Irish Lamb and Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

Now that you’re through gorging yourself on all of the fake Irish food (or maybe you aren’t - we’re not going to judge if there’s still some corned beef in your freezer), we wanted to share something more authentic. We hunted high and low and found one that we enjoyed and wanted to share.

Lamb and Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pies.

We started with a recipe from Food and Wine, and modified it as needed for our tastes. Feel free to tinker with it for your family as well. This is a meal to pull out when you want to impress people - or when you just feel like having something out of the ordinary. 

Fair warning: if you do not like lamb, please do not attempt this recipe at home. We would hate to disappoint.  

As belated as this might be, here’s a meal from our table to yours. 

© Dana Gallagher

Time from Prep to serve - 2 hours and 30 minutes. 

Time you’re working -  40 minutes 

Serves Four 

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

•  2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

•  Salt and freshly ground pepper

•  5 garlic cloves, minced

•  1 large onion, finely chopped

•  2 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch dice

•  1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin

•  1 1/4 teaspoons hot paprika

•  1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

•  1/4 teaspoon turmeric

•  1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

•  3 1/2 cups water

•  5 cups baby spinach 

•  2 pounds sweet potatoes, baked and peeled

•  1 1/2 ounces soft goat cheese

•  1/2 cup milk

•  1 tablespoon unsalted butter

How to Make It

Note: Before you cube your lamb, take the time to whack it some. This breaks down any connective tissues and helps to bring out the flavor later on. 

Step 1

Gather your necessary supplies. For this recipe, we would suggest an enameled cast iron casserole or a good Dutch oven. You’ll also need four small ceramic baking dishes, about the right size for a single serving each.

Step 2    

Over medium heat, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil till shimmering. Raise the temperature to medium high. Toss the lamb with salt and pepper. Working in batches, cook until the lamb is browned on all sides. Transfer the lamb to a shallow bowl as you finish each batch. 

Step 3    

Add your remaining tablespoon of olive oil to a casserole dish along with the minced garlic and onion. Turn the heat down to medium and cook till the onion is soft and translucent. Add the carrots and other spices, stirring constantly, until fragrant. This should be roughly two minutes. 

Step 4 

Add the flour to the casserole, and allow it to become lightly golden before you add the lamb and water (congratulations, you’ve just made a roux!). Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. 

Step 5

Reduce the heat to low, and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally until sauce has thickened and the lamb is tender. This step will take roughly an hour and a half. Grab a book or an episode on Netflix while you wait! 

Step 6

Bring the heat back up to medium-high and stir in your spinach until it wilts. 

Step 7

Dish the stew into your 4 shallow ceramic baking dishes. Each one should hold roughly 2 ½ to 3 cups. 

Step 8

Preheat the oven to 425*. In a medium saucepan, mash the sweet potatoes over high heat until warmed through. Mix in the goat cheese, milk and butter, then season with salt and pepper to taste.     

Step 9

Spread the mashed sweet potatoes over the lamb stew and bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are bubbling and the entire thing is hot.

Step 10 

Preheat the broiler. Broil the dishes 4 inches from the heat for 1 minute or until golden. Serve at once.

What did you get up to for Saint Patrick’s Day? Did you do anything? Do you have any recipes that you’d be willing to share? Let us know over on our Facebook, we’d love to talk with you! 

Remember, if your oven (or any of your other major appliances) starts giving you trouble, schedule an appointment with one of our techs today. We’re always here to help, and we’d hate to hear a cranky appliance has stalled your culinary journey.

Coming to a computer near you for the next major holiday: Easter feasts from around the globe! If you have one that you’d like to suggest or share, let us know either in the comments or over on our Facebook! 

Celebrating Pi Day with Rhubarb Maple Meringue Pie

Today we celebrate Pi Day! No, not Pie day, that is January 23rd and we were rather sad when we saw that we had missed that one. 

“First and foremost, Pi Day is a celebration of the mathematical constant, π (pi), or 3.14159265359.”  You can see that the first three numbers are the date that we celebrate it on, if you’re writing the date 3/14.  

I know, I know, it’s math, and you are here for food. But! Don’t leave yet!

 Thankfully many people have made the association between Pi and pies. If Pi is used to work out the diameter of a circle, it naturally lends itself to pies of all sorts. Not just the sweet variety, but pizza pies too! So many delicious circular foods to explore and 3.14 makes it all possible. 

Pi Day was first celebrated on a large scale in 1988. Larry Shaw, a physicist who worked at the San Francisco Exploratorium at the time organized the event, bringing together both the public and museum staff. The assembled marched around the circular spaces of the museum and then tucked into a bunch of pies, according to a piece by Newsweek. 

