Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Food and Drink

A case for the lonely casserole

The thing about "the casserole" as a symbol in our Canadian consciousness is that no matter from which angle it's considered, it usually comes up indefinable. Indefinable and beige. Beige, as in inoffensive; beige, as in boring.

Too bad. Casseroles were once a mainstay of Canadian middle-class cookery, and, before that, heroes of continental cuisines.

It may have been the very beigeness of Canadian middle-classness, along with the novelty of processed foods from companies such as Kraft and their persuasive ad campaigns, that milked down casseroles to the insipid point where few in their right mind considered making them.

After decades of our middling collective addiction, casseroles became the anti-dish - anti-taste, anti-company and certainly anti-cool. At the very least, they stubbornly defied the self-conscious, towering constructions chefs fell in love with in the '90s for plating food.

Casseroles, and by this I mean real baked-in-the-oven-for-ages casseroles with rich, bubbly brown crusty tops and slips of burnt-on sauces oozing down the sides, got further sideswiped in the early '70s. Crock-Pots arrived, enabling a type of slow-cooked meal - one that entailed much more liquid and delivered different results - without making someone stay at home to watch over the oven. Lord knows an unwatched oven is a dangerous thing.

So it is that we have turned our backs on an old friend.

At the other end of the domestic spectrum, however, the idea of casserole reached something of an apotheosis, as Margaret Visser declared, in the cassoulets of southern France. Isn't that convincing?

Cassoulets of Castelnaudary were arguably king, but maybe that was because the compiler of Larousse Gastronomique was from Castelnaudary. Regardless, they ruled, with their special saucisson and special white beans - haricots - which are from what is now Central America, ironic given cassoulet is considered quintessentially French. The name "casserole" even came to us via French and Italian from the Spanish root "cazuela," meaning a kind of stew pan.

But here's the latest: I'll bet you a tin of cream of mushroom soup that casseroles are going to make a big comeback any day as the dish for the malaise of these neo-conservative times. As we are stuck in fear and uncertainty, soon we will be stuck again in casseroles.

When has anything been certain, I ask you? But witness nonetheless the comeback of the slow cooker, albeit in fancier forms like Crock-Pot's Designer Series in slick stainless steel with "one-touch" digital controls. The Food Network even featured a casserole recipe.

If you need more reasons to casserole, and yes, it can be a verb, although it should be a transitive one, I, as staunch public defender of the casserole, offer the following:

1. Casseroles are great for entertaining, especially if you aren't a confident cook and/or hate the stress of trying to produce a lot of "perfect" dishes at once for guests. Casseroles can be made days ahead and re-heated for just-in-time delivery, and they're pretty forgiving if anything goes astray. Add a salad, maybe bread and buy a dessert. Voilà. You'll also have time to re-create the whole thing if it's a disaster.

2. Casseroles can be creative and versatile whether you're a confident cook or not. You can take almost any casserole recipe (see below) and dress it up, or down, toss in a bit of this or that until you have something you'd be proud to be seen with anywhere. Par exemple , the recipe for classic cassoulet in the classic Escoffier Cookbook offers several options. Use shoulder and breast of mutton fried in lard to layer with the beans; or use fresh pork rind, blanched and tied together, with breast or belly of pork, and sausages; and maybe, or maybe not, add a layer of bacon rind on the bottom of the dish.

3. Casseroles often feature the cheapest, and tastiest, cuts of meats and other accessible, price-smart, flavourful ingredients. The snob factor is low and other values are high.

4. Casseroles are usually big on delivery, offering the great satisfaction of easily feeding a big bunch at once. Or they can deliver meal after individual meal day after day for you and your roommates, whoever they are.

5. Casseroles are usually easy and fast to make - great for last-minute dinner parties. It's the cooking time you have to plan around. But on a cold and gloomy Sunday afternoon with not much happening they make a perfect diversion as they fill your kitchen with good smells and warmth.

In a nutshell, casseroles = good food cheap. So eat hardy and eat often.

Try starting with this recipe from my mom. I'm providing the original recipe with my notes on adjustments, but you'll find your own way. Talk about hybrid. It's so Canadian it needs a tin of soup and it's so continental, it even has it's own circle of sausages on top, just like a good cassoulet. It's supposed to serve six, but be warned - we had it for an impromptu dinner for a hungry four and it was so good we ate the whole thing.

 

Mom's 7-layer Dinner  Serves 6

Into a large greased casserole dish place:

• 1-2 inches of thinly sliced raw potatoes (German yellow potatoes are exceptional)

• Layer of thinly sliced onions (1 onion)

• Layer of thinly sliced carrots (4-5 carrots)

• Sprinkle 1/4 c. uncooked rice over the 3 layers

• 1 tin of peas and their liquid (I use a heaping cup of frozen or fresh peas + enough liquid to constitute what would be in a tin)

• 1 lb. pork sausages, arranged in a circle on top (Weisswurst are good, too)

Combine 1 tin tomato soup (try low-salt) and 1 tin water. (Replace some or all of the water with, maybe, broth, tomato sauce, and/or wine, whatever is around and seems good). Season the soup mixture. (Try red wine and balsamic vinegar, about 1 tbsp. each, and about 1 tbsp. herbes de Provence, 1 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Or whatever you fancy.) Mix well and pour over the casserole.

Bake, covered, 1 hour at 400 degrees. Uncover, turn the sausages, and bake 1 more hour. Garnish with apple wedges (I put them on in the last hour and bake them). Warning: the liquids bubble up, so make sure you have about 2 inches of space to the top of your dish.

 

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who invites you all over for a casserole.