It is a known fact that everybody likes food, so what better way to bring people together then make food for others. That’s exactly what Amy Klobuchar- a senator from Minnesota- did. Amy was a Democratic nomination but with that came a lot of hard work and pressure. She wanted to provide to her supporters a nice gesture so she decided to make hot-food for them. This initial task spread as now many other political figures host hot-food parties. These gatherings are a great way “to know [candidates] personally, but in a way that’s not too intrusive” (Severson). I think by proving this good deed not only does this spread the name of a well known political figure but also show to her supporters and fans what she does for people. Amy is able to meet more people and explain why she deserves the vote. All because of this, food has taken a step in the Democratic election.
I’m a good cook — at times even a sophisticated cook. When I moved to South Dakota in 2005 I had my doubts, serious doubts, about tater tot hotdish. Then I discovered that it is actually and unexpectedly delicious. There are some recipes, like this and Mississippi roast, that are more than the sum of their parts.
Another note of linguistic interest—at least where I lived, “hotdish” was a generic term for any hot casserole. “Tater tot” was usually used as a qualifier for this particular type.
I'm amused by the people who think that a critique of this dish somehow shows elitism.
I'm a single mom and a public school teacher. I often feed people - this weekend I hosted game night for friends at my house and made a taco bar with grilled chicken and guacamole etc.; last week my colleague's house flooded so I made her some chili; etc. - and though I like the idea of showing people love and community through hot food....this dish makes my stomach hurt just looking at it. It's mostly processed food all dumped together, and it doesn't appeal to me at all.
Out of curiosity I looked up obesity rates in America. Looking at this data as a West Coaster, I do not plan on taking nutrition advice from the middle of America. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html
If Klobuchar wants to spread her message outside MN, she might want to rethink things. Maybe in Iowa this will win hearts, but in my community I think it looks out of touch. Aren't we trying to avoid rising healthcare costs - and aren't we trying to live in such a way that we need less healthcare to begin with? What's elite about that?
Amy K's campaign gimmick sounds fun. Homey comfort food is coming back, as people finally notice the dreary monotony of Michelin-star food (sous-vide X in a foam of Y).
To those who are whining about diabetes and glop, you are demonstrating the East Coast liberal's infinite talent for losing elections, losing impeachment trials, losing touch, losing everything.
I have no appetite for her candidacy or cooking.
1
That really looks more like a "Hot Mess" to me. Kind of hard to distinguish it from just so much Alpo with extra gravy.
Politics aside, and with all due respect, if I made this for someone, take it to the bank that I don't like you.
I recommend adding wide egg noodles to traditional green bean casserole. Mmmm good, says this New York Jew :)
As a native Minnesotan, what I am most confused about here is my long understanding that hotdish was one, not two words.
1
Try it with green beans. That now it's really done in Minnesota.
Amy needs to get a new signature campaign dish, this one is just bad. I tasted Amy’s hot dish at a house party that a friend hosted for Amy. Fortunately, other attendees brought other delicious food.
1
Cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, ground beef, half a pound of cheese, and bites of breaded fried potatoes? That’s just gross.
It has nothing to do with class and everything to do with people raised on a diet of processed “convenience” foods who are now touting their crummy food choices as something admirable or authentic.
You know what the leading cause of death is in this country? Heart attacks. You know what the senator’s hot dish is filled with? Fat and sodium.
You can make tuna noodle casserole and lots of other casserole-style dishes without ultra processed foods. It requires maybe 20 minutes of effort. But apparently that’s too difficult for some people.
5
I couldn't agree more! And then they add salt to that hot nasty mess!!
What I have issue with is s tater tot submerged in cheese and creaminess. A tater tots need to be crispy and crunchy around every delicious edge and side. Why destroy that which is the essence of the tater tot? I don't get it.
2
My first introduction to "hot dish" was watching "Girl Meets Farm" with Molly Yeh. Her father is of Chinese descent and her mother is Jewish. Ms. Yeh grew up in Chicago, attended Juilliard in NYC where she met her husband, a farm boy from the Minnesota/North Dakota border. She also makes challah bread, pot stickers, and "cookie salad". She is the personification of the kind of cultural melting pot you can find in America.
2
I cannot get over how disgusting this is. As Al Franken said: "Land of 10,000 Calories" indeed. Michelle Obama must be nauseous!
4
Honestly. Anytime a recipe includes the words "can" and "mushroom soup".... ..we're done. All done. Buh bye.
4
I actually saved the recipe. My daughter's husband's family would love this kind of dish even though they're from Connecticut. They have very simple (unsophisticated ) taste when it comes to food. Delivery pizza, soggy and cold, is very much to their liking. Anything that smacks of "healthy" is rejected out of hand. I just omitted the salt since the canned soups are loaded with more than enough.
I’ll be trying this out for the Super Bowl tomorrow. Thanks for the idea and recipe!
1
No article about hot dish is complete without at least a mention of the role Garrison Keillor played in popularizing the concept for listeners of his Prairie Home Companion radio show.
I was a regular listener from the late 1980s until it ended a few years ago. I was always amused at his gentle poking of fun at hot dish. The concept seemed universal to me, as somebody always brings a questionable casserole to neighborhood or school functions.
Thanks for the light-hearted article!
5
I love the idea of the Hot Dish. It seems very Midwestern. It also seems like a symbol of good qualities like being frugal and solid and down to earth. Other parts of the country must also have dishes that reflect the specific areas. My parents are from Hawaii and the dish there is probably spam (I am aware of the negative things said about it).
1
Several years ago I purchased “The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever” by Minnesotan Beatrice Ojakangas. It is my go to on nights when I want to make comfort food or am serving a crowd. She has her own recipe for a cream base so no need for canned cream of mushroom. It’s not something I use daily but it has many wonderful easy recipes when seeking a one dish meal. If it is still in print, I highly recommend!
I’m originally from Missouri. Never heard of “hot dish”. America’s Test Kitchen published a recipe for it that I have made probably 10 times in the last year. It’s exceptional.
a nice food photo
I'm happy to make a bake with tater tots, lots of veggies and cubed turkey or shredded chicken. Made with the correct ingredients and low-fat cheese, it's healthy, quick, and inexpensive.
2
@Liz Detrich the thing that kills it for me are the tater tots, which I do love on their own. They are so oily, processed and salt laden. No one is dropping dead from eating 5 tots with a burger. It's when you toss it into cheese and meat and a token pea that is a no thank you.
Shred your own potatoes? Potatoes are cheap. A big bag of off grand tots is $5.00 where I live.
Ha, born in Iowa and grew up in DSM, got my degrees from Iowa City, and lived all over the Midwest but left the region for good in 1991 - so I'd just turned 30 - and I've never had a dish resembling any of these. At any party.
Unless you count lasagna. But this quite frankly looks, well, disgusting, full of fat and processed foods which are killers for heart and arterial health. One of the reasons I left the Midwest is almost everyone > 40 is obese, or well on their way there, and every other person you talk to either is having heart issues or someone in their family is.
The great myth of the Midwest is the food is good. Its not. Far better out here in California, where things are fresh and not straight from some giant agricorp canning factory stuffed chock full of preservatives and fructose syrup.
7
I grew up in coastal Southern California, and this brought back memories of neighborhood potlucks and care packages for families dealing with hardship. We called it a casserole, but same difference -- it's a symbol of community and civility -- something we are much in need of today. (It's small wonder that a term like "Coastal Elites" has evolved, judging from a lot of the snobbish comments here. Kind of embarrassing.)
11
Taconite is a type of iron ore.
You really want good miners' chow, give out a pasty with rutabaga. Hot dish to go. And stays hot in your lunch bucket all day. I'd vote for that.
5
This is a war crime against tater tots.
2
We tried it. It was real salty. Probably won’t try again. We buried it in sour cream and salsa and that was better!
Sounds good but way too salty!
I love tater tots, but this Taconite Tater Tot thing will hopefully stay in the Midwest.
@Jess We'll keep the Hot Dish and you keep your floppy limp pizzas.
What's the amount of salt? That would be before the amount added?
Ahh, the "What's the Matter With Kansas?" aficionados are once again unaware and appalled at what regular people have to say, do and now eat. That smugness may come again with unfortunate political repercussions.
5
Nice article about community and breaking bread.
Too bad the New York Times comment selectors and the coastal masses are all brainwashed into buying Whole Foods organics that cost $200 to feed a couple for a week, $27 drop-in yoga, and Gwyneth Paltrow Goop and need to flaunt that particular lifestyle aesthetic to prove how truly "progressive" they are. This invariably leads to condescending comments about the simple, but necessary, meals that lower and middle income families throughout this country put in the table to feed their loved ones.
I look forward to the articles in 9.5 months asking about why we didn't follow their lead and vote for the candidate who thinks "bread lines are a good thing."
7
Who thought Tater Tots could generate so much discussion?
7
Tots rock!
She had better have a good health care plan with this kind of diet.
5
@Richard Perry: As I pointed out in another comment, not one city in Minnesota makes the list of the top 50 U.S. cities with coronary heart disease.
Hartford, Connecticut is #38.
4
AMY K !!!
Whatever you do in this Primary Season
don't, don't, don't, don't drop out.
No matter what the Pundits say
No matter what the Media says
Just keep on campaigning and see what happens.
If you make it up near Moscow, Idaho,
please bring your Hot Dish to dinner
there are plenty people here
who would be glad to meet
and support you.
11
Uff da! When I moved to Minnesota I had to learn to speak Minnesotan. “Hot dish” means any kind of casserole and they are similar to what gets served in Long Island, Colorado, Oregon, and Virginia. The best ones in Minnesota involve chicken, mushrooms and wild rice in a béchamel sauce topped with a few croutons. Serve with your favorite lingonberry sauce.
7
As someone who was born (1966) and raised in small town Iowa, then lived in Nebraska until moving to California in 1994 ... I've never heard of the term hot dish for a recipe until this article. Not even from my Gramma Anna born in 1899.
Tator Tot Casserole, yep. Various Noodle Casseroles, yep. But hot dish ... No.
And please ... Don't belittle a Tator Tot Casserole, which I still prepare with fresh vegetables, by calling it a 'hot dish'. My beloved Gramma is surely rolling in her grave to learn that her hearty Tater Tot Casserole has been belittled to a generic 'hot dish'.
1
What exactly is so off-putting about the term hot dish? It’s the same recipe, you know.
4
For those horrified by the unhealthful ingredients, remember that Trump is doing all he can to put these on every public school lunch menu.
8
@apparatchick Yup. True. And what a crying shame. Our kids deserve better!
Hot dish/casseroles are certainly great and the mentality that goes along with them having that folksy appeal.
But I doubt if it will fly in the BBQ/chitterling, fried chicken, greens and cornbread circuit. And I know it won’t fly in the ‘steak and potatoes’ OR the Pheasant under glass with truffles sector. And forget about the moo goo gai pan crowd, the vindaloo crowd or even vegans - all of whom are hyper marginalized.
Right now the steak and pheasant people are running the political show because they both believe in bullying their rivals. Demanding that we turn to casseroles suggests more of the same.
Acknowledge the differences in peoples cuisines and invite those differences to find the similarities within those differences. Not everyone eats turkey at the one quintessential American food holiday: thanksgiving.
1
It’s the sweetest thing, c’mon, getting together as a community, talking, discussions in a civilized manner! I love it, but saw no bunson burners keeping things hot during those cold hours of evening get-togethers.
1
Tater tots are actually delicious and not that unhealthy. We often serve them as a side and our educated upper middle class gourmet friends devour them. Amy's hot dish would be served with produce sides such as a tossed salad, corn on the cob, tomato soup, marinated bean salad, etc.
1
Consider that what people eat is what's near them. In Japan, it's fish as it's an island. For the Aztecs it was corn. For cooler climes it's potatoes. If none of the above apply, it's in a can or frozen.
If hotdish = neighborliness it's not whether it's a casserole that matters. As Scout Finch says, "Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between."
As a kid we would come home to find an albacore on ice in newspaper for sashimi. As we had a garden, we left baskets of plums, summer tomatoes and peaches and our neighbors (Mexican) brought over an olla of beans and a tub of salsa for no particular reason. To this day it is my comfort food. No one ever brought casseroles.
The reason some think hotdish will not play nationally is that they have not thought hard enough what Ms. Klobuchar is getting at.
Admittedly, Ilhan Omar's (borrowed) rendition is the best iteration of the casserole I've ever seen.
3
The “Hot Dish” taconite reference is to the cylinder shaped pellets that low grade taconite ore is shaped and looks like tater tots. The taconite pellets are then shipped to Cleveland via ore boats on the Great Lakes to be smelted into our famous “Cover Dish”.
1
I can assure you any physical similarity between taconite pellets and Tater Tots is purely coincidental. This dish is regional to Minnesota and at least Western Wisconsin and Northern Iowa (where the MN culture seeps over due to major TV markets and job location).
Best eaten with a hair comb.
Shots fired, kidding aside, this west coast cook has always admired the Midwest budget stretching style. Walk a mile in the subzero.
4
My Minnesota hot dish was cheddar cheese soup, tomato soup, ground beef, an onion, topped with sliced pickles and tater tots. Basically cheeseburger in a pan. On a Thursday in February when the high was minus twenty, it was a way to feed the kids without argument and get to bed after a long day at work.
11
Hot dish is not 'a symbol of coming together, of a time when we weren’t so rude to each other'. It is a symbol of nostalgia for a nonexistent time when everyone in Minnesota was white and Lutheran.
51
@laura5678 Maybe then you should explain Rep. Ilhan Omar's taking part in the competition!
110
@laura5678
Well then, I guess you've never had the other popular and highly revered Minnesota standard, wild rice, in a hot dish, in chicken soup, in stuffed squash, or as a side dish. In all my years growing up in Minneapolis, I never once recall anyone expressing the notion that everyone was white and Lutheran.
133
There was never a time when Minnesota was only white and Lutheran. Ever here of the Ojibwa people? How about the Sioux or Chippewa?
221
Absolutely vile and unhealthy. 95% of the country, where hockey is not a ten-month-a-year sport would be well advised to avoid this dish. This woman berated her staff for forgetting forks for her takeout salad, which she then ate using her pocket comb, then demanded they wash the comb for her (True! Read it in the Times!), well, then, are you surprised that she'd take pride in showing off this do-it-yourself heart attack? And she wants to be president, guiding the nation in so many ways, including proper nutrition. Oh, Michelle Obama, bring back your vegetable garden!
10
It sounds awful. Do people still cook like that. Coastal liberal wants to know??
10
Every night.
2
@Linda von Geldern Do people in Portland still wear shorts, socks and sandals in December. People in America want to know??
7
This passes for political news!
Come on NYTimes--climate change, environmental degradation, imprisonment at the border, foreign wars--and this is what you give us? If you can't talk about Kloubochar's (status-quo) policies, leave us alone!
1
How nice it must be to be able to get acquainted with the candidates in such a personal, up-close way. It's an opportunity the rest of us can only envy.
Senator Klobuchar has my support even though I have zero chance of ever meeting her in MY state. The system is so very stupid so... tell me again why that is? What makes Iowans so very, very special?
4
The REAL question is, can (or has) Senator Klobuchar eaten "hot dish" with a comb?!
8
A Minnesota raised friend told me that a hot dish was eaten frequently after church events so it had to taste good even if it was not hot but lukewarm.
1
I'm looking forward to trying "hotdish" with all its tater tot glory, one day at the White House VIP banquet.
3
@The Buddy The perfect accompaniment for this dish would be a fine Trump Estate vintage.
1
Lookup the effects of taconite on Lake Superior's water quality. Then google "klobuchar sulfide mining boundary waters." Yeah...
2
Lighten up people!! Does anyone remember the 2016 Family Circle magazine's presidential cookie competition between Bill Clinton (you read that right) and Melania Trump? Clinton Family's Chocolate Chip Cookies won. Trump’s recipe for Star Cookies was dough rolled out and cut into the shape of stars.
4
@Molly Bloom Good grief, this Slovenian American First Lady couldn't make a povitica?
2
This reminds me of the time that my mother showed up for her Ladies' Circle potluck in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, back in 1974, with a potato salad, only to find that everyone else had also brought a potato salad.
