This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support
Alicia back again with another Irish recipe for you. This will be my last recipe for Ireland. Next month we're moving on to French food! This has been a very fun experiment so far. I hope you get the chance to try something like this out sometime.
Today I'll be sharing a recipe for Cottage Pie. Cottage Pie
You may be thinking that this Cottage Pie looks a lot like Shepherd's Pie. That's because they are essentially very similar. But one thing is very different between them. Shepherd's Pie has to use ground lamb or sheep meat! Never Beef! This makes sense if you think about how Shepherd's watched over sheep and not cows.
I didn't have ground lamb, however, so I decided to make Cottage Pie withe the ground beef I had i the freezer. And it was so tasty, we "accidentally" ate half the dish in one sitting, going back for thirds. Even my 6 month old daughter was digging it. She is so fascinated by food. Every time we would bring the fork to our mouths she would open her mouth. It was really cute. I ended up giving her some of the mashed potato topping, and she loved it!
Cottage Pie is layered. A delicious beef layer with veggies and gravy, and a topping of champ and cheese.
Champ is mashed potatoes with diced green onions, lots of butter, and milk. They are mashed until they are really creamy smooth. You definitely don't want any lumps for this dish. So get those potatoes as smooth as you can. Because you want it layered, dollop small amounts of the champ on top of the beef mixture, and then gently smooth them together with a fork or spatula. You don't want any holes in the top. The cheese I used was Kerrygold Dubliner cheese. It's an Irish cheese, and it tastes a bit like Gruyere only a bit sweeter. It's very tasty!
This is such an easy meal to make and pretty inexpensive. I hope you give it a go. Let us know how you like it!
2 Comments
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support.
Hey Alicia again with another recipe from our culinary travels around the world. If you're new to 3 Winks, each month my family is picking a country from our heritage and making one meal a week from that country. So far we have done Germany, Ecuador, and Ireland. To see all the food I've made in this experiment so far, look through the slideshow below. If something looks delicious, clicking on the picture will take you to the post with the recipe. Enjoy!
This week I made Irish stew. I made it before St Patrick's Day actually because we were going out of town over the weekend. It was very delicious!
Irish Stew
To make this Irish dish, I looked up a lot of recipes. They all varied in some ways, but all had one thing in common; you have to use lamb. It's not Irish stew if it doesn't use lamb. Lamb is a must for Irish stew. Never beef! In my area lamb isn't something they have in plenty year round. But now that Easter is coming the stores are stocking up. This could be a great dish to make with your leftover Easter lamb! (If that's what you eat on Easter).
Because this is meant to be a meal that feeds a crowd, it's very filling itself and doesn't really need any side bread etc. Every version of this stew I saw used slightly different vegetables. Some used turnips, rutabagas, and even beets! I used more traditional stew ingredients such as carrots, celery, onion, and, of course, potato. Some of recipes baked their stew in the oven for about 90 minutes. While others let theirs simmer for at least 3 days on the stove! I decided a few hours would be good for my stew and let it simmer (covered) for 3 hours. The leftovers were delicious! It reheats really well! Everyone in my family loves this stew. My husband was skeptical at first because he doesn't really like lamb. But as he was eating he kept telling me how good it was. He also was sad to find the leftovers were all gone. My 3 year old had 2 helpings of this stew! He almost never does that. So that will tell you something. He is also the culprit for eating the leftovers before Dad could get any.
I hope you give this stew a go. It was really so delicious and perfect for the rainy weather we've been having in the Bay lately. I think I would really be enjoying it in the early spring snows I know are happening around the world now too!
Tomorrow I'll be sharing my last Irish recipe for Cottage Pie! Be sure to come check it out!
This is my last German dinner post! Just to recap, each month I am choosing a country and then once a week cooking a meal from that country. January has been Germany. See my previous posts on this adventure here, here, and here!
It has been a very delicious and fun experiment so far. And as a bonus I have made a German dessert that I’ll be sharing with you on Thursday! I’m taking over Renny’s Recipes this week, so stay tuned. Today’s dish is rinderrouladen and potato dumplings. Both of today’s recipes are from Germanfoods.org. Rinderrouladen
A rouladen is a roll-up and a rinderrouladen is a beef roll-up. It’s so good you guys and I didn’t even make it right (I think)! I really was trying to make an original recipe for you here but I feel like it still needs perfecting. As such, I will just link you to one of the base recipes I used and tell you my tips for it. Hopefully in the future I can update this with the recipe. (Because I will be making this again.) It was so delicious!
