Inauguration casserole

When asked to make a solid American dish for Obama’s inauguration, my mind pointed straight to a casserole from the 50-60′s. I’m not a big fan of cooked tuna in dishes so I decided to approach a solid tater tots casserole. While casseroles are absolutely spanning through all culinary cultures, the canning wave that started in the early 40′s in the US by Campbell’s pushed these dishes a little bit off the gourmet path.
I then approached the dish from scratch, trying to gather the best ingredients I could and elevate the gourmet level, hopefully without sacrificing the original flavors. I basically prepared 4 different dishes and assembled them before sending the casserole to the oven.

Cream of mushrooms:

• 1 lb of white button mushrooms
• 2 dried mushrooms
• 2 cups of vegetable broth
• 1 cup + 2 tbs whole milk
• mochiko (rice flour)
• salt & pepper
• nutmeg
• unsalted butter
• extra-virgin olive oil

Sweat the chopped button mushrooms in a 2 good tbs of butter and oil over medium heat. Add some salt and pepper to release their excess water. Meanwhile flavor the heated broth with two dried mushrooms. Add two cups of broth to the mushrooms and let them soften for half an hour or until the broth is almost completely reduced. Dissolve 2-3 tsp of rice flour in 2 tbs of milk and make a slurry. Pour the cup of milk in the mushrooms and add a pinch of grated nutmeg. Incorporate the milk/mochiko slurry and cook until thickened. Adjust salt & pepper while still liquid. Set aside while other dish component are in the works.

Potato croquettes (aka the tater tots):

• 1 lb russet potatoes
• 1 egg
• 1 yolk
• breadcrumbs or panko
• 3-4 tbs grated parmigiano reggiano
• salt
• white pepper
• nutmeg
• parsley
• 1 tbs milk
• vegetable oil

Skin the potatoes and steam them until soft (I do prefer big time steaming vs boiling) and let them dry for a good 20-30 minutes or until warm. Add the whole egg and the yolk , a finely chopped sprig or two of parsley (no cilantro, please), the parmigiano, a pinch of nutmeg, the tbs of milk a dash of salt and pepper (white preferably) and combine all together.

The dough should be soft but not sticky. If so, include 1 tbs of white flour at a time to adjust the consistency but don’t exaggerate otherwise the final texture will be off. So now you do little balls, you shape them cylindrically and dredge them in a bed of breadcrumbs until happy and uniformly covered. Heat up enough oil in pot (1 ½ inches of oil will do) and wait until hot, I mean hot (drop one crumblet of potatoes in the oil and it has to fry instantly). Fry until golden brown and set aside on kitchen paper.
I guess this recipe will yield something like 30-40 croquettes. You’ll need less…so enjoy some while you cook.

Green beans: just steam a bunch of green beans (after removing the extremities) with a garlic clove in the pot for flavor. Stop cooking them when they start to soften but let them crunchy.

Beef filling: sweat two/three tablespoons of soffritto (celery:carrot:onion  1:1:2) and a smashed garlic clove in a good tbs of extra virgin olive oil and salt. When golden, remove the garlic and add ½lb of good minced beef. Cook on medium heat until the meat juices have evaporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

Fun time! Assembly line can now start.

Mix the meat with beans and cream of mushroom, lay the mixture on the bottom of a casserole dish (get inspired here) and cover with the crispy potato croquettes. Send the casserole to an hot oven (350ºF) for 10 minutes then let rest for 5 minutes and serve.

Now I know why this dish has gone through a major canning revolution, it’s actually pretty laborious and has too many steps. I would say that this is a classic Sunday dish, to prepare with the whole family around. Certain dishes have to be special, no? We can’t have Christmas or Thanksgiving food every day, right?