First crab and "South End of the Market" Cottage Pie

This morning at the market, we overheard someone say it was a "much restricted" market because of the weather.  While it is true that it was drizzling and cold, it is also true that the market was bursting with treasures.  We got what are likely to be the last organic grapes from Mt. Moriah farms, as well as the first crab of the season from Mission Fish.

We also nabbed two ducks from Chowdown Farms.  We're planning a duck ragu as one of our uses for those ducks and we'll write about that later.  We love crab in salads (see one of our first posts about our version of Crab Louis) and that's what we'll do with this first crab of the season, combining it with beautiful lettuce mixes available from several different farms and the last-gasp tomatoes from Towani farms.  If we weren't currently obsessed with making our own fresh pasta, we'd pick up some from Pasta Dave at the market--a welcome addition to our vendors--and serve it with melted butter and as much of the crab as our budget and picking patience would allow.

If you need a meal this week that isn't too demanding and will please different palates, we'd like to recommend a Sweet Potato Cottage pie that we think of as "South End of the Market" Cottage Pie because its three chief ingredients can be purchased at the South End:  raisins and sweet potatoes from Schletewitz Farms/The Fruit Factory and ground beef from Yolo Land & Cattle. 

The recipe originally came from Fine Cooking magazine and is available here:  http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/sweet-potato-cottage-pie.aspx.  Predictably, we made a few changes.  These lower the fat content of the potato topping and spice up the filling.

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For the topping
2 large sweet potatoes (about 2 lb. total)
1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
3/4 oz. (1/4 cup) finely grated Cheese
Kosher salt and
Freshly ground black pepper 

For the filling
2 medium celery stalks, cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 3/4 cup)
1 large carrot, cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 3/4 cup)  
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1-1/2 cups) 
Kosher salt 
3 medium cloves garlic, minced 
2 tsp. cumin seeds toasted and then ground
2 tsp. chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 tsp. dried oregano 
1 tsp. ancho chile powder or other pure chile powder 
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon 
1 lb. ground beef  from Yolo Cattle
1 14-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 chipotle chile from a can, chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped green olives  (we use those from the Davis Co-op olive bar)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped raisins from the Farmers Market (they really are better), perhaps chopped so that they distribute evenly

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Prepare the toppping

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 425°F. Line a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Prick the sweet potatoes all over. Roast until very tender, about 45 minutes to an hour.  You can do this well in advance, perhaps when you've got the oven on for another meal, and then just store the roasted potatoes in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the cottage pie.

When cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh into a medium mixing bowl. Add the yogurt, generous salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper and beat with an electric hand mixer on low speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Set aside. (It also works to mash the potatoes with a hand masher.)

Prepare the filing

Heat the oil in a 12-inch sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion, and 1 tsp. salt. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are soft, fragrant, and starting to turn golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, oregano, chile powder, and cinnamon and cook for 30 seconds. Add the beef, season with 1 tsp. salt (original recipe recommends 2), and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes. While the original recipe recommends tilting the pan to spoon off most of the fat, the grass-fed ground beef from Yolo Land & Cattle is really lean so you don't need to do this. 

Pour the tomatoes and their juice into a small bowl and crush them with your hands or a fork. Mix in the chopped chipotle.  Add the tomatoes to the meat and cook, uncovered, until thick, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the olives and raisins and cook for another minute; season to taste with salt. 

Assemble and bake the pie

Transfer the beef mixture to a 9x9-inch baking dish. Spread the sweet potatoes over the top in an even layer. Bake until bubbling around edges, about 30 minutes. Top with some grated cheese. Bake another about 15 minutes until the cheese has melted.  (Fine Cooking recommends broiling this at the end but we get distracted and come to grief so we omit that step.) Let cool at least 10 minutes before serving. 

We have assembled the pie a day or two in advance and then heated it up with success later.  That makes it perfect as a dish to have on hand before those hungry houseguests arrive.