In house pub grub

Hey everyone...it's Jack writing this time, making my Red Bay Days blog debut. Emily wears the blogging pants in this family, but from time to time, I get an idea for a post. No, there's no theological reflection to follow, so in case you were getting your finger ready to click to the next blog because you weren't signing up for a mini-devotional, do not fear. I know, I know, it's always a possibility with a pastor writing, but we're people too, and we do have other interests besides the spiritual life.

It's hard to get excited about much of anything in January, but we've found something to keep us excited around here though the weather is rubbish these days. Two words: comfort food. Being a novice, yet enthusiastic cook, I love to try new dishes, but have always had a bad attitude when cooking in the winter months. In the spring and summer, it's easy to get excited because I can step outside and clip some basil leaves, thyme and rosemary sprigs, and fresh food is a half hour away from landing on the table. In past winters I've been apathetic because I don't buy many herbs from the store because they're too stinkin' expensive. And then a few weeks ago it occurred to me that I'd forgotten a food group that was so important when I lived in England--root vegetables! Carrots and celery and onions and turnips and parsnips! Eureka Mirepoix! My culinary Seasonal Affective Disorder was lifted immediately.

With the eureka moment about root vegetables I remembered some of the great comfort food I discovered in pubs when I lived in Gateshead/Newcastle. Because the Crown and Goose in downtown Knoxville is out of our price range I decided to try my hand at some in house pub grub. With Jamie Oliver's reliable Happy Days cookbook as my guide, I knew I could pull it off. Steak and Guiness Pie was my first challenge, and even though I couldn't make it look like the picture in Jamie's book, it came out pretty well. Last Saturday was the perfect day for the pie because it was absurdly cold outside so it was ridiculous to leave the house for anything. Here's the visual before and after we dove in.















Feeling confident from the Steak and Guinness Pie, I stayed with the pie theme and tried my hand with Shepherd's Pie. You may not know this, but unless you use lamb meat as the base for Shepherd's Pie, well, it ain't Shepherd's Pie. To keep culinary integrity, you need to tell your family or guests that you're making Cottage Pie. British fare gets a raw deal as it is, so why pile on by misrepresenting a signature British dish? Look, if someone called your grits by another name, you'd get hot and bothered too.














Anyway, after I tacked on a stupidly good puff pastry (store bought, sadly) to the Steak/Guinness Pie, we decided to make pub grub/comfort food as healthy as possible. Hence the use of ground turkey in this Cottage (not Shepherd's--let's show respek!) Pie. Turkey does take away some of the flavor, but with a hand full of good dried herbs (sage especially!) it came out well, especially for a Monday. Yep, Monday night Pub Grub. That's the fare on Red Bay Way these days. Mondays in the Winter have never been so fun.