Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie

Sometimes all I want from this world is a little comfort food. A meal that can set me down, pat me on the head and say, "There, there, Katie. It's ok now." Tell me you don't feel me on that...actually, don't tell me that. I'd like to go on thinking that this is a normal occurrence for everyone. 

Well this week was one of those such weeks that makes you want to curl up into a little ball and pull the covers way over your head. I needed my food soul mate to tell me everything would be ok. And if it wasn't going to just show up on my doorstep, then I would be forced to coerce it into being myself. 

Sometimes I guess that's just what you have to do in life. Occasionally you just have to make it what you want it to be if it's hell-bent on refusing to cooperate with you. Nothing some sweet potatoes and ground turkey can't handle I'm sure...

Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie: Servers 6ish

2  sweet potatoes (or yams), about 1 1/2 lbs. cut into 1 inch cubes 

3-4  small parsnips (big parsnips have woody stems, always look for thinner ones) 

4-5  small carrots

1  medium-sized yellow onion 

2  stalks of celery 

1c. frozen peas

2  eggs

2 Tbs. milk

4 Tbs. unsalted butter

3 Tbsp. flour 

1  lb. ground turkey; love the ground dark meat from Whole Foods Market! 

2  cloves garlic, minced

1 c. chicken stock

1/2 c. Crispin Cider's The Saint

1 Tbsp. each freshly chopped rosemary and thyme (optionally delicious) 

1/2 tsp. garam masala

1/4 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. ground coriander

Sprinkle of nutmeg

2-3 Tbsp. worcestershire

2 tsp. Kosher salt

Pepper to taste 

1) Preheat your oven to 375. Start out by filling a large pot with cold water and chopping

    up your sweet potatoes/yams. Place the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Allow 

    to cook while you:

2) Chop up your parsnip, carrot, celery, and onion into pieces. See pictures below for size 

    and procedure. 

3) In a large dutch oven or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, brown your turkey bits 

    with a tiny bit of cooking oil  until browned throughout. Remove from pan and set aside. 

4) Drizzle another Tbsp. full or so of oil in the pan and toss in the parsnip, carrot, celery, and 

    onion. Cook until the carrots and parsnip are tender and begin to caramelize slightly. Add 

    in the garlic for the last couple minutes or so. Reduce the heat to medium. 

5) Melt the 2 Tbs. butter and mix with the 3 Tbs. flour. Add the butter/flour mixture and

    stir well into the veggies. Allow the flour mix to brown lightly. 

6) Toss in your cider and stock, make sure to scrape up all of the delicious bits from the

    bottom of the pan. Add in all of your spices and worcestershire. Allow to simmer for 

    about 10-15 minutes or until the mixture slightly thickens. Season to taste (salt & pepper).

7) Add your peas, fresh herbs, and turkey and cook an additional 5-10 minutes. 

8) Drain and mash up your sweet potatoes/yams. Add in 2 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp. milk. 

    Salt and pepper to taste. I added a little extra nutmeg too! Crack your eggs into a little bowl 

    and slowly add in bits of the potato mix, stirring to combine, until the eggs are tempered. 

    Add it back into the mash, stir well and spread over the top of the veggies/turkey mix.  

9) Pop it in the oven and let it go for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool a sec, dish up 

    and enjoy! 

Whenever you're cooking like this you'll always want to make sure your bits are uniform. Check out the breakdown of how to get even pieces of carrot, parsnip, or celery above. Halve it, halve each piece again, and then one more time...then chop it into pieces! Easy-peasy.  

Whenever you're adding eggs into something hot you have to 'temper' them first! 

This already smells amazing! Instant mood-lifter!  

