Tag: cooking

Lamb and Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie

This dish has two components – the lamb mince and the cauliflower mash. For the mash, one large cauliflower was steamed with salted water until it was quite soft. I then chopped it into large chunks and placed it into the blender along with about 1/4c of cooking water and 1/4 of coconut milk.

Blended until it was smooth and creamy. Added salt, pepper, and garlic to taste.

The mince is ground lamb sauteed until it is cooked. Sliced onion and diced carrot were added and cooked. Bone broth gravy was added to coat the mixture. The mince was put into the bottom of single-serving pie plates

And it was topped with the cauliflower mash

Baked at 350 for 15 minutes, then broiled until browned

This was incredibly good – next time, I’ll brown the cauliflower mash more.

Coconut (Cauliflower) Rice

I made cauliflower coconut rice this afternoon – a 10oz package of the frozen cauliflower rice, heated in a little coconut oil until it was warm. Then added some garlic, salt, and black pepper. Finally stirred in about 1/4 cup of coconut milk and cooked until the liquid had boiled off.

Spaghetti Squash

I made spaghetti squash tonight – cut in half (although I’ve since learned to cut it the short way instead of the long way to get longer strands), rubbed with olive oil and salt, set for ten minutes, then roast at 375F for about 50 minutes. Once they were tender, I pulled the strands apart, added a little butter, pepper, and garlic.

Grilled Shish Kebob

We’ve got an old charcoal grill/smoker at our camping site, so I made some shish kebobs to cook for lunch/dinner when we were hanging out this holiday weekend. Marinaded the beef in a little soy, ginger, and garlic. Then skewered along with various peppers, zuccini, tomatoes, and broccoli.

We cooked them over a wood fire

And had a quick meal — it’s easy to overcook small chunks!

Maple Marshmallows

Marshmallows made with pure maple syrup and gelatin powder! In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1/3 cup of cold water and 1 Tbsp of powdered gelatin. Let the gelatin hydrate.

Heat the maple to the soft ball stage (~235F) and slowly add to the gelatin whilst mixing at low speed. Once all of the maple syrup has been added, turn up to a high speed and keep whipping until it’s a firm, sticky mass. (stiff peak stage). Then put it somewhere to set. I used a 8×8 cake pan that was lined with wax paper. Refrigerate for a few hours, then remove and cut. You can dust the squares with powdered sugar if you don’t want them to be sticky. Or just deal with sticky maple-flavored fingers.

Salsa and Guacamole

There were fresh, homegrown tomatoes available … so I made some salsa:

6 large tomatoes, diced
5 jalapeno peppers, diced finely
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 large onion, also diced
juice from 1/2 of a fresh lime
Salt and pepper

The jalapeno peppers were not spicy, so I might use habanero next time, but this made a great fresh salsa. And I realized that guacamole is pretty much the salsa mixed with mashed avocado.  I took about a third of the salsa, drained the liquid, and added it to three large, ripe avocados mashed up.