We’re joining in on the celebration with a recipe from The All American Desserts Book by Nancy Baggett for a delicious Maple Rhubarbe Meringue Pie. This sweet and tart mix makes a delicious combination no matter when you choose to share it.The mild, light meringue topping adds a slight sweetness, which helps balance the tang of the rhubarb and the richness of the pastry. And really, who’s to say that pi cannot be celebrated every time you bake a pie? 

Ingredients List  

Rolling Out The Pastry   

Baking Said Pastry  

Mixing Up The Filling   

Whipping Up The Meringue   

Assembling Your Pie (!)   

Additional Notes

Ingredients List 

Single crust All-Purpose Pie Pastry Dough

All purpose flour for dusting dough

Filling

4 ½ cups ½ to ¾ inch long pieces of rhubarb ( which is roughly 1 ½ to 1 ¾ pounds with the stalks trimmed) 

¾ cup granulated sugar (divided) 

1 ½ teaspoons fresh lime or lemon juice

¼ -⅓ cup orange juice if needed *

3 ½ tablespoons cornstarch

Pinch of salt

⅔ cup maple syrup, preferably light amber 

2 large egg yolks 

Meringue

4 large egg whites, completely free of yolk and at room temperature *

Generous ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract 

Rolling Out The Pastry

Lightly grease a regular 9-inch pie plate or coat with nonstick spray. 

If the dough is cold and stiff, let it warm up until slightly pliable but still cool to the touch. Generously dust it on both sides with flour. 

Roll out the dough between large sheets of baking parchment into a 13  inch round. Occasionally check the underside of the dough during rolling and smooth out any wrinkles. Gently peel off the top sheet of paper, then pat it back into place. 

Flip the dough: peel off the bottom sheet. 

Center the round, dough side down, in the pie plate. 

Gently peel off the remaining paper.

 Smooth the dough into the plate and patch any tears, if necessary.

 Using kitchen shears of a paring knife, trim the overhang to ¾ inch. 

Fold the overhang under to form an edge that rests on the lip of the plate.

 Finish by fluting with your fingers or pressing on the edge with the tines of fork. 

Prick the pastry all over with a fork. 

Loosely cover the pastry and place in the freezer for 15 minutes or  in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to several hours

Baking the Pastry

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.

 Insert a large square of aluminum foil coated with the nonstick spray (or use non stick foil) oiled side down into the chilled shell, smoothing the foil over the bottom and sides and folding it out over the rim to cover the pastry. 

Fill the foil with dried beans, spreading them so they extend up the plate sides. 

Set the pie shell on a rimmed baking sheet. 

Bake for 25 minutes. 

Carefully remove the foil and beans from the shell. 

Continue baking for 5-10 minutes longer, or until the shell is nicely browned all over.

 If the edges brown too rapidly, cover with strips of foil (or a pie shield). 

Transfer the pie shell to a wire rack to cool. 

The pie shell will keep, covered at room temperature for up to 24 hours. 

Mixing Up the Filling

In a large nonreactive saucepan, thoroughly stir together the rhubarb, ½ cup of the granulated sugar, and the lime juice. 

Let stand, stirring once or twice for about ten minutes or until the sugar is mostly dissolved and the mixture looks wet. 

Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring. 

Cook, stirring until the rhubarb pieces exude some juice and just begin to soften but still hold their shape, about four minutes. 

Remove from the heat and let cool for about ten minutes. 

Put the rhubarb in a sieve set over a large glass measure. 

Press down hard on the rhubarb to extract as much juice as possible. 

You should have ½ to ¾ cup juice, necessary, and enough orange juice to yield ¾ cup.

Reposition the rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. 

Rinse and dry the saucepan.

 Put the remaining ¼ cup granulated sugar, the cornstarch and salt in the pan and whisk until well combined. 

Add the rhubarb juice, whisking vigorously until the mixture is completely smooth. 

Bring to boil over medium- high heat, whisking. 

Lower the heat slightly and cook, whisking constantly until very thick, smooth and translucent, about 1 minute. 

Remove from the heat. 

Vigorously whisk in the maple syrup until the mixture is completely smooth. 

In a small deep bowl, whisk the egg yolks until lightly blended. 

Pouring slowly and whisking constantly, add about ¼ of the maple mixture to the yolks. 

Add the yolk mixture to the saucepan, whisking. 

Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly and frequently  scraping the pan bottom with a wooden spoon, until the mixture boils for a full 1 ½ minutes. 

Do not undercook, or the filling may thin out later.

