015: IN THE KITCHEN - Shepherd's Pie

Chris

I think you should fly him out to South Carolina and have him build you an indoor tent in your house.

Phil

so I don't know if you're recording the nugget anymore.

Chris

it seems like it might be a little less set up.

Phil

Well, yeah, I'm probably a little less cramped that nugget man, that thing is.

Chris

You look comfortable

Phil

works, but yeah, I'm definitely more comfortable right now than literally any other episode we've recorded. Do you remember in our, in our previous podcast that wasn't, I would record in our pantry.

Chris

I do. I do remember that the pantry with the furniture pads as a good look,

Phil

to have to find an old picture of me recording in the pantry. It looks ridiculous. They're just like. Expired pasta in the background, but you know, it,

Chris

it's just getting you in the mood and Phil.

Phil

got me in the mood. Yeah. It wasn't even a food podcast then

Chris

well, we should have, uh, we should have done a pasta dish today for in the kitchen. We had originally planned on a pasta dish actually.

Phil

Oh, that's right. But it didn't work.

Chris

but I think this is, this is better because, I think our dish today, plays off the fact that a lot of us might have some leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving because fel today we're making a Shepherd's pie.

Phil

and I love Shepherd's pie. It's so good. And Chris, you're a flipping genius to be able to come up with such a great recipe based on some leftovers. And honestly, it, it plays out so nicely with what even the last episode was, you know, that, that released on Thanksgiving day kind of the idea of like repurposing leftover. So this is almost like re-purposing leftovers 2.0 for an in the kitchen episode.

okay. I have a question. if the Shepherd's pie is a repurposed mashed potato from Thanksgiving. And then you have some of that leftover and you have it the next morning for breakfast, with an egg on top, because that's what all the cool kids do. Can you repurpose a repurpose leftover

Chris

first of all, don't see. Why not? Secondly, I'm not convinced that an egg on a Shepherd's pie would be good.

Phil

I know it'd be terrible. Let me so weird.

Chris

Maybe, I don't know. we might just have to try it and find out I can't say that I've ever tried it. So I honestly don't know

Phil

You should serve it to Molly and tell her it's like, you know, so delicacy somewhere. Well, if it's going to be leftover mashed potatoes leftover, I don't know if you can wait more than one day. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Yes. Shepherd's pie with the leftover mashed potatoes. I'm excited. This is going to be good one.

Chris

Yeah, that's going to be fun and let's get into

Phil

All right, let's do it. Hey, it's good to see you. it feels kind of weird recording in the same time zone.

Chris

it is a little strange.

Phil

we finally get to do an episode in the same city and yet we're still not together. still over video chat.

Chris

That's fine. At least we've we've, gotten that format down. So. And it's not a big deal, right?

Phil

it almost seems like the technical side of things like recording together in the same room. I add just like a whole new set of challenges.

Chris

It does. And, you know, actually we have done that a couple of times. We just haven't released those episodes. and yeah, there are, there are some different challenges. Know, we, we have one episode in her. Back pocket that might air one of these days. But yeah, you get some, you get some funky things that you have to fight with.

Phil

I'm kind of excited about that episode that you're teasing to maybe err, on like our one-year anniversary.

Chris

yeah. Well, we can see how far we've come at that point, I guess. So, right. It's the Shepherd's pie.

Phil

the Shepherd's pie.

Chris

Yeah, looking into Shepherd's pie a little bit, there's some consistent ingredients, but there's an element of. Kind of throw in what you have. So I think I'm definitely dealing with that a little bit today. we had some ground beef and then, leftover mashed potatoes made sense to use this dish. So, I think one of the recipes that we've found calls for a couple of things that I didn't have. So we're just going to skip it or substitute it. we didn't have any lentils and Do I have any federal, actually I don't have any sour sauce either. So we're gonna sub fish sauce for that, which. Apparently like gives a pretty common substitution, you know, both got that really savory, savory taste.

Phil

now Shepherd's pie for me, I think was like mashed potatoes, corn, and catch up. I mean, am I like way wrong on that?

Chris

ground

Phil

Honestly, it's been kind of a while since I've had it, but I just feel like Yeah. I dunno. Maybe, maybe it's just one of those weird ticks growing up that my parents liked to do for me. I don't know.

