Cottage Pie dinner with creamy mash and a crispy golden-brown crust

I had a look around online for cottage pie recipes and the ones that stood out most were Laura Vitale's from Laura In The Kitchen on YouTube and Curtis Stone's root vegetable cottage pie for Coles (recipes clickable through italicised text). Not many in my family are fans of celery so I decided to omit it and replace with extra carrots, which I think turned out great! This is the type of recipe that you can add extra vegetables to or omit the ones you like freely.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Cottage Pie (Potato Topped Pie)

(serves 12)

Ingredients

(filling):

          1.5kg beef mince
          2 large onions, diced
          6 carrots, diced
          4 cloves garlic, minced
          4 tbsp. plain flour
          1 x 140g can tomato paste

          2 beef stock cubes
          2 cups water
          3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
          2 tsp. rosemary, finely minced
          1 cup frozen peas, defrosted
          Salt and pepper, to season

(potato top):

          2kg potatoes
          1 cup milk
          1 cup cream

          90g butter
          Salt (to season)

Method:

1. (For filling) In a heavy-based pan on high heat, cook the mince (without oil, as it will cook in its own fat). Season the beef with salt as it cooks and break up the larger chunks using a wooden spoon. Transfer the beef to a bowl with a slotted spoon
2. In the same pan, use the liquid from cooking the beef to fry off onions and carrots until tender and lightly brown. Season with salt and pepper
3. Add garlic, stir through and cook lightly until fragrant
4. Add beef back into the pan and stir ingredients together
5. Sprinkle in flour and stir continuously to cook and prevent lumps from forming
6. Add the tomato paste until colour deepens slightly
7. Crumble in stock cube, then pour in water, Worcestershire sauce and rosemary stir ingredients together and allow to come to the boil. Reduce to medium heat and simmer for 15 minutes
8. Add peas and stir through, allow to cook enough for ingredients to come to the same temperature
9. Divide filling into individual dishes or into casserole dish and set aside
10. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius
11. (For potato top) Boil potatoes in salted water, drain then mash and set aside
12. Warm milk, cream and butter in a saucepan and pour into potatoes and combine to create a slightly wet mash (this prevents a dry potato top, the some of the liquid will evaporate in the oven)
13. Season mash with salt
14. Spread over the top of filling, creating peaks with the back of a spoon (the more surface area created, the more texture and crunch achieved with the potato top in the oven)
15. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown
16. Serve with fresh salad or steamed green beans

****Tips: 

- Try not to over-mix your mash, as this can make it gluey
- You can add or omit any vegetables you like
- For a curry pie, add curry powder when cooking the mince

_________________________________________________________________________________

This recipe was a hit with everyone and is such an easy way to feed a lot of people with one dish! Leftovers are also great the next day!

I'd love to see your versions of my recipes if you try them! Feel free to send them through to my email address; on Instagram with the tag (@unadornedeats) and/or hash-tag (#unadornedeats); or attach them to a comment below!

Love and luck in your cooking!

- Unadorned Eats

_________________________________________________________________________________

References:

- http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/recipes/shepards-pie/
- http://recipes.coles.com.au/recipes/3008/root-vegetable-cottage-pie/

Read more

My take on spaghetti alla carbonara with bacon and specs of blue cheese

Adapted from Chef Antonio Carluccio's recipe, my version of carbonara that is not quite traditional yet not quite the cream-based American-Italian version either. It's a really satisfyingly creamy dish that comprises of minimal ingredients and minimal wash-up afterwards, so it really is the perfect mid-week meal! And carbonara is always a people pleaser!

Traditionally, instead of bacon, Guanciale (pork cheek cured similar to pancetta) would be used but I generally use bacon for its easy accessibility. Parmesan or pecorino is also the original go-to but, like all of my recipes, where I can, I will offer substitutes and since sharp cheddar and tasty cheese are most commonly found in Australian households this will be perfect.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Spaghetti alla Carbonara (no cream)

(serves 2)

Ingredients:

          250g spaghetti
          30g bacon (I use middle rasher)
          1 tbsp. olive oil (or any cooking oil)
          2 eggs, lightly beaten
          50g any sharp hard cheese, grated (I used sharp cheddar, tasty and blue cheese)
          Black pepper
          Salt (to season, I used approx. 1/2 tsp.)

Method:

1.  Cook the pasta in a medium pot to al dente
2. When the pasta's almost done, fry the bacon and oil in a large heavy-based pan
3. In a medium bowl, lightly beat together eggs, cheese, pepper and salt
4. Transfer pasta directly from the pot to the pan and toss in bacon
5. Remove the pan from heat
6. Pour egg mixture into the pan and mix well (the residual heat will be enough to cook the egg through)
7. Serve immediately with extra grated cheese and pepper

****Tips: 

- Any hard cheese be substituted for the traditional parmesan and pecorino
- The better quality bacon, the better flavour it will impart on your carbonara (particularly since it's a dish that has so few ingredients). Lower grade bacon will only just add saltiness to your dish and not a full flavour

_________________________________________________________________________________

I'd love to see your versions of my recipes if you try them! Feel free to send them through to my email address; on Instagram with the tag (@unadornedeats) and/or hash-tag (#unadornedeats); or attach them to a comment below!

