Seitan's Pie

not mine; pic for referenceSo I am going to be making a recipe that I never even have eaten as an omnivore: Shepherd's Pie. Something about casseroles must just have never fit into my family's retinue; they're convenient, tasty, and easy. So I will take one of the more classic, long-standing ones, eliminate its convenience, experiment with its tastiness, and subject it to all kinds of pitfalls to low skill.

Here's how the fun will unfold;

• I am going to follow this recipe to make the meat filling. She is making a BBQ seitan, so the elements of the recipe that would veer too closely to that I will omit; the general approach to smoking seitan, which is guess is just [simmer for 60 minutes] +[smoke for 90 minutes], is what I will be following.
• I am going to roast some nice local red potatoes I picked up yesterday at the co-op on the grill and then make some slightly underdone mashed potatoes with them
• I am going to make a mushroom gravy with celery carrots and lentils
• Mince the meat dough, mix in a flax egg, add to dutch oven
• Pour over the gravy and bits, mix a bit
• Cover with mashed potatoes
• Bake at 400'f for 25-35 minutes

Let's see what we get. So far I have started the dough and am about to prep the potatoes (basically, all I have to do is cut them up and toss them in a smidge of oil then grill them in the basket).

Last Meal of January: Chicken Enchiladas

I know what you were thinking. "Duh." Right? Anway, we have a surplus of tortilla shells and we have frozen chicken that is taking space and we were talking about a pantry challenge to clean out the pantrywithout grocery shopping.

forever yeah!

we ended up grocery shopping anyway but I needed supplies for a salad i was making for a co-workers birthday today. so oh well no pantry challenge this week; maybe next. Texico Bitches!

we'll start off making the frozen chicken into the enchilada stuffing. basically, season it with cajohn's orange chipotle seasoning, brown it in a saute pan, cool, shred (maybe with a dose or two of cajohn's bhut jolokia bbq sauce, some lemon/lime juice?). then mix with one chopped onion, jalapeno, cilantro, parsley, and some diced tomato.

anyway, nothing too crazy hot. the enchilada sauce will be a roux based tomato sauce. start whisking oil and flour and roasting coriander, paprika, and chili powder in it. then add garlic, onion, oregano and tomato base. hopefully those two will finish about the same time.

splash the bottom of an 13x9 casserole pan with sauce. roll shredded chicken mixture into tortillas and (***) and drop in casserole dish. top with remaining sauce, cover with some shredded cheese. let it simmer for 12-20 around 350-375F. dollop with sour cream and some green onions. serve on shredded iceberg. boom.

• (***intermediary step between rolling and putting in pan is to pan fry/brown the enchiladas; I may opt against it to cut down on added oil... not sure yet)

Update on 2:25PM by mfg

will probably be cooking along to My Night with the Prostitute from Marseilles by Beirut.

you know i typically do not indicate who i am listening to while cooking. i have seen some blogs and books where, no matter what theyre doing from cooking to playing WoW they feel inclined to write about it and tell you the music. i dont know if it really gives me more context, more flavor of the person, if i feel inclined to respect them more; or if it is actually more information than necessary to a detriment. 

that said, if you come here for recipes, then my wonk talking is probably pollution of the same breed. but know this. my favorite for cooking, especially chili or any long term standing investment dish, is sam cooke. he really gets you through the tedium and monotony.

nom nom let's eat

so i want to kick up my bulk cooking and feeding to my freezer.

here are some of the recipes I want to try my hand at this weekend:

mac and cheese: comforting and the perfect ready to go food

stuffed (red) peppers: with wild rice, chicken, black beans

mini-quiches: woo hoo

filo rolls: hecks yeah, onion cheese and spinach

black bean chick pea cakes: its worth a shot!

two new missions for Apr0n

1. Gut busting Chili Cheese Burrito Chili
2. Expanding my recipe for casserole dishes

As for (1) i think it will be a queso/chorizo chili and tortilla soup hybrid.

As for (2) i am open to suggestions. So far I only know a handful, aside from dishes that are able to be made as casseroles.

Apr0n - Quinoa Eggplant Crush

i dont like the word casserole, so im using crush. so i made the move from the <plan>, heres how it went down.  eggplant ready to roast

1. Roasting eggplant: i quartered the eggplant, laid them out on a baking sheet, cover the exposed surfaces with olive oil. sprinkled with salt, white pepper, and paprika. put in oven at 400F for about 45 minutes.
2. Cooking the Crush: looked for vegetable stock, couldnt find any so i made some by cooking a celery heart in 2 cups of water until it started to boil in a large pot; when i took out the celery heart and put 1 cup chopped celery, 1 cup shredded then chopped carrots, and 1 white onion into the water on low heat. i then added 18 oz of cubed quinoa, pulled the skins of the roated eggplant, and brought it all to a boil and then left it to cook down simmer after turning it to low-medium.
3. Finish Prep: once most of the liquid was absorbed, i added about 3 cups of chopped kale, 2 1/2 cups cashew cheese, and 2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms; along with tamaric, sage, paprika, salt, pepper, parsley, basil, 2 Tbsp of Nutritional Yeast, 4 Tbsp Bragg's amino acids and stirred it all together and let it simmer another ten minutes.
4. The Crush: once it was all cooked up, I poured the Crush into a 9 or 10 inch round casserole dish, put some breadcrumbs on top, covered with foil and put in the oven for 35 mins @ 350F.

yummy Eggplant Quinoa CrushResult: It was very good, but has lots of room for improvement. One idea, adding pasta to the casserole (Spinach or Sun Dried Tomato Penne, youre at the top of my list). Also, brown rice might be another option. Also, i might like some sunflower seeds sprinkled on top with the bread crumbs. The final result wasnt exactly an all-in-one meal. It was close, but needed bread. Keep in mind that my quinoa eggplant crush didnt need to be a casserole, im sure serving it as a soup would have been very good also, but with a little (+2 cups?) extra stock.