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Cottage Pie

 

Cottage Pie

What people eat tells you a great deal about a country and this is no exception in Great Britain where comfort food is king. You just have to look at a dish of cottage pie, a layer of seasoned minced beef covered with a crust of buttery potatoes and you can figure out a few things: the weather is chilly, they have lots of cattle, they use butter instead of oil and they use ovens.

Great Britain is a beautiful land where you could experience all seasons in just one day and where the vegetation is green and lush year round. This temperate weather is what gives them beautiful year-round gardens. Proximity to the sea has given them potted shrimp (shrimp preserved in butter), smoked and dried fish, fish and chips, fish pie and the wonderful seaweed samphire.

The food is robust and protein-centric from an Asian point of view. Famous dishes are steak and kidney pie, roast beef and Yorkshire, Bangers and Mash (sausages and potato mash) and Scottish cock-a-leekie, an unusual but delicious soup made with beef, chicken, leeks and prunes. The traditional breakfast is not for the faint-hearted and includes sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes and fried bread. In terms of vegetables they love peas, potatoes and are very partial to rhubarb in sweet preparations whereas the Chinese use only the roots for medicinal purposes.

The Brits also eat game, a wide array of cakes and puddings and enjoy take outs of Thai and Indian food. They are credited with the invention of the sandwich, so pragmatic and portable. Cheddar one of the best cow’s milk cheeses in the world comes from Somerset in England. If the world had a food capital it would be London with its multi-cultural restaurants, historic pubs and markets.

If you want to learn more I find British cookbooks wonderfully written with warmth and wit. Food writing is an art form and while there are legends like Jane Grigson and Elizabeth David in modern times you have writers like Nigel Slater and Diana Henry who are also producing exceptional cookbooks.

Cottage pie

Serves 6

  • 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
  • 1kg minced beef
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 tablespoons plain flour
  • 350 g shitake mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 400 g can chopped tomatoes
  • 1 beef stock cube in 400 ml of water
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp miso paste
  • 1kg potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 5 tablespoons milk
  • 2 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 200C

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the mince in batches and fry until brown all over. Add the onion and carrot and fry for a few minutes. Add the garlic.

Sprinkle over the flour, stir for a minute, then blend in the chopped tomatoes, the chopped mushrooms. Add the stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, cover and cook for 40 minutes to 1 hour until meat is tender. Add soy sauce and miso paste. Place in an oven-proof dish.

Set aside to cool while you make the potatoes

Boil the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender, drain and return to the pan.

Add the milk, butter, salt and pepper and mash until smooth.

Spread the potatoes over the meat. Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until bubbling and slightly golden on top. Serve hot.

Categories
Articles Recipes

Healthy Japanese

Hijiki Seaweed and Carrots

Every so often you find that your cooking is in a rut and that you regurgitate the same recipes again and again. If you need a change of pace or are looking for healthier food alternatives I would, without a doubt, recommend Japanese food.

There is no sense in me going on about its health benefits. The beauty of Japanese women speaks for itself. Their delicious ultra healthy diet bestows them with lustrous hair, perfect skin and thin frames. In Asian hotels I do try and catch a glimpse of what they eat for breakfast: miso soup, fish or omelettes and am quick to hide my naughty pain-au-chocolat and bacon.

Dalian has a population of about 6,000 Japanese people so you are always bound to find good Japanese restaurants and ingredients. Jiu Guang has a great selection of Japanese style meats and ingredients. It’s pricey, but worth it unless you are an ace at meat chopping and slicing.

My Japanese pantry contains the following: miso paste of various colors and flavors, sake, mirin, wasabi, pickled ginger, soba, tofu, ichimi togarashi and seaweeds like hijiki and wakame.

With great speed and little equipment you can prepare most Japanese dishes. A bowl of miso with clams or tofu and seaweed is never more than 10 minutes away. Chicken teriyaki, a dish adored by children the world over, can be made in a flash.

In Japan, fish is revered and eaten in many ways from baked in salt to sushi. Rice, like in China, is a staple and vegetables accompany every meal. What makes Japan distinct is an emphasis on aesthetic harmony that compared to other countries is a critical part of food culture. The food is presented in a myriad of plates in all shapes, colors and sizes. Meals are also balanced by containing the five flavors: sour, salty, sweet, bitter and spicy. If you fall in love with Japanese food like me do rush to the top of floor of theTea Market and get yourself cheap Japanese bowls and dishes from the dusty and messy restaurant supply store there.

Japanese cold dishes are easy, beautiful and can be made ahead.

3 Salads

Tofu with bonito flakes and green onion

Ingredients

  • 1 block of silken tofu
  • 1 green onion thinly sliced
  • ½ cup of bonito flakes
  • 2 tsp. grated ginger
  • soy sauce

Cut the tofu into 4 portions or smaller if you desire.

Put in individual plates and sprinkle with the ginger, green onion and bonito flakes.

Drizzle with the soy sauce.

Hijiki with carrots

  • 1 cup of dried hijiki
  • 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
  • 2 small carrots, julienned
  • 1 cup of dashi (bonito stock)
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tsp sugar

Soak the hijiki for about 5 minutes. Drain and rinse. In a wok add vegetable oil and stir fry hijiki until soft. Add carrots and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Add bonito stock and simmer until carrots are tender for about 10 minutes depending on size of carrots. Add mirin, sugar and soy sauce.

Healthy Japan

Spinach with sesame paste

Ingredients

  • 300 grs of spinach
  • 3 tablespoons of sesame paste
  • ½ tsp of sugar
  • 2 tbsp of dash (bonito stock)
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds

Bring salted water to a boil and add the spinach. Boil for a minute. Rinse with cold water and squeeze firmly and cut into small sections. Mix sesame paste, sugar, dash and soy sauce to make dressing. Mix with spinach and serve. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.