 Stir the reserved rhubarb into the maple mixture. 

Cook, stirring just until the rhubarb is piping hot: the filling will be fairly thick. 

Cover and set aside. 

Whipping Up The Meringue

In a completely grease free and dry large bowl, combine the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt. 

Using a mixer on low speed with a whisk shaped beater if available, beat the mixture until frothy. Raise the speed to medium and continue beating until the mixture is smooth fluffy and opaque, but still too soft to hold peaks.

 (Check by stopping and lifting the beater)

 Immediately add the powdered sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, beating for about 20 seconds after each addition. 

Add the vanilla. 

Raise the speed to medium high and beat for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. 

Raise the speed to high and beat for about 1 minute longer or until the meringue is fluffy and stands in firm but not dry peaks. 

Assembling the Pie

Turn out the hot filling into the pre-baked pastry shell. 

Set the pie on a rimmed baking sheet. 

Spread half the meringue over the filling, making sure the meringue touches the pastry all the way around.

Top with the remaining meringue, mounding it in the center. 

Attractively swirl the meringue with a table knife or the back of a large spoon. 

Time to Bake! 

Bake for 12 to 17 minutes or until the meringue is evenly tinged  with brown all over. 

For even browning, rotate the pie from front to back after six minutes. 

Transfer the pie to a wire rack.

 Let cool for at least two hours and preferably three or four hours before chilling or covering to minimize any beading of the meringue. 

The pie will keep, covered, at room temperature for up to twelve hours (some beading may occur after the first few hours) or refrigerated for up to 2 days.  The crust will soften with longer storage. Let come to room temperature before serving. 

Additional Notes

For the orange juice, make sure that you have it on hand, but don’t measure it out until you’ve seen if you need it or not.  

For separating egg yolks and whites, check out this video here! It’s really easy this way, and you’re less likely to end up with a punctured egg yolk than if you did it using the shells. (Although if you can do it that way, go you!) 

Rhubarb has a lot of juice that can make the bottom of the pie soggy and gross. The rhubarb is briefly boiled ahead of time with sugar to release those juice. That is then drained off, reduced down and cooked with the rest of the filling. 

If you don’t want to fuss with making pastry dough, or prebaking one, you can always pick up a premade one at the supermarket. 

So that’s our contribution to Pi Day! Let us know what some of your favorite pies are over on our Facebook page! 

If you notice during this process (or before or after haha) that there are issues with your oven, reach out! We can send one of our technicians to come out to you based on your schedule and help get your oven back in tip top shape! 

Monkey Bread, Monkey Brains, Pull-Apart Bread, It All Tastes Good!

Welcome to this week’s recipe post! We’re digging into one of our blogger’s favorite and most versatile recipes, Monkey Bread! This recipe is so versatile you could easily make it for every meal in a day. (Although whether that’s particularly healthy is something we’ll leave to you to decide. ;) ) 

Monkey bread as a sweet dessert  has actually been around in the US for only a short period of time. Prior to that it was a treat known to Hungarian families as arany galuska or “ golden dumplings.” However, we said only the sweet version. The savory version of this dish has been in America, since 1884 when it was known as “Finger Rolls”. 

“Common names for pieces of dough baked together in a pan include bubble bread, bubble loaf, jumble bread, pull-apart bread, pinch-me cake, pluck-it cake, monkey puzzle bread, monkey brains, and monkey bread..Despite the name, there are no primates in this bread. According to conventional lore, the fanciful term comes from its appearance – pieces of dough placed next to and on top of each other, the baked bread said to resemble a barrel of monkeys. .”   

Gooey, Delicious Monkeybread, this is a treat for all ages.

Ingredients 

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 cans (12 oz each) refrigerated biscuit dough

8 Tbsp or 1 stick butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar 

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350* F. Then grease a 12-cup Bundt or tube pan with butter, oil or cooking spray.  

In a medium bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and cinnamon. 

Cut each of your biscuit rounds into 4 quarters and dunk them in the cinnamon sugar, making sure all sides are coated. Layer the wedges in the prepared pan. Make sure not to press them together too tightly or you’ll have some difficulty pulling them apart later. (and that would just defeat the fun.) 

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar and continue  stirring until melted. 

Pour your sauce over the dough, making sure to spread it evenly. 

Bake until golden brown, 45-55 minutes. If you see the monkey bread beginning to brown too quickly, cover it with foil. 

Let the bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto a plate. 

Best served warm so that it’s nice and gooey. 

Tips 

The Bundt pan or tube pan is needed so that the heat spreads evenly through all of the dough and cooks rather than leaving the center balls raw. 