Chris

so stress to me does have tomato paste in a lot of them that I've seen habit, tomato paste, It does have like some type of vegetable base. the, the recipe that I'm using today does not have corn. I think if, again, it's one of those things. If you have it, you can throw it in.

Phil

would be like the number one common denominator in Shepherd's pie,

Chris

peas, and carrots probably. In terms of, in terms of vegetables. Yeah. yeah, you know, this, this recipe called for a piece carrots, onions, lentils, fennel, and I had some salaries, so I'm throwing that in as well, but again, skipping the lentils and the fellow. Cause we don't have those. You could put it in some mushrooms as well, get a little earthy, savory thing going on. but yeah, there is like, uh, an element of tomato base to that beef Grady that is creating a sauce over the ground beef. Mashed potatoes. So it's up to that. And then, I actually have a Dubliner that was going to. From the top of all of that, get a little cheesy thing going on. So

Phil

Oh, that's like my favorite cheese, a sharkutery.

Chris

I do remember that. So I do I'm just going to start out by cooking the beef.

Phil

Edit is ground beef, right?

Chris

Yes. Yeah. So we're using ground beef, which I don't know if that's actually technically Shepherd's pie, over in, uh, Not America. I want to say Shepherd's pie is more lab where I think, I think beef is technically a cottage pie.

Phil

I see you using your Dutch oven. looks just so cool. And I don't know if my wife's ever going to listen to this, but her a Dutch oven for Christmas. I can't quite tell what color is yours.

Chris

ours is blue. We've got a blue five and a half court oval. that's. Other than we'd definitely love it. I don't know if there's much that you care to use it for the high sides are what I love about it. so something like this where you've got beef kind of sizzling or any type of meat, that's, that's like, possibly splattering the high sides to dork really well to contain that splatter

Phil

is there a specific brand that I should keep an eye on? I mean, like the lecture sets like kind of like the most famous right.

Chris

Yeah. So we, we do have a Lake per se and There are, a couple other. brands, what is it? Stop, is kind of another big one. I think even like lodge, you know, you're a good old cast iron. they have, like a agree little cost side, which other, I do think the Lakers say is the iconic French. Cast iron like a mammal cast, iron pot is it's one of those things

Phil

have an outlet

Chris

would last you a lifetime.

Phil

Okay, good. Very excited. This is kind of like the year of the kitchen for us. In terms of Christmas.

Chris

Yeah.

Phil

Like last year we focused on our living room this year is going to be our kitchen. we're not huge into gifts. Like we've not really ever had a Christmas where we just have tons and tons of gifts under the tree in part, because our trees are really small. we're more of like the Charlie Brown So, yeah, as terrible as it sounds, I don't even know if we'll really have presence for each other under the tree. We'll have them for the kids, but for us, I think it might just be, you know, buying the gifts and be like, here you go. I got this for ya.

Chris

Well, then you can use it to cook Christmas Eve Eve dinner. Yeah. We actually just went out and cut down a tree yesterday. So. That is now up and halfway decorated, but it was fun going out with Elijah and all over his first son Oliver's through selling the mountains. it was nice, nice little family outing. It was fun.

Phil

you guys get some pictures of that?

Chris

Uh, actually I think we do have one nurse. Yeah. I took a camera and then forgot it in the car. So pull up my phone for a second, but you know, it's one of those things that we've always talked about doing like right after Thanksgiving, but usually gets. Somehow pushed off Phil a couple of weeks later, and then we only have the tree for a few weeks. So it was nice to, nice to get out early this year. There was like nobody up there. okay. So that ground beef is just about done. I'm actually going to pull it out of the Dutch oven now, and then we can get some of those vegetables cooking.

Phil

Do you typically cook your meat first and have A little bit of a reserve of the fat to cook your vegetables. Is that pretty common for you?

Chris

yeah, I think so. I mean, that's definitely what I was going for on this one. there's a good bit of a good bit of fat leftover. So, I figured it'd be great to use that instead of adding more, although. We do know that butter makes everything better. So,

Phil

well, sometimes I've noticed that, you know, if I cook my. Onions or celery or carrots or whatever. If I cook that first with a fat, like an olive oil or a butter, and then I cook the meat. I've noticed that when it all comes together, it does seem to be a little bit oily or a little bit greasy.

Chris

Yeah.

Phil

So I wonder if you might be onto something, you know, some sort of advantage cooking the meat first, then just using that fat from the meat to cook the vegetables without, you know, like we say, add anything.

