Empadão de Peru - Turkey Shepherd's Pie

This one became extremely popular after a wisdom tooth extraction and the orders to eat only soft foods for some days. In Portugal, an Empadão is normally made with a mix of ground beef and pork, but we adapted it to our taste and reduced the fat a bit with the substitution of ground turkey. We both LOVE mashed potatoes so any recipe that includes them always causes some smiles around here.

This is truly a comfort food, perfect for cold winter days, but we like it so much that it stays on the menu all year long. The only downside is that takes a while to prepare and will cause a bit of a mess in your kitchen, but the results and the leftovers are well worth it.

Ingredients for 4-6 portions:

For the meat sauce:

1 large Onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves 

2 bay leaves

¼ Pepper (we used an orange one) chopped 

Dried red pepper flakes, to taste

Tomato sauce (1 cup) divided

Bacon (we used two big slices, less than ½ pound/200g)

Ground Turkey (1 pound/450g)

Red Wine (at your preference)

Beer (at your preference)

Balsamic Vinegar- just a splash 

Salt

Pepper

For the mashed potatoes (Purée):

Potatoes

Milk

Butter

Egg

Salt

Cheese (We used Cheddar) for garnish

The Path to the Empadão Kingdom

Take a deep breath before starting the cutting of the onion, smash the garlic and add it and the onion to the pan with a little olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Add a bit of salt and dried red pepper, to your taste. Once the onions become translucent (4-5 minutes), add the chopped orange pepper, about ⅔ cup of the tomato sauce and a bit of red wine and let it simmer for a few more minutes.

While it’s simmering, cut the bacon and season the ground meat with salt and pepper (and/or red pepper). Add the bacon and a little more tomato sauce and reduce the heat to low for a while. Add the turkey and be sure to keep an eye on the texture of the sauce. 

If the mixture gets too dry add some wine and beer to soften the sauce. If it gets too liquidy let it boil with the lid off. Continue to stir the sauce occasionally, because the turkey is drier than the beef and pork it tends to collect into clusters. 

Pull them apart them with a fork if needed so that the meat is evenly distributed in the sauce. Let it boil and develop flavor for as long as time allows. Keep in mind that the sauce is going to the oven later and shouldn’t be too liquidy or too dry when you put it in the dish, look for the happy medium. 

The scent coming from the pan starts making everybody in the kitchen very happy and you should use that cue to start peeling the potatoes for the purée. The number of potatoes you need will depend upon the size of baking dish you’ll use. Remember that a good purée always seems to shrink in the pan, so get some extra potatoes peeled and if by chance you have too much you can always make potato pancakes the next morning.  

After the purée is done and the meat sauce is at the right point, transfer the meat to your baking dish and cover it with the purée. Bake it for 15 minutes at 350ºF then remove and add the cheese, grated or artistically cut. Return to the oven and bake for 20 more minutes. Let cool a bit before serving and Bom apetite!

The night’s selection: 

From Mendocino Brewery Company we chose one of their Select Collection, the IPA White Hawk. We found it at a good price and decided to give it a try. With a 7% alcohol volume, it pleases with the first intense punch of the hops and a bouquet that lingers for quite a while. Now we will be on the lookout for their Imperial IPA.

For the soundtrack to this recipe we choose the Corações de Atum 2011 double album “Romance Hardcore / Hardcore Romance”. This very unusual album features ear-catching lyrics by the peculiar almost candidate to the Portuguese Presidency Manuel João Vieira. The album includes two versions of songs like this one, with the first CD offering 12 songs appropriate for radio broadcast and the second CD including 9 songs with much more colorful language. It’s worthwhile to learn the language just to be able to translate the lyrics of this great Portuguese artist.

Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo

The rough translation for the name of this recipe would be Barrel Joe’s Style Codfish. This one is a rockstar amongst the hundreds of ways that the Portuguese cook cod and according to a reliable source it came from Porto, in the north of Portugal. My mother has made it since I can remember. According to her, it’s a recipe that can sit and wait to be done and needs plenty of oven time. This makes it a great option when you are serving a lot of people and there are always those who never arrive on time, kind of the opposite of a souffle.

It’s pleases the masses because it has mashed potatoes, and is prettier than normal codfish dishes, which is partially due to the garnish of mayonnaise (my mother’s recipe also adds mustard). This preparation of the codfish truly highlights its best flavors . This time we were cooking for 6 people, so as a true Portuguese I planned enough food for 10 hungry men. For 6 people one tray is enough, but it’s also a good idea to make extra and have food for the next couple of days. You can’t get enough of a good Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo.

Ingredients:

- Salted Codfish (from Norway, Canada or anyplace you can find)

- Onions

- Olive Oil

- Pepper

- Salt

- White wine

- Milk

- Flour

- Garlic 

- Bay leaf

- Mayonnaise

- Mustard

for the Mashed Potatoes:

- Potatoes 

- Milk

- Eggs

- Butter

- Salt

The Cod Code:

- Put the codfish in a large bowl and cover it with water the day before cooking. Try to change the water every 6 hours or so, depending on how thick the pieces of cod are. The soaking will help to rehydrate the fish and get rid of excess salt. Try to use only the central parts so that you have only the main big fishbone. You can save the smaller pieces for another recipe. We will share an appropriate one, soon.

- Cook the codfish in enough milk to cover all the fish, this will depend on the size of your pan. Bring to a boil and reduce heat and let simmer in the milk for half an hour.

- While the codfish is boiling you can get your potatoes cooking and ready for mashing.

- Put the flour and the beaten egg on plates and dredge the codfish before frying in olive oil. Fry on each side for approximately 1-2 minutes until a light crust develops. Set aside.

- Use the olive oil that you fried the codfish in to start cooking the onion. Add garlic, bay leaf, salt, white wine and let it simmer until the onion is cooked.

- Put the codfish in a baking pan (we used two 9x13" ones), cover it with the onion and olive oil mixture and put it in a 200ºC/400ºF oven to bake for about 15 minutes.

- Finish the mashed potatoes mixing, salt, milk, butter and beaten eggs.

- Take the codfish from the oven and cover it with the mashed potatoes adding the mayonnaise and the mustard in a creative way. You will need to know later if the onions and codfish are boiling, so leave a space in the middle of the potatoes so that you can still see it.

- Put the potato-topped codfish in the oven and check after approximately 30 minutes. After you see that the onions are boiling, you will only need to let it cook another 20 minutes before turning it off. It can wait in the oven for a while (just don’t forget about it) and the extra time will help to reduce the onion sauce that surrounds the codfish and improves the flavor of the whole thing. 

The nights selection:

This savory and filling meal requires a full flavored wine so we chose the 2009 Quinta de Cabriz. Blending the varietals of Touriga Nacional, Afrocheiro, and Tinta Roriz, this wine shows all the possible flavors of Dão, one the most interesting wine regions of Portugal. To go with all this, we strongly recommend listening to some tunes by Deolinda, one of the most talented modern Portuguese bands. Their melodies bring new life to traditionally inspired Portuguese music, and their songstress Ana Bacalhau shares her name with our main ingredient, it’s naturally a perfect accompaniment.