bay leaves
1 vegetable cube
1 chicken cube
1 liter water
Salt pepper
Green curry
Coconut milk
1 bunch of coriander

Grill the cabbage, carrots, sweet potato cut in pieces with a little oil for an hour and a half at 160 °.

Brown the onions in olive oil and butter. Lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes. Add water, broths, bay leaves, salt, pepper, green curry, coconut milk. When cooked, remove the bay leaves.

Add the grilled vegetables. Reserve two pieces of grilled cabbage and cut into strips.
Mix the rest. Add the slices of cabbage and chopped coriander, adjust the seasoning. Serve.

Soupe au chou et patate douce au curry vert

1 chou vert
1 patate douce
2 carottes
2 oignons jaunes
1 oignon rouge
5 feuilles laurier
1 cube bouillon légume
1 cube bouillon poule
1 barquette bouillon poule
1 litre eau
Sel poivre
Curry vert
Lait de coco
1 bouquet de coriandre

Faire griller le chou, les carottes, la patate douce coupés en morceaux avec un peu d’huile pendant une heure et demi à 160°.

Faire revenir les oignons dans huile d’olive et beurre. Baisser le feu et laisser cuire 20 minutes. Ajouter l’eau, les bouillons, les feuilles de laurier, le sel, le poivre, le curry vert, le lait de coco.

Ajouter les légumes grillés. Réserver deux morceaux de chou grillé et les couper en lamelles. 

Mixer le reste au robot. Ajouter les lamelles de chou et la coriandre hachée, ajuster l’assaisonnement. Servir.

English translation

Cabbage and sweet potato soup with green curry

1 green cabbage

1 sweet potato

2 carrots

2 yellow onions

1 red onion

5 bay leaves

1 vegetable bouillon cube

1 chicken bouillon cube

1 chicken broth

1 liter water

Salt pepper

Green curry

Coconut milk

1 bunch of coriander

Grill the cabbage, carrots, sweet potato cut in pieces with a little oil for an hour and a half at 160 °.

Brown the onions in olive oil and butter. Lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes. Add water, broths, bay leaves, salt, pepper, green curry, coconut milk.

Add the grilled vegetables. Reserve two pieces of grilled cabbage and cut into strips.

Mix the rest with the robot. Add the slices of cabbage and chopped coriander, adjust the seasoning. Serve.

Rabbit

A recipe from the past...

My Tchoutchouka

Boufarik, early 20th century.

This is one of my earliest food memory from my youth in Boufarik, Algeria. The family recipe has been lost I fear so I recreated it from various internet sites.

We can imagine that it is eating tchoutchouka that made me feel so happy in front of the our house rue Borely La Sapie...

And that's the house 40 years later in a photo taken by one of my Algerian colleague who happened to know the place and lived nearby in Algeria before moving to France.

So, here's the recipe.

Serves four

4 oignons (big or 6 medium)
4 red bell peppers
4 tomatoes (big or 6 medium)
4 garlic cloves

(you'll notice I tried to make the proportions easy to remember 😉)

1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of Harissa (or any hot pepper paste, Mexican or otherwise)
1 tablespoon of sugar

olive oil
salt

optional:
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of red vinegar

The first step can be passed if you dont mind the skins. Otherwise, you make a little incision in the tomatoes and plunge them in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drains and let them cool in a closed container (Tupperware?)
For the bell peppers, you roast then on a tray in the oven for 10 minutes until the skin is blistered! Afterward, you let them cool in a closed container like the tomatoes. The steam they produce when cooling will make the skin easier to remove.

Peel the tomatoes and the peppers.

Cut the tomatoes in cubes and the peppers in not too small strips.

Peel the garlic and cut in small cubes.

Pour some olive oil in a pot (as little as is needed so the signs don't burn) and fry the oignons first on high heat so they would brown then medium heat for 15 minutes. Remove and reserve.

Add a little more olive oil plus the cumin and fry the peppers for 15 minutes.

Remove and reserve.

Add the tomatoes, the garlic, the rest of the spices, the sugar, stir and bring to a boil.

Add the oignons, the peppers, bring to a boil again reduce heat and let it simmer for an hour without the lid, stirring the preparation occasionally. Add salt to you taste, add the vinegar now if you feel like it. It will add a little tartiness if you find the tchoutchouka overly sweet. Same for Tabasco, jalapeño, chipotle, make it as hot or mild as you like.

The tchoutchouka is traditionally eaten with eggs cooked in its middle. A pan works perfectly. I did it in a little fancy way for the sake of the photo. Enjoy!