Chris

Yeah, I don't know. I think it has, if it works well, you can use what you already have. so how has your guys's Thanksgiving?

Phil

Oh, Thanksgiving is pretty good. So obviously, as you know, we are out here in Colorado, got to hang with Ashley's. Parents and her brother was here also my grandmother.

Chris

Really

Phil

So it was, it was quiet, you know, it wasn't the 10, 12, 15, 20 people that often are for obvious reasons,

Chris

One of those

Phil

but it was pretty mellow. Yeah. And you know, we, we had a really good time. And for what it's worth. It was also my grandmother's birthday. So we, uh, yeah, so it turned to be a birthday celebration all the way around. Yeah, it was really, really cool. so, Chris, what vegetables are you cooking? Did you say

Chris

Okay. So right now I just have a mixture of celery, onions and carrots saute more or less.

Phil

I have heard that there's a French term for those three sauteed together. And it's from what I understand called Mira PLA does that sound right to you?

Chris

Yes. Tech technically, technically I think it is a mere clock. it's kind of like flavor based, of celery, onions and carrots. yeah, it's used in a lot of things.

Phil

of like a lot of soups and

Chris

Yeah. there are definitely quite a few students

Phil

a lot of

Chris

it as a bait. Yeah. But also a lot of sauces, a lot of other, other dishes as well are gonna use, use those as a base. And, I can't necessarily think of a bunch off the top of my head, but yeah, it's, it's kind of like, kinda like a roux or a bash ML. Like one of those building blocks that you can then. Using a lot of different circumstances or situations

Phil

I've tried a couple of different versions of Coca VA both called for a mirror aplomb. And then I also made a booth Boga annual, and that also called for mayor Paul. So it must be a French thing,

Chris

It's definitely, definitely a French thing, but I think a lot of different types of cooking had their own version. I know that like there's an Italian version and I want to say they have oregano in there. So, it's, it's definitely something that's this common flavor base that just uses all of these aromatics sauteed together. Okay. yeah, no, I think he's vegetables are just about done. I'm going to throw in some time and that tomato paste maybe. Is often, so I'm sure some catch up so

Phil

Okay. Did you say you're chopping up the time or you just throwing in some time?

Chris

well, honestly I just threw in time. I, pulled it off the stems, but it's not necessarily chopped.

Phil

well, I had a reason for asking and, you know, sometimes the recipe calls for, uh, shop time and I have always pulled the leaves off the STEM. You know, those little itty bitty leaves that would you ever chop up the STEM with it?

Chris

Um, I think it depends on the, the STEM itself, honestly. Um, you know, this, this time that we're using right now, we just got from the grocery store, instead of STEM is like really Woody. but you know, like in the past, we've talked about the CSA that we get in the summer and the time, the fresh time that we get from that, the stems are so soft that you can just cut that up in it, like really easily. And so, yeah, I think it depends on the time itself. Okay. So at the time and the tomato paste in it's cooking, just throwing a little bit of flour in and going to help thicken that sauce.

Phil

making a slurry, Chris.

Chris

no, just throwing flour straight into the vegetables actually.

Phil

Yeah. Why not?

Chris

I, we're gonna use a little bit of wine on this recipe. we just kinda have like a French, a French red blend and this seriously smells amazing.

Phil

bet it does.

Chris

it's smelled, so good and just gets more like interesting and complex as you go. so we have this mixture of vegetables and all the kids talk, they're going to stir that pretty tuck to meat back in. Seriously, this looks so good. Okay. So we've got the meat back in and, this is kind of that point where you add some of the other vegetables that don't need a lot of cooking. So in the recipe, the lentils, and, since I don't have those, I'm just adding my piece and I think, I'm gonna add my fish sauce at this point as well. And, I'll give you a little bit and then add the raw. So it does call for like a beef broth for the sauce.

Phil

and Chris for this would have beef stock. I know sometimes they're interchangeable and sometimes they're not.

Chris

Yeah. So stock has mentioned bones will broth is made mostly from the meat or vegetables. well, yeah, I feel, I guess it makes sense that a, a Stockwood we're sticking it up more kind of with the, some of that, gelatin from the bones being added. I wonder if like a broth that in person more flavor then since it's more.

Phil

it very well could. Yeah.

Chris

Yeah, this is going to need to simmer for a while now because it's very soupy at this point,

Phil

Not that puppy reduce.

