Shepherd's Pie

As all of my friends will attest St. Patrick’s Day is my holiday. It is the only one that I really celebrate, mostly because of my Grand who was fiercely Irish. Now I have spent most of these holidays in pubs drinking good Irish beer and questionable Irish whiskey with little to no thought to the food I could be eating. In recent years with the help of my friend Toby we have played with some Irish food, bacon and cabbage and Irish stew being the favorites. This year I wanted to do Shepherd’s Pie. This may not be the most authentic Irish thing but My Grand made it and in my mind that makes it more than Irish enough. There are many people that will make this with beef instead of lamb, this is cottage pie, and as good as it is, it is not Shepherd’s Pie. You have to use the lamb. I have added in some of my own touches such as the bacon and the beer but the taste is 100% from my Grand’s kitchen and 100% delicious. I hope that you get a feel for the Irishness of this dish and that you enjoy it. Erin Go Bragh.

Shepherd’s Pie to the Tune of Ode to Whiskey by The Chieftains

1lb ground lamb

6 slices thick cut bacon

2 onions medium dice

2 big carrots or 5 bunch carrots

4-6 mushrooms sliced

4-5 small potatoes cubed

¼ cup butter

1-2 tsp finely chopped winter savoury

1-2 tsp finely chopped rosemary

Salt and pepper

Oil

Beer, I used a Red Irish Ale about 350 ml

-In a large pot, over medium high heat add your oil, onions, garlic, ground lamb and bacon. Brown your meat. Drain off any fat or grease.

-Add in your carrots and your beer and herbs. Reduce heat and let simmer for around 45 minutes.

-In a large sauce pan add your potatoes and fill with water until they just float. Put it on high heat and bring to a boil. Boil until the spuds are soft. Drain the water and mash until they are semi smooth. Add your butter and a little salt and whisk them until they are light and fluffy.

-Back to your other pot. Add in your mushrooms and your peas and cook for another 5 Minutes or so. While this is happening heat your oven to 350 degrees.

-In a pie plate or a square baking pan spread out your meat and veggies. Spoon your spuds over the top and spread them out evenly over the top. 

-Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and Bam said the lady you got Johnny’s version of Shepherd’s Pie.

Meatloaf Just To Warm You Up

            On rainy, kind of crappy days I find that I am drawn to making food that warms you up from the inside out. The kind of food that is simple and strait forward but delicious and satisfying all at once. Nourishing to both the body and the soul is what we are aiming for. There are few things that hit that sweet spot for me and one of them is meatloaf. It is something that I ate as a kid that I was just mad for. It also helped my cause that it was always made by either my Grand or my Mom, two pretty bad ass cooks. So this is a bit of a riff on their meatloaf. It makes me happy just talking about it. It also will fill your kitchen with one of the best smells ever, so that is a plus. My family would serve it with mashed potatoes and green beans. That being said, in my opinion, it is best served as a sandwich. I know you are all shocked to hear me say this. Be warned however, meatloaf sandwiches can lead to the best kind of food coma. My kid sister Tiff can testify to this fact. So here is some comfort food for you all to try. You will not be disappointed.

Meatloaf to the tune of Something to Talk About by Badly Drawn Boy

1lb lean ground beef

½ lb lean ground pork

1 onion finely diced

1 egg

¼ cup bread crumbs

1 cup grated cheese

6 strips of double smoked bacon

A good splash of Worcestershire sauce

A good splash of hot sauce

Salt and pepper

A good drizzle of catsup (optional)

-Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a loaf pan with the strips of bacon.

-Mix the beef, pork, onion, egg, crumbs, ½ the cheese, sauces and salt and pepper all together in a big mixing bowl. And divide it in half.

-Press half of the mixture into the loaf pan. Spread the remaining cheese over that. Press in the other half of the meat sealing in the cheese. Drizzle with the catsup if you like. Bake for 45-55 minutes.

-Let rest for at least 10 minutes then slice and serve. Magic, Baby.

Bar Food For My Fight Fan Brethren

            There are few things that I enjoy more than getting together with a bunch of buddies and watching the fights. A bunch of grown men beating the crap out of one another and drinking some beer seems like the perfect excuse to put together some kick ass bar food. Yep we are dealing with fried stuff that every once and a while you need to indulge in. Here are a couple of favorites that always seem to please the dudes when they hit the coffee table. They are also really easy to put together and all your buddies will be begging for you to do it again for the next big card of fights. So here are two faves, Chicken wings and perhaps the biggest order of nachos you are likely to see until you decide to try and one up me. So in the immortal words of Bruce Buffer... “It’s Time.”

