Curried Pork Shepherd’s Pie

Hey guys,

So once again I surprised myself with another great creation in the kitchen.  But first, how did you like my GF DF and Vegan Chocolate Cake?  I’ve got some leftover cake in the fridge and a couple of Vanilla pods, so I think I’m going to try to make a Vanilla sauce to go with it..will see how much time I have tonight as I have some work to complete for tomorrow’s school day. 

So as I was saying, tonight’s creation was inspired by my leftover pork shoulder from Sunday night’s dinner.  I wanted to make some Chilli with it, but realised that I had no canned tomatoes in my pantry.  Well then came about Plan B…. Shepherd’s Pie.  But not just any pie… see for yourself. 

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Directions

First I boiled 3 medium sized Russet potatoes.  Instead of using water to boil, I used the left over broth from the Braised Pork Shoulder.  But water works too. 

While the potatoes were boiling, I cut up the left over pork meat and a couple of carrots. 

I also made a gravy to go with the pork meat.  First I melted 2 Tbsp of Earth Balance butter in a medium saucepan.  Then I whisked in 1 Tbsp of Sorghum Flour to make a Roux.  Make sure you get all of the lumps out.  I cooked this for a couple of minutes, then slowly added 2 cups of my broth from Sunday’s pork roast.  Then I added the pork and carrots to the gravy mixture. 

I also added a spring of thyme, 2 cloves of fresh pressed garlic, some salt and pepper to taste, a pinch of grated nutmeg, a dash of worstershire sauce, 1 Tbsp of Fish sauce and 1 Tbsp of Yellow Thai curry paste.  I set the meat mixture aside and prepared the mashed potatoes.

To make the mashed potatoes, I peeled them and then added 2 Tbsp of Earth Balance, a splash of milk, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.  Then I mashed the potatoes until they were nice and creamy.

Turn on your oven to 350F.  To assemble the Shepherd’s Pie, I layered a casserole dish with the pork mixture, then added the mashed potatoes on top.  Finally I covered the potatoes with about a cup of grated Dill Havarti cheese.  In to the oven everything went for about 10 minutes, covered.  Then I removed the lid and turned on the broiler  until the cheese became golden and bubbly. 

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That’s it for tonight.  It’s going to be a crazy rest of the week… in a nutshell it includes…doctor’s appointment, Bank appointment for RRSP crunch time and it’s report card writing time.  Plus all day this Saturday is my Lifeguarding recertification course at the local pool…I’m very nervous about it as it’s been 4 years since I worked as a lifeguard.  What will be will be I guess !

Any big plans this week? 

Beaglebea

xoxo

Braised Pork Roast

This is a tasty, juicy and flavourful pot roast.  The trick to keeping it moist is by braising it in the broth mixture.  Keep in mind that you need to have a really large roasting pan to be able to hold all of the liquid.  You can use the reserved liquid to make a soup or freeze it for future use. 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Lbs  Fresh Boneless Pork Shoulder Roast
• 1 Tbsp  olive oil
• 8 cups (2L)  apple juice
• 4 cups (1L)  white wine
• 8 cups (2L)  chicken stock
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 head  celery, diced
• 1 cup  brown sugar
• 5 bay leaves
• pinch of salt
• 1 bunch fresh thyme

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 275F. 

Prepare the liquid and pour everything into your roasting pan.  Make sure you leave enough room so that it doesn’t overflow when you add the vegetables and the roast later.  I used fresh apple juice that I got this weekend from the wine shop.  They were pressing about 300L of apples this weekend and were selling fresh juice for 2$/L.  Sweet deal and perfect for the roast.  I ended up only using 1 bottle of the white wine.  We drank the rest

VERY IMPORTANT:  Reserve about 2 cups of the broth for deglazing the frying pan after browning your roast. 

In a large frying pan, add oil and heat over medium high heat.  Sauté the carrots, celery and onions until translucent.  Add to the broth mixture in roasting pan. 

Now comes the best part.  Take your pork shoulder and brown from all sides in a hot frying pan.  I used the same pan as with the vegetables.  Don’t forget to brown the outer edges too.

When nice and golden from all sides, deglaze the pan with the reserved broth.  Cook for about 1 minute, then add the brown sugar and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes.  Then add this liquid mixture to the roast and broth in roasting pan. 

Now before putting the roasting pan into the oven, don’t forget to insert a cooking thermometer.  Since my roast was boneless, it was easy to shove into the middle of the roast.  Cover with lid and place in the oven.  You will then cook the roast until it reaches an internal temperature of 160F. 

The roast took about 3 hours to cook.  When done, remove it from the broth and slice on a cutting board.  The roast is done when the juices run clear upon cutting.  Serve immediately with some of the vegetables in broth.