You can also make this the night before, and stop after you’ve poured the sauce over the bread. Then place it in your fridge overnight, allowing the dough to soak up the sauce further. This also allows for an easy treat the next morning, without need for lots of prep. 

The base idea of this recipe, taking biscuit dough and layering it, can be used in SO many different ways. People have come up with all sorts of sweet and savoury ideas. We collected some of our favorites to give you ideas on what can be done with this nifty recipe. 

From Celebrating Sweets we have  a Caramel Pecan Monkey Bread. Caramel + Pecans. We cannot wait to make this one in our own kitchens! 

Over at Dessert Now, Dinner Later they’ve got a delicious looking recipe for Apple Fritter Monkey Bread. 

And for our final sweet recipe, we’ve got a Baklava Monkey Bread recipe from the Happier Homemaker that has us absolutely drooling.  Baklava! But in tiny pull apart pieces! This one is also closer to the original Hungarian arany galuska given the walnuts. 

Moving over to the savory side of things we’ve got recipes for every meal you can think of.

Breakfast? Try Focus Recipe’s Sausage, Egg and Cheese recipe. 

Need a snack? Try Little Dairy on the Prairie’s Cheesy Bacon Ranch recipe. (That name is so cute!) 

Are you looking for dinner or something easy for a game night? Check out this recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything for a Pizza Monkey Bread.

Looking for something fast, easy and still nice enough to serve to your boss? Check out  this recipe from Five Heart Home for Savory Herb & Cheese Monkey Bread. 

Wrapping It Up

 Thanks for checking out our recipe this week! Let us know what versions you’ve tried down below. Now that we know how versatile this recipe is, we want to hear from you just how many varieties you’ve tried. 

And remember, if something is going on with any of your appliances  we want to help. Whether it’s some of our posts here on the site, or needing a trained technician to take a look, Appliance Rescue Service is here for you.

A Valentine's Treat- Butterscotch Pretzel Pie

With  Valentine’s Day coming up we thought we’d go a slightly different route to the normal “chocolate everywhere!” Not that we don’t love chocolate, but it’s nice to have variety in the kitchen, right? This week we’re putting together a butterscotch pretzel pie. You can make this as a surprise for someone or you can make it with them for a sweet way to spend time together. 

Ingredients 

Crust

¾ cup pretzel crumbs

¾ cup graham cracker crumbs 

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

6 Tbsp (or ¾ stick) butter, melted

For the crust, you can alter amounts of pretzel to graham cracker crumbs if you want the crust sweeter or saltier. 

Filling 

¾ cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

Pinch of salt

3 large egg yolks- room temperature

2 cups of whole milk

2 Tbsp cold butter, cut into small chunks

2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

1 cup cold heavy cream

3 Tbsp granulated sugar 

Chocolate shavings 

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350

Making the Crust:

In a medium bowl combine the pretzel crumbs, graham cracker crumbs, granulated sugar, and melted butter until they form an evenly moist, crumbly mix. Press the mixture evenly onto first the bottom and then up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Starting with the bottom is to make sure there aren’t any air pockets later. Bake until the crust is fragrant and firm, 8-10 minutes. Set aside to cool, although not in the fridge,  or things will get soggy. 

Making the Filling: 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add the egg yolks and ½ the cup of milk, whisking thoroughly to combine. 

In a large saucepan, bring the remaining 1 ½ cups milk to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove the pan from the heat. Whisking constantly, very slowly add the hot milk into the egg mixture. It should be a thin ribbon while you’re pouring. Keep whisking constantly so that you don’t scramble the eggs.  

Pour the entire mixture back into the pan. 

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens, roughly 3-5 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla until smooth. 

Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and smooth the surface with a small spatula. Cover the surface entirely with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Make sure the plastic wrap is right up against the filling. 

Place the pie in the fridge until thoroughly cooled and set, at least 2 hours. 

Just before serving, make the topping.: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or using a handheld mixer, whip the cream and granulated sugar at medium-high sped to form soft peaks. 

Spread the whipped cream over the pie, shave chocolate over the pie and serve. Be prepared for people to be coming after you for the recipe afterwards, this pie is sweet, delicious and absolutely amazing. 

Tips 

When it comes to making crumbs, your best bet is to get two gallon size ziplock bags. The first one will almost certainly get torn apart by the salt and the sharp edges of the pretzels, while the second will keep the crumbs from getting all over your counter.  Pour in two cups of pretzels and mash with a rolling pin, or with a mallet. 