A Mountain of Nachos to the tune of Black Out Tonight by The Dropkick Murphies

1 bag of tortilla chips

1 onion diced

2 bell peppers diced

Chopped tomatoes

1 small can of sliced black olives

3 jalapenos sliced

1 lb of flank steak diced

4 thick cut slices of bacon diced

2 tbsp chilli powder

1 tbsp ground cumin

A ton of grated cheese

¼ cup vinegar

Salt

½ a can of beer

-Here is the only real work that you will need to do and you do the day before so you are pretty much set the day of. Toss your jalapenos in a small sealable container with a good pinch of salt and the vinegar. Shake it around until the salt dissolves and toss it into the fridge over night. This pickles the chilli peppers and takes some of the up-front heat out of them.

-Heat up a pan over medium high heat then add a little oil and then your meats sear the meat off. Add your spices and fry until your kitchen smells like Mexican food. Add your beer and let it reduce until your meat has a good coating of saucy goodness let cool and stick it in the fridge until you are ready to assemble like the avengers.

-All you have left to do is put it all together and bake them at 350 degrees until all that cheese is melty and good. I will take it on faith that you all have had nachos and can figure out how to put it together. Rock and Roll, you know have killer nachos. Enjoy.

Sweet Chilli wings to the tune of Hell’s Bells by ACDC

Sauce:

¼ cup honey

¼ cup catsup

A good squeeze of Saracha, more if you like hotter foods

1 tbsp sugar

¼ cup vinegar

4 cloves of minced garlic

-In a small sauce pan, over medium high heat, fry your garlic and then add all of the other ingredients. Stir and let it reduce until it thickens up. This is the toughest part of the entire recipe. Remove from the heat and let cool and refrigerate it if you are making it a head of time.

The wings:

2 lbs of chicken wings

1 cup of flour

1 tbsp of salt

Pepper

1 cup of oil, I use vegetable oil but whatever you like.

-Mix all of the salt pepper and flour together in a large mixing bowl. Dredge your wings in the mixture until they are fully coated in the flour.

-Add you oil to a large frying pan, over medium high heat, add your wings and fry them until the skin gets golden, crispy and awesome looking. Pull them out of the oil and fire them onto some paper towel to drain off some of the excess oil.

-Dump your sauce into a large mixing bowl and then add your wings. Toss to coat the wings with the sauce and put them on a plate. Done baby.

-If you are not a fan of the spicy Sweet chili thing you can always substitute BBQ sauce for the chili one. There is a killer one of my own devising in the cooking for Yukon Blonde post.

With BBQ Sauce

Whether it is for the fights, a Hockey game or a Sex and the City marathon this bar food should bring a smile to your face. At least I hope it does. Cheers.

Explaining the lack of Posts with a Sandwich

            So some of you may be wondering what Johnny has been up to seeing as there was a big gap in posts there for a awhile. Well here it is. I have taken on the cool and seemingly trial filled endeavour of baking bread. With the help of some books loaned to me by my friend Antonio I have been baking up a storm to try and produce good bread at home. I am getting the hang of it and all of my little guinea pigs are loving the trials of Johnny’s bread. The other thing that is taking up some of my time is that I have started to do some home curing. Yep the Condor is now making homemade bacon and pancetta. I know that you are all a little frightened and might even be drooling a little. So I have fresh baked bread and home cured and smoked bacon so what do I do with it..... BLT sandwiches. Here is how Johnny knocks out a classic sandwich.

BLT sandwiches to the tune of Into the Fire by Thirteen Senses.

4 slices of good bread

6 slices of good double smoked bacon

1 tomato sliced

2 leafs of lettuce. I used a red leaf lettuce.

Mayo

Dijon mustard

-Fry off your bacon so that it is crisp but not charred remove from the heat. Remove the bacon from the pan but save the rendered fat in the pan.

-Spread Mayo on two slices of bread and the mustard on the other two. The tomatoes go on the mayo side, the lettuce goes on the mustard side. The bacon goes in the middle.

-Now here in the trick. Heat up that pan you thought you were done with and then fry your sandwiches just like you were making a grilled cheese. This will crisp the bread up and add a little extra flavour that really makes the sandwich. You are done. Enjoy.