Sheppard's (Cottage) Pie

[colls]

My mother had a stack of old Penzy's catalogue's lying around (saved for the recipes!) and I found this one in the bunch. She claims we've had it before? I don't think I was there when she made it.

In any case, I wanted Sheppard's Pie for Sunday - aka. Pi(e) day - so I used this as my base.

Kathy's Cottage Pie

Alterations:
1. I made about 1/3 of the recipe based on how much ground beef I had leftover from something else and questimated portions vs. measuring anything.
2. No onion anything. Ever.
3. A sweet potato vs. regular potato
4. Fresh garlic vs. the Penzys (ironically I had the other two Penzy's things on hand)

Verdict:
YUM!! But then, I love the Chicago Steak Seasoning.

broccoli soup

[adrian_turtle]

Since I stopped eating dairy, I've missed cream of broccoli soup. I had some vegan recipes waiting for me to have the right combination of ingredients, ability to use my hand, and interest in a new vegetable soup. In the last few weeks, I made two variations; both were good, and one will go into regular rotation. Both are simpler than the original, using a stick blender, microwave, and mallet to reduce the need to transfer things to and fro. Both are scaled for my 3-quart soup pot.

https://www.kathysvegankitchen.com/vegan-cream-broccoli-soup/

( recipe using potato )

( recipe using white beans )

Chile Fish with Tahini

[adrian_turtle]

This is a recipe I saved from the Washington Post, ages ago. I simplified it quite a bit, eliminating all the chopping.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/chile-fish-tahini/16684/
1 thick piece of frozen cod (6 ounces or so.)
1 can diced tomatoes, in tomato juice
1/3 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Cook the fish uncovered until done. I didn't watch the clock. Remove the fish to a plate.
Stir in a teaspoon of lemon juice, a dash of salt, and 3 teaspoons* of stirred tahini.

*I know perfectly well that 3 teaspoons is one tablespoon, but some incompetent is selling jars of tahini that are so tall and narrow I can't reach the bottom with a tablespoon. I can barely reach the bottom with my long-handled teaspoons.

Egg and Bacon Potato Salad

[purplecat]

Another recipe from Restore by Gizzi Erskine.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Mistakes, Changes and Substitutions
The recipe recommends purple potatoes, "a heritage variety from Peru". Seriously, this cookbook is so middle-class it's almost a parody. Anyway, new potatoes from Sainsbury's it was. There was also another household discussion about whether a cookbook whose raison d'être was sustainability should be recommending heritage potatoes from Peru.

I also discovered late in the day that we had no mayonnaise but nevertheless had a mysterious second pot of soured cream. So I used double soured cream and no mayonnaise for the dressing. Seemed to work fine.

Verdict
I would put this in the "fine but wouldn't make again" category were it not that offspring spontaneously asked to try it and announced that it should be added to the list of things she would eat. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty she will eat if needs must, but the list of things she would choose to eat is considerably shorter and I was surprised she was up for this both because of the soured cream and because of the jalapeños (though she does like olives so maybe that shouldn't have surprised me). All that said, she only ate a serving spoonful of it and then went back to pasta and pesto, which I'd also cooked to avoid the guilt of forcing the offspring to eat food she didn't like. Anyway, I might make this again, particularly should the offspring happen to request it.