16
Lets be honest. This is a coded discussion about class. Rich people dont eat hot dish. Poor people eat hot dish.
Hot dish is also a food for people who do not live close to a grocery store. Where I am from, every adult woman has a chest freezer large enough to store a coupe bodies should you need to. You have hot dish and chest freezers because you live 30 miles from a grocery store but a can of soup is something you can get at the Cenex. There is no pizza delivery here.
Hot dish is a gift of wealth, when poverty means food you had to grow. Hot dish meant abundance to share, to literally feed your community.
If you don’t understand this, you don’t understand what Klobuchar means when she talks about hot dish. And you don’t understand what it means when she bring that hot dish to people.
344
@Carol
I love knowing all of this--my uncle and his family were dairy farmers and when we visited they served a version of hot dish. Everything was made with pantry staples in the house because the time wasn't spent on a garden, it was spent farming for a living--living meaning selling the product. Haying time between milkings. White washing the milking areas. Fixing machinery. They collected eggs and canned and put up food in the freezer -- that plus a can of soup because it's fast and tasty and had the calories that you needed for that hard work--that's mostly what they ate. Oh and when we visited they said "FHB" for family hold back, meaning that hot dish had to spread to the guests to eat their fill.
71
@Carol Thank you for your response. You put your finger on what was bothering me about the other comments on this article. People can be so judgmental and condescending. My vegetable garden is a vanity project, a therapy project as much as anything else. I grew up poor and ate beans, rice, and homemade tortillas as my daily diet. The hot dish sounds like luxury to me. And it strikes me that poor people and rural people do care about sharing what they have with their neighbors, and beans/rice or hot dish does certainly fit that bill when you can scarcely afford to feed your own family.
104
@Carol Actually, rich people do eat hot dish. It is presented on upscale menus throughout California as 'comfort food.' I recently attended an elegant dinner party where the main dish was macaroni and cheese, topped with panko crumbs. It is viewed as a treat to be enjoyed every now and then - like any wickedly delicious dish. Ever read a Julia Child cook book? Lots and lots of butter and cream.
We have so much divisiveness in this country. Let's not make a discussion about hot dish - or casseroles - a class issue. It isn't.
39
Nothing screams "Midwest" like a hot casserole made up of a protein (ground hamburger or shredded chicken), a can of cream soup (chicken, mushroom or celery) cheese, onion and of course, Tater Tots!
I grew up on more than my fill of these kinds of dinners because they were cheap, easy to make, and fed an entire family. Farmers were more interested in eating something that was piping hot and filling than anything else.
And although my dad ate tons of cheese, eggs, and butter, he worked 12-14 hour days in the fields and lived to the very ripe old age of 97.
330
@Marge Keller
Don't forget tuna noodle! Topped with crispy chow mein noodles or crushed potato chips. I grew up in Minneapolis, and hadn't heard the "cream of" soups called "the Lutheran binder", but it strikes me as perfect, and gave me a little giggle.
119
@Julie
Oh yeah, I forgot about those tuna noodle casseroles. Great catch!!!
33
@Marge Keller As a Midwestern Scandinavian, I grew up on "hot dish" (and lefse and lutefisk) and still toss one together a couple times a year.
For tuna casserole, they're best topped with crushed potato chips, except for occasions like confirmations and funerals, which call for fancier slivered almonds.
78
Blaagh.
2
Ew.
20
This is great. I have a special fondness for regional people's fare and comfort food. I haven't previously seen or heard much about hot dish. But after reading this piece, I'm ready to give it a place of honor on Mt. Starchmore along with funeral potatoes and Hawaiian plate lunch.
Food snobs should know that some of the most fabulous and famous cooks in the country still love making the unpretentious dishes they grew up on, which came from recipes their mothers or grandmothers found in magazines or printed on the packaging of readily available non-perishable goods.
15
As other commenters have noted: the disdain expressed in some of these comments is part of the reason Trump won. I eat mostly vegan, shop at the local farmer's market, fresh, organic, etc, etc ... but as a native Michigander and (late) boomer besides, grew up on this kind of food. Tater tots, fish sticks, mac and cheese, casseroles, on "treat" nights TV dinners. If this dish were vegetarianized, I'd eat a helping as fast as could be served up. Lighten up critics, it's just a potluck dish.
26
In college, one roommate always made a tater tot casserole when it was her turn to cook. We had to go to a never repeat rule. Even 40 years later, I never want tater tot casserole again.
4
@Vicki: My college-aged daughter, a surprisingly good cook for someone her age, has three roommates with whom she rotates preparing a weekly meal. Hotdish would be a rather significant step up from what her roommates serve when it's their time to cook. It's amazing how utterly incompetent they are in the kitchen. Even packaged Ramen seems beyond their abilities. Hotdish topped with Tater Tots would be cause for celebration.
9
Meat with veggies and sauce, topped with starch. Reminds me of dishes like shepherd’s pie or cottage pie.
I will say, I’m digging that one blogger’s chaatdish recipe. Maybe I’ll try it with shredded potatoes on top instead of the tots.
5
I lived in Minnesota. Grocery stores sold "frozen hot dish". Only one word for that - gross. I moved away.
4
I'm sitting here eating my own version of "hot dish" as I write this comment. It's organic brown rice, shallots, shiitakes, organic broccoli and carrots, and vegetarian "chicken" tossed with Trader Joe's condensed mushroom bisque and topped with sharp cheddar and then baked in the oven. I suppose I could have made a white sauce from scratch in lieu of the condensed soup, but I took a shortcut so that I could make time for exercise. Long live the hot dish in all its forms! I have lunch for the week!
11
Geez Louise, some of these commentators need to get a grip. I’d suggest they get a drink, but something tells me that’s off limits too. I consciously eat healthy foods and exercise regularly, but think it’s important to allow ourselves certain indulgences and comfort food is a great indulgence. (I admit, I love tater tots.) No one is suggesting that this be eaten as every meal.
14
It might be worth noting that not one city in Minnesota makes it onto the list of the 50 U.S. cities with the highest rates of coronary heart disease. Four from New York do. Just a little food for thought as we're hashing out the health implications of hotdish.
24
The comments to this story, nicely illustrate why Trump will probably be re-elected.
“Personally, I would never make a canned soup, process cheese, ground meat and Tater tot casserole”;
“But this is just gross and outdated. From a health perspective, this is not something anyone should be promoting. Can’t imagine putting this near my mouth.”;
“My adventures in cooking started once I migrated to the west coast”; “Often I can find the authentic ethnic ingredient easily here in California”; “Hotdishes were one reason I had to escape Minnesota”
The condescension for anyone who does not go to the farmers market or at least buys organix at Whole Foods is depressing from the so-called “progressives”. We eat hot dishes/casseroles for many reasons: we are short on time because the shift ended late, the kids have hockey practice, we like it, it’s cheap, we can use leftovers, it reminds us of a time when people came together rather than tell us we lived in a place that had to “be escaped” to truly enjoy life. Sad!
26
It's cheaper and healthier to make your own tater tots.. and if you really want to ...
Ratio: 75/25 mashed cauliflower with potatoes.. nobody knows the difference especially covered with cheese.
2
"Amy's tater tot - hot dish; Lyin' Donny's road - show both in Des Moines"
Oh good grief, people!
Lighten up.
It's part of an article in the Food Section. Not Front page, above the fold material.
All the candidates do silly stuff like this. Can't remember Bernie, Elizabeth, Kamala, and Pete eating corn-dogs and cotton-candy while at the Iowa Fair last summer? All the candidiates, even those trying to appeal to the ELITE go to the midwest, to kiss babies and eat regional "foods".
This is part of politics, for better or worse, and they ALL do it. Hot-dish at a campaign fundraiser in Iowa or Minnesota, in the dead of winter, would not be complete without it.
No one's promoting the dish at a health fair.
Sigh.......
10
Corn dogs (called Pronto Pups at the Minnesota State Fair)...now we’re talkin’ my kind of delicious comfort food!
I have a real weakness for tater tots, so far be it from me to ponificate here. But some of these recipes sound truly repulsive AND artery clogging at the same time...I'm not sure they are the best things the Midwest has to offer our national culture, foodwise or otherwise....
3
@Don Carleton
I had andouillette on a pizza once when I was in Montpellier. No joke.
@Chris
Sounds bizarre but yummy.
A few years back two transplanted friends up here, one from Minnesota and one from Wisconsin, got together and announced a "Minnesconsin Potluck". The idea was everybody was supposed to do their best to bring some archetypal upper-midwesterny dish to the party.
I had no idea. So I called my friend Jessica in St. Paul, told her the situation, and asked what I should bring.
Without hesitation she said, "Tater Tot Hotdish!"
She gave me a recipe -- pretty much just like any of these in this article -- and I made it, all gooey and tater-tottery and caloric.
I was feeling pretty proud of myself as I carried my steaming towel-wrapped dish up to the door. With a little clever initiative I'd managed to score the super-genuine thing!
As I approached the big table looking for a spot to set down my excellent contribution I saw that mine was at least the twelfth tater tot hotdish already there!
7
If she can send me the recipe for a vegan version of this I would not only cook it every week, but I would vote for her in the NJ primary and general election.
I had Minnesota hot dish growing up. The memory still leads to nightmares and bouts of nausea.
10
I grew up in Wisconsin. I had many a hot dish growing up. I’d say that all hot dishes are casseroles, but not all casseroles are hot dishes. Hot dish is an entree, casseroles can be side dishes (green bean casserole in the Midwest, or summer squash casserole in the South).
And yes, Southern comfort food is much tastier. Except for sweet tea.
10
Agreed. Sweet tea should be outlawed.
4
Wondering whether "bars" are also served. And if Iowan attendees dig in after the first offer (barbarians) or gently demure until the third.
3
That looks vile. I'll have two servings, please. Oh, would anyone mind if I scraped and took all of the cheesy bits? Thanks. :)
21
Sorry, "that's not even in the food zone" as the creator of The Good Earth restaurant once told me told me about a restaurant (not his) breakfast sandwich I was eating...that was probably 20 years ago and processed "foods" had been outed long before that for their high fat, salt & sugar coupled with low nutritional value. Michelle Obama, where are you?! These people need you to save them from clogged arteries, diabetes and heart disease!
8
@Maria until you live through Minnesota winter, you can keep your California foodie judgements to yourself.
9
Hey NYTcooking, I wouldn't mind if you could get ahold of that Hotdish a-Hmong friends recipe??? :-)
10
Well, if it takes all of us gaining a few pounds to get rid of Trump, I’m all in!
33
@UC Graduate
Love it! :)
6
Wow! Such scorn from so many about an innocent fun thing injected into a campaign. I don't personally like most "hotdish" meals, but I didn't move to MN until well into adulthood. But as a kid growing up in the Northeast in the 50s and 60s, my mom made similar "meals" for our family (tuna casserole, macaroni and cheese, sloppy joes, "Hungarian" goulash, tuna over toast, etc.). A great way for a frugal mom to feed a family of six. My sibs and I don't eat like this anymore, but certainly were substantial, sometimes tasty, filling meals when growing up!
Note to critics: Not all of us grew up in well-educated, prosperous, upper class families. Give us a break and lighten up!
38
@TRF: It might come as a surprise, but many well-educated, prosperous families have a stash of salty, high-fat, and completely delicious prepared foods in our pantries and freezers. Tonight, I'll be throwing some fish & chips in the oven, steaming some frozen peas and carrots, and adding a dollop of tartar sauce. Hardly haute cuisine, but satisfying. The organic, air-chilled chicken, baby greens dressed with balsamic vinaigrette, and heirloom rice can wait until tomorrow.
13
My wife and I heard Amy speak on January 18 in Coralville and decided to support her; I'll be a precinct caucus captain for her next Monday. If I'd known the Times was covering it, I'd have shown up to Ms. Fath's house, but to be honest, I grew up in northern California and my wife is from the Hudson Valley, so we are not really hot dish aficionados, though we have lived in Iowa City for 34 years. But thanks to Garrison Keillor, we know all about "Lutheran binder."
To the commenters who are concerned about healthy eating, I see no reason to assume that a somewhat tongue-in-cheek campaign event represents an endorsement of poor eating habits. Sen. Klobuchar has a great sense of humor which I hope she will get a chance to deploy against Trump. And for those of you on the coasts who have never been here, Iowa City probably has more residents per capita with advanced degrees than your city does, we're the cultural capital of the state (think UI Writers' Workshop), and we're easily the most liberal and diverse city in the state.
24
Thanks to this hot dish topic, the NYT comments are beginning to rival the Guardian in off-the-cuff humor and curmudgeonliness. Pretty good. It's not easy to rival the Brits in those areas.
13
Dump the canned Campbell’s soup and make it from scratch and it might be more edible.. This soul add about 15 minutes to the prep..
Aren’t your dinners worth it??
3
Sounds interesting even though it may be a bit 1950's.
With that said - am I the only one that read the recipe posted
and wondered where the listing of onions is? It is mentioned in the instructions but I do not see it in the ingredient list.
How many onions? Chopped? Diced? Sliced?
onions are the last item in ingredient list. 1 small onion.
Yes, it is an unusual way to list ingredients.
Another stunningly misleading sub-headline by the NYT: Amy Klobuchar is deploying her Minnesota hot dish at voter house parties, but it may be a hard sell outside her home state." Huh?
Am I missing the point if this far-too-long and unfocused article? News or food?
I keep looking for the substance to support this. NYT history with Klobuchar (the best candidate) is sketchy, a lengthy early article about her purported tough boss tactics, and now hot dish "a hard sell."
And then endorse her.
Sigh. Well, she's the ONLY Democratic candidate who could have taken on the president with aplomb, facts, conviction and grit, without scolding or histrionics.
7
Since NY Times has endorsed Amy Kloubichar, we must now find out whether their food critic endorses her hot dish recipe. Or perhaps co-endorse a dish from Elizabeth Warren.
2
I'm sorry but I grew up literally within 200 miles of the geographic center of the lower 48, and I've never even heard of this hot mess of a "dish" let alone had the horror of actually having to try it.
I can tell you I am sick and tired of ignorance about the heartland. When the current editor of the New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, ran the paper's bureau in Kansas City 10 years ago or so, he was fretting that the city wouldn't be able to accommodate his vegetarianism, which of course was ridiculous, and frankly, insulting.
4
So... not actually IN Minnesota.
4
@Jennifer: Oh come on, are you to have us believe that you are a Midwesterner with absolutely no knowledge of any number of frugal casseroles for a crowd? You may not have had Tater Tot hotdish, but certainly there must be something similar in your background. Did you never attend a church or neighborhood potluck? I can think of a myriad of dishes that would horrify food critics: tuna casserole, crescent roll cold vegetable pizza, Dayton Dip (a culinary horror made with Velveeta "cheese" and sausage), seven-layer dip, Spam casserole, jello salad, and on and on and on.
25
@Jennifer
I believe we are in the minority from our region, from our unfamiliarity with the dish to our recognition of others' provincialism about the heartland.
Wow! Look at all of theses comments about a woman presidential candidate’s recipe for a hot dish (as opposed to her recipe for fixing climate change or immigration or healthcare or corruption or addiction or nuclear proliferation or the Mideast crisis or mass shootings or poverty or racism or some other thing like that!) Let’s go for the headline, “Klobuchar Recipe Story Sets NYT Comment Record.”
7
@Vanessa Dayton: It's either this or listening to the Senate debate the impeachment and banging one's head against the wall in frustration. Clearly, a little levity in a mostly good-natured debate about hotdish is just the diversion we all need today.
13
@Vanessa If all you know about Senator Klobuchar is what the NYT tells you, you need to get out more. And I suggest you do. She is the best candidate out there, regardless of her position on tater tots.
2
@Allison Amen.
1
Mon Dieu!
3
Wow, is this the New York Times and 2020? Reads like Ladies Home Journal.
8
@Rachel O’Bryan
Um, I think you missed the point.
13
Democrats and Republicans need to take more time to break bread and have fun. The endless string of puns in this was amazing, with Rep. Omar's Little Moga-Hot-Dishu sounding delicious.
With tensions and partisanship at an all-time high maybe what we need is a congressional kitchen party.
11
@Zack Agreed, Rep. Omar's version is probably the only healthy, edible version of this thing described!