Chris

yep. Cool.

Phil

well, Chris, your beef broth and everything else in that Dutch oven smells so good.

Chris

It smells so

Phil

It smells so good.

Chris

it. Uh, 15 miles away

Phil

it actually, you know, it smells like Chris, it smells like this green tea that I'm sipping.

Chris

smells amazing. Right?

Phil

it's got a little bit of honey and lemon in it packed full of caffeine. It's probably going to keep me up tonight, but I will forever think of Shepherd's pie as green tea now.

Chris

Okay. So we just let that simmer for a good 15 to 20 minutes. It's thickened up really well. next we are just going to put that in a casserole dish and top it with those leftover mashed potatoes. And I've got a little Dubliner cheese. I'm gonna throw the top of that and let's go in the oven at 400 degrees. We'll just let that, uh, kind of Brown up nicely. So sometimes, you know, the broiler that we've talked about before might help, that helps that process a little bit. So, I absolutely love Shepherd's bio, honestly, it's definitely one of my favorite, winter dishes. It's just like pure comfort food for me. I know for Molly, like soup is this comforting thing. And for me during like the winter, it's, it's very much like heartier things like a Shepherd's pie. So.

Phil

the next time Molly needs to be comforted. You should. Pour her a bowl of lucky charms or something like that cereal is soup

Chris

Yes.

Phil

Oh man. There's a, there's a podcast that I like. It's super popular and famous. So I'm sure everybody listening to this probably already listened to it, but it's called a hot dog is a sandwich. And they kind of tackle all the food debates like is cereal soup, and, obviously is a hot dog, a sandwich. So it's pretty fun.

Chris

I'm sure there's some good arguments on both sides. What side do you

Phil

I think there is one is a Kit-Kat technically lasagna.

Chris

Oh, layers. It's got layers.

Phil

Let's see what was another one?

Chris

That one seems a little bit more far-fetched than a hot

Phil

is a pop tart,

Chris

I mean, does ravioli need, I guess maybe, maybe I'm both of those. It's like a pasta dough thing. Like you're stepping away from the pasta dough. Like, Like You still have like a wheat based dough. I don't know. I don't know about the Kit-Kat, but the pop tart. Well, actually the pop stars, they're both probably just entirely made of chemicals. so who knows?

Phil

Well, it's really fun. You know, these, these questions seem absurd, but like they're the arguments either for or against are so well thought through. And communicated that it's almost like, yeah, you, you can, you can agree that a pop tart is ravioli. You know, it's a great podcast. It's called a hot dog is a sandwich. I, I love it. and the hosts are The kind of the way they banter back and forth. It's it's cool.

Chris

So, yeah, next week when the, you see them on the top of the iTunes charts or Apple podcast charts, they can think of, yeah. well, Phil with her that the Shepherd's pie goes in the oven for a little while Brown's up and I think we're done.

Phil

Can't wait for you to try it. And for me to just sit here and watch you eat it

Chris

I'll definitely let you know how amazing it tastes and what all you're missing out on.

Phil

cool. All right, Chris, we'll enjoy that. Hello again?

Chris

fell.

Phil

How are your eggs?

Chris

we haven't gotten that far yet.

Phil

So no, no eggs on the shepherd pie. not a

Chris

I think that's something that we're going to have to, we're going to have to update on eventually. Uh, it, it takes some building up to, to achieve that level of, uh, repurchasing, prowess.

Phil

Sure.

Chris

I'm not at that level yet fell,

Phil

I just, I just want you to try it. I don't, I don't mean try the food. I don't even care about that. I want you to try it on Molly. Just tell her it's a new thing. It's like you read it in some GQ magazine. Yeah. This makes something, I'll just see what she says.

Chris

well, I can, I can give it a go. I'm not, I'm not sure that that's going to fly very, very far. She knows what she likes, so, but we'll try it. We'll give it a go.

Phil

Well, she might, she might love it. And you never know, maybe I'm onto something

Chris

fell because I still haven't tried it. So you never know that that might just be culinary gold right there?

Phil

culinary gold. This is good stuff. I actually had, an idea. For a spinoff. so dad's kitchen it's, you know, it's two dads making stuff in the kitchen. Our wives could come up with a spin-off to totally satirize dad's kitchen and it can be called mom's bathroom our wives. Can just talk about how our cooking just sucks.

