Cooking for Wanderingjew: Tater Tot Hotdish

Well, we made tater tot hotdish for dinner the other night.  And since it's been part of an ongoing discussion here across several forums I figured it wouldn't hurt to record it for posterity.

For those of you unfamiliar, 'hotdish' is a Minnesota term for a casserole.  The basic formula for hotdish can be boiled down to this:

any meat + any starch + any vegetable + any cream soup + some time in the oven

So here you see a fuzzy picture of my ingredients.  I've got tater tots (my starch), a pound of ground chuck (my meat), some frozen peas and leftover portobello mushrooms (my veggies), cream of mushroom soup (as you would expect), and Knorr granulated onion.  In the interest of my coronary arteries, I'm gonna try to cheat and not use both cans of that soup.  Hotdish purists will sniff at this.  Put your oven at 350 to warm up.  



First I brown the hamburger:



Add the chopped mushrooms to brown in the drippings:



Drain the hamburger and mushroom mixture, add the granulated onion softened first in about 1/3 cup hot water:



Stir in about half a bag of frozen peas and let them warm up just a tad (this is where the tater tot purists would have stirred in the first can of that soup):



Then I spread the mixture out evenly in the pan (note: I'm being a lazy bastard and using my stainless steel in the oven instead of switching to a casserole dish.  Hotdish purists will also sniff at this.) and dot the top with a single layer of frozen tater tots:



Then I pour one can of cream of mushroom into a bowl, thin it just a bit with milk, and pour it over the tater tots, trying my best to coat them all:



Then into the oven for about thirty minutes.  Typically I would follow this with five to ten minutes on broil to brown the top nicely but we were hungry.  So this is what we ended up with:



Hotdish is a home dish, first and foremost.  I'm not sure what would be gained by serving this in a restaurant--at the very least, it would be as much of a nightmare as any casserole to keep warm without destroying it.  Now, I ate the hell out of this, even though it's not really pretty to look at or terribly nutritious.  I think it made a dinner and three lunches for us.  But it's as much roadfood as jello salad--a nicety, quaint, a reminder of a specific place.

So that's the infamous Tater Tot Hotdish.  I think I must make this.

Do you guys want Wisconsin's version?

Norwegian Pizza:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 can cream of mushroom/chicken/celery/asparagus soup or cheese soup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bag tater tots

Press RAW ground beef flat into a 9x13 pan, like you're making cookie bars. Sprinkle salt & pepper over meat, sprinkle onions over that. Spread undiluted soup over that, put tater tots in rows over that. Bake @ 350 for 90 minutes. Cut along the tater tots for your pieces, and eat with a fork, this pizza.

And yes, the beef goes into the pan raw. That's why it cooks for an hour and a half. But I wish I had a dollar for every person who's said, "No, I'd feel better cooking the beef first"--but you CAN'T, otherwise it wont be like a little meatloaf hiding under your tater tots.

Also Nancy is right, you can make it out of anything. Only have yolk-free egg noodles, ground turkey, lowfat cream of mushroom & frozen corn/pea/carrot blend? NO PROBLEM. :) My friend Bette in Mpls shared a secret ingredient for the above with me: crushed potato chips for the top. I volleyed back at her with sour cream & onion flavored chips to crush over the top! Are the chips traditional to the dish, or was Bette being a maverick?

I call it Tater Tot Pie and I looooooove it.  I prefer the Cream of Celery soup and no mushrooms (personal choice, not a fan).  Bake with a little cheddar on top and WAZAMM, good grub!

SD I bet my sister in law would die for Norwegian pizza--I'm gonna have to try it when she visits.  I've had the potato chip variation--it's particularly good over tuna noodle hotdish.

Oh, and for anybody who's going to try and make this--my version is really too wet.  I shouldn't have added quite that much water with the granulated onion, and that is the place where you would have used the cream soup.  The only reason the wetness matters is that it can reduce your tater tots to moosh if it reaches them too easily.  So if you like a crispy tot, go for the gooey filling rather than the wet.

I'm gonna submit these recipes to WeightWatchers as well as Healthy Living Magazine and see if they publish them!!!!

