So, since my personal shopper is not adept at buying fresh mushrooms, the last lot, way past its best, showing his inexperience, and I can't explain how I choose chicken, I must be very picky, I thought I'd try some canned goods as substitutes, failsafe shopping.
Some meals you cook, some you assemble, and this was to be about assembly. And since I couldn't be bothered to make a pastry for this pie I thought, ha, all that big talk about not using potato flakes as mash, take it back, because you're about to.
The idea is a pie with chicken, mushrooms, onions, garlic, carrots, and a lid of mashed potato. If the meat were beef, it would be cottage pie, lamb would be shepherd's pie, what would chicken be? Chicken farmer pie?
Anyway, here's the mise en scene, as drama folk say.
And by the time I'd rinsed the mushrooms, drained the chicken, steamed the carrots, chopped and slow sizzled the onions and garlic and mixed the mash, added the cumin and fresh minced Thai basil, it felt a lot like cooking to me.
Always good to cook in cast iron. I originally thought the souffle bowl would be good, but it turned out to be too big, so it became the mixing bowl.
Here's the doings, next time I'll precook the mushrooms on top of the stove, and add more salt
And here's the lid, paprika shaken about, little design forked (!) in, this was fun, like playing with that chocolate bark I did for Valentine's.
Verdict: not too bad. Four meals here. And if I still like it at the end, I have enough ingredients to do it again. But I think real mash next time. And maybe I'll venture to the Asian store for good mushrooms. They get them from Kennet Square, good regional source.
This isn't designed to be a food blog, but my life's a bit more solitary nowadays, like a lot of us, and it's an interesting topic.
Except for the friends who wait patiently for me to get on to something they want to read! Years ago I was one of them. So I try for variety. And since there's my parallel blog Art blog, there's stuff going on over there, too.
Always something.
I think food can be about creativity and nurture just as art often is.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's true. I forget the art of it sometimes.
DeleteIt is always good to see another dinner made, a recipe, a how to.
ReplyDeleteFood lately feels too same old, same old around here. I've been giving in to TV dinners.
There's nothing wrong with food! It's always interesting to see what you come up with using interesting ingredients.
ReplyDeleteI just occasionally wonder if people think it's a food blog and where are the recipes and exact mess and so on. Or think it's not supposed to be a food blog so why do I keep talking food! I may be overthinking this.
DeleteI typed measurements back there and my predictive text rudely turned it into "mess". Everyone's a critic.
DeleteI made shepherd's pie a while back. made it with beef but still call it shepherd's pie. took all afternoon. no instant mashed potatoes. I like that cast iron pan. never seen one like that.
ReplyDeletei know what you mean, getting stuck on one topic, but food is awesome!! i try to make my blog versatile, i often wonder what peeps like best...but i am at the point where, this is all i got, so, hopefully they enjoy it!!
ReplyDeletethis sounds interesting. i have tried canned mushrooms and i don't really like them but, in this type of meal, it is a good addition. i have been using peadod for food shopping, it is through stop n shop. i also use amazon pantry and i get meal packages from home chef. we recently went to delicious orchard because i needed some fresh vegetables. delicious orchard is in colts neck. i highly recommend it, everything is so fresh and lasts longer once you bring it home. it was only the second or third time i have been food shopping, relying mostly on food delivery services!!
when we primarily stay at home, there's not that much to blog about!!