2
Geez, doesn’t anyone PROOFREAD any more? The recipe and the article (see photo captions) have words missing and typos. The NYT and the Klobuchar campaign should be ashamed.
2
@S Connell
Red Hat says what?
2
The corporate mediocrity of nice I don’t want any part of..
5
Oh for goodness sakes, most comments are from people who consider themselves way above the hot dish crowd in their epicurean tastes.
I’ve been to my share of NYC elite restaurant and cook8ng is a hobby.
But I grew up in the South and enjoyed the article. And although I don’t use cream of mushroom soup, I can enjoy the sentiment of folks gathering over one pot meals who would never think to buy truffle oil or make a balsamic reduction.
Get off your high horse.
16
@VA Nothing wrong with one-pot meals--cassoulet, goulash, chicken soup with vegetables--there are many great ones.
But jeeze, dumping canned cream of mushroom soup over a bunch of frozen vegetables and chopped meat and then topping it with tater tots (and I plead guilty to quite liking the later)?!
Do you know how much sodium canned soups contain?!
2
@don and yet the dish is still healthier than your comments.
1
This thread, sadly, is totally lacking comment on the jokes used to name the politico's hot dishes, and the specific socio-cultural significance of the Upper Midwest sensibility present in the soft mostly-self-deprecating ironies of the style of humor involved.
You really have to be from Minnesota to understand the reference to taconite. Condensed version: it's low grade iron ore, the mining and processing of which was a heated controversy during the teenage and 20-something years of Boomers (economic revivial for the iron Range vs. tax subsidy, environmental and health concerns. This played out on the evening newscasts in the Twin Cities and in the mining industry sponsored PR films accompanying the Late Show movies that followed.
Thing was, the Range is remote enough from the Cities that while the dramatic hubub was all but inescapable, we young-uns didn't really understand what it was all about. And that made it all fodder for a kind of joke, especially invoking the magic-heroic tone of those PR films; "Taconite!" Ducks Breath Mystery Theater (ex Iowans) did a brilliant comedy riff on this (for NPR, iirc) back in the day.
Cultural historical footnote: the Edmund Fitzgerald was carrying a massive load of taconite toward the iron mills in PA when it went down in Lake Superior.
13
@DJT Correction: The Edmund Fitzgerald and its load of taconite was bound for Zug Island, Detroit, not PA.
2
@DJT
And the big, ongoing, environmental controversy over the thousands of tons of the byproduct, taconite tailings! I believe they are now used in road construction.
Having grown up in Wisconsin, I can't believe the people in Iowa are so fancy as to call this a casserole. Even my neighbor from Saskatchewan knows it's a hot dish. It's also a great idea to bring people together. Amy, I salute you.
15
I understand why Obama was so particular about his diet when campaigning. This sounds absolutely dreadful, like most weird midwestern concoctions like baked spaghetti and fried ravioli. Blech.
7
@A. jubatus
Well, la-de-dah!
13
Please, cease these mindless stereotypes. I grew up in the Midwest. Never heard of this casserole. Lordy. Canned soup and Tater Tots with packaged cheese?
Yuck!
I wonder if she'd create policy in the same way: cheap ingredients, heat until all bubbly in Congress.
6
It’s a particularly Minnesotan thing, not Michigan. I know, having been born in Minnesota and raised in Ann Arbor myself.
5
@John Briggs
I grew up in Michigan and we ate casseroles. But my all time favorite dish is something my great aunt Clara, who lived in Moorhead, Minnesota, made from a recipe found in her local newspaper. It’s a hot dish as far as I’m concerned, minus the tater tots, and it’s made with creamed soups, hamburger, peas, and rice. I eat healthy too, but once in awhile this comfort food is what is needed to get me through the long, hard winter up here.
6
@Anita Larson
I was raised in Minneapolis in the 70’s,
never heard of or consumed “hot dish”, or casserole for that matter. But, my parents are not native to Minnesota and we never went up north either.
Is this any way to choose a president? Really? It's just so vapid. It's a popularity contest where the judges never travel beyond the borders of their home state. Ridiculous.
2
The 1950s called. They want their hot dish back.
8
@joey
we are all living in the 1950s now, the hot dish has found new life.
2
This comment section reaks of disordered eating, classism and healthism.
9
Senator Klobuchar's 'cook' for her hot dish at campaign events is medical doctor who has seven children and in her own words says, "I can cook."
Yup.
Amy Klobuchar for President!!
4
Tater Tot casserole, which is what we call this kind of dish in Nebraska is much better with peas in it than greenbeans. (And they should be frozen, not canned, canned peas are an abomination) Also for people freaking out about the canned soup, you don't actually have to use canned soup, its fairly easy to cook your own cream of whatever if you are one of the poor souls who has a MSG reaction. Plus you don't eat these kinds of things every week, they are like a twice a year sort of thing. (This could be because my dad has always hated Tatertot casserole so we only ate it when he was away)
8
I was born and raised in Michigan. I always called the concoction of hamburger and onion, cream of mushroom soup, frozen peas (or other frozen veggies), and tater tots, “Tater Tot Casserole.” But I don’t remember my mother calling anything a “hot dish”.
Pretty much all of the hotdishes sound disgusting.
10
The snobbery from people on here is unwarranted. Both sides of my family are from Minnesota. I grew up in Michigan. We lived in England for a few years while I was growing up and traveled in Europe. We cooked healthy, Mediterranean inspired meals at home. I’ve lived 35 years in the West Coast and eat healthfully most of the time.
A while back, my grandfather in Minnesota died. My family gathered from around the globe, meeting up at the airport in Minneapolis and arriving at Grandpas house together. When we walked into the house we found all manner of hot dishes, salads (jello, of course), platters of sandwiches, cakes pies and cookies. The food covered the dining room table, the kitchen counters and filled the fridge. This was love. Love from family and friends, designed to feed, soothe, and nourish us in body and soul.
This is the spirit of hot dish. It’s not everyday food, it’s occasional comfort food. No one eats this every day. But it’s the cultural heritage of good, hard working people who live in a cold climate. It’s easy to put together, economical, and perfect for it’s time and place.
55
@Anita Larson Well said.
7
@Anita Larson Bless you. Now I don’t have to read anymore comments. You nailed it. PS Go Amy!
7
This is an American dish made and conceived by Americans that get up early everyday and work 9 to 10 hours a day and just get by paying their bills. This is the food that kept them going and still does. It’s a casserole, meant to be shared at social events that bind a community. Coastal elites are lost on these concepts. They don’t understand community and talking to your neighbor. You can’t expect to change the outcome of the next election with you apple air pods in your ear everyday with your head down into your phone. Talking and getting involved does it. That also means leaving your coastal bubble to do it.
15
@Bill Lombard
It's funny - in your determination to put down the supposed elitists, you - I'm sure inadvertently - made about the most elitist comment yet on this thread.
8
@Michele K
it is ironic that in your determination to defend elitism you identify a comment informed with the point of view of the proletariat as "elitist."
4
She is campaigning to be president of the United States, not your mom. Why is she continuing the "little woman in the kitchen cooking comfort food" stereotype?
10
Incredible, Democrats even share their strong opinions about regional food.
3
@R
Incredible, Republicans share their willful ignorance about everything.
8
Oh, lighten up, NYT commenters. It’s a human interest story. Try to exude some interest sans judgment. A sense of humor might help, too.
14
That looks so gross.
5
Hey Paco, what is gross to one is yummy to another.
2
Garlic? Seriously Amy, in hot dish? Are you really from Minnesota?
7
@EAP
Her roots are in the Range. It's different up there.
4
This baked glop is nothing more than low quality and medocre processed food-YUK! Senator Amy's trying to win votes with this kind of food? What happened to scratch cooking?
10
the inescapable political tinge to this thread speaks to the GOP's infiltration into social media at every opportunity regardless the topic at hand.
see today's top of the NYT splash page if you doubt it.
'Trump’s Digital Advantage Is Freaking Out Democratic Strategists'
"Left and right agree on one point. The president’s re-election campaign is way ahead online."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/opinion/trump-digital-campaign-2020.html
1
My husband is from the Midwest and I can’t think of anything more hair curling than “ the hot dish” The name speaks volumes based on my observation that most of the other food served is stone cold.Including cold bread which is the coup de grâce.
For one minute, whilst being surrounded by die hard Trump supporters to my daily disgust and shame, I can experience pride that the traditional food served in the South is vastly superior.
5
@Dixie
Like mayonnaise, bacon and peanut butter sandwiches? Like chitterlings? Like pimento loaf? Like fried pork rinds? Please!
5
No,like all the wonderful southern recipes and stories Featured in the NYT food section.Your list is a strange one. Mayo glop is very midwestern . I think only Elvis ate pb and banana sandwiches but Elvis had a lot of problems as you likely know. Once one is completely out of their mind on various and sundry prescription drugs, the pb and banana sandwich,which I recall was fried,probably seemed pretty good but it’s not a regional favorite.
I’m sorry but one last thing. I love fried pork rinds. Almost as healthful as the “ hot dish”
Based on what I've seen on serving tables, if the invitation says, "Bring a hot dish," this could mean casserole, or spaghetti, or macaroni, or stew, or beans & franks, etc. "Hot dish" is just a generic term that means "not cold." So this article is completely confused and lacking in common sense.
4
@CarolT
Thank you - to those of us unfamiliar, it was indeed strange to read that there is some popular concoction out there so well known that it is THE hot dish!
@CarolT
Like mayonnaise, bacon and peanut butter sandwiches? Like chitterlings? Like pimento loaf? Like fried pork rinds? Please!
@TRF
[This was posted under the wrong comment. Sorry.]
As I read the comments to this article, I don’t have to look for an explanation of why the Democratic Party seems to have lost its connection to certain populations of Americans. It’s just a potluck, can we strike a more open tone?
20
@SC No, zealots never tone down.
4
@R
as you so ably demonstrate
@Mary Elizabeth Lease As do you.
Gross. Can we talk about HEALTHCARE! Let’s talk about the most important issue in this election before we start swapping recipes.
1
@Oliver
lighten up...have a burger
8
@Oliver Ok Oliver, why don't YOU talk about health care?
2
Scrapple in Pennsylvania? We can only hope.
2
A dish for people who can’t cook
5
Funny article, but no one included actually made the case that hot dish is not a casserole.
2
@Peter Aretin Because it IS! Just another name.
1
Dreadful echoes of demanding that Ms. Rodman display a good cookie recipe.
Ugh: I don’t care I’m the least what the next POTUS may bring to a potluck.
Not even if that POTUS has ovaries.
How about you: do you care? Why?
3
So many diet freaks out here. You know you're only supposed to eat this dish once a year, right?
Food for thought.
8
I'm not a supporter of Klobuchar's and have no real opinion of her or this obvious marketing ploy, but I gotta say... the NYTimes readers don't fail with the snobbery and and finger-wagging on display in these comments.
25
Wow there are a LOT of sanctimonious food grouches posting in here!
34
I am originally from the Midwest. (Iowa-Illinois area.) One of the local dishes I remember were the "Yooper pasties" (a/k/a Upper Peninsula meat pies). They are excellent. Hope this second comment gets posted.
9
@R
Mmm...pasties. We sure do have the weather for them right now in Michigan.
5
@R
From what I understand, 19th century Cornish miners came over to work the copper mines of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and brought that tradition with them. Pasties (the first syllable rhymes with "fast") could be brought into the mine to be eaten out of hand for lunch. The Italian version is calzone.
6
@Julie A good meat pie is an excellent thing indeed, not sure it is relevant to the current discussion of mushroom soup-infused glop, however.
1
Growing up, these dishes were a staple. My Catholic school friends with large families were raised on such recipes. And yet, nobody was obese. I don't even remember plump kids.
Recently, my 27 year old daughter and I watched some old Perry Mason shows, which began in the late Fifties. They are astonishing, in that everyone is rail thin. Some women might even be called anorexic. My daughter couldn't get over it. This during the zenith of hot dish cookery! There was simply less sitting around and snacking sixty years ago.
22
You can’t compare actresses who have always had to be thin to the general population.
5
@CC True that. For most women in the home, they faced a lot more physical work without help to cook, shop and clean than with today's conveniences.
And for others, don't forget the rules stewardesses had to follow about weight - probably applied to actresses as well. The impact of girdles was obvious in that era. Women didn't work out or build muscle like they do today. Also almost everyone smoked, vs. snacking, and physiques in general were smaller.
Having never tried, I imagine a small serving of hot dish is tasty and can go a long way towards bonding for those who try to eat healthy otherwise! Tom Sietsema, restaurant critic of the Washington Post, always has requests for his Mom's recipe from Minnesota, so there must be something to it.
5
@Anita Larson I believe you can compare. Television shows, films, and commercials are today filled with heavier body types, as reflects the population. Or look at old high school annuals from the Fifties and Sixties. Thin people.
1
leave it to a Republican to drive up the cost of health care through dietary skullduggery.
"...Representative Jim Hagedorn, a Republican, who used eggs, sharp Cheddar, TWO POUNDS OF BACON AND A POUND OF PORK SAUSAGE for his Make’n Bacon Great Again hot dish..." trumping any notion of healthy eating on the right.
1
@Mary Elizabeth Lease
Paraphrasing U Utah Phillips' ode to Mooseturd Pie...
"It's good though!"
bacon...mmmmmmgood!
1
Ok, for all you naysayers and nitpickers- all I can say is, jealous much? Ever been in Iowa or Minnesota on a cold cold night after a long day a work - these dishes aren't meant to be eaten 3 meals a day, 7 days a week but when they are- heaven. In New England I grew up on American chop suey - not sure who named it but I'll bet many over the age of 30 has had it and over the age of 50 crave it. Meats, starch, onions, tomatoes and then- go wild. Add cheese of choice or yes, creamy soup or ? How about the ubiquitous green bean casserole with mushroom soup, other stuff and canned crunchy onions (or, in a pinch crushed potato chips - preferable ruffles.....) c'mon, have some fun.
14
The biggest “hot dish” of all is to be found in Washington where the stew of political corruption is always kept simmering in the pot.
12
This is so unbelievably sexist, What’s next? Bernie shows up with a platter of blintzes?
4
@Dede Wilder Bernie waves to the crowd after being released from the hospital, you mean.
1
@Dede Wilder Ok. Blintzes are good. What's your point?
2
@Dede Wilder Sounds good to me!
Beef destroys the planet.
3
These comments are amusing and underscore some of the reasons why people in "fly-over" country detest the coastal elites.
My God...it's a puff piece about a casserole recipe...some of you need to lighten up!
27
@Mike Schmidt
Eggsactly.
6
@Mike Schmidt Except that many of the comments are from midwesterners who don't like hot dishes. The "get-a-grip" comments seem mainly from easterners.
5
Yuck. Good thing the candidates aren’t chosen via a cook off.
5
@JF
Ya know, what a great idea.
Cancel one of the 'debates', and stick them all in a kitchen. A HOT kitchen. No aides. No legal representation. No phones.
What we will see is grace -- or meltdowns - under pressure. It might be more revealing than what we've had. SO far as I know, ingredients simply don't respond to talking points. And can you imagine -- candidate food fights!
Then -- unlike what usually happens in DC - they'll have to eat their own cooking!
If he is still actively not running, Mike Bloomberg could stand in as Judge ( Judge Roberts being otherwise occupied) and assign demerits for excess sugar and empty calories. Which he will consider when handing out the his campaign donations.
So many possibilities.
3
Cream of Mushroom AND cream of chicken soup - really? And she calls herself a moderate! Don’t let this woman near the nuclear codes!
11
Not my thing, but the snottiness of many of these comments is even grosser than the dish.
22
@steve Thank you for saying so and for being from San Francisco. This was beginning to read like West Coast hates Third Coast.
3
I grew up in Iowa so I also grew up calling it a casserole. Then I met my Minnesotan wife and moved to North Dakota where hot dish reigns supreme.
Not only do we have tater tot hot dish but we also have pizza hot dish and taco hot dish. My fingers are crossed for some hot dishes for this weekend's super bowl parties!
All of these comments from folks on the coast about how it sounds disgusting makes me chuckle.
14
The near spit take of my coffee upon learning that cream of mushroom soup is called Lutheran binder made for a merry moment. And just when those have become so fleeting. I needed this bit of fluff. Now, back to impeachment.