I hope you saved some for me..

This local spot in Minneapolis apparently serves it with corn and cheese

http://www.hotplatediner.com/Hot%20Plate%20Lunch%20Menu.pdf

Is that an alternative way of serving it?

Like I said, it really can be any combination of those things--the starch can be noodles, rice, mashed potatoes.  If you use mashed potatoes you're basically making shepherd's pie.

You know what? Except for the mushrooms part (I'm allergic to mushrooms) that looked pretty darned good. I'll have to try that -- with something other than mushrooms, and maybe cream of asparagus or cream of celery soup.

Oh, and I like the idea of not bothering with another dish.

Nancy, sounds(and looks) good.Believe it or not, I made a variation of this for my deli hot case and it was one of my biggest sellers.SD-will definately try your recipe!

Nancy's trying to kill by diet!  Okay, it hasn't started yet.

Guess I'll have to put it off another few days because I'm going to have to make this!  I might even have the same pan.  Maybe smaller.

Definitely going the althernative route (It's what I do) and go with adding the corn.  I love corn!

Nancy, thanks so much for the picture perfect trip down Hotdish Alley.

Making a list.

nancypalooza,
 
Thank you for the nicely sized pictures.
 
That Hot Dish looks good and reminds me of some things that I have made. I like one-pot meals. Cook it, eat it, let the pot cool and put the pot in the fridge. Take it out and reheat it and then back in the fridge. Repeat until gone. Since the whole meal is on one plate, an ex-girlfriend of mine called it “shovel it” food.
 
I like the addition of the Tater Tots!
 
I think I’ll omit the oven part (Its full of pots and pans and it’s summer) and just cook it on top of the stove. I'll do the meat and veggies as described, add the soup, stir, cover and simmer. Heat the Tater Tots in a toaster oven, and then add the Tater Tots to the simmering mixture. I’ll have to make sure that there’s enough soup to accommodate the Tater Tots.
 
stricken_detective,
 
Your Norwegian Pizza sounds really good. I may have to empty the oven and try that when winter comes around.

I never knew what "hotdish" was.  I am going to have to make it one night.  My grandchildren will not believe that I actually brought tater tots into the house.  I am going to use  cream of broccoli soup as I want it to be really healthy!

Nancy, I had heard about Hotdish from my former mother-in-law, who's from Duluth, but she never made it when I was in the family. I probably wouldn't have liked the way she made it, because she would've most likely put ingredients I don't like in there. I'm kinda picky. The thing that's so nice about this is that it's versatile and you can put it together in different ways. Years ago, when my daughter was tiny, I do remember making Tater Tot Casserole, and I guess that could qualify as Hotdish. This is a nice idea; thanks for bringing back into my brain, and I'm sure my loved ones would eat this. And thanks for the link from where I first saw the pics!

That looks good Nancy, I like tater tot casserole.  I put the mushroom soup through the blender to mince up the mushrooms and add tablespoon fulls of seasoning.  Its a nice filling and comforting meal.

As Nancy said, hotdish is casserole. Isn't that pretty universal? I know I grew up with casserole in Indiana. The Tater Tot mushroom soup version is the quintessential Minnesota hotdish. Yes, I have had it numerous times at church socials, festivals, etc. I'm not all sure it is Scandinavian but just something adopted by Minnesotans because the earliest I remember having that particular dish was in Renville County in western Minnesota when I first moved to Minnesota in the early 70s at a dominant German Catholic church and farm community.

Believe me, I went out of my way for wanderingjew and found tater tots in my next trip report.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Here's hotdish on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair. It is a deep-fried alternating Swedish meatball and tater tot on a stick battered and served with a mushroom soup sauce.

The above picture looks SO TEMPTING! I'd love that! Guess what? You know how some people blow their paycheck on things like booze, gambling, illicit stuff? I went out and bought Tater Tots, ground beef, and cream of mushroom soup today (along with other groceries!). I haven't bought Tater Tots in over ten years! I was thinking about using frozen corn and cheddar cheese, plus mushrooms with it. I don't eat onions. I plan on making this sometime this coming weekend...if not, then very soon (when I have the luxury of time). I'll most likely post the pic or pics on flickr. Hotdish!!!

