Recipe Corner: Tater-Tot Hot Dish (Doctored Up)

[seidoo_ryuu]

I've lived in Minnesota for my entire life. For those who have never spent any considerable time in the northern Midwest, the concept of 'hot dish' is rather foreign. Sure, you have your 'casseroles', but it's really not quite the same. Hot dish is comfort food, food for nights when you don't feel like putting much effort into cooking. It's budget food, meant to be thrown together with inexpensive ingredients or leftovers, to make a meal that feeds a family without being extremely expensive. It's a hot, complete meal, incorporating meat, vegetables, and a starch, all bound together with cream soup and (sometimes) topped with crushed potato chips.

Anyone who has not experienced a warm tuna noodle casserole on a cold Friday night simply hasn't lived, in my opinion.

Anyway, one of my only complaints about hot dish is that, unfortunately, simply because of the sum of its parts, it can be kinda bland. Which takes some of the comfort out of comfort food...you want it to taste good, darnit. So I've been doctoring this simple recipe for tater-tot hot dish, and in my mind, it's an improvement.


Tater Tot Hotdish

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef (I've never tried it this way, but I'm sure ground turkey or ground chicken would work just as well)
1 large onion, chopped (dried onion will also work)

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
OR
2 cans cheddar cheese soup

(The first is the original version. The second is my version. Either way, the recipe calls to thin the soup with a bit of water, but I like to add about 1/3 cup milk, instead, since they're cream-based soups.)

1 pkg frozen mixed vegetables
Tater tots

Brown ground beef and onion (When I do this step, I will add a dash of garlic salt, and a liberal splash of liquid smoke. Liquid smoke is wonderful stuff. It adds a nice, smoky flavor to foods, without a lot of salt and seasoning). Put vegetables on the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish (do not thaw the vegetables first). Drain ground beef, then layer over the vegetables. Pour soups over the top of the meat and vegetables, then follow with a single layer of tater tots (At this point, when the tater tot layer is complete, I sprinkle the tots with seasoning salt, prior to baking). Bake for 1-1/2 hours at 350ºF, until tater tots are golden brown.

Comments

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that sounds lovely. Maybe just broccoli instead of mixed veggies, since the cheese would work lovely with that...

[seidoo-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, that'd be interesting; I never thought of that. Or maybe a stir-fry mix; those sometimes don't have peas, and do have broccoli, although the water chestnuts might be kind of odd. XD

[just-ruth.livejournal.com]

Sounds great! I have to provide a simple dish for Maundy Thursday.

I wonder if I can do this with "sweet potato puffs" (a sweet potato tater tot)?

to quote Scotty "I'll let you know" :)

[seidoo-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I never thought of using sweet potato puffs, but I'll bet it would work! I look forward to hearing how it turned out! :)

[kin-thalas.livejournal.com]

Now I want a casserole! XD

And comfort food from leftovers is just great. It sometimes even tastes better than fresh prepared dishes!

[seidoo-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that's the best thing about hot dish...because they make disgusting leftovers edible again. XD

[stormpsych.livejournal.com]

For Deblanding: Try mixing in a few pineapple chunks. Or even just thin slices of apple covering the surface.

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

I... do not think pineapple and beefy tater tots would be a good flavor combination. Pineapple can work in some dishes, it's a good go-to, but... yeah. Not with this one. And the apple slices on top? By the time the tots are a golden brown, those would be unidentified lumps of charcoal. You could maybe try apple chunks located inside the dish, but not on top. That would just burn long before the dish itself was done baking. And apple and pineapple flavors would taste better in a pork-based dish, than a cream-of-campbells and beef dish, especially when tater tots are involved.

[seidoo-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, that does make me wonder how a ground pork, mixed with pineapple chunks, cream of onion instead of the cheddar, adding some teriyaki sauce...maybe topping with chow mein noodles after baking, or when there's only about 15 minutes left...hmm! And I'll bet there is a recipe for it out there already! XD

Although, I do seem to recall that there have been attempts at Hawaiian burgers, but they've kinda not done so well? I've never really tried beef and pineapple, so I don't know...

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

Pineapple and beef would work decently enough on its own. Even apple and beef. It's the inclusion of the cream based soups and especially the tater tots that would NOT work well. Especially any cream-based, due to the acidic level of the pineapple. That would risk curdling.

The basic meat + fruit combination is fine, but not with the whole dish and additional ingredients. A gravy or non-cream sauce with a different type of starch, such as rice, would work far better with pineapple and beef than the recipe offered. Pineapple is a fantastic dish pick-me-up, but it is not a good catch-all for every sort of hot dish/casserole, especially not cream-based ones.

[seidoo-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm...I've never tried beef and pineapple, so I don't shy away from it, but pineapple and cheese soup, I dunno... XD That might work better with the chicken/celery combo, or with cream of onion or cream of mushroom, instead.

Could be a cultural thing! Most Americans are okay with a pineapple/pork combo...sometimes pineapple/chicken...but aren't too adventurous, when it comes to pineapple/beef. XD The apples do sound interesting, because mmmm, baked apples...