13
It is, however, a pity that she didn't come up with some actual cooking instead of throwing together a bunch of industrial garbage and calling it a recipe.
5
You’ve never been to the Midwest, have you?
6
We call this Tatter Tot Casserole... I have never heard it called "Hot Dish". I have lived in Iowa my entire life. We also have Hobo Dinners, which was a big one in my house growing up.
3
@Shelby: Hobo dinners are great, particularly when cooked over a camp fire.
2
the critical comments in reaction to Hot Dish are a perfect distillation of an effete aristocracy...or here in the states an effete wannabee aristocracy—aka conservatives.
7
A hard sell? Puh-lease. The headline wreaks of coastal elitism
3
This hot glop makes me question my support of Amy.
3
so glad I stopped eating meat
3
@John
me too...more for the rest of us
6
That was some seriously hot dishin on hot dish.
5
Holy moly that looks delicious!! East coast elites have no idea what they're missing!
5
To be honest, I’d rather have a grilled brat.
2
@Tom
Yeah, but they weren't in Wisconsin.
2
Looks like a heart attack waiting to happen. I know Amy is all in all for Big Ag but come on. At least provide or promote something somewhat healthy.
3
@Nature I agree, no one's really made much of the point that her recipe is an homage to industrialized ingredients, a/k/a "Big Ag!"
I grew up with this cringe-worthy food. Lord it makes me sad to see it still around.
5
As for all of the negative comments & diet scolding -- Good grief. It's a potluck. Don't like it? Choose something else!
10
I often look at box labels while eating and recently read the “serving suggestions” for Ritz Crackers which included putting hamburger and a pickle between two crackers for a “Ritzburger.” I’m already thinking about a wine pairing.
13
@Edward
everything is better on a ritz
4
@Edward
Any wine will do as long as it comes in a box.
Just another glimpse into regional differences that make this country so interesting. Aside from the casserole vs hot dish controversy - does Iowa also compete with the Minnesota tradition of meat raffles? Talk about regionalisms!
6
I'm a Minnesota transplant of almost 50 years ago who was born and raised in northern California. I never, ever buy cream soup or tater tots and the grass fed ground beef I got from a friend a year ago is still in the freezer. I also would never make or eat lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise. Bon appetite! Eat your vegetables and good luck to Amy!
5
My goodness there are lots of snobby people reading this article and commenting upon food many millions of Americans eat with happiness. Give me this casserole over some of the strange and tiny dishes I have had in so called fancy restaurants here in Denver - pig cheeks being one of them.
18
Molly Yeh is 1/2 Jewish, 1/2 Chinese, a Juilliard trained drummer, and as cute as a button.
She's also a hot dish maven.
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chicken-pot-tot-hotdish
4
“Hard sell outside her home state” is an understatement. This seems like something Trump would eat with his predilection for processed food. This is a throwback to the 50s and says nothing about the world we live in today. I would get it if she were a Republican, traditional values, back to a time when America was “great”, etc.
But this is just gross and outdated. From a health perspective, this is not something anyone should be promoting. Can’t imagine putting this near my mouth.
There is nothing about this dish that says forward thinking, Democratic presidential nominee.
47
@Julia longpre Disagree completely. Yes, it seems unhealthy and not what I would normally eat. It also seems pretty delicious. But more, it seems like what normal, "wake up early-go to work-sit in traffic-get home hungry" people would enjoy. I'm not an Amy supporter (but like her a lot!) but would love to have someone once again in the White House that is a normal person that understands normal everyday people's lives. More civility is welcome at any time in any way as far as I'm concerened.
59
@Julia longpre I might humbly suggest that you chill out just a bit.
46
I grew up in Texas and Maryland and I wouldn't touch this. We know alot more about nutrition now than in the 50's. Stop with criticism of the people pointing out this dish will literally make people sick if it's their typical way of eating. Why don't they put out those cups of cigarettes and ashtrays? Or is smoking to be coddled to also even if it kills people?
2
We actually can't afford universal healthcare if this is normal American diet. "Europe can afford it, why can't we?" Because this. You eat this.
11
@Phil
sorry...just not true.
8
Oh god, tater tot casserole is the bomb.
I’m generally a food snob but for me this is ultimate comfort food. We always made it with ground beef and Campbell’s soup when I was a kid but it can easily be made vegetarian, and you could make a mushroom bechamel instead of canned soup. Personally I think TJs tots are better than the famous brand. But tots are non-negotiable.
11
@Elisabeth
Tots Are Non-negotiable
is going on my new t-shirt.
11
No wonder healthcare is such a lucrative business!
5
I was trying to think of something I didn't miss from an Indiana childhood. This dish brought back a lot of things. No Amy, no, no, no.
6
“hotdish” reminds me - slightly - of the current trend of “bowls”. It’s just a way to mix what you’ve got into something tasty and welcoming. Fortunately, the big difference is that the base of today’s bowl is greens or brown rice. And not a tater tot in sight.
7
Putting aside the health aspects of hotdish in all it variations, I'm fascinated by the topic of food and how it relates to politics, particularly when it involves women. Hillary Clinton was raked over the coals for her comments about staying home, baking cookies, and having teas (a comment, btw, that was quoted out of context), leading to a weird politically-oriented bake-off in Family Circle magazine that has continued to this day.
This country has a lot of food hang-ups. When we're not arguing about WHAT should be served for dinner, we're arguing about WHO should be making dinner. I'm stymied by any female politician who wades into that quagmire because it's a battle that she cannot win. Either her recipe will be panned or her seriousness as a candidate will be questioned because -- shocker! -- she cooks.
15
@Allison, this is the most interesting angle I've read on this thread. And right you are.
6
That’s not cooking.
2
As a native Midwesterner who has lived in a number of cities around the country and returned, I might be an outlier... but I loathe this kind of dish. Piled with dull ingredients and baked into soft brick of sad textures, it is the polar opposite of enjoyable food. Even the name, “hot dish”, is numbingly nondescript.
7
As an expat Iowan married to an expat Minnesotan, I loved this article. You might have added a comment about the peculiar notion of an Iowa “salad”; which is required to contain Jello, preferably blended with CoolWhip.
7
@Riley2 Oh God, Cool Whip. I draw the line at Cool Whip. Tastes of air and chemicals.
1
It's cold in Minnesota and Iowa, folks. I lived in the Midwest for three years during graduate school. People there eat heavy food. Let's get over our little elitist obsessions and deal with it...and yes, I am an East Coast college professor who supports Amy. She is the sanest candidate.
22
@James Smith Yeah, but there's good "heavy food" that doesn't involve dumping canned soup over industrialized ingredients....sauerkraut and sausages, cassoulet, goulash, coq-au-vin, etc., etc....
1
You wrote "The senator’s recipe omits the frozen vegetables, adds garlic and tucks the Tater Tots between two layers of shredded pepper Jack cheese." However, this recipe does NOT omit frozen vegetables: the tater tots are frozen potatoes.
2
@Editor Yikes. Did you by any chance work in The Reagan Administration?
4
Describing Tater Tots as a vegetable is quite a stretch!
4
Why are we talking about casseroles AT ALL? This candidate was endorsed by THIS PAPER for her contributions and plans. We aren't talking about the male candidates' recipes, family dinners or the menus at their fundraisers. Can we please stick to the issues: what to do about the massive issues facing our country and our democracy and how to get rid of Donald Trump without sending the entire economy down in flames at the same time.
6
In fairness, she’s given the recipe to volunteers and staffers and asked it to be made for her events.
2
Excellent point.
1
@Brooklyn Dog Geek Did the Senator meekly "ask" or shout and yell and demand it (as the coverage of her treatment of her staffers would suggest!)
Yuck. Born, raised and still living in Minnesota. Hot dish and most American “casseroles” make me wretch, with their bloating combination of starches and fats and hyper-processed soggy vegetables.
I will say it’s an ideal if ironic symbol of Amy Klobuchar the candidate: lacking in any significant flavor profile and with ingredients which are barely recognizable versions of their true selves.
I feel fortunate that my parents were from the South, and their ethnic foods were home made fried chicken and chipped beef on toast.
4
Hot dish comes from the realities of life based on physical labor in agriculture and other extractive industries.
Working a 14 hour day exposed to the elements in Iowa, Minnesota or any other state where winter can kill you a hot dish trumps cordon bleu snobbery every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Which explains many of the comments shading hot dish with Red Hats.
7
@Mary Elizabeth Lease There are plenty of great European "peasant foods" that don't involve dumping canned soup over industrialized ingredients. The problem with the "hot dish" version is that it turns good comfort food into a carnival of industrialized, high-sodium "Big Ag" ingredients....
1
Mormon upbringing. This sounds like the casseroles that appear at a member's house when mom has a baby and dad needs help. All the women would bring a casserole and the family could have food for a few days. Also made with tuna sometimes. Everything is the same except that these would be topped with crispy breadcrumbs and maybe some of those canned french onion strings.
5
@FerCry'nTears
In addition to 'hot dish' (thank you for explaining - casseroles are something I do understand, albeit, minus the tater tots), that supposed holiday favourite of green beans in mushroom soup and topped with french-fried onions is something else this Canadian will never understand.
I thought French's was just trying to plug their French-fried onions. What a way to ruin one of the few healthy dishes of a holiday meal!
1
How sad that so many people are so negative towards this dish. Would I eat it? No. Many people do this and not everyday, it is for potlucks, church dinners etc. It is a dish to share not sit in front of the TV with the whole casserole dish. As for Representative Jim Hagedorn and his Make’n Bacon Great Again, where does the toadying to Trump end? I would like to try Ms. Omar's dish though it sounds interesting. Maybe if people stopped bashing the Midwest constantly we could have some unity in this country.
9
@Zoenzo
Word.
2
My gosh folks! It’s not something you eat everyday but tater tots are the bomb, and I live in a very trendy spot in California. Might just have to vote for Amy.
4
After reading about these forms of food, I think Midwesterners deserve to go to Tuscany when they die.
2
@SPQR
Italian by birth and completely raised on Italian home cooking.
I totally get why these casseroles make people happy. It’s the great combination of carbs, meat, veg and a tasty sauce. Put it in the oven with a little layer of something that crisps up. Pure magic in every culture.
My mom and grandmother would put carb, meat and veg in the oven with sauce and cheese. They said said it was “al forno”. Not to sound fancy- just to say it was cooked in the oven.
So perhaps if the candidate is visiting fancy neighborhoods, she can say her meat and veg is “al forno”.
And everyone can feel sophisticated about their food.
10
@SPQR
imagine your chagrin when you discover Midwesterners are all reincarnated Tuscans.
3
Not my kind of food, but I'd eat a whole tray of any of the ones pictured if it would get Trump out of the White House.
21
These comments explain why liberals lose elections: there’s no room to be eclectic; we accept and reject diversity at the same time. Nothing short of a coalition candidate panel will appeal to a majority of voters who, offered a choice between a morally, politically, and intellectually challenged pseudo-billionaire with merengue for hair and a savvy, experienced woman who played the political game like a man, will opt for the former. Because she: Benghazi. Emails. Doesn’t cry enough. Didn’t divorce a horn-dog husband. Doesn’t bake cookies. Because he: told us lies we wanted to believe. Was outrageously different (read: bizarre). Let us live our racist, sexist fantasies without exposing ourselves.
I may eat the hot dish, but I refuse to drink the kool aid.
7
This is just more fake folksy that politicians do which is just ridiculous. I'm in my late 50s and have lived in Minnesota and Iowa my whole life. I have never been served tator tot "hotdish" by anyone my age or younger. Just perpetuates the myth that people in the midwest are charmingly old-fashioned.
5
@CynthiaG
I'm white, Lutheran, in my 50s and living in a northern clime and never heard of 'hot dish' (though I have been called one ;)
But tuna noodle casseroles were certainly served - not that most would consider it the kind of star dish to bring to a potluck.
1
I'm from Ohio and never saw, ate or heard of this dish, which sounds disgusting.
5
That’s because it’s from Minnesota, not Ohio.
5
@Sasha Love
as the Church Lady would say after serving you some hot dish...
"Well, aren't you special!"
7
FYI to the Klobuchar campaign: Tator Tots is a registered trademark, and the two words should be capitalized on your recipe card, followed by the registration symbol (®).
2
@David What if they spell it "tater tots"? Would they still have to acknowledge the "registered trademark"? We're just curious.
1
Cream of Mushroom? no thanks.
5
Love you Amy, but is there a vegetarian version of this?
3
Please, sure, the US - filled with ‘smart’ voters - will choose Senator Klobuchar because of her hit dish,
It is to laugh.
2
This article makes me miss Al Franken (again).
6
Ugh, this dish-and it's many "iterations"-sound vomitacious, artery clogging, insanely fattening (and not in a "worth-it" way). Typical Mid-Western high fat pedestrian fare. Much like my ex boyfriend, from Michigan City, Indiana ( flyover town/state if ever there was one)-his recipe for "salad dressing" was Miracle Whip, Lemon juice (the reconstituted kind in a bottle) and a boat-load of white sugar. Gag.
4
The Midwesterner who can pass up a FREE hot dish covered with tater tots hasn't been born yet. Standing in a neighbors house filled with strangers, eating a plate of slop gives you something to do so you don't have to try to make conversation. If you do get trapped into a conversation, you can always talk about the food. Tasty hot dish doncha know? Ja, you betcha!
7
The people hating on this dish are exactly the out of touch coastal elite who are going to ruin Democrat’s chances at winning the election.
9
GHASTLY - that's one of the reasons I left the Lutheran church. Casseroles, hot dishes, pot lucks - call them what you wish - they're causing more retreats from religion than fake faith healers and speaking in tongues rogue preachers.
4
Really?? Hot dish drove you away?? Religion must be very important to you.
5
As a Southerner my response is: and people think southern food is horrifying??!!
3
@Heather
It is: Mayonnaise, bacon and peanut butter sandwiches, chitterlings, green tomatoes, pimento loaf, fried pork rinds, ham 'salad"... I could go on!
3
I want a President who cares about eating vegetable.
I guess Klobuchar is not for me.
2
Heart-attack on a plate.
4
The image of a woman who knows her way around the kitchen may help soothe the cultural anxieties of caucus goers who might be reluctant to vote for a female president.
I would really like to see a candidate continue to engage with citizens in such an intimate manner after they are elected president. Too bad sitting down with people in their homes to hear their everyday concerns is a campaign tactic not a governing strategy. Is anyone falling for this?
4
I love casseroles. They’re the next best thing to 3-day old left over and school steam table cafeteria food. And no I’m not being sarcastic!!!
Tater-Tot "hot dish" is a hard sell within her home state as well. Trust me.
4
Another example of why the greatest dangers we face as a nation come from within.
6
Just for fun, I ran this recipe through a calorie/nutrition calculator. Assuming that it makes 10 servings (I think a 9x13 pan would serve more, but lets's be generous), there are 443 calories per serving, with 28 grams of fat, 25 grams of carbs, 19 grams of protein, and 602 mg of sodium.
Not super healthy, certainly, but not the heart attack in pyrex many in this comment section are making it out to be. Add some vegetables and a piece of fruit and you have a decent meal. Maybe not one you should eat every day, but not one that's going to kill you, either.
9
@Amanda The sodium just might!
1
I consider myself a sophisticated eater. However, about once a year I make a casserole/hot dish called Johnny Marzetti, which has ground beef, onions, mushrooms, tomato sauce, cheddar cheese and macaroni and guests eat that with gusto. Everyone chows down. It’s healthier with a huge green salad.
Don’t dis these dishes. Every so often they fill a need for comfort food. They remind us of our childhood - camp, church or synagogue potluck suppers, neighborhood gatherings, overnights with school friends. If your family was large, they fit the bill and there were leftovers that tasted better the next day. Sure, we know to eat healthier now but once in a while these dishes are soul-satisfying.
Amy’s on to something.
12
@Kathryn
Thank you. I grew up in upstate NY but my mother-in-law is a Buckeye. I had no idea what she was talking about when she first mentioned Johnny Marzetti to me years ago.
I think some of these “disgusting” dishes might not seem too bad to some who have never lived or worked on a farm if they spent a long day doing any number of tough jobs to keep the farm going. Sure, we all want healthy but I know my MIL’s family were farmers and suspect Johnny Marzetti type meals hit the spot.
2
@Kathryn That doesn't sound bad at all....not far off from a meat lasagna! The main thing is that all your ingredients sound relatively healthy and unprocessed--no canned mushroom soup in sight!
1
@Kim - it is SO good. There’s lots of recipes for it on the internet. The secret is an abundance of cooked onions and really good sharp cheddar cheese. My recipe calls for a can of mushrooms, but I use sautéed fresh. I think people forget how tasty some of these old-fashioned things can be. My friends are all city people and they LOVE this dish when I make it. My teenaged nephews? OMG. Faghedaboutit.
1
The tater tot dish was common when I was growing up in Nebraska in the 1960’s. My mother used to take it to church socials and fellow church goers loved it. I have tried making it over the years but It has never tasted as good as my memories of it.
Hot dish, schmot dish. It's a casserole. And a pretty unhealthy one at that, seemingly.
3
Seriously..... Amy was not my first choice in the democratic field, but she just lost my me. Taste in food, clothes, art, is important to me. It says a lot about her.
2
Yes aesthetics are so critical when creating tax policy or responding to geopolitical upheaval.
1
Meat, cheese, and Tater Tots? She's gonna need a good health care plan for those who eat like this. I'm waiting for the veggie, bean, and cashew cheese version!
2
Since MN and IA share a border, in certain parts of IA the terms hotdish and casserole are used interchangeably. It’s not as though when people cross the border they automatically switch from one term to the other. The reporter from Omaha is wrong.
2
Listen, the Entire Upper Midwest and Northern Plains all have the same goopy, gloppy, cheesy casserole dishes. But for those of you from the eastern seaboard and other parts of the country on here complaining, let me just say that as a frequent cross-country traveler, every region has its very own gagometer (rhymes with thermometer).
From fried pickles, fried Snickers, Texas's wildly overhyped BBQ and bad Tex Mex to fried chislic, red hash, fluffernutter, "Totchos" and fried alligator, the common theme in American regional cuisine seems to fall under two categories: 1. Fat and 2. Why isn't there more fat?
So Klobuchar's recipe isn't that far off the beaten path for a country that's literally swimming in fat from coast to coast.
Pass the tots.
10
@BothSides: Thank you for bringing up the East Coast culinary abomination called the Fluffernutter. A neighbor of mine brought two cases of marshmallow cream with him when he moved to Colorado for fear that it was not available here. (It is.) I was game to try the sandwich, which I found gross but also weirdly tasty. That said, I have no intention of ever eating another one. Once was enough for a lifetime. As far as I'm concerned, marshmallow cream should be reserved for making a batch of Fantasy Fudge or Rice Krispie treats and eaten just once a year at Christmas.
3
@BothSides
"Would you like a side of fat with those?"
@Allison
I know. Like, it's the Massachusetts "state sandwich," I rest my case.
As a writer who travels a lot for work, particularly among the vast rural areas of the country, I've been to every dive, diner, truckstop and casino buffet out there. The only, and I mean *only* region that gets five stars from me is New Orleans and the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
Don't get me wrong: It's completely decadent. But if you're gonna go down, you might as well go down fighting with gumbo, jambalaya and etouffee.
Pass the cornbread. :)
4
No wonder we have an obesity epidemic. These “dishes” are thrown together with preservative laden ingredients- unhealthy and unappetizing but cheap and easy.
3
This hot dish stuff is a heart attack waiting to happen. I gained 10 lbs just by reading the recipe.
3
At room temp a cold chisel and hammer is needed to cut it. Quiche works up here.
Is Klobuchar being funded by the Society of Vascular Surgeons and the American College of Cardiologists? (Particularly interventional cardiologists.)
That, and the other recipes can only result in clogged arteries and strokes.
Please don't serve than and campaign for healthcare at the same time. (Nothing against Klobuchar, just sayin' ... she's not doing her constituents any favors.)
4
@Laura
in answer to your quesion about who is funded by the Society of Vascular Surgeons and the American College of Cardiologists.
"...Representative Jim Hagedorn, a Republican, who used eggs, sharp Cheddar, TWO POUNDS OF BACON AND A POUND OF PORK SAUSAGE for his Make’n Bacon Great Again hot dish..."
trumping any notion of healthy eating on the right.
1
I feel like there are some among us on this thread taking this way, wayyyy too seriously. It's just a well-intentioned, slightly gimmicky community gatherer for Klobuchar's supporters using a food that is well-known to locals. I don't think people eat hot dish every day, so no need to get Diet Warrior here. I hope they enjoyed it. Tater tots are not my bag, but my mom makes a ubiquitous green bean casserole with canned soup that falls under this gross-but-good auspice and I confess to excitedly eating it once a year.
169
@Lella
Dear Heart ( as my 2nd grade teacher would call us mouseketots),
It's 2020, not 1960. Any vouching for this dish --- or your mother's --- is truly neanderthal. That someone vying to be a world leader would admit to eating this Iron Range miner food --- and she ain't no iron digger --- shows her parochial (to be kind) attitude to the world and nutrition in general. President? Good cook? Hardly. Let's all keep looking.
@CM
Take a seat, get ready, breathe...
"Tater Tot Hotdish" = "Shepherd's Pie"
Mind blown, right?
8
Minnesota's Iron Range territory has a 90 day growing season and year round a 14 hour work day...good luck growing fresh veggies or being able to afford them at the grocery store.
3
@Mary Elizabeth Lease So I guess everyone there must suffer from scurvy? Or do you lay in casks of lime juice for the winter?
@Don Carleton: Potatoes and onions are sources of vitamin C, both of which are ingredients in Klobuchar's recipe.
1
Regardless of the recipe (even one made from all those processed food), the making and sharing a meal is always a good idea. Thanks, Sen. Klobuchar, for reminding us to break bread together.
8
I grew up eating hot dish in Iowa, 20 miles south of the border with MN although we called casserole because my mom was from Illinois. It was a great way to make it through the month on a tight budget. Later, I became the star of many a football playoff party with a hot dish of macaroni and cheese using cream of celery soup and topped with those french fried onions of green been casserole fame. Say what you want but there were often threats of invading my house for the second casserole I always made to freeze at the same time. I never had to take home leftovers.
5
Cream of celery soup is a much classier way to go with such dishes, with a more delicate taste. Try it in tuna noodle casserole. Cream of mushroom or chicken is just gross.
1
I grew up eating a lot of TV dinners according to my mom. No wonder I’m so comfortable eating on airplanes.
4
I grew up in the Mountain West and hot dish sounds MUCH better then the local post luck staple of Jello-salad.
I think I'm gonna try Amy's recipe this week.
2
I grew up eating a lot of hot dish (it's two words) on the MN side of the border with ND--also where the mentioned Rep. Collin Peterson is from. They have hot dish on both sides of the border. I might have to try samosa chaat dish (again, two words).
2
As a child in rural Minnesota, I never understood the appeal of "hot dish". I was more intrigued by the Hmong immigrants who bought small plots of land and raised wide varieties of vegetables to sell at farmer's markets. The mysterious leafy green herbs and vegetables weren't on out school lunch menu.
But I also enjoyed when the local fire departments sponsored "booyah" festivals, community gatherings centered on hunter's stew. They seemed more authentic and traditional. They were made by hands, not machines.
Today, I am a medical student on the west coast, I am aghast at the amount of sodium contained in the processed "food" ingredients of this "hot dish" concoction.
Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in the US. I can see now that Sen. Klobuchar has no instinct for improving out health care system and the health of our communities. Instead, she is looking back to a nostalgic time when foods were pale, white and homogeneous.
It is time we look forward and create more sustainable agricultural and health care practices. It must be done, for our own health and for the health of the planet.
11
Well, I had no idea that they did stuff like this in the mid-west, thought it was just a southern thing. My goodness, Southern Living magazine recipes used to be all casseroles using Campbells’s mushroom soup or somehow use Velveta cheese and Kraft sandwich spread! My mother and I would just laugh and come up with something better to cook.
8
@Thoughtful1
Canned soup casseroles are still a staple in southern game day and family recipe style cookbooks, I assure you. And not for the better.
I'm all about comfort food. I have the palate of the average eight-year-old. If I were on Death Row, I would want Boston Market meat loaf and macaroni and cheese for my last meal. I have graduated to salads and stir-fry and curries and more things to do with vegetables, but my inner eight-year-old is still very present. I still make scalloped potatoes (on rare occasions) with crem of celery soup, though.
I'm currently on Weight Watchers and starting to step out of the box on cooking. Old habits and traditions are hard to break. But this "hot dish" just sounds vile.
9
This is just more of the failure of many Americans to even begin to understand food. I grew up in Texas, and I well remember all the church, PTA, Friends of the Library recipe compilations that were a can of this, a can of that, all stirred together. Even the Neiman Marcus cookbook from the fifties was of that form. Campbell's soup, jello, a mix of spices and herbs in an envelope marketed to make "fresh, homemade salad dressing" by adding oil and vinegar, such were the staples of mid-20th century American cooking.
Cake mixes, and even church recipes for "homemade" cakes that involve adding jello and such to a boxed cake mix were the norm. My sister-in-law to this day makes what she calls "Mexican salad" by adding a can of Ranch Style Beans to chopped iceberg lettuce, and topping it with grated American cheese.
Hamburger helper, anyone?
Instant oatmeal? Good grief, regular oatmeal IS instant.
Tater tots? What's wrong with at least chopping a potato?
12
@Dave Tater tots are in the guilty pleasure category.
5
Reminds me of the dishes my Mom made, that I ate because I was hungry. My Mom would stretch a pound of hamburger to feed seven kids and three adults. Canned mushroom soup was a staple. And, I'll NEVER forget her tuna/creamed canned corn/potato chip casserole!
I moved to Europe 25 years ago and rarely open a can of anything.
18
@Mo
love seeing all the Trump supporters who have never had a job that kept them away from home for 12 hours a day and still have to put a hot meal on the table for a family with four children when they get home.
7
I grew up on hot dish/casserole dishes in Minnesota. There is little difference between them. It is very much a matter of how Grandma referred to it. It was not complete without cream of mushroom soup (Campbells or private label, it did not matter). My Mother preferred ground up Old Dutch Potato Chips (MN brand) sprinkled on top instead of tater tots. Still look forward to it at family gatherings all these years later. The MN naysayers posting here do not know what they are missing.
2
With democracy about to die, and the earth about to become a very hostile environment for us to survive, it certainly is important that we find out all about Amy's hot dish, and it's appeal or lack of it. A big shoulder shrug to the whole thing.
4
Thanks for stopping by with your performative disinterest on this lighthearted story that’s about 15 stories down from the top. Don’t worry, the first 10 will provide plenty of horror for you to consume. And then there’s always tomorrow.
8
@SC lighten up.
1
As a replanted midwesterner after spending 30 years on the west coast, I'm having a hard time understanding why midwesterners seem to hate vegetables. Ground beef, cheese, cream of mushroom soup, and tater tots undoubtedly blend to make a delicious meal, but these kinds of casseroles should be used sparingly, and with a big side of freshly sautéed vegetables.
8
@Lee Rentz
so you've never shopped for veggies in the winter any where but Whole Foods.
1
@Mary Elizabeth Lease I don't go to Whole Foods; I get my fresh vegetables at Aldi and Costco. But every supermarket in America carries fresh vegetables.
1
Good grief. One dish isn’t going to contain all the food groups!
1
Love reading the comments! My Minnesota Mom (her father emigrated from Norway; her mother was the daughter of Swedes) never made hot dish; we lived in an affluent NY suburb and, except for occasional side dishes of turnips, parsnips or rutabagas, you couldn’t guess the Midwestern influence. When we visited grandparents every summer, though, it was pure Minnesota. It was at my farming relatives’ tables that we saw hotdish and jello salads daily. But those were just side dishes at the main meal, at noon. There was food galore, much of it grown on the farm. My siblings and I had never seen so much food served at what we considered a weekday lunch. But if you had awakened at 4 a.m, to tend cows, and spent 14 hours at hard, physical work, you would be hungry. They were all healthy and all lived into their 90s. I’d bet we would find comparable dishes and similar stories in every state.
38
Ok I’m a Californian of Mexican descent, I have never eaten a casserole. It is obvious however that Hot Dish and casserole are two different things, I’m with Andrew Zimmern on that point.
1
@Dan Solo: You've never had baked enchiladas in California? I would argue that it's a composed casserole.
1
@Dan Solo
Really? Never had enchiladas, or chili rellenos?
2
I have had baked enchiladas, the same way I have had baked chicken, baked potatoes, baked pizza, etc. I don’t think the baking in an oven part makes things a casserole. In baked enchiladas the starch is not used to bind the entire dish together, each enchilada is its own unit.
1
My arteries and taste buds are hurting!
I recall a canned tuna fish casserole with cream of mushroom soup stirred in and corn flakes on the top. That was in the 1950's in San Francisco. But, somewhere along the way, the tuna fish casseroles disappeared from consciousness. I thought the nation moved away from canned foods and towards foods as fresh as possible. And the research on heart disease and diet got into most home keeping magazines.
For a West and East coast person, nothing speaks of a cultural divide like this article of Minnesotans still stirring in Campbell soups into main dishes. Now I am more in despair than ever over our cultural divide.
17
People who are focusing on the nutritional issues with the dish are missing the point. Ms. Klobuchar is trying to bond with these voters by sharing something that is common and familiar to all of them. It's a good strategy. Sometimes you have to meet people where they are. Lecturing them about their diet is not the objective here.
66
with all due respect to other Midwesterner cooks, this dish exemplifies the processed food industry takeover of food products, replacing more nutritious, sustainably grown "real" vegetables with industrialized pap. Fried and salted, in t he case of the tater tot.
Here in Wisconsin, commercially grown potatoes require high amounts of nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides, fouling groundwater (47% of wells are above safe nitrate levels in my county!). The EPA notes the commercial potato is now the root crop with the highest pesticide residue sold on grocery shelves. The University of WI Health and Wellness Institute recommends lowering consumption because of high starch and relatively low nutrition benefits. The processing plants hire low wage workers, while large growers eliminate small operations, leading to declining economic viability of rural towns. Interesting that the Trump administration recently announced allowing tater tots to replace fresh fruits and vegetables on school menus.
Big ag owns a large share of both parties.
24
@Sue But Big Ag doesn't own Bernie!!
1
@Sue
ah... no!
this dish represents the reality of working Americans with two working parents struggling to raise a family many of whom get their pay checks from Big Ag.
5
I would never eat this casserole. It is filled with calories and salt. I thought we were finished with this "approach" to serving our families healthful food. Nonetheless, I really like Klobuchar, for whatever that is worth.
16
This has to rank high among the most unhealthiest recipes!
17
Nothing's going to kill you if you don't eat it too often. And Amy looks pretty healthy to me. BTW when I was a kid in the 50's, we just about lived on tuna casserole, spaghetti, mac and cheese - and there was very little obesity. We rarely saw a vegetable that didn't come out of a can or a freezer pack. I blame the current epidemic on fast food and constant snacking, not casseroles.
74
Yep, too much snacking (and too much added sugar) and outrageous portions sizes is the problem. The later two is especially prevalent in fast food. Rich foods aren’t necessarily the worst, just don’t eat the entire pan of casserole.
2
@Linda S.
Blame it on inactivity and social media/phones.
1
Indeed! And we were always outside playing...not locked in front of a tv nor a computer screen. I miss those days when Mother would call us inside to eat dinner & we all balked!
6
First and foremost I'd be asking what is the nutritional value in a Tater Tots and mushroom soup hot dish (guess you can tell I'm from California)?
Never had this particular dish, but certainly grew up with casseroles using cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups. Also, salads made with jello, tuna casseroles with canned fried onion rings, and other types of highly processed foods. That was the 50s/60s. Those things were never really comfort foods to me then, though, and doubt I could even eat them, as my tastes have changed over time to crave fresh fruits and veggies.
I realize I'm lucky to have space, time and inclination to have a garden large enough to sustain my family. I happily give away tons of extras from the garden, including eggs, to others. But I find many people admit they don't like fresh tomatoes, artichokes, etc. I tried to get neighbors to take our fresh corn and beans while we were on vacation, but we've come home several times to find the veggies wasting on the vine.