It’s a really thin cut of beef round or chuck. I used bottom round and chuck to try them both. Then rolled up inside is bacon or ham, caramelized onions, and a pickle. Then it's braised in beef stock for about an hour. I couldn't tell the difference between the two different cuts of meat.
Here are my tips:
This could be a great thing to make for a special occasion, like Valentine’s Day at home, a birthday, or anniversary.. The meat can be kind of expensive so it’s not an everyday meal. Potato Dumplings (Thüringer Klöße)
I have never in my life made dumplings, nor watched anyone make them. And though I have had these before and really liked them, mine turned out like weird mashed potatoes with toast stuffed inside. Also mine came out huge and only half the batch came out of the water in tact. I think watching a video of someone making these would have been beneficial for me.
Don’t get me wrong they were still good with the gravy, but I wished I had just made mashed potatoes. I’m calling it user error. I didn’t use the recipe I’m linking too, but I wish I had because it seems more detailed in the instructions. Because I need to practice these more I have no tips for you. But if you try them let me know how they turn out. I found a mix for them on Amazon that I might have to try.
Have you tried any of the German recipes yet? Stay tuned for a German dessert on Thursday!
This post contains affiliate links and we will be compensated if you choose to buy anything once you click them.
Hello our beloved readers! It's Alicia here with another post from my month of German food. If you missed the previous post, basically every month I am picking a different country and making one authentic (as possible) meal a week. This helps me to spice up our meal plan, and have fun cooking again.
Last week I made bratwurst with himmel und erde (heaven and earth). And it was so good! This week I decided on a German classic, Schnitzel! On the side we made a Swabian Potato Salad. I got both of these recipes from The Daring Gourmet. Kimberly is German so I thought I couldn't get more authentic than that! Traditional German Schnitzel
Schnitzel is essentially a very thin, breaded porkchop. It's crispy on the outside and nice and tender on the inside. Usually you have to pound your boneless pork chops until they are about a 1/4 inch think, but my local grocery store sells pork chops that thin already. Perhaps I should have pounded my chops out to be more authentic or traditional. But I also have two very needy children at home so I thought this time saver was ok. I also bought them bone in because it was $3 cheaper per pound for the same thickness and cut of meat but with a bone. I was able to easily cut the bone off and have my boneless chops.
I really stupidly forgot to salt my pork before I breaded it. I'll blame mom brain for that one. But it wasn't a huge problem I just salted the whole thing after it was done frying. But next time I will surely salt my meat before putting the toppings on. These cook up nice and fast so they kind of perfect for those days when you don't have a lot of time. And they were so good! I can only imagine how good they would be if I didn't forget to salt them. I mean look at that beautiful golden color. Just lovely. We squeezed some lemon juice on ours and it was just perfect. Swabian Potato Salad
Swabia is a region in the southwest of Germany, and that is wherethis recipe comes from.
When I started this culinary adventure, I asked my friends and family what their favorite German dishes are. One answer I got was German Potato Salad. I am not sure if this is the same salad they were talking about, But if it wasn't, it should be. This is honestly one of the best potato salads I've ever tasted. Ok, it's the best. Seriously, the flavors were just so amazing! And confession, I didn't read this recipe until 20 minutes until before we were going to eat it. I had forgotten about a side dish until I started making the schnitzel. I had to call my husband and ask him to bring me key ingredients, like the potatoes. So, I didn't do my due diligence on this recipe either, and it was still one of the best things ever. I took some shortcuts by slicing up the potato before I boiled it, and obviously I didn't let it sit for the hours it needed. But when I took the leftovers out of the fridge the next day to have for lunch. WHOO! It was so good! So I'm excited for the next time we make this and I do it correctly. This salad deserves it. So be warned that this is not something you just whip together (though it will still be good), the potatoes do need to marinate for an hour or so. It's worth it though, believe me. The leftovers are divine.
Have I convinced you to go to The Daring Gourmet and try these recipes out? Please do. They are so good! And if you do please come tell us what you thought! Or have you decided to try this experiment in your own menu plans? How is it going for you?
Next week I am making Käsepätzle, so be sure to come back and check it out!
|
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
March 2024
|