I break up the pound of ground beef with a spatula and brown it in the frying pan. The thermometer at my house registered a blustery
-38 this morning, and I’m fixing some old-fashioned comfort food, a hot dish.
I say “hot dish” instead of casserole because I’m a Minnesotan, and that’s what we say. It’s possible people in Florida call casseroles hot dishes but Internet wisdom gives credit to Minnesotans for the creation and use of the word.
Nothing is better on a frigid day than a carbohydrate filled meal. I had toyed with the idea of baking a Tater-Tot hot dish. This hot dish was once wildly popular but recently seems to be forgotten.
However, I decided on a new recipe called Biscuit- Topped Taco Casserole. It has all the requirements of a hot dish: a protein base (usually hamburger,) a creamy sauce (usually a can of cream of mushroom or chicken soup although sour cream will do), and a vegetable, often canned.
It doesn’t sound very healthful, and it isn’t. Nobody ever claimed hot dishes are health-giving. Hot dishes are pure comfort food.
Tater-Tot hot dishes are a prime example. It’s a simple recipe with meat and soup topped by Tater- Tots. Incidentally, when I conducted a personal survey and asked people if they remembered Tater-Tot hot dishes, everyone grew quite nostalgic, especially people growing up in the ’70s and ’80s.
After the meat browns, I review the ingredients in my new recipe and see it uses kidney beans which must count as vegetable and calls for a sprinkling of shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes. It also calls for sour cream and Monterey Jack cheese. Many hot dish recipes call for some type of bread or rolls on top of the meat mixture.
This one asks for a thin layer of Bisquick dough spread over the other ingredients. Bisquick was difficult to find at the grocery store since I hadn’t bought any in years. At one time it was a staple in my pantry, but that was in the peak of the “hot dish” era.
When I finally get all the ingredients in one large baking dish and pop it in the oven, I wonder how my family will receive it for tonight’s dinner.
I needn’t worry. The most important feature of a hot dish is that it’s tasty.
Leave a Reply