It's not just convenience or cost. I think it comes down to what you get used to eating and a willingness to be open to the taste of a vine-ripened tomato or fresh roasted beet or carrot. And honestly, any body any where with a pot of soil and a patch of sunlight can easily grow those. Try it!
13
@Observer I'm with you! I live in the Boston area (moved here from SFBA, before that, Austin-- took me a few years to overcome the shock of the incredibly short growing season! : ) and have a large garden area. At first, I always overplanted, expecting to give away lots of homegrown, organic produce. But hardly anyone wants it! "Oh, I don't really eat squash." "How do you cook bok choi?" "What do you do with tomatillos?"
And the same vacation experience, too: We usually travel over Labor Day, peak produce time here, and I always tell friends and neighbors, "Take all you want--it will go to waste while we're gone." Not once has anyone taken any of this (free, organic!) produce.
3
Observer-of COURSE we knew you were from Cali because people in that state are the only ones in the entire nation that care about health and nutrition! You didn’t need to prompt us. We could tell!
3
@Observer
No wonder this country is in such a mess! To think there are people sleep walking through life who either have never tasted a ripe homegrown tomato or horror of horrors, have tasted one and disliked it explains a lot. I love fresh veggies and fruit (yes, I also eat meat) but the tomato is KING or maybe I should call it PRESIDENT in our current climate! Whether sliced on a sandwich, cut up in a salad, or plucked out of the garden still warm and bitten into like an apple, it's sweet and tangy juice running down your chin as you devour it in several bites is truly a must have or you simply haven't lived and seriously cannot possibly know how to vote! At least I have figured out the REAL mystery of the 2016 election. And lastly, what on Earth do you think you are eating when you partake of salsa, ketchup, chili, many different soups and sauces? And last but not least (and you can make or get them without it but they are "fake") the almighty pizza!! Eat your tomatoes....life will be so much less depressing and you will know true joy (and how to vote; did I mention that?)
Everyone in the sixties grew up on casseroles of some sort. We ate all of the processed food the country could churn out. We produced an entire generation of very fat and unhealthy people on that kind of a diet. Then we grew up and discovered it's cheaper and easier to boil some brown rice, steam a little broccoli and a sweet potato, and voila, you have a hot meal that keeps you full, doesn't cost much, and has no added chemicals or any other disadvantage of processed food, all in around a half-hour. You can add any kind of bean for protein. Nutmeg and pepper provide a little kick. Bulk beans are still very cheap, you can cook them all in advance and they keep quite well. You don't have to eat junk to eat thriftily. My son tells me their instant pot also produces hot, healthy meals for very little money. These days cans of processed soup and frozen bags of things like Tater Tots are very expensive, so I don't see the argument that eating casseroles made out of such ingredients is a cheap way to eat.
16
@Allison I remember people being much thinner back then. It isn't home-cooked casseroles that hurt us; it's cheap fast food and super-sized sugar drinks.
40
@Allison Blair is right, obesity wasn’t the issue it is today back then, and not because nobody knew any better. In addition to cheap, dubiously processed fast food, and the supersize everything mania, there’s just plain old American excess in serving sizes. Gourmand has ousted gourmet. It’s especially obvious if you leave the U.S. for a bit, visit Canada, the UK or Europe, then return. Those places have obesity problems too thanks to global economies, but not nearly as much. Nor, when you go to a restaurant, do you get served, very cheaply, enough food to serve and satisfy 2-3 people.
12
@Blair: fair enough, but we also walked, rode bikes, and spent more time outdoors, as well. Even moderate exercise has vanished from many people's daily routines. These high-caloric dishes were designed to feed people who worked hard, long hours outdoors in cold weather. Very few people do that kind of work any more. Most spend a lot of time sitting. The human body does not require a lot of calories for sitting, playing video games, watching TV, or working in front of a computer screen. Why should we be encouraging each other to eat as if we were all Minnesota farmers, when most Americans are far more sedentary than previous generations?
5
Before "hot dish" became a political statement, for years, Minnesotans (being a former one) have enjoyed hot dish as the thermostat trends below zero, and ones toes and fingers have slight frost-bite from just walking from the garage, or the bus stop, or after a good shoveling of snow. Coming into the warm house felt more heavenly than anyone could imagine, and the collective warmth of tuna noodle casserole or lasagna, warms the "insides". It is a great symbol of the ability of people to create the warmth of acceptance, despite the difference of political opinions. Representing an era when more politicians were honest, and the big disagreements were how to deal with a particular country, or to raise the taxes or not, these discussions happened around dinner tables on cold winter nights. After all, who would want to leave in a huff, and drive off into a snowstorm? I must say I still make "hot dish" when it is cold, family members are fighting colds, and the warm house and food represents the honest love and kindness we feel for each other even with the existence of different political beliefs. That is what a family is, what a community and a country should be. But first of all everyone must agree to tell the truth.
28
@K.M
I agree with most of your statement except "when more politicians were honest" is a bit naive. There were plenty of corrupt politicians "back then" and well as good, particularly because politics was mostly a men's club. Only difference is in perception of "back then" is a greater accesses to investigative news, which is slowly be eroded.
4
@KaneSugar I must say, even when politicians were not honest, as Nixon, they resigned. Of course it wasn't perfect and men were in charge. "Back then" there was no social media confusing the news. Perhaps more than anything, social media has created the effect of never getting a break from the misinterpretations of the news cycle by certain foreign agents and extremists.
1
I grew up in the Midwest, but in an East Asian family. I don't quite have a problem with folks celebrating traditional dishes like the hotdish or casserole, but there's a part of me that can't help but feel alienated. By making this dish the representative of an entire region, it excludes people like myself who never grew up eating it.
Diversity also exists in the Midwest. It would be nice to see that fact acknowledged by the people who seek to represent us.
6
@Stephanie
Honestly, I think you're splitting hairs where they do not exist. It's the equivalent of saying that when people visit countries in east Asia, they should be served hamburgers, or else the menu isn't inclusive.
The reason that diversity exists is because we are all different. In this article they reference the cooking competition and the winning dish being a Hmong oriented version, which is definitely Asian the last time I checked. No, they were not serving that at Klobuchar's event, but that was not her recipe.
I spent many years living in CA - both north and south - and one of the things that I celebrate about going back there is the food, and the vast number of really good restaurants who specialize in a single type of cuisine - Laotian, Cambodian, Burmese, southern Indian, and so on - not some homogenous "asian" food or "chinese" food that has zero bearing on the real cuisine and culture of a place.
Klobuchar is not pretending to be something she isn't, and trying to find issues that don't exist with her campaign is neither productive nor kind.
20
@kim There are Hmong and Somali versions of MN hot dish explicitly mentioned in the article.
1
@Stephanie, I appreciate your comments. But since the “definition” of hotdish is protein, starch, something thick to bind, and maybe vegetables, you can create your own concoction, from your own favorite ingredients. I’ll bet Stephanie’s Hotdish would be delicious. BTW: I grew up in Michigan. Never heard of “hotdish”. We had casseroles. No matter what it was, we always put vegetables in it. When I was young, they were canned. Fortunately, as we got older and wiser, Mom used fresh.
1
Well, if nothing else, I saw the good and bad in all of the comments and agreed with most every one of them. I never learned to cook growing up in a family of 9 children. There was little to no money so my step-mom did all the food prep and it was "so so" at best. No casseroles. She was from The Netherlands.
As a young wife, my MIL passed on her North Dakota hot dishes to me. Tater tots with onions, ground beef, mushroom soup and canned French cut green beans was on the top of the list. It was a crowd pleaser at my MIL's Baptist Church pot lucks.
As I grew in my own culinary pleasures, I moved away from casseroles, embracing vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and fish and learned to use spices from all parts of the planet.
But, to this day, I am grateful for the tater tot casserole that gave me a sense of self efficacy in the kitchen and warmed the bellies of my loved ones.
26
In my midwestern childhood I ate my share of casseroles that were built around canned cream soups but having two different kinds of canned cream soup in the same casserole is new to me and seems a bit much.
4
@Tracy My family’s go-to casserole to bring to someone who has had a baby ( or surgery) has cream of chicken soup, cream of broccoli soup, AND sour cream Obviously, only eaten rarely. It’s delicious.
1
Do the candidate and her handlers realize that the dietary ignorance manifested in this recipe will alienate many? Does this exemplify the health-promoting eating -- and enticing menu -- that she wants to model? Cans and packages of industrial food with plenty of fat, starch, chemical preservatives and undoubtedly added sugar? She's channeling the 1950s and its heart disease. What's next, offering a package of Virginia Slims?
11
@Suzaan
Oh for heaven's sake.
2
@Suzaan
I sincerely hope that in this political climate, voters will not stay home because of tater tots. As a former New Yorker, I can say that you have a very unique and regional perspective on what gets people to the polls.
3
@Suzaan Smoking the pack of Slims would probably be healthier!
Minnesotans treat this as one word with the accent on the first syllable: hotdish.
Hometown: Plainview, Minnesota.
8
This may be a great unifier across small distances (Iowa Minnesota), but it reinforces the divide between the health conscious and health oblivious regions of the country (which shall remain unnamed).
9
@MBS I am sure NY style pizza is so much healthier! Your comment illustrates a sort of East coast superiority complex, it seems. I am an imported Minneapolis resident (originally not from the US) and although people do occasionally eat hotdish and other not so healthy foods, as people do everywhere, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is actually one of the healthiest cities of the US. Look it up. Lots of bike trails (even in winter), great food, and amazing state parks. Your comment illustrates that you have never experienced any of it.
32
@Marlijn: Yep. My spouse is a consultant who travels to Minneapolis-St. Paul regularly. He was surprised by the excellent quality and diversity of the food there. The frigid weather, however, he could do without!
7
@Allison Oh yes, the weather takes some getting used to for sure! If the winters did not last so long it would not be so bad. I did learn to enjoy some of the outdoor winter activities since I moved here-most parks have cross-country ski trails that are lovely. I am done with winter by the time March comes around but that is long before winter is done with us!
1
Being from the Midwest, specifically northern Iowa, never forget the fried egg sandwich. A bit of added horseradish does wonders, too. I am continually astonished by those who have never heard of this wonder.
14
@MED
We have those here in NYC. Granted, they're usually served on a bagel or croissant.
4
@MED
I grew up on fried egg sandwiches in So Calif. No horseradish for me, but yes to mayo
1
@MED We ate 'em (made on white bread) all the time at our home in upstate NY in the 50s-60s. Also always had a bottle of horseradish on the table. Didn't partake, tho. Always on diner menus back then but haven't seen them on midwestern menus since I moved to this part of the country. Perhaps they just fell from popularity.
2
My Mom used to make this when i was a kid living on the west coast. My Mom was born in Oklahoma, but I did not know until this article that this was a real dish that came from the midwest.. We used to cal it tater tot dish. I just thought it was some cheap meal my mom conjured up. As a kid, it tasted good, but I have never made it in my entire adult life. It would be fun to upgrade the dish into a healthy vegan version.
9
I was expecting lime gelatin with tater tots. And carrots for a festive touch. No, I didn't really imagine that Sen. Klobuchar would be providing stacked enchiladas, posole or even Frito pie. I'm just glad it hasn't made its way out west. I wish the residents of the mid-west the very best of digestive health.
5
@GWPDA
Or north - we don't know it in Canada, either.
And calling it, 'hot dish' is the weirdest part of it.
Reminds me of my Austrian relatives, who when you ask what they're making, they say, 'Fleisch', as if 'meat', is information enough.
2
That’s right, you don’t need hotdish, Michele, you have poutine!
3
@Michele K Had a childhood friend who, when asked what he brought to school for lunch, would say "meat sandwiches".
1
Wow, the recipe elites are out. As a veggie who wouldn't eat this, I still understand the value - to moms, to families, to depression-era economics. Sometimes we need to end hunger or burn calories, and it doesn't matter if they are on the creamy side. I get why too many on Sundays would make one leave the state, but behind that is also the image of thrift, of feeding people with what's at hand. Loved the quote about the three pillars of the midwest!
68
We called it “casserole”. I think it’s not so much an indicator of flyover states as socio-economic class. I grew up eating this every night with my large family in Washington state. The way I learned to cook it, you would stretch 0.5 - 1 lb of hamburger into a large dinner that would feed 4 kids, 2 parents, grandma and the dog. Typically it was served with whole milk, a small side of frozen vegetables or orange jello, and homemade fruit pie or chocolate cake for dessert. Despite this terrible diet, none of us ever were, or are, overweight (except the dog). We weren’t farm laborers or out in sub-zero weather either. On the other hand, soda or between-meal-snacks were uncommon.
48
I grew up in Washington State with a Mom from the Midwest and never really heard of this and certainly never ate any til I moved to Northern Minnesota four years ago.
Not sure it is really anything but filling and certainly not very good for you as lots of things eaten in Northern MN.
However, absolutely nothing against Amy as I am an Amy supporter and dedicated DFLer!
4
@Kh I think you've hit it with your soda observation. Soda was an oddity in our home fridge, we never had fast food, and there were no take-away plastic cups the size of a bucket. The cigarettes and the drunk driving were scourges; not the casseroles.
11
Minnesota "hot dish" is a staple of what Minnesotans, with characteristic understatement, call "a little lunch," which is actually more like a small banquet. The word "little" apparently means "special," and is used in connection with a meal that is served for a particular occasion, often at a time other than a normal mealtime. Campaign potlucks probably would qualify as little lunches. I don't know whether many Iowans use the phrase "little lunch," but, if they do, Klobuchar might try using the phrase in Iowa as a way of connecting with Iowa Democrats. Having lived in many very different parts of the United States, I relish regional words and phrases, which unfortunately are disappearing as the nation becomes more homogeneous.
16
My family eats fat free due to a Waldman’s disease diagnosis- so the cream soup, cheese and beef are all no no’s. Love the concept though- will try to see if it can be modified and survive a cheese-less version but then it will be more like a shepherds pie.
5
@Deirdre
Nothin' wrong with a good shepherd's pie!
3
Had a version of this at a Midwestern friend's house. Inedible. Another reason it's known as "flyover country."
10
Such a snob. I grew up in NY and we had this type of meal often. It was the 60’s and my mom worked. We were all healthy and happy.
7
You, my 'friend' are one of the reasons many people of the these United States discount anything that comes out of a New Yorker's mouth. Arrogant, dismissive. Flyover? While you and your buddies are flying everywhere you're missing out on some of the most beautiful country, history and down to earth people this country has to offer. It stretches from the western border of NYC to the eastern border of LA. Do you really think this meal is eaten everyday? Maybe by those families who have many mouths to feed and not enough money to do so otherwise. I see as many obese people here in Oregon where fresh everything is readily available. As noted, Amy is tapping in to a history and tradition. She is not advocating for a national hot dish/casserole menu. Do candidates in New Hampshire/Vermont scarf on pancakes and maple syrup? Do they go to state fairs across the US and eat stomach churning, fat depositing, artery clogging foods that the locals are enjoying for that 1-2 days per year? Hot dogs, tacos, doughnuts ... Absolutely. The next time you have that fabulous huge slice of 'real' Italian pizza, just know that all the liquid grease swimming around on the top of the salami and sausage and extra cheese sits in the same category, with more heartburn. We didn't need to MAGA. We already were, but now we do. Trump has all but destroyed our credibility and national standing. Lies, lies, lies;. Amy is my top choice. A moderate to try to reunite our nation.
3
@theresa
Way to regurgitate stereotypes. For Midwesterners AND New Yorkers.
4
Wow that sounds like a dish that really sticks to the ribs, thighs, belly, and well "Lutheran binder" was already mentioned so I don't have to go there. You don't see many Midwestern cuisine restaurants here in New York. Now, al forno things with loads of ricotta and or béchamel sauce don't seem so bad.
I'm just not comfortable with people whose diet consists of prepackaged, processed foods mixed together for a home cooked meal having so much influence on the direction of this country. I mean no wonder....
It's farm, to processing plant, to frozen food isle, to table, to colonoscopy, cooking.
