After a week of cooking and eating lunches and dinners for myself, I usually
have some meat left over when shopping day rolls around, and this
is a good way to use it up. Typically it'll be something like a
quarter-pound of hamburger, or a bit of roast, some turkey breast,
or a bit of fish. Maybe there will be some leftover sliced lunch-meat.
It'll all work. You can even toss in the odd hot-dog or two.
This is based on a recipe I used to make pan-frying a similar batch of ingredients. Then I saw The Naked Chef episode with the Fantastic Fish Pie and realised my version would turn out tastier, and probably a bit healthier baked into a pie. It is.
Ingredients:
- Meat. Should total about 3/4 lb, but anything from a half-pound to a pound is fine.
- one or two slices shredded prosciutto ham if you've got it.
- 3 large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes.
- about one half large onion, finely chopped.
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed.
- vegetables - odds and ends - you want about 1 cup of chopped vegetable.
- 1 good handful grated cheese. I prefer smoky cheddar with beef, monterey jack with turkey, swiss with spam, and naturally, Velveeta with hot dogs.
- 1/2 cup milk, half and half, or cream.
- Bertolli Olive Oil.
- 1 tbsp lemon juice.
- handful fresh leaf parsley, finely chopped.
- salt.
- freshly ground black Pepper.
- Garlic Valley Farms - Cold Pressed Garlic Spray.
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Put the potatoes into salted boiling water and bring back to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes.
- If the meat is already cooked, just chop it into bite-sized chunks, otherwise chop it and brown it in a frying pan.
- Put the meat in the bottom of a baking pan.
- Fry the onion, garlic and any other uncooked vegetables for about five minutes in a little olive oil. Then add the milk or cream and bring to a boil.
- Remove the mix from the heat, and add the cheese. The cheese should melt pretty quickly, and as soon as it's melted, add the lemon juice, parsley and any pre-cooked vegetables.
- Pour the creamy cheesy vegetable sauce on top of the meat in the baking pan.
- Drain the potatoes and mash them in the pot, adding some olive oil, salt and pepper and a good dozen squirts of garlic spray. I use a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
- Plop the potatoes on top of the cheesy sauce.
- Pop it in the oven for about 25 minutes, until the top of the potatoes have browned.
Note that you can do most of your chopping while things are cooking. Also, you can use the same pan to brown your meat and fry the vegetables. It'll already be hot, which will speed things along.
Serves: 2 or 3 big servings
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes