(no subject)

[moominmolly]

Do you have a good casserole recipe?

I didn't grow up eating casserole -- no idea why -- and so I'm kind of entranced by the idea. Early experiments were edible, but not thrilling. Does it get better than that? What do you put in these things? What goes on top?

PS: blair is not here, so I do not have to say "hot dish".

Comments

[fanw.livejournal.com]

I didn't really grow up with casserole either, but I did learn to make green bean casserole (apparently a classic) for a friend of mine.

~4 cups mostly cooked green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cup milk to thin if you want
1 can fried onion bits

Put green beans and mushroom soup and milk in casserole with half the onion bits. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Top with remaining onion bits. Eat.

P.S. It's not what you put in a casserole that makes it a casserole It's really anything that fits in a casserole dish. Just imagine a veggie cobbler. Put in cauliflower and cheese or cover some veggies with bread crumbs. Moussaka is almost a casserole. Experiment!

[ivorjawa.livejournal.com]

~4 cups mostly cooked green beans
NO.
1 can cream of mushroom soup
NO.
3/4 cup milk to thin if you want
NO.
1 can fried onion bits
NO.

NO NO NO NO NO.
You go to hell! You go to hell and you die, Stan!

[dolohov.livejournal.com]

With fresh steamed green beans, and mixing in sauteed mushrooms and onions, this can actually be very, very good.

[ivorjawa.livejournal.com]

Mu.

There are no "good" casserole recipes. It's one of those basic, fundamental food laws of the universe. Another is "there is no blue food."

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

But what about raspberries, huh?

[coraline]

are you claiming blueberries aren't blue, or they aren't food?

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

nehi blue cream soda.

[dolohov.livejournal.com]

Smurf.

[coraline]

the only casserole i grew up eating was american chop suey...

a while ago i made up a rown-up version i like much better... enjoy :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Aw, yeah, like that! :)

"John's Chicken Casserole"

[jacflash.livejournal.com]

A childhood favorite, dating back (at least) to my maternal grandmother. I assume she (or her mother) must have had a Campbell's cookbook at some point, because we have a few old family favorites that depend on the red and white cans.

The recipe as I inherited it is thus:

1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup
1 can Campbell's Cream of Celery soup
1 can plus a little bit of milk
1 1/2 cups Minute Rice
4-8 pieces of chicken on the bone (dark meat seems to work best)
some corn flake crumbs for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 325 degress.

Combine soups, milk, and rice in 13x9x2 pan. Mix thoroughly. Lay chicken pieces flat in pan (they'll be partially submerged). Sprinkle the tops of the chicken pieces with corn flake crumbs, and the whole thing with salt and pepper if desired. Cover pan with foil and bake for two hours.

I've modified it a little to use regular white rice (use 1 cup of white rice in place of the minute rice, and stir it up some halfway through baking), but it's still one of my favorite-ist comfort foods. It's not at all thrilling, but it is soothing.

Re: "John's Chicken Casserole"

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I figure "soothing" is about what I'm looking for here. :)

a casserole with some character

[dbang.livejournal.com]

John and I grew up on entirely different comfort foods. one of my was called "Chili rellenos" but it does not bear much resemblence to the true form of that dish.

I don't have the recipe in front of me but the idea is this:
- Cooked green chilis, seeded and split (I just use the mild ones in the Old El Paso can, but whatever), layed out in a baking pan
- Top with grated cheese of your preferred type (mine is a combo of sharp chedder for taste and monterey jack for texture)
- Optional: leftover cooked chopped up meatstuff. I like pork chop but obviously that wouldn't do it for you; chicken or turkey would work fine.
- another layer of chilis and cheese
- topped with "whipped topping": separate several eggs; whip the whites; beat the yolks with baking mix (ie: bisquick) to stablize and fold them back into the egg whites. spead the whipped topping over the top and bake until cheese is oozy and topping is dryish and nicely browned.

Sort of like "baked alaska" but really "baked new mexico".

Re: a casserole with some character

[dbang.livejournal.com]

Darnit, now I have a craving, and my kids won't touch this stuff.

Oh, and I forgot, serve with a large dollop of sour cream.

[srl.livejournal.com]

A favorite casserole of my dad's required:

1 can cream-of-mushroom soup
1 can green peas
1 can asparagus

Mix. Top with crunchy stuff (crackers, onion strips, whatever). Bake at 350F until bubbly.

In my adult life, I've made it very occasionally as comfort food. If I were making it suck less, I'd use fresh or frozen veggies, but then the texture would probably be all wrong according to my memory. Not at all high cuisine, of course.

Tasty casseroles for me now typically include a variant on pot pie, made with whatever veggies (and spices) I have on hand, sauteed lightly, with liquid (milk, broth) added, thickened with cornstarch-and-cold-water just before it's put in the baking pan, and topped with a pastry or biscuit crust. I sometimes make a roux instead of using cornstarch. Think of it as Random Stirfry in another form.

Today is the perfect day for trying your studded tires, second only to tomorrow's forecast of ice-everywhere.

I *heart* casseroles

[dbang.livejournal.com]

Something my mother used to make that there exists no recipe for, alas: mix white rice with assorted veggies and V8 juice (preferably the spicy stuff). Top with chicken pieces, put in a dutch oven and bake until its "just perfect". :-)

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

The Good Eats episode on casseroles is worth watching, especially if (like me) you have a deep ingrained horror of any recipie that claims that canned cream of mushroom soup is an "ingredient", rather than "spackle".

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Also, it's too mushy for spackle. You'd think spackle would have more kick. Seems more like something I'd fish out of my drainpipes.

Tartiflette, not MFTNC

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

I will omit Mother's Famous Tuna Noodle casserole. It had something to do with: cooked noodles, mushroom soup, canned tuna, frozen peas... and crumbs/butter on top. Phil's family tops theirs with corn flakes (with butter and seasoning?)



Instead I will point you to a recent discovery: Tartiflette!
A local comfort food served in the Chartreuse Mountains where MGrant lives in France!

Cribbed from: http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/recipes/recipesearch/Recipe/0211094-r01.asp but other variants can be found by Googling.

Tartiflette

If you can't get hold of Reblochon, try using Crémier de Chaumes, Epoisses or even a mature Irish Ardrahan. Remove any tough rind.

Serves: 4-6

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 1½ hours, plus resting
Ingredients

50g unsalted butter, softened
175g bacon or pancetta, cut into 1cm lardons
250g cup mushrooms, sliced
1kg waxy potatoes, such as Cara, peeled and sliced to a 3mm thickness
Salt and freshly ground pepper
250g Reblochon cheese, cubed
568ml carton double cream
Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas 2. With half the butter, grease a shallow baking dish, about 25 x 30cm.

Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the bacon. Sauté for about 5 minutes until crisp and brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

Pour off all but 1 tbsp of the bacon fat. Return the pan to the heat and add the mushrooms. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Season.

Toss the potato slices with salt and pepper. Arrange half in a layer in the dish. Sprinkle with the bacon and mushrooms. Top with half the cheese, season again (remember the bacon is salty already). Top with the remaining potatoes. Pour enough cream over the top to just cover the potatoes - you may not need it all. Dot with the remaining butter.

Bake for about 1¼ hours, or until the potatoes are tender. Dot with the remaining cheese, and return to the oven until brown and bubbling (about 15 minutes). Remove from the oven, cover with foil and leave for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Re: Tartiflette, not MFTNC

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Tartiflette! Yes! Oh god yes, tartiflette.

Plus: you gave me a recipe that calls for Reblochon, or possibly Epoisses. You are my hero.

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

Remember that moussaka and lasagne are casseroles. If you don't think those are fantastic maybe you need to come over and try mine.