Love and luck in your cooking!

- Unadorned Eats

_________________________________________________________________________________

References:

- http://www.antonio-carluccio.com/Spaghetti_alla_Carbonara 

Read more

A favourite for Australians, this French savoury, egg-based tart is flavoured with onions, bacon and cheese. An easy way to get kids to eat veggies is to put it in something that they already like, you really taste the spinach in the quiche but it adds some extra veg to the recipe! Traditionally made with shortcrust pastry, however, I like the flakiness that puff pastry adds. As a meal, I normally serve this dish with a simple side salad made with a mixed salad bag, avocado and dressed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fleur de sel (sea salt) and finished off with a balsamic glaze.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Quiche Lorraine (+ Spinach)

Ingredients:

          1 sheet puff pastry (you may need to 'stitch' on extra depending on the size of your tart
          tin)
          1 tbsp. cooking oil
          1 large onion
          200g bacon, diced (I used short cut)
          125g chopped frozen spinach, drained
          3/4 cup grated tasty cheese (substitute for your preferred hard cheese)
          3 eggs
          1/2 cup milk
          300ml thickened cream
          Salt (to season, I used approx. 2 pinches)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. In a frypan, cook the onion until translucent and slightly brown
3. Add in the bacon and cook until fragrant. Set aside to cool
4. Microwave the spinach for 1 minute to thaw and drain thoroughly
5. Whisk egg, milk and cream and season with salt (remembering that the bacon and cheese will add some saltiness to the quiche)
6. Line your tart tin with the pastry making sure to push it in the corners gently to create a nice edge to your crust and cut off the excess (keeping in mind that the pastry may shrink a little in the oven so perhaps leave 0.5-1cm above the tart tin)
7. Place the onion, bacon and spinach into the base of the tart, ensuring that there is an even distribution the ingredients
8. Top with the grated cheese
9. Pour in the egg mixture
10. Bake until the top is golden brown
11. Remove from oven and cool until ready to serve
12. Serve with a side salad

    

    Quiche served with an avocado mixed salad with balsamic dressing

****Tips: 

- Leftover grated cheese can be stored in the freezer for use in your next recipe!
- I found that quiche doesn't cook in the oven for long enough for the base to get soggy so blind baking is not necessary.
- If you have remaining egg mixture, just use it for scrambled eggs the next day! It makes a lovely creamy breakfast dish.
- You can also choose to make the quiches in muffin pans for a picnic or to take as a packed lunch!
- Leftover puff pastry can be used to make an after dinner treat like Pain au Chocolat - the recipe is linked below

Complementing Recipes:

- Pain au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissants)

Click here for the recipe! This beautifully flaky pastry filled with oozy dark chocolate is the perfect after dinner treat or early morning accompaniment for your coffee, recipe by FrenchGuyCooking on  YouTube.

_________________________________________________________________________________

My family loves to eat quiche lorraine and used to buy frozen mini quiches, but I noticed that when they do so the quiches are rarely eaten with any veg. So I decided to add some extra spinach into the recipe which turned out to be a great idea, my sister already loves quiche so even seeing the spinach didn't stop her from trying my quiche and to my surprise she loved it! She said that it tasted so much better than the frozen quiches and that the bacon flavour masked the taste of the spinach!

I'd love to see your versions of my recipes if you try them! Feel free to send them through to my email address; on Instagram with the tag (@unadornedeats) and/or hash-tag (#unadornedeats); or attach them to a comment below!

Love and luck in your cooking!

- Unadorned Eats

Read more

Tôm Cuốn Hành (Spring Onion Wrapped Prawn and Pork Belly)

This dish is great when you want something lighter than the typical rice paper rolls, but want to enjoy similar flavours. It's really difficult to stop after you start, as they give an explosion of flavours and textures all in one...(or two) bites! These little wraps are usually served with mắm tôm, a shrimp paste-based dipping sauce which I've also posted a recipe for (click here). 

If you're not accustomed to the pungency of shrimp paste, you can switch out the mắm tôm for tương chấm gỏi cuốn which is a hoisin-based sauce typically served with gỏi cuốn (rice paper rolls); or nước chấm, the standard Vietnamese fish sauce-based dipping sauce.

Tôm Cuốn Hành is a dish that originates from North Vietnam and is often served at weddings in 
the countryside with mắm tôm, which is known as mắm nêm in northern Vietnam. It is a great recipe to prepare as an entree for any occasion, as you can prepare it a few hours in advance and refrigerate it until ready to serve. These wraps can also be served on individual plates or placed on a large plate in the middle of the table to encourage mingling and interaction at the dinner table (a common practice in Vietnamese culture, as meal times are a family time and should be a time for interaction).

