Thursday, March 27, 2014

Naked Cornish Pasty

This is inspired by my grandmother's Methodist church pasty fundraisers and a quick skillet meal posted by Tom, a whole30 forum moderator. This is a regular meal for us, with subtle variations depending on my time restraints. Variation notes posted below. 

Base recipe:
1# ground beef
1# ground pork sausage 
1 huuuuuge rutabaga, diced 
1-2# carrots, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 bunch kale or 9oz spinach, chopped
Salt, pepper, garlic

Tonight I mixed all the chopped raw ingredients together and then baked it for an hour in two open baking dishes at 350*F.  I love the crispy bites! 

Other times I sauté/fry each ingredient separately in my 5qt fry pan (again so they get crispy spots) and stir it together at the end. 

If you want to use the crockpot, you can use either method. Knead the raw ingredients together and cook on high 5-6 hours. Or precook and keep warm until you are ready. Either way works -precooking creates more browning, using the crockpot to cook makes everything more tender. I would recommend using spinach in the crockpot - kale can get rather fragrant with the long steaming time.  

This makes approx 5qts worth, enough for almost two meals if we have sides. Man my girls eat a lot!

I prefer to eat it over fresh salad greens with either ketchup (old habits) or thousand island. A simple oil & vinegar is also delicious! My husband eats his salad on the side. My girls just keep eating. Ha. 

Quick potato soup

Today's potato soup:


2# gold potatoes 

2c ham bone broth

4c chicken bone broth (or use all chicken broth)

2# frozen mixed broccoli, cauli, carrots

1/2# bacon, cut into 1/4" strips

1/2# ham, diced

1 onion, diced

Salt, pepper, garlic to preference


1.Scrub & roughly chop the potatoes. Cook in broth with black pepper & garlic in a heavy pan with tight fitting lid until tender. 

2. Steam frozen veggies. 

3. Cook bacon and onion over low heat. Add ham when the bacon is almost done. Continue cooking until bacon is tender crisp or how you prefer. 

4. Use an immersion blender to purée the potatoes & broth. Add the veggies and use immersion blender to lightly chop if the pieces are too large. Stir in onions & meats. Taste test and add salt, pepper, and more garlic if needed.