[coraline]

ok, so i'm kind of curious -- what in heck is it about your posts that causes MASSIVE commenting?
is it the content, or who you are, or your selection of friends, or...?
you don't have noticably more people on your friendslist, but your past entries have comment totals of 63, 83, 24, 7, 84, 4, 29, 8, 18, 28, 29. that's pretty darned impressive.
(even my requests for comments don't get that many!)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I was actually wondering just that. "Damn, are people really THAT BORED?"

I think, if it is not impolite to mull on this a moment, that it's because of two things.

1: I tend to post light, open-ended things, and that's the sort of post that people comment on -- there's no pressure, and no argument. Posts that I'm actually proud of for or invested in for one reason or another get saner comment counts.

2: I reply to a lot of comments, and that makes people feel happy about having been listened to.

Now, I don't do either of these in order to get comments. It just seems like that's how my LJ has worked out, for the most part. Oh! Also, I have a diverse and weird enough friends list that handful-A of my LJ friends will comment on five posts in a row, while handful-B will remain completely silent for a month before launching into a comment frenzy on another post that I expected would get no response at all.

Basically, I have no idea.

[coraline]

(oh, and adding to your comment count -- i'm terribly amused that my tabs of the various threads from this page at the moment are truncating the title "do you have a goo" :)
goo=casserole :)

[bluepapercup]

So, I would read all the comments, but I just don't have the heart because I'm not at all hungry, but I will addmy own favorite casserole - I invented it myself during 7th grade home ec. class.

Erika's Casserole

you need, in very unspecific quantities:

frozen corn
tomato sauce (the kind in a can that's just tomato and salt, etc)
ground beef (or lamb, or turkey, whatever)
elbow noodles
onions
garlic powder
some kind of sharp cheese (I like cheddar for this purpose)

cook the onions and ground beef in a pan. drain fat. cook noodles. add corn, noodles, beef, onions and tomato sauce together. sprinkle liberally with pepper and garlic powder. the essential step here is mixing it all with your hands. then glop the whole mess into a casserole dish and cover with a thick layer of grated cheese. stick in the oven and cook until all the cheese is melted (350 is good, usually)

I like having this with a class of beer. it's a great winter dish.

mmmm.

maybe I'm hungry now!

mmmm, casserole!

[niqui.livejournal.com]

i agree with fanw. it's not what you put in that matters. i have never worked from a casserole recipe in my life, i don't think, apart from green bean casserole (and that only the first time i made it). i usually add some combination of:

egg noodles (twirly!) or other pasta, cooked but firm
ground beef or turkey, tuna, chicken, or maybe no meat
veggies -- peas, broccoli, various and sundry beans, shelled edamame, whatever i have on hand
cream of mushroom soup + some skim milk
occasionally you can do goofy shit like throw in garlic or sauteed onions, but that's fancy-schmancy, snooty casserole there.

basically i mix up whatever sounds like a good combination at the moment, toss either bread crumbs or a little shredded cheddar on top, bake it in a shallow glass pan at 350°F for 40 minutes or so, and have leftovers for lunch all week. :) i usually sub healthy choice (etc.) soup, less sodium is probably better. i never got the whole potato chips on top thing, but my family never used them so maybe that's why i just don't get it.

damn. now i'm all hungry now.

PS: blair is not here, so I do not have to say "hot dish".

you should continue to say "casserole" just to taunt him.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I haven't read all threads - there are too many subthreads I'd have to click on - but they did get me thinking about a modular casserole recipe.

As has been pointed out, "casserole" originally meant the baking container and the name gradually migrate to the foodstuff cooked in it. Casseroles were invented to use up leftover meat and/or veggies; these days they're just as likely to be made from scratch or with a mix of fresh and leftover. Use whatever you have in the fridge; past cooking experience will tell you what will taste good together. The leftovers are put into a medium-density sauce, topped with a breadstuff, then baked till hot. Casseroles are very much in the Western tradition; don't try to make one with leftover Middle Eastern or Chinese food. (I don't know what Middle Easterners do with their leftovers; Chinese make fried rice and egg fu young; Japanese sometimes make dombori.)