I suppose if served with a side of cabbage and real potatoes au gratin it might have possibilities, but I don't eat meat so I'm exempt. However we could do worse than Amy Klobuchar as president. Let me rephrase that - we've done worse. I had nothing to do with it.
18
@Christopher Perhaps they are not comfortable with someone who judges strangers for their food traditions declaring them unfit to vote based on their diet.
Good grief, such condescending snark. Was it really necessary?
@Christopher
Define "Midwestern cuisine".
1
This reminds me of recipes my thrifty Kansas-born mother would eat. Ground beef and cream of mushroom soup were the start to half the things I grew up eating. Always involved prechopped frozen or canned vegetables. I've had to update most of them to use real ingredients as an adult with access to fresh produce, especially the canned sliced mushrooms. Yuck.
6
I would probably not eat it. Not a fan of tater tots, but their is something about Klobuchar I find refreshingly authentic. Anyone who uses a comb as a spork is someone who is willing the think way outside the box when necessary.
12
@GUANNA Personally, I can't get the "eating with a comb" thing out of my head. Yuck!
In Ohio, we call this Tater Tot casserole. It was literally the first thing I wanted after giving birth to my daughter.
12
This recipe sounds horrible. Any casserole with cream of whatever soup reminds me of Readers Digest recipes.
28
@Bruce Ladies Home Journal circa 1975 in every doctor's office waiting room.
Gotta say the republican’s bacon one sounds WAY better
2
“Still, using hot dish to telegraph familiarity in Iowa, a state that largely uses the term casserole to describe the baked one-dish suppers, could be seen as a misstep.”
This is hilarious, and proof this is a very New York paper. Iowans know what the state they share a border with calls casserole. Heck, you’ll find the terminology of hot dish vs. casserole doesn’t neatly stop at the state line. We Midwesterners known our neighboring state’s quirks—you might hear “bubbler” instead of “drinking fountain” in Wisconsin.
31
Speaking as an able cook and baker, would it count as going against your admonition re: civility if I say, simply, yuck!?
15
@beth choi From one Ohioan to another, it's not bad. I say this also as an able cook (although I wouldn't consider myself a baker...hats off to you on that one).
4
I am just cracking up at the thought of this being served in Elizabeth Warren territory. Cambridge would collectively gag!
14
@Rebecca intellectually I might agree but it tastes much better than you would think.
@Rebecca
Some if us simply gag at the idea of furious, scolding Warren.
1
Liz didn't grow up in Cahm-bridge, so maybe the insinuation that she would tuhn huh nose up at such proletarian fare is not wah-rented. Growing up on the "ragged edge of the middle class" as she did, I'd bet she probably ate and enjoyed hot dish, or casserole, or whatever it was called in Oklahoma while she was growing up. Double or nuthin that she still likes it. (And I pay my bets if I lose, unlike some others that have placed bets about this candidate. Pay up, Donald!)
2
Also, known as “heart attack on a plate”. LOL
14
@B L - That term is properly applied to the full English breakfast.
3
@B L Also known as: "This is why we can't afford universal healthcare" Casserole!
2
So ... three thoughts.
1. There are people who think pepper jack cheese is spicy?
2. This sounds absolutely disgusting.
3. The senator needs to have someone fix the recipe, unless the last line really is meant to instruct us to "back" the horrible thing instead of "bake" it.
11
Throw in some jalapeños or roasted Hatch green chiles, and it’ll fix it right up.
4
Oh my gosh, this dish makes me ill to see it. Heart attack in a Pyrex.
10
The perfect “ Depression Era” dish for the New Social Democratic Party that would bankrupt this still recovering country from the Great Depression of “08”, just when MAGA was kicking in with near zero unemployment! (Sadsack Socialists with free-stuff for all...)
4
Amy come to Texas, eat BBQ and 1000's of other things. Roadside BBQ is the best though. You have my support whatever you eat here!
3
Hot dish? Spaghetti casserole!!!? I'm repulsed and intrigued at the same time.
1
@Long Islander: Spaghetti casserole in its traditional form is calorie-laden, but there are lighter versions. Mine involves spaghetti squash along with angel hair pasta, a marinara sauce, a ton of garlic, and a box of thawed and drained chopped spinach from the freezer. I like some heat, so I also add a generous amount of red pepper flakes or Aleppo pepper and finely minced garlic sauteed in a bit of olive oil. Bind all of the ingredients with an egg and pour into a casserole dish. Top with finely chopped nuts. (I prefer walnuts.) Bake at 350 until heated through. Serve with parmesan cheese if desired. It's really delicious doesn't leave you feeling as if you've eaten a brick. As a desk worker, the traditional version is simply too heavy for me. My whole family loves this dish, and it keeps well in a refrigerated container for lunch the next day.
5
@Long Islander Right? Like a traffic accident--against all your better instincts, you still want to look. Eek.
1
@Allison Your version sounds equally fattening, unhealthy and totally unappetizing: walnuts with spaghetti? Gagalicious:(.
I cannot and could never bring myself to eat tator tot hot dish, but I'll defend it against all the comments shouting obesity. According to the CDC maps, MN is in the median for obesity. And from experience I'll say this, after you've shoveled three feet of snow off your sidewalk you're entitled to some fat, starch and carbs. We have long, cold winters and we actually go out an enjoy them, for which you need more than salad.
114
I'm with you. Lived in MN for 19 years and never ate this once. Gotta say, though, after trudging through feet of snow and shoveling tons of it, I always thought a hot meal of tuna, or chicken, casserole, was really delicious. No tater tots. X-country skiing in Theodore Worth Parkway, snow-power walking around a frozen Lake of the Isles (go MTM), getting from one side of a parking lot covered with 2 feet of snow to the other . . . hail and hearty.
14
@Nicole
Yes, in my neighborhood we sit around and pay people to shovel and landscape, so we can can live on 1/4 pound of wild salmon with beet greens and 1 T of brown rice. Lol
13
@Nicole There are other things in between your Mid-Western fat fest meals and salads: Hey, fish, maybe? Lean pork or chicken? No wonder there's such an obesity epidemic in your part of the world.
I enjoyed reading about these hot dish caucus parties this morning as a welcome diversion from the Republican/Trump craziness. My husband and I are now retired, but we remember gearing up for dinner each evening with our son. It was (and is) so nice to have familiar and quick recipes. I don't use canned soup, but I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up if offered the senator's dish. I love the thought of people coming together in each other's homes to share comfort food! It looks fun, delicious, and, to be honest, good for the soul.
42
One thing is nagging at me. I'm looking at her recipe, and Dr. McGuire's comment above - what is spicy in it??
6
Pepper Jack cheese may be spicy to some folk.
5
The pepper jack cheese. Kicks it up a notch.
1
@Kas-pepper jack
1
This dish is way, WAY off the beaten track for those of us in the northeast. Probably even for northeasterners who live outside urban areas. And I suspect it will be foreign to most people in the west, too. Maybe the south as well.
7
@JJM-maybe in Brookline, but since that’s only a tiny portion of the coast. Casserole is king all over the coast, my friend.
11
@JJM it's common here in PA. Try it with jalapeno's!
6
I was thinking it had Maine written all over it, especially given the individual tweaks like bear meat. Add potatos and Pyrex and cream of whatever and you’ve encapsulated most of the state’s repertoire!
7
Canned, highly processed meats, mixed with processed cheese, topped with fried, processed simple carbohydrates, then for some unknown reason has even more sodium added, served up for dinner. Then we wonder why America has an obesity issue. One serving of this probably has more calories than anyone should even be eating in an entire day.
22
@Nick I ran it through a calorie calculator. If a 9x13 pan has 10 servings (probably it would serve more), then there's 443 calories per serving. There's a fair amount of fat, and nobody's arguing that this is a healthy dish, but it's not nearly as bad for you as people are making it out to be. Especially if you eat some vegetables with it.
8
I eat healthy but I am not going to turn away a good hot dish! What’s wrong with having a balance and enjoying life, at least for 20 minutes before the bloat sets in....naysayers?
39
@Ryan
Enjoy life? Heresy? Call the politically correct food police. Because one shares two mouthfuls of Klobuchar casserole does not mean your life is over. Lighten up the attitudes.
2
Well, I'm no elitist, but that thing sounds highly unhealthy. Which is typical for most foods concocted during wartime ( like margarine) or harsh times in general. You serve that American, heavy , cholesterol skyrocketing dosh and show your appreciation for voters.... I wonder what they serve their enemies in Midwest. Lol
8
@Andy they should serve something much more healthy- like french fries with gravy and cheese curds
23
@andre
It's called' poutine', and it's an artery curdler. Lol
2
I think Minnesota's creamy, rich wild rice soup is far better than any of these "hot dishes" sound. I search it out whenever I visit.
21
@liza
Sounds delicious - thanks for the tip.
Just one little somewhat pedantic correction to the article, Taconite is not a rock mined mined in the Iron Range but iron ore compounded into pellet to concentrate the iron, make it easier to feed into a furnace and ship.
I was waiting for the food critics to strike and see some haughty coastal comments about why IA should get the first shot at choosing a candidate.
Some of us spend a good deal of time outside in what would seem to the coasties very cold weather and coming into to the house and finding a hot dish filled with meat, cheese, potatoes, cabbage etc and the ubiquitous cream of mushroom soup is a sheer delight.
24
Taconite IS the name of a fairly low-grade iron ore. Taconite the rock is ground up and processed into pellets that have a higher concentration of iron. Confusingly, these round pellets are also called taconite.
I can add, based on personal childhood experience, that taconite pellets gathered from train tracks where ore trains run make a most excellent slingshot ammo, being both round and very dense…
4
Hot dish sounds so unhealthy, so boring. and so American!
No thanks.
10
@Mali FYI it isn't healthy. The midwest is filled with middle to lower class families that need to be fed. My grandmother with her family of 7 didn't exactly have the money or time to feed her 5 children a 5 course vegan meal. Its cheap and it makes a lot of food. Get off your high horse.
1
Down here in Georgia, we call condensed cream of mushroom soup "the Baptist binder." Lol It appears frequently along with condensed cream of chicken soup in many recipes collected by church groups and published in their cook books.
26
I'm surprised at the lack of mayonnaise in the recipe. It may help with the intense spices that these poor Iowans can't handle.
7
Your arrogance knows no bounds. Mayo would more likely be found a Canadian version ;)
@pat
Doubtful - mayo doesn't bake well.
That said, we do love our Miracle Whip - on sandwiches.
The Democratic (corporate centrist) Establishment must be in hard straights when Obesity Casserole becomes a primary news story.
2
@Chip It's no wonder we "can't afford universal healthcare" if 90% of the population is morbidly obese due to a sedentary lifestyle and Processed Garbage Casserole for dinner.
1
I'd much prefer someone who makes Hot Dish for Pres than the Hot Mess we have now.
83
@Kevin Banker, Perfect.
The problem is Klobuchar makes her campaign workers eat it with a comb.
23
@Greenguy
Hiss!
9
An uninspired recipe from an uninspiring candidate.
6
oh come one, the midwest and the south are at crisis obesity levels--- we are eating our selves to death!! This is no different than feeling candies to kids. We must as a society look at our bodies as gifts and not destroy them. Oh forget it, we are getting free heath care to take care of the bad knees, heart problems, respiratory problems and diabetes caused by this so we are ok
2
“Hot dish is a great unifier — just like Amy,” the campaign’s cheery invitations read.
Describing an event without a brown face in sight.
Ahhh, unity.
5
I will happily fly over this Midwestern delicacy.
4
As someone who was forced to eat so many disgusting hot dishes made with the dreaded cream of mushroom soup as a child from the land of 10,000 lakes I eliminated them from my diet as soon as I went to college. My adventures in cooking started once I migrated to the west coast.
89
@Roberta
Is migration a prerequisite to becoming adventurous?
11
@Chris
It is a prerequisite to finding some of the fresh produce that can be hard to find in other parts of the country, which I know from personal experience having lived many places. I am reminded of that when following a recipe from Cooks Country that focuses on ingredients that can be found in most major grocery stores. Often I can find the authentic ethnic ingredient easily here in California. I do hear that is changing and would love to stand corrected on this
7
@Roberta As a former Minnesotan myself, I can relate! Particularly bad are the hot dishes that contain tuna.
9
Here described is a type of dish not uncommon in the Mid-West region of the country. Casserole bakes of meat, and processed food items such as canned vegetables, potato products making for a mix all held together by creamed canned soup/cheese. It’s a popular, traditional type of dining tasty and economical that typifies eating patterns outside of the state of Minnesota. Each region of the country having their own signature dishes identifying an American diet all too commonly leading to unhealthy obesity.
1
Her recipe derails at ‘she omits the vegetables’. There are ways of making casseroles with fresh ingredients that capture the comfort food aspect without all the processed ingredients. Our favorite is leftover rice, diced or pulled chicken, fresh broccoli, and a homemade sauce with whatever bits of cheese need to be used up with topping of crumbles leftover from homemade bread.
17
Amy Klobuchar is an authentic Minnesotan. Amy's offering of hot dish is an example of her ancestor roots in the often brutal mining industry in Northern MN that carried the US through WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
The work at the mines was done by the people's of over 20 nations on the Iron Range near Hibbing, Aurora and the underground mines at Tower Soudan.
The hot dish origins are likely a composite of what the families were able to put together out of the begrudging climate, gardens, livestock, and the paychecks in such a climate. I see a Kiwi comments and expresses health concerns on the contents; I challenge a Kiwi to grow fresh fruit north of Duluth, MN.
An apt response to the critics to enable enjoyment of the spirit in which Amy provides the recipe is found in the theme song to Mystery Science Theater 3000, as they address the main characters plight with only robots in space for company:
Oh, and by the way, for those in Boston everyone on the Iron Range knows that Kevin McHale is predominately Serbian and very little Irish.
"You might wonder how he eats and breaths and other science facts,
Just remember it's just a show and you really should just sit back and relax."
Perhaps, make the dish, alter it as you wish, and then uust chill. If you wish explore the cuisine the 20 nations shared with Northern MN like caradomom bread, patitsa, porchetta, and the Finnish staple of mojakka
39
@Dale C Korpi Seems to me that the "cuisine the 20 nations shared with Northern MN like caradomom bread, patitsa, porchetta, and the Finnish staple of mojakka" would all be huge improvement over Klobuchar's "hot dish!"
1
@Dale C Korpi Another Ranger here: We had a tuna casserole (on the Range they were not called hotdish to my memory--unless the Lutherans called it that) once every couple of weeks. But Tater Tots hadn't been invented yet...it was Creamettes or Creamette shells that provided the carbs, plus a can of peas. Don't laugh: I didn't see a fresh asparagus or broccoli until I moved away in 1964. Everyone had big gardens, and the Italians grew broccoli and hoped their tomatoes would develop before the snow flew, the Slovenians grew gigantic amounts of leaf lettuce and polebeans, and the Finns planted serious amounts of potatoes. That lasted just a couple of months, and then you were happy for canned peas and canned asparagus. Yes, canned asparagus. In any case, these were tasty dishes that were economical and there was plenty of protein in there: a couple of cans of tuna, all that milk and some cheese. We only had soda, on the other hand, at holidays and the 4th of July. A glass of milk at every meal. My mother lived to 97, may she rest in peace.
1
And we wonder why we can't decide on a candidate or get along...we can't even agree on the name of the dish, casserole or hot dish! For heaven's sake.
3
I guess it is a quick and easy preparation to fry the frozen taters and then dunk into a hot sauce with cheese and serve along with some meat. If I was a card carrying democrat in Iowa, I would certainly caucus of Able Amy. Do you like beer Senator Klobuchar? I like non alcoholic beer occasionally. Will go well with taters.
2
Buttigieg should become Klobuchar's running mate before the primary. If they joined forces, we'd get the primary we need. Klobuchar/Buttigieg is our best option now.
5
@Barbara
Because moderates have such a great history of winning, right?
1
I think Klobuchar’s hot dish is evidence of her real world grounding. You could eat with her and not be uneasy or petrified from talking to her.
Anyone for burgers with Trump?
6
There's not enough catsup/ketchup in the world to temp me!!!
The exotic novelty of the so-called "hot dish" will forever evoke an image of a stapler flying towards a head. Would I still pick Klobuchar over Trump? You betcha!
