Poor Paul. I go away for eight days, come home and throw myself into work. I was so exhausted at the end of each day that he had to cook dinner. He ended up cooking dinner four times - a huge difference from his usual once a week.
He outdid himself on Saturday. I had found a recipe in the March Cooking Light Magazine that sounded interesting - Shepherd's Pie with a Moroccan twist. Shepherd's Pie is one of Paul's all-time comfort foods - something his grandmother made for him with love. We both love the interesting mix of flavours - salty, sweet, and spicy - that is so characteristic of Moroccan foods. Combining the two sounded like an interesting proposition.
In the end we worked together on this - it came together easily - surprisingly so given the long list of ingredients. Normally a recipe like this would overwhelm Paul just a wee bit. Yet he was fine (well, except for forgetting the addition of peas right at the end). There was something odd about the sweet potatoes - I'm used to sweet potatoes with a yellow/orange flesh . . . these were red skinned and had a white flesh inside. I know from google that these are in fact sweet potatoes, they tasted like sweet potatoes, but I confess that I missed the orange coloured-topping that I was expecting.
Other than that these were truly brilliant - different from your usual Shepherd's Pie recipe with nary a dollop of creamed corn, frozen carrot cubes, ground beef, or mashed potatoes in sight. If you like a full flavoured dish of comfort that these are for you!
Moroccan Shepherd's Pie
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound bone-in lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon ground cumin, divided
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 1/2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives
1/3 cup raisins
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
1 cup frozen green peas
4 cups chopped peeled sweet potato
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350°.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil to pan, and swirl to coat. Sprinkle lamb evenly with 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add lamb to pan, and sauté for 4 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove lamb from pan. Add onion to pan; sauté 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in tomato paste, and sauté 30 seconds, stirring frequently.
Add chicken broth and 1/2 cup water to pan, and bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Return lamb to pan. Stir in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, olives, raisins, honey, ground red pepper, and ground turmeric. Stir in 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in peas.
Cook potato in a large saucepan of boiling water 10 minutes or until tender; drain. Cool for 5 minutes. Place potato in a bowl. Sprinkle potato with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and the remaining 3/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Beat potato with a mixer at high speed until smooth. Add egg, and beat until combined. Spoon the lamb mixture into 4 (10-ounce) ramekins; spread potato mixture evenly over lamb mixture. Place ramekins on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until bubbly.
Looks great...love those little oval shaped ramekins, I have round ones...I think I need a couple of the oval ones like that! Great color also. Shows off the food nicely.
Posted by: Kayte | April 05, 2011 at 08:47 PM
This twist on one my my favourite classics is a must try Jerry.
Posted by: bellini | April 06, 2011 at 06:26 AM
These were great - I can't wait to try the leftovers tomorrow - I imagien that the flavours will have come together even more.
Kayte - these are by le crueset - I really like the small ceramic casseroles that they manufacture.
Posted by: JDeQ | April 06, 2011 at 08:42 PM