BS: American Casserole

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 May 14 - 04:15 PM

Edmonton (Canada) Potato Growers Ltd. give this casserole recipe.

MEDITERRANEAN POTATO CASSEROLE

1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
10 ounces stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon *ground cloves
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 pound Mozzarella cheese, cubed
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (optional)

Saute onions until transparent. Combine half the onion with mashed potato, flour, salt and pepper. Press mixture (1/2 inch) in bottom of 9x9 inch baking pan. Melt butter in medium saucepan, add flour and blend. Add stewed tomatoes, rest of onion, green pepper, bay leaf, cloves and oregano.
Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove bay leaf and *cloves. Spoon sauce over potato mixture and top with cheeses.
* I don't think they mean ground cloves.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350F. Four-six servings

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 May 14 - 02:58 PM

On the BBC programme about the Chelsea Flower Show last night I saw a completely jet black tomato, very smart. Would look nice sliced in a salad.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 May 14 - 02:47 PM

Three or four genera of samphire; one is found on marshy coasts in Florida and Texas.
From articles, it seems to be growing in popularity in the UK. I have never had an opportunity to try it.

Colorful vegetables- We grew several varieties of potatoes- purple, banana, yellow, etc. when we had a little farm. We got 'seed' potatoes from the Ukrainian farmers in the area. The purple and banana were very good- firm and flavorful. The purple are sometimes available in stores here.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 23 May 14 - 04:48 AM

Your samphire is very much a local thing. The differences are small but enough to be different. I always have a week on holiday in Southwold Suffolk. On the creek fish store, I can get local samphire at a very reasonable price. In a deli in town, they sell that plus Notthumbrian samphire which is stronger on taste but less salty. The locals seem to think horses for courses. There again, some cracking restaurants thereabout.

I grow purple carrots and purple sprouts, yet it is slightly novelty value as they taste no different to the high yield cheap seeds I buy for the "normal" ones. So much for that experiment.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 May 14 - 02:45 AM

You're right, Patsy. You just can't be sure what's in these ready-made things; horsemeat (which may or may not be acceptable, but if one was expecting beef, then beef it should be!) chemicals, E numbers, dodgy stuff. Shaped meat indeed! Grooo! I too can make a large casserole last several days with adaptations. If we're a bit short of money (often happens!) it reduces the food bill by miles and is still nourishing and tasty.
I never realised Musket, in my ignorance, that samphire grows elsewhere.
Curly kale and spring greens are my all-time fav veg. I swear I feel very perky after eating them, so they must be very very good for you.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 23 May 14 - 02:37 AM

I love samphire. It gives a salty edge to white fish dishes. Eliza's East Anglia tastes ever so slightly different to the East Yorkshire variety our butcher sells which is less strong than that we had on the east coast of Scotland the other week.

Mrs Musket always buys some when visiting her family in Suffolk. Just for a slight different taste to our normal. (Make a bed of samphire and kale be light on the seasoning, and place pan fried halibut on top. Sheer ruddy heaven.)

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 22 May 14 - 06:44 PM

My beef stews used to stretch through the week in different forms, it would start off as a beef stew saving some aside. Part of this would become an 'Italian' concoction to serve with pasta mid-week and then the remainder would become a curry or a mild chili with rice towards the end of the week. So I suppose it was like a kind of scouse lasting through the week with the addition of sweetcorn, peas, baked beans or tinned kidney beans to make it go further.

The cost of ready meals are expensive in comparison and until recently you could not even be absolutely sure of the origin of ingredients in it. The ones I hate are the so called cheaper range of ready meals that contain 'shaped meat' that thought alone conjures up all kinds of horrors to me.