Leftover meat: This can be chunks of meat, such as roast chicken remainders or leftover stews. As casseroles have evolved to be more than leftovers, ground meat has become a common ingredient. If with sauce, then your added sauce (if there isn't enough in the meat) must be compatible.

Leftover veggies: Usually leftover cooked veggies such a steamed broccoli or succotash. Either with sauce or without. If with sauce, then your added sauce (if there isn't enough in the veggies) must be compatible.

Sauce: The two most common variations are tomato-based and white-sauce-based; leftover gravy works great and belongs in the white-sauce category. "Cream of X Soup" sauces (in which the condensed soup is NOT thinned with water) are shortcuts for white sauce. I like Campbell's Cream of Chicken and Mushroom, which I think they developed for casseroles rather than soup bowls. If you use canned cream soup I strongly recommend you use a low-sodium version. Use enough to make the meat & veggies goopy but not as thin as Chunky soups.

Toppings: Usually breadstuffs or cheese. By breadstuffs I mean breadcrumbs, leftover stuffing, croutons; if you use pie crust or biscuits you have either pot pie or X & Biscuits (which, although also tasty, isn't quite casserole) (I expect disagreement on this point). You can top the breadstuffs with grated cheese; this is usually done near the end of cooking and you broil it so the cheese gets bubbly and brown. You can use only cheese, in which case save some to put on near the end so it can get bubbly and brown.

Assembly: Mix meat, veggies and sauce. Put in casserole dish. Top with breadstuffs and/or cheese. Bake at 350F till hot. Add optional cheese, broil till bubbly and brown. Serve.

Other, similar dishes:
1) Pot pies. Classic pot pie is meat, optional veggies, thick white sauce, under a top of pie crust or puff pastry.
2) Shepard's Pies and their relations. Ground meat, sauce - usually brown gravy, mashed potato top. Technically ground beef makes a Cottage Pie, ground lamb makes a Shepherd's Pie. The imaginative have fun devising other names based on different meats. Best I ever heard was "Mahout Pie" with elephant. I really pushed the boundaries when I made "Mexican Pie" of chicken simmered in salsa for the meat, the simmered salsa for the sauce, and cornbread topping.
3) X & Dumplings/Biscuits: meat stew; top with spaced biscuits OR drop in dumplings to cook in the liquid. The dumpling variation barely qualifies as a casserole because it's usually made in a pot on the stove.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Now -- yes. This is precisely what I wanted.

It seems that you can also put noodles or rice in the main body of the dish if you want it to be starchy. This feels like the perfect use for leftover rice, which I never eat otherwise.

But blair *is* here!

[(Anonymous)]

And, to clarify, I grew up eating both hot dishes *and* casseroles. I think it was probably 75% hot dishes and 25% casseroles but I definitely had both.

Re: But blair *is* here!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Wait, they're *different*? Huh. Well, I guess I have Maine regional words that are different from their closest American English equivalents, but that still strikes me as odd.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

Cheesy Potato Casserole (aka Potatoes Deluxe) (recipe from Kelly Black's mom)

2 lbs. frozen hash browns (thawed for 1 hour)
1 cup diced onions
1 can cream of chicken soup (do not add water)
1 lb. sour cream
1 stick margerine - melted
8 oz. sharp cheddar, grated

mix all ingredients thoroughly, add salt & pepper to taste (jalapeno tabasco is good too)
bake in 9x13 glass pan at 375 degrees (fahrenheit) for 1 hour

Eat.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I maintain that this is a tasty potato dish but not a casserole. Cruiser - and The Joy of Cooking as summarized by Cruiser - disagree with me. I hold my position anyway.

I have a stack of casserole and casserole-like recipes I could send you if you want. Email me.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

Alton Brown did a casserole show so there you go.

My mom did not make them either when I grew up.