Tater Tot Casserole 07-Apr-2012

Traditional Tuesday night supper when I was growing up.

Ingredients

  • medium onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 or 2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced or crushed
  • 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced or chopped
  • 3/4 pound ground beef, turkey, veal, etc. (A good mince)
  • salt, pepper, other seasonings to taste. [^ I have variously tried: dried mustard, wet mustard, basil, oregano, ginger, chili powder, ketchup, bbq sauce, or whatever I feel the urge to toss in. Some of these have met with more or less success. ^]
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup [^it wouldn’t be a hot dish without cream of mushroom soup!^]
  • (optional) 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
  • 15-20 frozen tater tots [^I recently did this with frozen sweet potato fries and it came out quite nice.^]

Directions

  1. heat oven to 350&degF;

  2. in a skillet, over medium-high heat, saluté the onion, garlic and mushrooms until soft. [^Sometimes, I’ve carmelised the onions first, depending on how much time I have.^]

  3. add the mince and seasonings, brown the meat thoroughly

  4. take off the heat and mix in `CoM soup

  5. pour meat mixture into 9x9 pan

  6. spread tots on top evenly

  7. bake for 20 to 30 minutes