mashed potatoes – Jellybeans in the City

Hooray for the holidays!

We’re now at the final stretch of the year and it’s time to slow down and spend time with the people we love.

If we’ve been too busy hustlin’ and bustlin’ over the course of this year to catch up with our folks over a good meal, this period gives us the perfect opportunity to do so.

That’s exactly what I did with my extended fam at the Peri Peri Charcoal Chicken & Sauce Bar branch at Eastwood Mall in Libis, Quezon City.

Here, my folks and I enjoyed a laid-back and comfy setting in which we can let loose and go on a fabulous flavor adventure together.

And with its Holiday Epic Feast Chicken & Riblet Grupo, a delicious curation of the restaurant’s best-selling specialties, there’s something for every family member to discover and love.

Of course, the star of this feast is the restaurant’s very own speciality: the Peri-Peri Chicken. This dish originates all the way from Africa, where peri-peri, the pepper which lends the dish its name is cultivated. Together with other spices and herbs, this pepper flavors the special mixture where a whole chicken is marinated overnight, then charcoal-grilled to a gloriously golden hue prior to serving, accompanied slices of lime.

The restaurant is also known as a sauce bar, and rightly so, given that it carries eight signature sauces, all made with natural ingredients, to add new dimensions of flavor to its signature chicken dish. Representing various international flavor profiles, the sauces range from mildly sweet, to medium spiciness and hot. Diners can choose any of these sauces (or mix and match them!) to tailor-fit their meal to their palate.

Well, the flavor adventure doesn’t stop there. The feast also features hefty hunks of BBQ Bourbon Riblets, tender and meaty barbecued ribs glazed in smokey bourbon infused sauce.

Being a lightly-spiced rice dish, Java Rice is the perfect companion to grilled and barbecued dishes. This feast brings eight cups of them, guaranteeing a filling meal for the whole fam!

Here’s a confession: half the pleasure of eating grilled meat is wolfing it down between bites of one’s favorite side dish. For the eight regular side dishes included in the Holiday Epic Feast, I opted to include the fam’s all-time go-to side dishes: Bacon Mac ‘n Cheese, Coleslaw, Fries and Mashed Potatoes.

Completing the meal are a liter each of the restaurant’s refreshing house-blend drinks: Iced Tea and Lemonade.

Would you believe that you too could treat the fam to such a deliciously filling Holiday Epic Feast for just Php1,999, saving you Php620? This meal is good for eight to ten persons, giving you the perfect opportunity to gather your nears-and-dears and enjoy a lovely meal.

Planning a more intimate get-together with the barkada? You can opt for the Holiday Epic Feast Chicken & Pasta Grupo, good for four to five persons for Php1,399 (which saves you Php255). This meal includes one whole chicken, one pasta to share, four cups of Java Rice, four regular side dishes and one liter of houseblend drink.

This Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken & Sauce Bar is located at the Second Floor, Eastwood Mall, 116 Eastwood Avenue, Eastwood City, Bagumbayan, Quezon City, open Mondays to Thursdays from 11am to 11pm, Fridays to Saturdays from 11am to 12am and Sundays from 10am to 11pm.

Other Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken & Sauce Bar outlets are located at:

Las Pinas: Evia Lifestyle Center
Makati: Ayala North Exchange, Greenbelt 3
Mandaluyong: SM Megamall
Manila: Robinsons Place Manila
Marikina: SM City Marikina, Gil Fernando Avenue
Muntinlupa: Alabang Town Center
Paranaque: Ayala Malls Manila Bay
Pasay: Resorts World Manila
Pasig: SM City East Ortigas, Ayala Malls Feliz, Capitol Commons, Robinsons Galleria
Quezon City: Gateway Mall, Robinsons Magnolia, UP Town Center, Trinoma Mall, Banawe, Brittany Square
San Juan: Promenade Greenhills
Taguig: Uptown Parade BGC, Market! Market BGC, Venice Grand Mall

To enjoy this feast at home, order from Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken’s delivery website or call +63 2 73747374 for Metro Manila orders and +63 917 7747374 for provincial orders.

To know more about Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, browse through its website , or follow it on Facebook and Instagram.

Check out my previous posts on Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken:

Peri Peri Chicken, SM East — Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, SM City East Ortigas

Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, Tomas Morato

Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, Capitol Commons

Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken & Sauce Bar, Gil Fernando Marikina

Delish family dine-in with Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken’s Hearty Flavor Feast

All this extra time spent at home sure gets me in a more adventurous mood in the kitchen.

While Hubby has been flexin’ his culinary muscles and impressin’ the kiddos with outputs such as Beef Stroganoff and my K-pop princess #ExhibitA whipping up some Tteokbokki and Jajangmyeon on the fly, I decided to show ’em a thing or two on how mommy (sometimes!) knows best in the kitchen by preparing Shepherd’s Pie for dinner.

Shepherd’s Pie was first known as cottage pie, which became popular in Europe in the late 1700s around the time when the potato was being introduced as an affordable food crop for the poor, hence the inclusion of “cottage” – which refers to “modest dwelling for rural workers” – in the dish’ name.

It became known as Shepherd’s Pie in the 1800s when mutton or lamb was used as the meat filling.

In the early 1900s, it also adopted the monicker Hachis Parmentier, named after the Frenchman Antoine-Augustine Parmentier who advocated the potato as food source in France and throughout Europe.

Since its down-to-earth beginnings, Shepherd’s Pie has enjoyed worldwide popularity and is included in the menus of many European restaurants.

Well, true to my “no-fuss/no-frills” philosophy when it comes to home cooking, the Shepherd’s Pie I served my fam is quite easy to prepare, with ingredients that are available in many wet markets or grocery stores even during the enhanced community quarantine.

Ingredients:

5 medium potatoes
1/2 cup butter
1 medium onion, rough-chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
1/2 kilo of ground beef
1 beef bouillon cube dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water to make a beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup grated cheese

Procedure:

Place the potatoes, along with a teaspoon of salt in a medium-sized pot covered by water by at least half an inch. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for twenty minutes or until tender, then remove from the pan.

Melt half of the butter in a pan on medium heat. Saute the onions and carrots in the butter for six to ten minutes or until tender.

Add the ground beef to the carrots and onions, cooking until the beef loses its reddish color. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the Worcestershire sauce and the beef broth. Once the beef mixture reaches a simmer, lower the heat and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.

Mash the cooked potatoes in a bowl. Add in the remaining half of the butter, then season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C. Evenly spread the beef mixture in a large baking dish.

Spread the mashed potatoes over the top of the ground beef. Using a fork, rough up the surface of the mashed potatoes to create peaks that will get browned. You may sprinkle some grated cheese on top of the mashed potatoes.

Place the baking dish in the oven and cook for thirty minutes or until brown and bubbling.

This recipe serves eight at 383 calories per serving.

The dish is a hit with the fam and I look forward to preparing it again. For my next attempt, I’m considering adding some sliced mushrooms.

I would recommend this dish for Sunday brunch with the fam or as a contribution to a potluck party. It’s quite heavy on its own and can go a long way when combined with other dishes.