Nancypalooza


Oh, and for anybody who's going to try and make this--my version is really too wet.  I shouldn't have added quite that much water with the granulated onion, and that is the place where you would have used the cream soup.  The only reason the wetness matters is that it can reduce your tater tots to moosh if it reaches them too easily.  So if you like a crispy tot, go for the gooey filling rather than the wet.

This part of the recipe is the important part to me. I'm making this tomorrow, finally, and since I don't eat onions, and am going for the crispy rather than the mooshy, I was wondering at what point to put the soup. I also would like to know how much difference a second can will make. Miss Crabapple already dove into the Tater Tot bag, so I won't be working with the full bag. However, I have 1.76 lbs. of ground beef to work with, and don't want this to be dry. I need that perfect balance of crisp and wet. But I must - MUST add some cheese to this, and am afraid, also that if I put cheese on top, it'll "damage" the Tater Tots. So much fuss for something that's not supposed to be, but I want it right for someone who's never eaten it before. I want him to ask for it again sometime.

Don't put the cheese on top. Mix it into the dish right before you line the tater tots over the top. Put the soup after the browning.

Nancy's (and other's) mileage may vary, can't wait to see your pics!!!

It came out good! I just want to thank Nancypalooza for the inspiration. Firstly, I would like to say that my boyfriend is a bit fussy with his food. He doesn't like his meat and potatoes mixed up. He really doesn't like casseroles because he doesn't like the different foods touching each other. I can dig that, but he had to eat what I was bound and determined to make, and he went back for a BIG second helping.
 
So here was my prep. Browned the meat. No onions. I highly recommend ShopRite brand Cream of Mushroom soup to add after browning the meat and sauteeing the mushrooms:
 

Next time I'll use a whole pound of mushrooms! This was 8 oz., and they're just regular Pennsylvania mushrooms:

 
Lining the little guys up. At this point I had added the soup, a small bit of evaporated milk, some peas (not too many and they were those tiny frozen peas), and a shredded combination of mild and sharp cheese.

 
This is just before it went into a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. I ran out of Tater Tots and I will admit I had bought another bag in our travels yesterday, but Brian said, "Why open another bag just for 4 or 5 of them?", so I made a design so as not to leave an awful gap there:
 

 
The finished product, and we were starving:
 

 
My bird's cage in the background:

 
I wish I'd thought to make this in the wintertime. It's gonna be about 89 degrees out towards the end of the week.

Just out of curiosity I looked at the Minnesota regional book section in a Borders book store in Minnetonka, Minnesota and found no less than three books on hotdish that contained the tater tot hotdish recipe. They are all on Amazon.com for you many unfortunates that probably will not find such books in your book stores.

Hotdish To Die For, Pat Dennis

Hot Dish Heaven, Ann L. Burckhardt

The Great Minnesota Hot Dish, Theresa Millang

Davydd


Just out of curiosity I looked at the Minnesota regional book section in a Borders book store in Minnetonka, Minnesota and found no less than three books on hotdish that contained the tater tot hotdish recipe. They are all on Amazon.com for you many unfortunates that probably will not find such books in your book stores.

Hotdish To Die For, Pat Dennis

Hot Dish Heaven, Ann L. Burckhardt

The Great Minnesota Hot Dish, Theresa Millang

See that- I was right!!!

WJ, take note who the people are making this recipe. Minnesotans? Actually just Google tater tot hotdish and you will get several all very similar recipes from people all over the country. The only difference is if they refer to Minnesota or are from Minnesota they call it hotdish but if they are from elsewhere they call it casserole and don't miss a beat with hardly any difference in the recipe. Minnesotans have just capitalized on the humor in it all with the term hotdish. Otherwise they would just be another casserole cookbook with no shelf space in the regional section. I think they are all just playing off Howard Mohr's 1987 book, How To Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor's Guide that probably first popularized the tater tot hotdish as Minnesotan. Mohr was a Garrison Kiellor, Prairie Home Companion writer. It's all just humor. You could probably find more restaurant "casserole" dishes in the south than you could "hotdish" in Minnesota. Donchya know were funnin' ya, yew betcha.

