I remember a dear friend of mine comparing comfort food to sex: "When it's good, it's good; when it's bad...it's still pretty good!" And dudes, I live in Quebec, so you know the people here love themselves some Pate Chinois, and everyone has their own family recipe. From meat to vegetarian to vegan, it's always a really good call on a cold winter night.
*sigh* and since Summer is almost over... I'm ready to find my ultimate recipe.
If you've been hanging out with me lately, you know I'm a sucker for the Food Network and for cooking. There's no escaping my heritage, I'm the daughter of foodies. I love cooking. And eating. (Especially that part.)
It is really satisfying to come up with a tasty recipe. Sometimes it happens by accident (when you're broke as hell and you miraculously figure out the alchemical interactions of every single condiment and dry good in your pantry), sometimes through planning and research (I have a friend who looks up every single recipe for the same dish that she can find on the internet and makes her choices based on what she likes the most).
I generally figure things out through trial and error. If I've cooked for you, you've invariably heard me lamenting under my breath *whydidntIaddmustardpowderanditwouldhave beenbetterwithcreamorwhatwouldhappenifIcaramelizedthe...* Which is the point at which you've probably given me "the look" and then I desist. But still.
Regret is no way to live your life, and of course I'm always really happy to please my family and friends with my cooking. (Well, when it works out.) The difficulty is that I'm always the toughest one to please. I wish that my skills would allow me to come up with dishes that satisfy my palate and creativity first. I can't explain it in any other way except that I want to be able to share what's in my imagination, and to execute it well. I suppose it's because on some level, cooking really is a level of personal and creative expression. I'm telling you, sooner or later I will hit a culinary school. I don't know when exactly, but I'll figure it out.
Blah blah blah, I've done it again. The point! Here it comes!
So, I've had to work from home for the better part of a week (new day job doing web annotation, we can talk about it later) because of my sciatica rearing its ugly head again. And a friend of mine who is a massage therapist has very kindly offered to help me out! Since we are both terribly broke, we decided to barter. Normally, I'd trade personal training sessions for massage (training tends to be my bartering chip of choice) and I had in fact come to a similar arrangement with another massage therapist and reflexologist friend, except well, my back is mashed up. So I have to fall back on my other talents. (Ew, don't even go there, I introduced him to his girlfriend of six years, and did I mention that my back is jacked up? Also, I'm no stealer. Chicks before dicks, as it were.)
So I am going to make my ultimate Shepherd's Pie. The Shepherd's pie I have been longing to eat. I remember Djanet Sears said once that she had to become the change she wanted to see in the world. But I think Ghandi said it first. So what I take from that is, know what you want, and don't wait around for someone else to make it happen for you.
Anyway. What are the elements of my ultimate Shepherd's pie?
1) Flavour. Now, I'm a busy lady, and the beauty of shepherd's pie is that you can bang together a serviceable batch of it in a reasonable amount of time. But that generally implies some short cuts. Frozen veggies, sometimes flavoured sour cream in the mashed potatoes, canned gravy or bouillon cubes in the meat, that kind of thing. Not this time. I'm making everything fresh, from scratch. Simple ingredients, prepared well, with a depth of flavour. I mean the basic components are meat, vegetables, and potatoes, yeah?
2) Texture. I've come across the gamut of things I don't like in Shepherd's Pie. First of all, it can't be heavy. Potatoes don't have to be cooked so hard. I like the mashed potatoes to be light, with a bit of texture to them, not too smooth or runny or gluey. On the other hand, one can't be too stingy with the fat: I want them to be airy, not floury. And doggone it, no more dried out meat. Just...ew. If the serving falls apart when you scoop it out of the dish, it's no fun. Somehow you gotta find the way to have moist and juicy meat, tender vegetables, and light and fluffy potatoes, perfectly browned on top. That's good eating.
3) Proportion of meat to veggies. Don't be stingy. The magic of the dish is how you balance those three layers, taste-wise.
4) Careful preparation. The number one thing that always jacks me up is rushing. I never can quite figure out the timing of cooking all of the separate elements. When do I start roasting the garlic? When do I start the potatoes boiling? Stuff like that. I want to think of that kind of thing in advance instead of on the fly.
What are your favourite elements of shepherd's pie? Are you a strictly lamb kind of person, or will you go ghetto (cottage?) and do the beef thing? Have you come across a veggie ground round that would make a believer out of George Foreman?
If you're good, I just may take a photo of my next Shepherd's pie attempt. Any MAYBE even share the recipe. I might. ;-)
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