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tôm Cuô'n Hành (Spring Onion Wrapped Prawn and Pork Belly)

Ingredients:

          800g cooked prawns (I used frozen prawns and thawed before use)
          1.5kg pork belly
          Sugar & salt (I typically use 1 tsp. salt to 3 tbsp sugar, to season pork belly as it cooks)
          2 bunches young spring onions (younger onions are less pungent and aren't as tough)
          1 tray bánh hỏi (vermicelli sheets - you can sub for 1/2 bag vermicelli noodles)
          1 lettuce head (I like to use Butterhead)
          1 bunch Vietnamese mint (rau răm)

Method:

1. In a pot, place pork belly, sugar and salt and cover with water. Remove pork when it is cooked (you'll know when there is some resistance when you push the pork with chopsticks). Set aside to cool
2. Peel, devein  prawns and halve lengthwise. Place into bowl and set aside
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch spring onions. Submerge in bowl of iced water
4. Wash and tear lettuce into pieces large enough to hold your prawn, pork and vermicelli noodles
5. Once pork is cooled, thinly slice
6. Separate spring onion bunches into individual lengths
7. Arrange ingredients: lettuce, vermicelli, pork, Vietnamese mint then prawn and wrap using spring onion as a tie, tucking the loose end back into the loop
8. Serve with mắm tôm or any dipping sauce of your choice

Close up of a single spring onion wrap (this was my dinner for the night!-yum-)

****Tips: 

You can add or omit any other fresh herbs as you please. This is just a base recipe so feel free to make it your own (chạo tôm, prawn cake, would be a great variation!)

Complementing Recipes:

- Mắm Tôm (Shrimp Paste Dipping Sauce) Recipe

Click here for the recipe. A strong, satisfyingly spicy shrimp paste-based sauce that is used as a condiment for various Vietnamese dishes.
_________________________________________________________________________________

I'd love to see your versions of my recipes if you try them! Feel free to send them through to my email address; on Instagram with the tag (@unadornedeats) and/or hash-tag (#unadornedeats); or attach them to a comment below!

Love and luck in your cooking!

- Unadorned Eats

Read more

Bò bía with Thai basil

This is the perfect recipe to use up any jícama you have lying around, just as I did when my dad bought a whole bag of small organic tubers. If you would like to learn a little more about jícama, I have an 'Ingredients Explained' post about them (click here).

Bò bía is Vietnamese version of popiah introduced to the country through Chinese immigrants. Oddly enough there is no beef in the rolls as the name would suggest, in fact, bò bía is simply a phonetic translation of the original Chinese popiah. Rather than being served with a dipping sauce, hoisin sauce and Sriracha (if desired) is added inside the wrap, similar to Peking duck pancakes - you can also substitute for nước chấm (fish sauce based) if you prefer.

The flavour of the rolls are perfectly balanced with a slight leaning towards sweet between the saltiness of the dried shrimps, the freshness of the basil, the crunch of the jícama and the salty-sweetness of the Chinese sausage and the hoisin sauce.

One of my bò bía rolls that I had for lunch -I can never get my rolls looking perfect!-

_________________________________________________________________________________

Bò Bía (Jícama Rolls)

Ingredients:

          6 whole eggs, lightly beaten to break yolks
          Chinese sausages (lạp xưởng/ 腊肠)
          3-4 large jícama, peeled with black 'eyes' removed and washed
          1/2 cup dried shrimps (tôm khô)
          Oil
          Salt & sugar (to season)
          Peanuts, roasted and crushed into coarse chunks
          Hoisin sauce (tương đen)
          Sriracha chili sauce (tương ớt, optional)
          Rice paper sheets (I use the thinner sheets for cold water)
          Thai basil (rau huế)

Method:

1. Heat a crepe pan with a little bit of oil and cook eggs as if you were making crepes. Set aside to cool before thinly slicing

Egg crêpes and lạp xưởng (Chinese sausage) to be prepared for bò bía filling

     2.  Slice Chinese sausages on the diagonal and cook in a pan with a small amount of oil (you 
          don't need too much oil because the sausages are quite fatty). Season to taste, keeping in 
          mind the salty-sweetness coming from the Chinese sausage and hoisin sauce. Set aside to
          cool
     3.  In the same pan, add julienned jícama and dried shrimp and sautée until jícama is tender

Julienned jícama ready to be sautéed as bò bía filling

     4.  To make the rolls, wet a rice paper sheet; spread a small amount of hoisin sauce; Sriracha; 
          and arrange desired quantities of remaining ingredients
     5.  You can either choose to serve the rolls pre-rolled or arrange the ingredients on a platter
          in the centre of the table for individualised rolls

****Tips: 

Bò bía can be pre-made and refrigerated as party finger food or for lunch the next day, because the rolls don't contain any starches aside from the rice paper, the roll won't become hard in the fridge

_________________________________________________________________________________

The dried shrimp is usually cooked separately to the jícama, but I like to sautée them together because I find that the shrimp becomes much softer and easier to eat, as well as to simplify the steps. I generally like the bulk of my rolls to be jícama, as it allows the rolls to be tasty without being an overload of sweet and salty flavours.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! These rolls really fill you up because of the high water content and fibre in the jícama. I'd love to see your versions of my recipes if you try them! Feel free to send them through to my email address; on Instagram with the tag (@unadornedeats) and/or hash-tag (#unadornedeats); or attach them to a comment below!

Love and luck in your cooking!

- Unadorned Eats

Read more