Shepherd's Pie

Love in the kitchen? No way! I am way too much of a control freak for that. When I am cooking or baking, having someone help me out is seriously worse than me having to struggle through juggling three separate cooking parts. Ok, so control freak is probably not strong enough of a description, but you get the picture right? Control is not an option for me, it is the ONLY way.

But seriously, it somehow worked. My engineer was in charge of the mashed potatoes, I tackled the meat. Beautiful working harmoniously partly because we worked on separate things. He potatoed, I meated. It was a winning combination. Perfect actually. And the only reason it was perfect was because I was still in control.

Happy co-existing!

Potato-ing...

...and Meat-ing in the middle!

It was mechanical, chemical, electrical, and environmental all at the same time. The physics matched up with this cooking duo and I really felt like there was minimal friction! Which seriously never happens in physics. Well, I actually don't know what happens in physics. I work with engineers, I live with an engineer, I like engineers, but I don't do physics. It is not my cup of tea, or cup of anything for that matter. I can do calculus no problem -- I love it, actually. But add a vector into the mix and I will run in any other direction. I guess I don't do direction.

I saw this website and figured I probably should make the recipe purely because he is an engineer. Dorky right? Not him, I mean that I saw this website and instantly had to make this recipe because he is an engineer and its cooking for engineers and...ya. I'm dorky. 

 

Shepherd's Pie (adapted from Cooking for Engineers)

Ingredients:

4-5 medium red skinned potatoes, skins left on

milk, for mashing

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 medium sweet onion, diced

2 medium carrots, diced

2 celery stalks, thinly sliced

1 lb ground turkey

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

pepper

1 cup low sodium chicken stock

paprika

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease a casserole dish and set aside.

2. Fill a large pot with water and begin to bring to a boil. Cut potatoes into roughly 1 inch cubes. Cook in the boiling water.

3. In a skillet, heat olive oil. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the ground turkey and cook, breaking the meat apart, until no pink remains. Drain the excess fat.

4. Add flour to the meat and mix until the flour is no longer visible. Add chicken stock, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg and pepper. Cook for an additional 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.

5. Test the potatoes to ensure they are cooked. If they are soft, drain the water. Add milk a bit at a time and mash the potatoes, with the skin on, until the potatoes are fluffy.

6. Put the meat mixture into a greased casserole dish. Cover the top of the meat mixture with the mashed potatoes. Sprinkle a generous amount of paprika on top.

7. Bake for 30 minutes or until the tops of the potatoes are golden brown. Rest for 5 minutes before serving.