My 86 year old mum watches all of the cooking programmes and she delights in all of the culinary expertise and is quite the critic too bless her but I really think it is because she secretly fancies Raymond Blanc!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 May 14 - 06:00 PM

We have a lovely local delicacy here in Norfolk UK, it's called samphire. It's a kind of coastal plant. You boil it briefly then strip the flesh off the leaves with your teeth. Very tasty and full of vitamins. Regarding all veggies, I pop them into briskly boiling water for just a couple of minutes. They must still be bright green, not in the least pale or yellowy. If so, they've been in too long. I cut carrots into thin strips like matchsticks, and cut sprouts in half. Like this, all the veggies can go into one large pot and boil quickly together. I'm naughty and use real butter on them when they've been drained. And salt. Tut tut!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Penny S.
Date: 22 May 14 - 05:12 PM

I've seen seakale down on Dungeness, growing in the shingle. It's practically a succulent. But tough - it needs to be, of course.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST
Date: 22 May 14 - 04:23 PM

"There again, I love parsnips roasted. Funnily enough, as a casserole or stew addition, I think they have a too strong a taste so I prefer to bulk out with turnip."

My mom limited her additions to onions, carrots, celery & potatoes. I like to add rutabagas & leeks if I find them... I'm on the fence about adding turnips... they taste like radishes to me.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 May 14 - 03:08 PM

Hahahaha Musket!! I've never heard that one! I once visited an inmate in the Hospital Wing, but he wasn't in a fit state to joke about his footwear (drug overdose) I did learn that stripey prison shirts are very much sought after on the Out, and discharged inmates smuggle one or two out to sell. Interesting places, prisons...

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 22 May 14 - 03:03 PM

Tell you what Eliza, when I was involved in prison healthcare, no matter where I visited, the footwear that is standard cell issue is known as...

Scouse slippers.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 May 14 - 03:01 PM

Scouse also possible Baltic or North German origin. Wiki says it is served in Liverpool pubs.
Recipes on Google.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 May 14 - 02:49 PM

I once visited a prisoner from Liverpool and he told me all about 'Scouse' ( which is where the term Scouser comes from) It's a kind of soupy casserolly thing which has its origins in the Irish immigrants who arrived in Liverpool during the Famine. Most interesting. But only the old folk in Liverpool eat it nowadays; everyone else has forgotten how to make it. This prisoner chap's old dad lived alone and practically survived on Scouse!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Musket
Date: 22 May 14 - 12:40 PM

Size can be variable, but I seed them in plastic pipes and ensure only very small pebbles, no large stones. You get long straight parsnips with few knobbly bits, fairly easy to peel.

There again, I love parsnips roasted. Funnily enough, as a casserole or stew addition, I think they have a too strong a taste so I prefer to bulk out with turnip.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 22 May 14 - 12:09 PM

there's a Nobel Prize for whoever figures out a way to breed parsnips with a nice uniform size... LOL it's the peeling of those pesky devils that drives me nuts... then go to work on celeric and horseradish...

if summer ever comes, I love to make small foil packets filled with thinly slice yellow squash, zucchinni & onion - add a pat of butter, sprinkle of salt & pepper and fresh dill weed.... place on the back of the grill while the rest is cooking and let it turn into melt in your mouth goodness. It's lunchtime here... can't you tell... :)

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Musket
Date: 22 May 14 - 11:25 AM

Sliced parsnip, roasted in goose fat.

You know it makes sense.... (Not to mention the roast potatoes and carrots roasted with them. )

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 22 May 14 - 09:52 AM

"Parsnips work well in stews, etc., but I won't eat them solo."

I've seen recipes for matzah ball soup that uses parsnip, but I prefer them solo... or maybe mixed with tender young carrots. Mainly because they are so sweet... just steam them or use a light glaze.

On St. Patrick's Day one of the local inns serves a corned beef buffet with cabbage, boiled carrots, potatoes, parsnips and turnips and a really nice mustard sauce to top them off. Now if they would only get some nice ales or porter on tap...

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Mrr at work
Date: 21 May 14 - 09:00 PM

I am reminded of the Hungarian recipe for Gypsy-style chicken paprikas - first, steal one chicken.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 21 May 14 - 07:54 PM

Had to look up sea kale. Don't think I have ever seen it.

I agree with Patsy, casseroles, hot pots, etc. are one way to sneak some vegetables into children's diet.
However, we often had stuffed peppers, and they were accepted.

No problem with tomatoes as long as they were in the form of sauce in pizza! Tomato soups were accepted, as well as the small raw tomatoes we grew.

Parsnips work well in stews, etc., but I won't eat them solo.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 21 May 14 - 05:44 PM

The beauty of the casserole is that you can cook a full meal for the family without having to worry too much about boiling vegetables within an inch of their lives! My boys when they were small were more likely to eat vegetables as part of a casserole rather than vegetables prepared and cooked separately. I could add the kind of vegetables that at the time they would not have considered eating like peppers, tomatoes, lentils, the dreaded sprout, parsnips and spinach.

Viva la casserole!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Penny S.
Date: 21 May 14 - 04:03 PM

I have a theory about the overboiling of veggies, based on the origin of the culinary cabbages in the form of seakale. Seakale is thick leaved and would be really impossible to eat without extensive cooking.

On the other hand, I have seen in passing and not referenced some idea based on the theory of humours, which made the removal of greenness and crunch absolutely essential. This from people who believed in bleeding patients.

Here's some of the logic.
Terence Scully, in his book The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages, has this to say about the preparation of vegetables:

"Most vegetables, whether leaves or roots, were chopped, ground and cooked by boiling. The logic of this cooking method lay in the tendency of vegetables, being products of the earth, to be dry in their nature (the exceptions being vegetable marrows, melons, & chard, all three of which were held to be rather moist); the action of stewing vegetables lent them the moisture they lacked by their nature. Members of the onion family, however, being moist in the third, and even fourth - or most dangerous (even mortal) - degree, were usually fried, thus removing a little of their superfluous moisture."

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 21 May 14 - 11:35 AM

Alot of stalks, Broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower make excellent soups. We never throw them out and we always have a few vegetable soups on hand. These things are easy to make and very tasty.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Musket
Date: 21 May 14 - 06:02 AM

Other than the sweeping "we" and the even more sweeping "Europeans" I would agree that those who like broccoli tend to like the stalks too, and these are very woody if not steamed or boiled to the extent that the floret is soggy.

Catch 22

Me? No fan of the thing in the first place.

Still, if our cousins don't like the alleged boiled veg, they can always spray cheese on it in an artistic manner eh?

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 May 14 - 06:36 PM

We steam Brussels sprouts and broccoli, but often serve the florets of the latter raw in a fresh vegetable salad.

We understand Europeans cook the broccoli stalks, but we never use them; we buy the florets on the final branches, and any coarser stalks go to the compost.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,CX
Date: 20 May 14 - 02:23 PM

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 20 May 14 - 02:07 PM

LOL.... grey brussel sprouts turned to stinky mush... or poor broccoli that has been tortured on the steam line....

tooth tender is what's best... steamed sprouts - best when allowed to go through a frost to turn them sweeter- with a light vinegrette

I turned the hubby from a broccoli hater to a lover- especially with a squirt of fresh lemon. lol

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 May 14 - 01:48 PM

blanch in boiling water or oil to make them tender and bright green Spot on Mr Geek! Sprouts at Christmas were the worst - If they were not put on the boil in mid-November to be ready on Christmas day they just weren't cooked. No wonder we didn't like sprouts as kids. Love them now. Apart from some unfortunate side effects... :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 20 May 14 - 01:33 PM

nothing worse than green beans cooked until they're grey and mushy...

blanch in boiling water or oil to make them tender and bright green... or a quick saute to keep the crunch. or just a few minutes in the microwave and be sure to remove them quickly or they'll keep steaming.

the newspaper had an article about lost cooking skills... and the $40 book written about it... yeesh!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 May 14 - 12:17 PM

Boiling green vegetables is not a bad thing. Boiling them too long is! Drop them in Boiling lightly salted water for a couple of minutes and they retain their flavour and nutrients.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 May 14 - 11:25 AM

Boiling green vegetables seems to be an English habit which unfortunately spread to the new world. It removes all flavor and all of the vitamins.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Musket
Date: 20 May 14 - 05:23 AM

This bug is catching...