Ore Ida Tater Tots are not a Minnesota product. They are an H. J. Heinz Co. and the potatoes probably come from Maine or Idaho.

Davydd


WJ, take note who the people are making this recipe. Minnesotans? Actually just Google tater tot hotdish and you will get several all very similar recipes from people all over the country. The only difference is if they refer to Minnesota or are from Minnesota they call it hotdish but if they are from elsewhere they call it casserole and don't miss a beat with hardly any difference in the recipe. Minnesotans have just capitalized on the humor in it all with the term hotdish. Otherwise they would just be another casserole cookbook with no shelf space in the regional section. I think they are all just playing off Howard Mohr's 1987 book, How To Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor's Guide that probably first popularized the tater tot hotdish as Minnesotan. Mohr was a Garrison Kiellor, Prairie Home Companion writer. It's all just humor. You could probably find more restaurant "casserole" dishes in the south than you could "hotdish" in Minnesota. Donchya know were funnin' ya, yew betcha.

Ore Ida Tater Tots are not a Minnesota product. They are an H. J. Heinz Co. and the potatoes probably come from Maine or Idaho.

But those Hmong and Thai restaurants are just sooooo Minesooootan

Yah, suuure, yoooo bet-cha!

Ode to a Minnesota Tater Tot Hotdish

 

On a cold Minnesota night I had a craving,

Been snowed in for days, can't get to the store,

Looked in the fridge at the food I'd been saving,

Didn't know when I'd get out to get somemore,

Said "What the He**", satisfy that craving!

 

Not much there, just ground beef & onions,

Some schrooms and peas and leftover corn,

Some smashed potatoes and a little bit of milk,

I said, "What can I do with this big mess",

"I KNOW, I'll make a dish and let everyone guess!"

 

So I cooked the meat, added onions and schrooms

 The wonderful aroma filled up the rooms,

Added veggies and milk but it still wasn't done,

Needed a kicker to make the dish a flavorful one,

 

Looked in the Freezer, to see what was there,

(Who needs a freezer in MN? I digress)

To my surprise the freezer was a bare,

Except for a bag of Tater Tots still there.

Looked in the Cupboard and it too was bare,

 

The only thing there was a can of soup,

Cream of whatever is all I remember,

All I had was that old cast iron skillet,

That I cooked the beef mixture in it,

 As I added the tots and the can of soup,

I said to myself, "Who'll eat that goop" 

 

I added some cheese to hide this mess,

Put it in the oven to brown it up,
Served it in the pan---THEY GOBBLED IT UP!!

 

Thus was born on a cold Winter's night,

A dish that was tasty & sure to delight,

"What should we call it", one person said,

As they touched the still hot pan, I said,

"Let's call it a Minnesota Hot Dish",

(Doesn't Rhyme with anything, but what the He**, It tastes good) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't buy Ore Ida brand because they're always a little too expensive and the Tater Tots always taste onion-y. I get the store brand. I'm not sure where those potatoes are from. It's a Wakefern product.
 
Just for the record, my daughter's half-Minnesotan. She dug into that hotdish on Sunday like there was no tomorrow.

Being adjacent to Minn, North Dakota is equally fond of the "Hot Dish", which growing up a bit further south in Iowa I had no idea what it really was.

I jokingly refer to it as the "Fridge and Freezer Cleaner".

Harriet, did you use a t-square to line up those tots?  That's some righteous linearity right there.  It looks scrumptious.  What did Brian think?

Listen, before I met Julie I'd never heard of hotdish or baaaaaahrs, which is the other Minnesotan joke-but-not-really specialty.  I don't think they really broke any new ground with variations on hotdish (which I would have called casserole up til then) but there are varieties of baaaaahrs that I never came across before up North.  With every kind of cereal known to mankind.  And you actually see those in bakeries and the like.  If you want to get your panties in a knot about something Dale, you should concentrate on the baaaaaaaaahrs.