Mirepoix: Beef Pot Pie

Here's another way to use the wild rice soup starter from Julie Languille's Meals in Jars.

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Rice-topped Shepherd's Pie (dialysis diet)

This one is mostly for me. I originally started this blog as an easy way to share the couple dozen recipes I recommended frequently to people who needed to prepare meals in advance, but it's also been useful for me to document how I've changed recipes that I want to make again.

So this is one of those recipes.  It's from a cookbook called Cooking for David that provides recipes for folks on dialysis.  I'm cooking for a loved one who has been experiencing worsening chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is now receiving dialysis treatments.  Side note...Boy, have I learned about food and the kidneys lately.  Lemme tell you, if you've been diagnosed with diabetes (and CKD is likely in your future if you have poorly managed diabetes) and think the diabetic diet is restrictive, that's NOTHING compared to the CKD/dialysis diet.  Keep your kidneys (and pancreas) healthy people...life is not fun when they don't work.

So back to the recipe...you don't futz with dialysis recipes.  This is so hard for me.  There's a pretty strict limit on potassium and phosphorus intake, in addition to sodium, protein and liquid limits and it's different for each patient.  Unfortunately, potassium and phosphorus are nutrients that aren't required to be listed on nutrition labels the way sodium, carbohydrates, protein and fat grams are so it's hard to know just how much you're getting unless you follow a tested recipe very closely or use a renal diet food analyzer like this one: http://www.davita.com/food-analyzer/

Also unfortunately, the foods that are high in potassium and phosphorus are healthy foods...whole grains, many fruits and veggies, nuts and beans, dairy products.  "Low sodium" products are also a minefield as most aren't simply made with less salt, but with a potassium salt substitute (not necessarily a bad thing for those of us with functioning kidneys...in fact here is a report of a study suggesting that more than high sodium intake alone, a combination of high sodium and low potassium puts you at higher risk for cardiac problems... but it's problematic for renal patients. Also a reminder that when buying packaged foods, "low" anything oftens means "substitute" rather than just "less" of whatever the reduced ingredient is).  So again, the takeaway is that you follow the recipe, don't add extra veggies (crazy, right?), don't substitute whole grain products and read labels.

Shepherd's Pie is a family fave here.  I was excited to see a kidney-friendly recipe that substituted low-potassium/phosphorus white rice for the usual high-potassium/phosphorus potato-cheese crust (did you know that a potato has more potassium than a banana...my dance teacher always said that, but I thought she was full of it).  It did use a lot of high-sodium sauce additions though..."no salt added" beef stock, additional beef bouillon granules, Worcestershire sauce, Kitchen Bouquet (who even has this any more anyway?).  I checked the labels on all my stock/bouillon/sauce options and settled on a vegetable base bouillon made without potassium salts and a healthy slug of red wine (which I also checked on the Davita food analyzer) instead of all that other stuff.  I made it with long grain white rice...I might try arborio rice next time for a creamier, more potato-y texture.

And so to bring it all back to where I started...my husband requested that I make a note of what I did so I can make this recipe again in the future...soon, preferably.  No pictures because I prepped it ahead for my family to cook on my late night at work.

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Ham and cheese divan

If you are a fan of brunch, you will LOVE this dish at any time of day.  Like Chicken Divan, it's a casserole of vegetables and protein layered with a creamy can-o-soup sauce.  I really didn't feel like making my sauce from scratch for this, so I used a can of cheddar cheese soup plus a little milk but you certainly can make your own.  It was ridiculously tasty. 

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to make the stuffed eggs just for this dish again (although it wasn't hard).  But this is absolutely going in my post-holiday meal rotation as a way to deal with leftover deviled eggs.  Plain halved hard-boiled eggs will work fine if you want to save a little work.

Original recipe from my mom's 1970-something Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.

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Moussaka

Pronouced "moo-sah-KAH", it's Greek for "lasagne".  Not really, but it's like Greek lasagne.  It's a meat-and-eggplant layered casserole with cheese souffle on top, but no pasta, and it is exquisite.

I first experienced this dish in Greece on a high school Classics Club trip (yeah, Latin nerd right here), later at Primo's in Alexandria, VA, the Trojan Horse in Bloomington, IN and the Greek Fest in Boca Raton, FL and have cooked it from the Frugal Gourmet's Three Ancient Cuisines recipe since.  I count moussaka among the first "real" dishes I learned to cook, and it has never disappointed.

You can make your own homemade tomato sauce (I don't) or use store-bought spaghetti sauce (I do).  The Frug's recipe for "Greek Tomato Sauce" calls for allspice which most spaghetti sauces don't use, so I simmer the moussaka meat sauce with a few allspice berries to incorporate that flavor.

Like all layered casseroles, you can build this recipe in a variety of sizes: 1 13x9 or 2 8x8 or 4 8x4 pans.

