In the past if I thought of culinary Minnesota, my ideas were formed by Garrison Keillor's tales of Lutheran Ladies toiling in church basements preparing jello molds or making endless variations of Tater Tot Hot Dish. I would have said that this was the place where the bland lead the bland.
Like most preconceived ideas, my images were far too limited. A recent visit to the Twin Cities and Duluth revealed that Minnesota has diverse and interesting foodways shaped by each wave of immigrants who farmed the land or worked in the state's logging or mining industries. In the nineteenth century there were influxes of Scandanavians and Germans. The British from Cornwall also came to work in the mines. Greeks, Italians and Mexicans have come to live here. More recently the Hmong and Vietnamese have found a home here. And before any of these ethnic groups arrived , the Ojibway Indians called Minnesota their land.
The food scene in Minnesota, past and present, is much more interesting than I originally thought. The next few posts will be devoted my discoveries. In the interim, I'm offering a version of Tater Tot Hot Dish.It's easy to mock such a dish, but in reality I think it sounds like the perfect American comfort food. I wish I had known about it when Hallie and Rachel were tots themselves. They would have loved it and Kay and I would have loved it--albeit secretly--as well.
(serves 6)
- 1 pound ground beef
- salt and pepper to taste
- Pinch of Garlic Powder
- 1 package (32 ounces) tater tots, thawed
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 can cream of celery soup
- 1 can (10.75 ounces) evaporated milk
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Crumble the hamburger into a 9x 13-inch baking pan. Sprinkle the meat with the garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cover the hamburger with tater tots.
In a bowl, stir together mushroom soup, celery soup and milk. Pour the soup mixture over the potatoes and hamburger and sprinkle with additional garlic powder.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes.
(from Allrecipes.com)
Walleye vs tuna hotdish, right :) ?
Posted by: janet | June 15, 2012 at 08:22 PM