Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd’s pie, along with homemade macaroni and cheese, is one of my favorite comfort foods.  Anytime I make mashed potatoes I deliberately make more than I need so that I can use the leftovers to make this dish.  I’ve made shepherd’s pie with lamb before, and I love it that way best, but since I make roast leg of lamb infrequently because of the cost, I usually end up making this dish using ground beef.  My recipe is based on Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals recipe, but I roast the casserole in a 350 degree oven instead of just a quick trip under the broiler.  I do turn on the broiler to give the top of the potatoes that nice browning, though.

The assembled ingredients. You’ll notice that the casserole dish in the pic is not the same one as in the finished dish. I underestimated the amount of room I needed for the completed recipe.

The roux for the gravy that goes into this dish.

The gravy.

Sauteing the carrots, onions and peas.

Adding the ground beef to the sauteed vegetables.

The ground beef and vegetables cooked and ready.

The casserole topped with the leftover mashed potatoes and ready for the oven.

The finished shepherd’s pie. It was delicious.

Cashew Chicken

This version of Cashew Chicken is from Grace Young’s Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, page 123.  She describes it as a true Cantonese cashew chicken with carrots. sugar snap peas, and celery.  It’s absolutely delicious and one of my favorite stir-fry recipes from this book.

The assembled ingredients. I dry-toasted the cashews a bit in the wok.

Stir-frying the marinated chicken.

Adding the cashews, sugar snap peas and thinly-sliced carrots and celery.

The finished stir-fry after the addition of the sauce.

Ready to eat.