Captain! We've been breached! All's fair in love and cooking, it tasted just as good so who cares? :) 

Soul saver! I loved this dish, came from the heart you know? So maybe it didn't take the blues totally away, but it sure helped ease the pain. Enjoying the extra cider while eating it also didn't hurt ;)

Quick & Easy Chickpea Soup

This soup seriously takes 20 minutes. If nothing else, you should make it for that reason alone. I had a few people stop by the other day unexpectedly and nothing to make for them. What I did have though was a pantry full of junk and luckily a few fresh herbs. My choice was obvious, it was soup time. That right there is why I love soup, you can literally make it out of anything! Soup lets you step up and be the boss; direct it, own it. Tweak it to your hearts desire. 

When I was making this I got to a point where I thought, "Ok, that seems good, I'm done!" And then I tasted it [....meh...]. It was just ok. It didn't beg me to eat it, did not sing to my soul, I could hardly even pick out any distinct flavor in the pot. So was I going to let my soup push me around? Oh hey nah! All I had to do was fill in my blanks; ask myself, 'what is this missing?' and then adjust it until I wanted to gobble it up. And that's exactly what happened. Bam. 

Journey with me, I'll show you...

Sort of Spicy Chickpea Soup: (Serves 4) *Derived from Pam Anderson for Food & Wine 
**Food processor or blender needed! 

2 Cans of Chickpeas (19oz.), drained
1 Can light coconut milk (13ish oz.), go ahead and get full fat if you wanna get crazy
1 Can whole tomatoes; reserve liquid and quarter the toms
1/2 c. Crispin Honey Crisp Cider, reduced over low heat to 1/4 c.
Cilantro! As much as you want, but 1/2 c. as a guideline
4 Green onions, finely chopped
1 c. or so Chicken/Veggie Stock
1/2 tsp. Garam Masala
1/2 tsp. Ground ginger
Greek Yogurt to top
Salt & Pepper and other things to taste

1) So I don't know if you can tell yet, but I've intentionally left out a ton of ingredients to force you to
    interact with this dish. Go put your chef pants on, we're doing this together.
2) So just start off by gathering everything you need: Get your cider on the stove and cook it down
    really slow until it's reduced by half. Chop your onions, tomatoes, pull off a bunch of your cilantro,
    open your cans and measure your spices (to start anyway).
3) So souper simple (had to..); toss in your chickpeas, coconut milk, tomatoes and sauce, spices
    cilantro, white parts from the green onion and cider into the food processor and blend it until
    smooth. Now I had to run mine in two batches because my machine is just too small, that's ok,
    just make them sort of even amounts and then transfer the blended batch to a soup pot.
4) With the heat on low-med, add in your stock and heat the soup up till it's hot enough to eat.
    Great. Now taste it. What does it taste like to you? Anything? What do you want it to taste like?
    Should it have more zing?
5) Let's add. Salt and pepper first. Whenever you're adding anything outside of a recipe you'll
    always want to start small and work your way up. It may take longer, but once it's in there you
    can't take it out. Now I'm not exactly suggesting that you work pinch by pinch, but no more
    than 1/4 tsp. full a time or less.

    Ok, did you get the salt and pepper? Good, what else? Some people may want to stop here, this
    may be enough for you and that's great, garnish and eat up. I was not so pleased yet though,
   the soup tasted flat to me. I wanted zip and zing, full and rich flavors. Here's what I added:
    -Orange Juice (I was out of lemon, this worked great)
    -Hot sauce, Tapatio! My personal fave
    -Ginger infused vinegar (apple cider would work well too)
    -Cumin
    -Nutmeg
6) So why? Why did I choose those things? For the first three listed there; acid. Acid is the zip and
    the zing in food. It activates our saliva glands and gives us that 'give me more' reaction. I chose a
    fruit acid because it has a bright and fresh flavor to it that would match the bright fresh flavors
    from the cilantro. Hot sauce for the tomato and vinegar based acid properties as well as a little
    spice to liven things up. And finally the ginger vinegar to further drive home that spicy, bright,
    ginger flavor and to further drive up the acid profile. Does that make sense? I hope so. Try
    saving a little bit of the original soup to compare apples to apples when you feel like you've
    reached a good acidic base.