Chris

Mine's not that bad, Phil. I don't know. Yeah. It's been years since you've had anything that I've made. So I would like to believe that I've, I've come a ways. I think,

Phil

It is a little weird. Don't you think that we have this show where we make stuff and we don't even get to try each other's cooking.

Chris

Yeah, that is true. we might have to figure out a solution to that,

Phil

The world is flat. Chris, just fold the map, send it right over.

Chris

no, it fell. I think that we are going to have to remedy that. I, and so when are you moving? When are you moving back to Colorado then? Cause that's the obvious remedy

Phil

Oh, see, I thought you were going to be moving to South Carolina. Remember we talked about it. Yeah. You said, Hey Phil. I. Need some help talking to Molly about how I'm going to tell her removing a South Carolina. No. Remember that? You don't remember that?

Chris

or maybe we can all just move to Maine.

Phil

Ooh, Portland.

Chris

or Oregon, you can move to other Portland, the West coast,

Phil

Well, if, what if there's just some big mix up and you guys end up in Portland, Oregon, and we end up in Portland, Maine.

Chris

somehow it would work out that way. I loved both Portland, so

Phil

Yeah. Oh, me too. My dad did a triathlon in Portland, Maine. I think he wants to move there.

Chris

Okay, so this is totally random, Phil. I just saw this service this week and we're very, very much not sponsored by anybody, let alone them, but it's called gold belly and you can order different different dishes from. Some of the top restaurants around the us. And, I had noticed it, because I think Momofuku, David Chang's

Phil

Yeah, yeah, Yeah, Did you know he was going to be on who wants to be a millionaire?

Chris

I saw that. but he was talking about it and you can order dishes from some of the top restaurants in the U S and, uh, the only thing that reminded me of it was there's this place in Portland, Maine, that Molly and I went to and had oysters. And it was amazing. It was called even tide and you can get fresh lobster rolls, overnighted from even tide in Portland, Maine

Phil

Gold belly, huh? I'm sorry, I haven't heard of that. That sounds great.

Chris

Yeah, no, that's really cool. You can, you can get everything from entrees to appetizers, to desserts. It looks, it looks like a really cool special event type, order, especially in this day of COVID where it's, you know, you can't really go out and celebrate special events in the same way that you used to be able to. So being able to, you know, order. From one of your favorite restaurants in like New York or something, and they can ship you like a six to eight person meal or an eight, 10 person meal. there's something that reinvigorates that, kind of special occasion factor even if you're just at home.

Phil

Well, don't be surprised if you get a knock on the door and it's GoldBelly with some Louis barbecue straight from South caca Lackey.

Chris

Uh, You haven't watched somebody shoot Phil yet. Have you?

Phil

I still have it. Now. I keep keeps popping up in my suggested

Chris

yeah, the, the latest season, we were just watching a San Francisco, I think, And he is wearing a Louis t-shirt

Phil

Oh, cool.

Chris

no, no. It was great. we instantly thought of you guys, so. I was like, Molly, wait, what? His shirt that looks that's the place we went to. It was Phil and Ashley. Right?

Phil

That's so cool.

Chris

yeah. Wait, we had a moment. Anyway. The Shepherd's pie was amazing since we haven't even talked about it. I forgot about it too. anyway, it's, it's a great, great recipe. Tried out repurpose those mashed potatoes and get cozy in this late fall winter season.

Phil

And the recipe for this lovely Shepherd's pie, uh, is from food 52, correct.

Chris

Yeah, that's, that's one of the ones that we went with. There are so many out there and, you know, it's one of those things, again, that it's kind, what, what, what do you have, where, what can you just toss in there? So if you don't have fennel or lentils, that's fine. You can skip those pits up in the Alyssa. You can, you can put corn in if you want.

Phil

Be brave. If you don't have to settle. Just put in some black licorice, but yes, this, this recipe is from food 52, and we'll have a link on our show notes, which you can find at our website at dad's kitchen or you can just, click one of those links in your favorite podcasting app. a lot of times the, the show notes are listed there. Or if you're really, really curious, you can just find us on Instagram at dad's kitchen co reach out to us and we'll send you that recipe.

Chris

Yep. There we go. Awesome, Phil, thanks. Uh, fun as always. And, uh, I guess we'll talk in a couple of days.

Phil

Cool. See you in Portland.