I have promised Mrs Musket that on Saturday I am doing a cassoulet, full on French style.

Confit of duck. (Waitrose sell large tins of confit de canard. As it is preserved anyway, the irony of the tin is irrelevant and be buggered to making the confit myself.)

Belly pork.

Borlotti beans

etc

etc.

I got this particular recipe from Rick Stein's French Odyssey.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 May 14 - 03:03 AM

Boiled leg of mutton is more likely - And also likely to be quite tasty if served with the stock or, to come back to the thread, as a casserole or hot pot :-) SpaghettiOs on toast for breakfast is a bit strange. I think that was just down to your landlady and as said canned food was American in origin I am at a loss as to why this would indicate English cooking was bad.

Still, as an aside and not doubting your experience at all Michael, I find it quite interesting to see how limited personal experience can help reinforce the negative stereotype that the English are a nation of bad cooks! If I was to review American food on the basis of MacDonalds, Budweiser beer and spray on cheese I think I would be insulting an awful lot of good American cooks.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 20 May 14 - 02:52 AM

LOL!!! Crumpets Anonymous! I do so love them, I admit.

Regarding people buying ready-made meals, whenever we go to Tesco's, I notice the aisle with the microwave meals (fridges both sides) is extra-wide, and always thronged with trolleys. These meals are very expensive in my view, but I can see that tired folk coming home at night would find them handy.

michaelr, I'm pleased to hear you make stock, it's the secret ingredient of any soup or casserole, and very cheap to make. One can even freeze small tinfoil pots of it. I notice on TV the're now manufacturing 'flavour pots' of various kinds. I reckon all these fancy cooking programmes are watched by millions, who then go and microwave a ready-meal for their dinner!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,michaelr
Date: 19 May 14 - 08:37 PM

DtG -- English cooking's bad rep is not just down to wartime food rationing. When I was in Manchester as an exchange student in 1970, the missus of the house submerged a whole leg of lamb (or perhaps mutton) in a huge stock pot full of water and proceeded to boil it. Breakfast was canned Spaghetti-Os (or something like it) on toast. Still gives me the willies to think of it.

Eliza -- I make stock anytime I have bones. So much better than store-bought broth.

CS -- I made cassoulet just recently, with the legs from a duck we roasted the day before, and some nice kielbasa sausage. And yes, of course you want the breadcrumb crust on top!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Gurney
Date: 19 May 14 - 08:20 PM

American Casserole. First catch your American.

I read that in a recipe.

Or was that rabbit stew. ??

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 19 May 14 - 04:42 PM

I'm relying on Auld Nick inventing crumpet.

God would have called them pikelets.

I must eat some to build my belly up eh ?

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 May 14 - 03:58 PM

If we split your sentence up, Eliza, he did!

I wish the Good Lord had made crumpet

:-P

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 May 14 - 03:40 PM

Call for crumpet vigilantes! No admittance!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 19 May 14 - 02:29 PM

Eliza, I'm becoming concerned. I think you mentioned 'crumpets' virtually every time you post. Are you out of control? Crumpet Snafflers Anonymous is there to help ..if you're willing and ready?

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 May 14 - 02:06 PM

We are using the oven less and less, except for biscotti, pies, etc. As we get old, we want easier recipes.

We use the hot pot which sits on the stove top instead for stews, dishes with casserole ingredients, etc. A saucepan is used to brown some ingredients.

We freeze leftover stews, etc.