    In the end I probably had put about a tsp. of Tapatio, 1/4 c.-1/3 c. of OJ, and maybe about 1/4c.   .
    of vinegar. Cumin I added to boost the spice from the Garam Masala (look on the label, it's
    already in the spice mix), I just wanted more. And nutmeg to bring a bit of earthiness back into
    the soup to interact with the chickpea base.
7) When you are happy with your soup, ladle it up and top with some yogurt (or sour cream)
   the greens from the onion as well as a little more cilantro. If you want to thin out your yogurt you
   can mix it with a little bit of the Honey Crisp to smooth it down. I did this and it was a nice
   addition to re-state that the apple flavor was in the soup. Yay! Now give yourself a high-five or a
   nice pat on the back, you did it!

I hope that I didn't bog you down with too much stuff, I just saw this as a perfect example for the easiest way to learn how to trust your taste and learn to ask questions about what you're making. The more you ask the more you can answer and the more you will learn about food and cooking. Food is fun! And when you gain the confidence to push it around instead of letting it manhandle you, it's a lot easier to remember that :)

Cooking With Friends

Ladies and Gents, it is my pleasure to present: Cooking With Friends

At home with Crispin Cider, making a feast of epic cidery proportions is easier than you think. A quick tip for a great meal anytime using Crispin Cider is to substitute it anywhere you would normally find white (sometimes red) wine in a dish. The Cidre Blanc is one of my favorites to use in this way and then there's more than plenty left for my guests and I to enjoy at the table. 

I hope this video makes you think about the possibility of having a cider dinner of your own for friends or family. It can be a lot of fun to do and you may just be surprised how wonderful everything can pair with cider. If you have any ideas or suggestions about how you would use cider in cooking or baking, I'd love to hear from you!

Better quality version can be viewed here: http://vimeo.com/51081332, blogger wouldn't let me upload anything better, grr.

I hope you enjoyed that! I'll be posting the recipes for the Shrimp Scampi, Crispin Old Fashioned, and Poached Pears very soon! 

Cider Brined Pork Chops

Ok, so remember last week when I was riding some sort of delusional high about fall and seasons and snow and blah, blah, blah. Well this girl most definitely got her reality check today. Yesterday: Partly sunny, high of 67, late night thunderstorm. Presently: Cloudy, windchill of 12 (actually 25), snowing. And just for fun, toss in a very broken boiler. Awesome. I love winter. 

I take it back, I take it all back. 

But we all know the saying, so let's make some lemonade shall we? Bust out the blankets and robes, crank up the heat on the stove and let's bang out a cider laden feast fit for Kings. Cold Kings, like back in the day with their big cold castles. Yeah, just like that...where's the whiskey? 

Bare Naked Brined Pork Loin Chops: (Brined 8 Chops cut 1" thickish)

6-8 Pork Loin Chops, bone-in, purchased mine from my local Whole Foods 

1 bottle Crispin Cider's Bare Naked Organic Hard Apple Cider (22oz.), found

   easily at Whole Foods stores! 

10 oz. cool water 

1/4 c. Kosher salt

2 Tbsp. sugar 

1 tsp. Allspice berries, barley crushed

1 tsp. Tellicherry peppercorns, barely crushed 

2 Tbsp. olive oil 

1 Tbsp. honey

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp. chopped, fresh thyme and rosemary

Pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper 

1) Combine cider, water, salt and sugar in a large container and stir until most of the salt

    and sugar are dissolved. 

2) Add in the peppercorns, Allspice and pork chops, making sure the brine covers the pork. 

    Let the mixture sit for 40 min. or an hour before grilling. Remove from the brine and pat

    dry with paper towels. 

3) Make the glaze by combining the herbs with the oil, vinegar, and honey. Stir to combine.

4) You can use an indoor grill or an outdoor grill, just make sure that you have enough room 

    to cook indirectly on the grill space over medium heat. Oil the grill and sear each side of the 

    chops for 2-3 minutes. 