If you’re short on time, you can get away with using a premade graham cracker crust, but it won’t taste quite the same. Because of how sweet the filling is, the salt from the pretzels balances things out. What you can do though to add that is a sprinkling of sea salt over the topping before you add the whipped cream. 

When it comes to brown sugar, you need to work in stages. Fill the measuring cup you’re using and then scrape it off with a knife to level it. Now use your fingers or the back of a spoon to pack down the sugar. You should have roughly half of what you started with. Repeat until you have the amount you need. 

When you’re adding in the milk to the egg mixture you’re tempering the eggs. If you ensure that your eggs are at warm temperature before you start working with them, it will help to prevent them from scrambling when you add in the milk.  If you want to learn more about tempering you can check out here.   You can watch the full episode, or start at 2:17 to learn just about tempering. 

Let us know how your recipe turns out, we’d love to hear from you over on our Facebook page. 

And if you’re looking to learn more about how we can help you with your appliances, please let us know. 

Adapted From: Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible. 

Jambalaya - It's What's For Dinner

Welcome to this week’s recipe post! 

This week we’re cooking up a favorite all over the South, but especially in New Orleans. 

That’s right, we’re discussing jambalaya! This is actually one of my favorite meals, both to cook and to eat. 

This is an excellent recipe to keep in your pocket if you need to feed a lot of people on short notice. It cooks up fast and scales easily. Both of these things make it a great meal for Super Bowl Sunday, 

Ingredients 

3 Tablespoons of butter

¾ pound smoked sausage, cut into ¼ inch slices (andouille is best if you can get it, or make it)

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 large white onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

1 large red bell pepper, chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 can or 14 ½ oz diced tomatoes 

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 ½ cups long-grain white rice 

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon paprika 

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (plus extra for seasoning)

2 bay leaves

3 cups chicken broth

Instructions

In a large skillet with a lid, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sliced sausage and cook till brown on both sides, roughly 5 minutes. Put the sausage in a bowl to the side.  

Add all fresh vegetables and cook until they’re just starting to soften. This should take about 3 minutes. 

Lightly dust the chicken with salt and black pepper on all sides. 

Add the chicken and garlic to the skillet. Cook, stirring continuously until the chicken loses its raw colour, about 3 to 4 minutes. 

Add thyme, paprika, the ½ tsp cayenne pepper, and the bay leaves. Cook until fragrant. ( Should only take 45 seconds) . 

Bring the sausage back to the pan (all of it, along with the juices that have dripped into the bottom.) Add your broth and tomatoes, bring to a boil and taste. If you want to add more kick to it, this is when you add in more cayenne. Make sure only to add a small amount at a time to ensure you don’t overdo it. (I’ve made more than one batch that was deemed ‘too spicy.’) 

Sprinkle your rice evenly around the skillet, making sure not to overcrowd any one section. Doing this makes sure that all of your rice absorbs the liquids and heat evenly. You could, in theory, stir it into the skillet, but there’s still the possibility of overcrowding if you’re not careful. 

Cover the skillet, turn the heat down to low and cook until all the liquid has been absorbed and your rice is tender roughly 15 minutes. Remove skillet from the heat and let stand, covered, for an additional 10 minutes. This gives the rice further time to fluff up, as well as making sure that it absorbs the full complement of spices. 

Remove and discard the bay leaves. 

Serve the meal right from the skillet. 

And there you go! A delicious and filling meal that you can make any time of year. 

If you’re working with a cast-iron skillet, keep a few things in mind. 

• It takes time to heat up. Due to how thick the pan is, it’ll take more time for the heat to travel through it and for it to cool down. It might be wise to ‘pre-heat’ the skillet in your oven, say for 10 minutes at 350. Make sure that you put the pan in while the oven is still cool. Take time after you’re done eating for the pan to cool off as well before you start trying to clean it. 

• When you’re getting ready to clean up, don’t get soap on the pan. Cast iron is fantastic for the kitchen, but it takes a lot of TLC. The wonderful people over at Kitchn have gone in-depth on how to care for a cast-iron skillet. 

• After it’s clean, make sure to season it again before you put it up. Doing this seals the flavors into the pan and ensures that it brings added flavor to your next dish. 

Dinner time is a breeze when your appliances work correctly. If yours are giving you trouble, give us a call. Appliance Rescue Service makes repairing, maintaining, and replacing your appliances easy. You can book an appointment online or call us today at (214)-599-0055.

What recipes would you like to see next? Do you have any recipes you’d like to share or suggest? Let us know in the comments or over on our Facebook page, we’d love to hear from you! 

Credit for our delicious looking photo this week goes to Edd Prince.