Here is a fairly easy recipe for beef-

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds good beef cut in 1-inch pieces
2 large yellow onions. chopped coarsely
1 parsnip, chopped
2 carrots, cleaned but not peeled; chopped
3-4 sticks celery
3 cloves crushed garlic, or use garlic from one of those small jars
30 or so ounces canned tomatoes, coarsely chopped (they break up in cooking)
1/4 cup red wine
1 cup beef broth or stock

Heat olive oil (about one tbsp.) in saucepan. Cook beef, high heat, in batches, with part of onions, to brown. remove to plate.
Reduce heat and add more oil, the remaining onions, parsnip, carrots and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring while cooking.
Return beef to pan, add tomatoes, wine and broth. Bring to boil, then simmer, with cover, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

Serve with chopped chives

Freeze leftover- we use yogurt containers, enough for a meal in each.


Goes well with your choice of potatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 19 May 14 - 02:01 PM

I wish the Good Lord had made crumpet and pork pie trees.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 19 May 14 - 01:27 PM

I spell it 'adzuki' from habit, though I don't think it actually has to have a Z in it, aduki and azuki are also used, though I think the latter is more akin to the Japanese? I also use the more complicated spelling of 'yoghourt' over 'yoghurt/yogurt' though all are correct, habit again.

On a more personal note, Musket, I'm sorry to hear that you have a small gut; I recommend more ale and pies to address that particular insufficiency.

As for God, Simpson version or otherwise, I tend to think he is a bit of a sadistic old bastard (at least if you read his memoirs) so I'm not terribly surprised that he made the tastiest food suffer fear and pain - why didn't he just make steak trees instead? It would have made life for sensitive folk so much easier.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Musket
Date: 19 May 14 - 12:44 PM

You are right. There is a Z in it.....

I have tried veggie black pudding, but it was as useful as a one legged bloke at an arse kicking contest.

Here's a tip from America (if you recall, we were discussing American versions at one time). Homer Simpson said that if God doesn't want us to eat animals, why does he make them taste of meat?

A dinner party at Chez Musket tends to have vegetarians, Halal, gluten free and the resident omnivore. It isn't the first time we have had to accommodate the lot... I even keep the pans for Halal in the utility room and wash them in the sink in there.

I mention this because Farage was on the wireless today saying your average British bloke isn't multi cultural. I'm average in everything except beer belly and willy thank you very much..

Sorry. I'm sure veggie black pudding as an ingredient is fine. Not much good under scallops though.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 19 May 14 - 10:35 AM

one of nicest perks about the draft horse club I used to belong to were the potluck suppers that always included a giant roasting pan full of scalloped potatoes and ham. yum!

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 May 14 - 10:32 AM

Hehehe - I'll get my coat...

There are veggie versions of Black Pudding but, like you, I wonder about the fatty bits. Mind you the Bury Black Pudding Co do fatty and non-fatty versions I believe. Never tried them. May as well be hung for a fatty pig as a lean one!

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 19 May 14 - 10:21 AM

"Oh - And if the idea takes off, just send me some (Penny)royalties :-)"

Oh dear... And we were doing so well until then!

>the audience boos and throws things<

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 19 May 14 - 10:17 AM

A mix of adzuki, haricot and butter beans it is.

DtG - I hear you can actually buy a veggie versions of black pudding, but how would you they those tasty little lumps of fat in veggie form? I'm also a bit unsure about pennyroyal, as it's an 'abortifacient' - though I guess that may be not such a big deal for someone like me who doesn't actually *want* children.. o-O

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 May 14 - 10:12 AM

Oh - And if the idea takes off, just send me some (Penny)royalties :-)

D.

Subject: RE: BS: American Casserole
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 May 14 - 10:08 AM

Pearl barley itself could work - Black Puddings contain it so you are halfway there :-) From a Wiki clip on Black Puds -

Black pudding is the native British version of blood sausage. It is generally made from pork blood and a relatively high proportion of oatmeal. In the past it was occasionally flavoured with pennyroyal, differing from continental European versions in its relatively limited range of ingredients and reliance on oatmeal and barley instead of onions to absorb the blood. It can be eaten cold, as it is cooked in production, but is often grilled, fried or boiled in its skin.

There you go, Oatmeal and Barley to soak up the fluid and Pennyroyal for flavour. - How about making the veggie version using red wine instead of blood. Works for me :-D

DtG