5) Brush the chops with the glaze on one side, turn over onto indirect heat and cook. Glaze 

    the other side, turn over and finish chops until you reach an internal temperature of 145. 

    Pull off the grill and rest 5 minutes before serving. 

A crowded grill...don't be like me. The more space the better; they still turned out great though! 

Served my chops alongside some roasted organic carrots with thyme and honey, simple greens and a parsnip and yukon gold potato mash. A great fall meal! 

This was a fantastic meal! Just what we needed to warm the house and our bodies up from the cold. My Crispin Honey Crisp cider with Bulleit Bourbon on ice didn't hurt much either...

That's all for now cider friends! I'll be hitting you up next week with my very exciting 'The Cider Kitchen' video and all the recipes I made for my first filmed Cider Dinner. See you soon! 

Mulled Cider

Bring on the fall! I for one am all about it this year. I've always really enjoyed the fall, but rarely do I enjoy thinking about what comes after...cold. Lots and lots of cold and snow and then a little more cold and snow after that. So even when I'd really like to enjoy the fall, I was always brought to a halt  thinking about my imminent doom soon thereafter. But this year, for some very welcome reason, I opened up my arms and embraced it without pause. 

This new-found joy over fall put me into a tizzy of needing to do all things fall related. One such activity resulted in this fortified-mulled-cider-in-an-apple cocktail. I rejoiced, reveled, and slipped into a happy stupor of autumnal joy. 

 Mulled Cider Cocktail:

2 bottles of Crispin Cider's "The Saint"

6 oz. Bulleit Bourbon

3/4 c. (or more) Apple Cider 

Mulling spices like: Allspice (4-6), cinnamon sticks (2-3), star anise (3) or clove(4-5). You could also add a little orange or ginger if you want to get wild. 

3-6 apples, consider that you may mangle them (I know I did, and then adjust accordingly) Also, you'll want to pick large apples with good flat bottoms. 

A little lemon juice so the apples don't brown when you cut them

If you want to make the apple cups:

1) Grab an apple and cut just the top off. Rub liberally with the lemon juice to prevent browning 

    while you're working. I found a handy dandy grapefruit knife that was curved that came in 

    very handy here. I cut the core out first by simply cutting around it, be careful to not put a 

    whole in the bottom like I did on my first one!

2) Slowly start to cut your way further around where the core was until you've got most of the

    inside out but still have a good sturdy vessel for people to hold. When you're happy with your   

    artwork you're done! Ta-dah! 

If you just want the drink already:

1) Pour the Crispin cider and regular cider into a heavy bottomed pot. Add the mulling spices and   

    slowly heat over low to med-low heat until it just begins to steadily steam. 

2) After the batch starts to steam toss in the bourbon. Serve right away or put a lid on it to keep it 

    warm.  Once the cider starts to steam it is more or less losing its alcohol content, so put a lid on 

    it and keep that booze safe! 

My first failed apple cup, wa wa waaaa! 

Cheers! Here's to you and here's to me, apple loving friends we shall always be! 

I Scream, You Scream!

Don't we all scream for ice cream? I mean, don't we? 

So I suppose I can't speak for you, but I definitely can speak for myself. When it comes to ice cream I'm literally going to spoon-stab you if you don't fork it over. And I'm especially threatening when the goods at hand are this delicious. Seriously. Really delicious. 

My post today is not of my own creation, oh no way am I talented enough to make cider ice cream that rivals regular ice cream. I needed to call in some lovely talent by the name of Kelly Moritz (btw, we have the same initials and were both born on the 27th-it was meant to be). Kelly, a sort of ice cream aficionado, was inspired by Crispin Cider's Lansdowne for its use of Irish stout yeast and molasses. I immediately brought her some to try and she went straight to work, in what I can only imagine was some sort of mad-sciency experiment lab/kitchen movie scene, and emerged an ice cream victor. You're going to love this. 

Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you: 

Lansdowne Ice Cream with Salted Walnuts: (courtesy of Kelly Moritz) 

¾ c. Crispin Lansdowne Cider reduced from 2 c.

2 c. whole milk

4 tsp. cornstarch

1 c. heavy cream

½ c. brown sugar

¼ c. molasses

¼ tsp. salt

1 c. salted walnuts

Special Tools

Some variety of home ice cream maker – make sure your bowl is solidly frozen (about 24 hours in the freezer) before you get started

Heavy saucepan or pot

Whisk

Ziploc bag with strong/double zipper

Chilled ice cream storage container, or pint containers if you can find them (and then tell me where you found them!)

1) Start by boiling down your Lansdowne in a saucepan to remove the excess water and alcohol that will keep your ice cream from freezing by bringing the heat up to medium high and watching it carefully without agitating it too much. Once the cider is hot and starting to simmer, reduce heat to medium-low and keep on the burner about 20-22 minutes until it looks about halved. Measure out your ¾ c. and let cool.

2) Make a "slurry" with ¼ c. of your whole milk and 4 tsp. cornstarch in a small bowl, set aside. Be sure to incorporate all the starch with a fork or whisk so none is sitting at the bottom of the bowl.

3) In a large saucepan, add the remaining milk, heavy cream, brown sugar, molasses, and salt. Whisk and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for about 4 minutes until your creamy base is heated through.

4) Stir in your milk slurry, return mixture to a boil and cook, stirring, about 2 minutes or until the mixture can coat the back of a spoon. Be careful not to scorch the ice cream base (you’ll get a tell-tale burnt milk smell).

Watch your heat and keep your whisk moving! 

5) Whisk in your cooled Lansdowne!

6) Pour everything into a sturdy plastic bag with a good zipper that will not leak and submerge in an ice bath, or if you have the time, let chill in the fridge several hours at least or overnight. The ice cream base must be very cold, so don’t skimp on this step.

Not the prettiest concoction at this point, just think of what will be...

7) Once the base is very cold, I like to simply snip the corner of my Ziploc bag with some sharp scissors while my ice cream maker is already spinning, for easy pouring into the bowl. Once you take your bowl out of the freezer, be ready to pour in your mix! Have the machine plugged in on a stable surface, then freeze according to directions.

8) After about 15-20 minutes your ice cream should be nearly the consistency of soft serve – this is about as hard as it will get in the machine. At about 15 minutes pour in your roasted salted walnuts for the finishing touch and let the machine mix them for you.

9) Turn out your ice cream into a pre-chilled storage container, cover, and allow the ice cream to firm up in the freezer for several hours. Before serving, allow to soften slightly before scooping.

Enjoy your homemade Crispin Lansdowne Ice Cream and pat yourself on the back for sticking with this oh-so-slightly labor-intensive recipe! Experiment with other ciders, mix-ins, extracts – the base can be endlessly adapted to your tastes and whims!

*If you only have raw walnuts, place them in a Ziploc bag or bowl with a few drops of your choice of oil and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Shake the bag until the walnuts are coated (or combine with your hands in a bowl), then spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 5 minutes at 325 degrees.

Begging for ice cream

Lansdowne cooling off before becoming even more delicious 

I better make sure it tastes ok...yup. good. really good. 

Kelly also approved. Winner.
 ______________________________________________________

 Kelly you rock! This recipe was really actually pretty easy, I had the pleasure of being able to peer over her shoulder the whole time she made it. Plus, she gave us such detailed directions, even I think I could re-create it! 

So have fun with it and like Kelly said, play around, try something new and achieve new kitchen miracles everyday. And if at first you don't succeed, well you know that line...did I ever tell you about the time I tried to make fudge? Story for another day I suppose... thanks for coming by to check it out and thanks so much to Kelly for her hard work, this ice cream is delicious!