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Greens au gratin

I had scads of end-of-season chard in my garden, and this is what I did with it.  It's similar to the holiday favorite broccoli-n-cheese casserole.  You can use any combination of greens you want, just be sure to cook them and drain them very well.  You'll need about 5 cups cooked for this recipe. 

Before cooking

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Beef Cabbage Casserole

I loves me some cabbage rolls, but the head of cabbage I had in the fridge wasn't really big enough to get decent-sized leaves off of for rolling.  Besides, I'd just spent the afternoon throwing together the next couple of weeks' worth of freezer meals and I was pooped.  So I decided to make "deconstructed" cabbage rolls instead.  A bonus of making this casserole instead of regular cabbage rolls is that you aren't left with that tiny ball of cabbage that you can't get any more decent-sized leaves from.  While it most certainly can be shredded and repurposed into a recipe for coleslaw or salad, some days that's just too much bother.  And it's as easy to make two of these casseroles as to make one.

This recipe can be cooked from a frozen state but it will take at least 2 hours in the oven.  If you want to do this, be sure to assemble the casseroles in metal pans (disposal or regular metal baking pans), NOT in ceramic or glass pans!!!  Ceramic and glass will be fine if you thaw the casserole first, though I'd still leave the dish on the counter for 30 minutes or so to avoid cold-glass-meets-hot-oven fireworks.  With *really* good planning, this can be a crockpot meal as well...just be sure to assemble and freeze the casserole in a pan that is smaller than your crockpot insert (a small cake pan works for mine) or put 1/2 the following recipe directly into the crockpot insert for next-day cooking.

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Savoy Cabbage Rolls

The first time my parents went out of town and left my teenaged brother and I home alone for the night, I seized freedom with both hands and...cooked cabbage rolls.  What a rebel I was ;)  I have ever since had a soft spot for all sorts of cabbage rolls, as I mark that recipe as the first time I ever *really* planned and cooked a meal.

The original recipe comes from the behemoth European cookbook "The Silver Spoon", though I have experimented wildly with storage and delayed-cookery options, rewrote the recipe to use less weird measurements and upped the vegetable ante.  SS assumes that you will have time to prepare the leaves, prepare the filling, roll the rolls and cook them all at once.  Bwahahahahahaha!  I made the rolls and froze them individually, then cooked mine from the frozen state on the stovetop.  Turned out really well.  I'd guess that the crockpot will work just as well, though thawing the rolls first would make fitting them into the pot (on the stovetop or in the crockpot) easier.  You can also bake them in the oven, but that will take longer and you really will need to thaw them first. 

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Poppy Seed Chicken variation

Ground turkey was on sale this week, so I made a variant of the Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole with browned ground turkey instead of baked chicken.  I also used crunched up Ritz crackers for the topping since I couldn't bear to make another appliance dirty by making breadcrumbs in the food processor. 

Double batch, frozen in 2 8x8 disposable pans.

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Mushrooms on sale!

What to do with several pounds of mushrooms purchased on sale?  Slice them in the food processor and prep for roasted mushroom sandwiches and freeze mushroom casseroles, of course!

(By the by, I haven't gotten around to doing my mushroom cleaning science experiment because a) I'm easily distracted and b) my mushroom slicer broke.  Eventually...  So I'm still working with the assumption that a quick rinse and pat dry will be sufficient for cleaning and allowing prepped, sliced mushrooms to stand for a day or two in the fridge awaiting cooking.)

You'll need about 2 lbs of mushrooms for 4 sandwiches and 1 1/2 lbs. for each casserole.  I'm making one recipe of sandwiches and 2 casseroles, so I have 5 pounds of mushrooms.  All button-type mushrooms, cremini and white button.  Shitake, oyster, and any other fancy mushroom should be sliced by hand as the food processor will just tear them up rather than slicing them.  Use the slicing plate in your food processor, and you'll be done in no time flat.

For the mushroom casserole, you need to make a thick white sauce for the base of the dish.  I have recently discovered that this can be accomplished in the microwave!  Huzzah!  So fast, so easy and no extra heat in the kitchen.  You will need to use a container that is much larger than seems necessary because the mixture will foam up quite a bit.
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St. Patty's Day Redux

Who didn't make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day?  Anyone?  OK, well, you over there on I Don't Do Silly Holidays Island and your friend in Corned Beef Is Gross City, you two can stop reading now.

Unless you made it for a party, I bet there were some leftovers.  I'm putting my corned beef leftovers into a cheese ball (!!) and into a Reuben flavored macaroni and cheese casserole.  The hubbie loves reubens, the kids love mac and cheese, I have leftover corned beef and thousand island dressing...winners all round! 

I especially like this type of M&C recipe because you don't have to make a roux-based cheese sauce to bathe the pasta in.  It winds up being less work on the front end and slightly more work on the back end as you have to cook the finished casserole longer on account of the eggs, but I think having less prepwork is an advantage here.
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