Quantity time in the kitchen
Today, I spent quality time in the kitchen. Or was it quantity time? Anyhow, the morning passed without my needing to take a nap or call a friend. Busy mode, getting some extra meals into the fridge, just in case. Actually, I feared that the meats I had purchased earlier this week were at the “prepare or pitch it out point”.
The main item on today’s menu: a traditional recipe known as Pâté Chinois. Comes with a Wiki entry, which means that the name has confused others along the way. Simple, really. Some potatoes, some ground beef, some onions, some canned corn. (Some is an indeterminate, used to define “until you run out of ingredients or space in your cooking pans”).
Peel the potatoes; that “new” season has passed, and the skins are downright awesome, if you compare them to armour. Slice and dice (or not), before boiling until done. That means that the fork is a perfect instrument for breaking into smaller pieces stage. You can then mash, and cream, or not.
The ground beef needs to be fried until all the pink is a distant memory. Health reasons. This has nothing to do with tartare. If you’ve diced the onions and stopped weeping uncontrollably, add them into the beef for flavour and texture. I think. The recipe doesn’t give reasons for everything.
We now go to preparation of the dish, since you’ve successfully staged. Spread a foundation layer of the beef/onions in a baking dish. On this, add your creamed corn… my own preference is for other, better vegetables, but I’m a conformist. On top of the pretty, lumpy orange goo, place another layer of mashed potato. Be careful not to overflow the whole affair.
I don’t suggest this as a “best served cold” dish. At all. Instead, heat the dish in a medium oven for about twenty minutes, before serving portions to your hungry workers. Ketchup is a condiment of choice.