9
Remember when Michelle Obama helped to normalize beautiful, nutritious food? I miss those days.
27
@Joanne Butler
And devoured ice cream on vacation
5
@HotGumption. Good lord! Did she “devour” ice cream on vacation? Were you with her? Or, while on vacation did she indulge in a bit of ice cream. I don’t know about you, but when I’m on vacation I indulge in a few things I normally don’t. That’s what vacations are for. Indulging in ice crown now and again doesn’t mean she doesn’t eat healthily otherwise.
I would likely prefer David Brooks's soppressata panino.
2
Whoa Amy this is a very bad idea! How will you answer questions about the obesity and diabetes epidemics in this country?
4
The NYT also just published n article on childhood obesity:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/upshot/childhood-obesity-research.html?
These midwestern states' specialty "dishes" and general nutrition are creating an epidemic of obese children, who will never be able to lose weight as adults except through surgical intervention.
3
@CA It's much more complex than that. And California's climbing obesity rates aren't caused by midwestern states. MN's rate is lower than CA's rate.
12
After eating some Tater Tots for the first time in my life on Saturday, my stomach certainly felt like I'd eaten something mined in the Iron Range of Minnesota.
5
@The Poet McTeagle Sorry--Mr. Poet, get over yourself just a bit. Even such delicacies as Tater Tots, in moderation, are OK as humans are extremely adaptable and at heart we are social beings. Seen in this light, tater tots can be good for us.
15
Is the dish to be served with a comb?
4
Steinbeck in his book Tortilla Flats, described the instance when
a medical doctor examined youngsters from the poor parts
of Salinas, California.
“Finding the children to be fit and healthy, he asked what they
ate? Each child replied beans and tortillas was their reply”
I’ll stick to the simple staples myself
6
Amy, I love you, but lose this recipe. Gross.
2
keep in mind Iowa is the state that has 63 food on a stick choices at their state fair. We hear about the fried pork chops but google the list and you'll see fried brownies; fried pecan pie topped with Carmel sauce and bacon bits; and Monkey tail (?)!!!!
2
That’s just revolting. And it’s the kind of “food” made from over-salted, over-processed stuff that’s largely responsible for the obesity epidemic. I may have to revise my positive opinion of this candidate, LOL.
5
@BlueinGeorgia
You make me laugh. As a northener who has driven all over Georgia ( backroads mainly) I think fatback, hush puppies, fried chicken and salted collard greens could give Amy a run for her money. Maybe not Atlanta's haute cuisine eateries.
4
@HotGumption
No, those foods you named are actual regional food — not dump ‘n stir junk. Atlanta indeed is very international and has a huge selection of good restaurants of all kinds. BTW I’m not a Ga. native, but a transplant who has lived all around North and South America.
@BlueinGeorgia
Gee, thanks for letting me know the difference.
We're talking on this site about regionality and you're slamming the Midwest's unhealthy food. So is the South's. People in different places consume different foodstuffs and they all can be unhealthy.
But oh, those backroads people and tiny eateries. Ga. people themselves were yummy for the soul. Cordial, whatever race, and eager to share life.
They ate every bit of it up, and I kind of did, too, reading this piece. After the revolting Trump rallies of the last several years - using hatred and lies and racism to draw the worst, basest instincts out of his audiences - I welcome a hot dish, a casserole, or anything you want to call it at public gatherings.
24
And this is why we have a health crisis in the United States...
6
Why have a meal based on a junk food like Tater Tots?
4
Plus you get your annual supply of sodium in one EZ serving!!
No wonder US health care costs gazillions and 40% of us are obese.
5
@Miss Anne Thrope
only true if you aren't doing physical labor 14 hours a day instead sitting in a car for two hours a day to sit in front of a flat screen for 8 hours at "work" to return home to sit in front of another flat screen for four hours.
3
Once again proving Louisiana is the only state in this nation with a real cuisine.
4
One more reason why I won't vote for Klobuchar in our primary!!! Hahahaha!!! Cream of mushroom soup died for me after I learned how to cook watching Julia Child on TV. Tater tots (processed potatoes)? Don't they have real food in the Midwest?
1
@EMiller Now I was born in the "Cities" but have lived my adult life on the East Coast. I don't remember a Tater Tot Hot Dish but a casserole has always been a hot dish to me. When I was a kid it was typically macaroni, tomatoes, ground beef and cheese. Staples now in the "Cities" include walleye, Swedish meatballs and cucumber salad - but they would be more time-consuming and more expensive for a house party. Check out the menu of the Bachelor Farmer, an award-winning restaurant in Minneapolis (owned by former Gov. & Sen. Dayton's sons. The time I ate there, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) was dining there as well https://thebachelorfarmer.com/menu/food/. Yum!
1
@Karen I was just kidding. Although I still don't understand the custom of drinking coffee with dinner (I have been to several places in the Midwest and agree that typical restaurant food is no different from anywhere else in the US). Anyway, the Bachelor Farmer sounds great.
Compare this article to one further down my news feed “How Trump’s Digital Advantage is freaking out Democratic Strategists” and you can’t help but wonder how Democrats expect to win by reaching 30 Iowa voters at a time with “hot dish” while the Trump campaign is reaching 90 thousand at a time via digital geofencing.
1
This is a SNL skit in the making. If the NYT wants to continually endorse Klobuchar they are certainly not getting me to take a second look by this piece. Confirming all the worst stereotypes...and at the same time seemingly finding continuous ways to derail Buttigieg to discredit his millennial (& genX!) appeal.
From my read: Klobuchar - boring, staid, potentially “safe” and thus electable. That’s not very inspiring, nor is it what I’m looking for in a leader.
seems like we’ve been down this road before with biased identity politics subtleties leading the news headlines (Hillary v Bernie). Remember how that turned out?
4
I grew up in the south on casseroles like this because I was from a big family. THE idea is to stretch your ingredients to feed the masses.
We’re all too old and chubby to eat like this anymore but this piece brought back memories.
104
@MaryC
I grew up in the south too but we never had casseroles because Mom hated them and called them "glop." However, they were plentiful at church potlucks and I loved them.
It's a dirty little secret of mine, but I still like them (except for green bean casserole) though I'm also too old and chubby to indulge anymore.
6
This made me smile. Being a active in local politics for years now I have been invited to countless house parties. Hot dish gives the impression of warm down home....
Don't know if i would eat it. The words Cream of anything frightens my poor lactose intolerant insides. But i might attend check book in hand, and that is what the party is all about.
3
I've got to be honest here - I would love to eat any one of these dishes. To me, it'd be like flying to central China and eating their daily dishes. Grew up in Northern New Jersey where not only did we not eat like this at home, but no one I knew did either. (granted, lots of immigrant parents) I remember once an Arab girl from Michigan moved to our neighborhood and brought with her the knowledge of Steakums (spelling?). When she pulled them out of her freezer they looked like a deck of cards to me. Obviously this stuff is not healthy, but if someone wants to make me some, I'd eat it in a heartbeat -especially on a cold day like today.
9
In response to the folks who find hot dish yet another invitation for doing a little Midwest bashing: this is not something you eat every day. And I'm sorry but when it is minus 2 with a wind chill of minus 22, a salad just won't do.
Some versions are healthy: In a casserole dish place cooked lentils with carrots, caramelized onion, peas, celery, garlic and seasoning (to include herbs, cayenne if you feel like it, and a drizzle of soy sauce, balsamic and/or Worcestershire). Add a pinch of flour toward end of caramelizing the onions in olive oil. Boil potatoes, reserving some liquid to add to onions and roux, stir heartily. Mash the potatoes and spread on top of the lentil mixture ala Shepherd's Pie. Bake, with or without adding shaved Romano for the last 5 min.
That'll warm ya right up.
17
Ugh. This just shows how out of touch she is with younger people. A dish made of canned soups and beef? The sodium alone would be enough to do you in.
2
its almost like a shepherd's pie. Meat on the bottom. Potatoes on top.
4
Seems like it would be good nourishment for people with few or no teeth.
4
Hotdishes were one reason I had to escape Minnesota. Not only were they a staple of church basement potlucks, they were inflicted on school children at lunchtime.
But I don't remember them as political food. At least not for the Democratic Farmer Labor Party. The DFL put on bean feeds.
To this day, I dread hot dishes and casseroles, which I consider fancy names for glops made from leftovers slopped together with cream of mushroom soup and not enough pepper. Ugh.
If Amy is campaigning as the casserole queen, she deserves to lose — and will.
57
@James Conner
She is not campaigning as the "casserole queen"! Read the article again....
14
Oh my, nothing like food to bring out the elitism in the comments section! I agree that casseroles are not always the healthiest food option, but let's also remember that Minnesota is a place with very long, extemely harsh winters. My husband's grandparents and mine grew old eating this kind of food. All lived well into their nineties, and they didn't spend their last twenty years bed-ridden and sickly, so maybe we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the hotdish, as long as it's eaten in moderation.
100
@Allison I wouldn't go so far as to call food preferences "elitism".
4
@Allison I completely agree and would take it a step further.
Hotdish is an example of immigrant, poverty cuisine--it doesn't rely on the availability of fresh vegetables, used shelf-stable ingredients, and could feed a large family quickly.
Year-round fruits and vegetables didn't become available or affordable in parts of the upper Midwest until the 1970's and 80's which surprises a lot of outsiders.
The new appreciation for the history and importance of "poverty foods" such as in southern black and Appalachian cuisine hasn't yet extended to the Midwest, but it should.
34
@Allison Couldn't agree more!
10
I misread the the recipe and thought it called for "shredded paper" and I thought that sounded a little extreme even for the Depression. It calls for shredded pepper.
6
@Jim - Shredded pepper jack cheese, to be precise.
In Minnesota we call this type of food hotdish. Although if it is tuna noodle we call it tuna noodle casserole. I believe that is the only exception. Curious how that happened.
7
I grew up in the Bronx; we ate tuna and noodle casserole too, served by my Bronx-raised mother. Not just for Midwesterners.
6
Since the demographic of Iowa echos 1950s America, might as well serve as many fattening, processed, unhealthy 1950s dishes, as possible.
10
@Gus
Watch it, some lady called these types of comments " elitist". Health in America is elitist these days, apparently..... LOL
1
The recipe brings a smile to my face as I grew up in Minnesota, home of the church potluck. A friend from Iowa who has a similar background, used to suggest we write a cookbook called the More Calorie Cookbook. The idea was to take fattening foods and make them more calorie dense. That said, in my quasi impoverished college years, I survived on left-over casserole like Amy's and didn't gain weight and had friends on food stamps who did the same. Now I can afford to eat organic, healthy meals and have the time to prepare them. Don't put down what you don't know folks.
53
I thought that Klobuchar calling a casserole a “hot dish” made her more exotic (that’s with an ‘x’ not an ‘r’). If “hot dish” is the worst thing that Republicans can throw at her, she’s got my vote (and campaign contribution). Where can I buy a book if her recipes?
7
I appreciate the story of frugality in creating this dish 100 years ago and the efforts to create bon ami during these campaigns, but this dish is toxic for some people.
It's not the cheese or meat, it's the MSG in the soup. Don't just roll your eyes and count me out. MSG can create a migraine so intense that it knocks a person out and unable to function for a whole day. After spending about ten years with a migraine every other day, I learned about it. Deleting it out of our family diet really helped bring me back to being a functioning person ten years ago.
MSG is made through various fermentation processes and is called different names but it's even in ice cream. You have to look hard to eliminate it from your diet, and more importantly, your children's diet. MSG is a glutamate that mimics the release of glutamate in the brain when you have a fierce headache or hangover. It causes the blood vessels to swell. Is that what you want for your kids?
Learn to cook real food. It's way more delicious and frugal, and everyone will be fine the next day.
13
@Nellie Belle Fermented food IS real food -- like soy sauce, tofu, tempeh, kefir, miso, beer, sauerkraut, kim-chi, yogurt, wine, buttermilk, kombucha, etc., etc., etc.
5
@Nellie Belle Yeah I don't think most people are going to remove MSG from their diet to accommodate the weaklings who can't handle it.
2
This is elitist. Among poor people, canned food means you get to eat next week or next month. And when you live far from grocery stores, it means you eat during that snow storm that snows you in. Or if you are elderly and cant get out in the snow without the risk of a fall. Canned food means food.
20
I'm having trouble getting past the fact that a doctor would make this dish.
51
@MS honestly me too.
Sodium content alone would put me in the hospital.
Creamed soup, tater tots, cheese, greasey meat. That's not food, but a suicide note disguised as dinner.
A stick of butter rolled in sugar would be better for you. At least it is less processed than the Franken food casserole.
Yes, I grew up with Hamburger Helper (shudder).
Just thinking about eating a meal made with those chemical-tasting canned soups makes me mildly sick. And beef in any form too. There is indeed a social divide. Give me Michelle Obama’s campaign for healthy eating.
31
Hold on, a creamy casserole topped with Tater Tots?!? As if I needed another reason to vote for Amy! Klobuchar 2020! Beats a cold hamberder any day of the week!
47
And after serving this dish, she had better change her stance on Medicare for All. With a steady diet of food like this, All will need it.
36
There are only two recipes in my life that are absolutely fail-safe: Samin Nosrat's Buttermilk Chicken (found right here in the NYT!) and Tater Tot Hot Dish. Where there is discord, let us bring Tater Tot Hot Dish, and all will become well again.
21
@Anna
I believe you on that discord bit. They'll all be dead!
Thanks for the recipe, but I think I'll stick with Shepherds Pie! Sorry but all that creamed soup and cheese, sounds sickening.
20
Good Grief.
Am I the only one here wondering when we're going to see a recipe for Bernie's Noodle Kugel or Mayor Pete's Corn Dog Surprise?
So patronizing.
So disappointing.
23
One more reason I don't support Klobuchar.
7
No comment on combining the contents of cans and plastic bags from the freezer into ‘food’ but I would say, at the risk of sounding sexist, that nothing would be better for the Country than electing a Woman President; one that does not exude East Coast elitism.
I am for Amy.
12
@Mark Marks: I generally agree about the canned soups, but individually quick frozen (IQF) fruits & vegetables are not unhealthy, and they are essential for those living in places with short summers and long, harsh winters. I think every household should have at least a basic selection of bagged produce packed away in a freezer from which to make winter meals when gardens are otherwise fallow.
It's easy to grow accustomed to groceries offering fresh produce year-round and to assume it will always be available, but weather and natural disasters can stand in the way of normal distribution channels. Just a decade ago, a series of blizzards in my part of Colorado brought life to a near standstill for over three weeks. Trucks could get to our local supermarket only sporadically, and we quickly ran out of fresh foods. During that time, our freezer sustained us, so thank goodness we had those myriad bags of carrots, peas, and spinach!
26
A LOT of women were grateful to have canned vegetables, washing machines and dryers, Nesco roasters, vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, and other miraculous inventions. It meant 14-16 hour days keeping a garden, canning, cleaning, and other daily chores got whittled down by hours. We grouse about processed food, but it was a game-changer in its time. I would bet the first hot dish with canned vegetables and cream of (name your soup) was a gourmet offering that made women cry from relief.
46
@JSBNoWI My wife and I were joking about that with my daughter who works at a large high end food coop. We grew up in the north country in MN and the UP. We had fresh veggies about 3 seeks a year, then canned. Nothing like canned asparagus and spinach, but tops was creamed corn. Our mothers could throw together a mean hot dish about twice a week, 15 siblings in the 2 families. The tuna noodle casserole was saved for Lutheran funerals!
8
A fifth-place candidate’s casserole is getting more Times coverage than some of the other candidates...
15
At my house we never buy Tater Tots but we do own a grater and eat potatoes. Mostly we also avoid recipes that are built by dumping stuff out of bags and cans. Sure not what I'd call creative cooking. Maybe a good recipe for a non-cook?
I saw where Amy K. made the new book, Profiles in Corruption" on progressive nastyness. My bet is it will never make the NYT's book list?
2
If humans were as delicate as many of the commenters seem to imply, most of us who grew up in small towns all over America would have died of heart attacks long ago. The combination of cream of chicken and/or cream of mushroom soup, a can of corn,
and a pound of minced protein to some kind of carbs - and why not Tater Tots? baked together - is almost always mysteriously good. Maybe a real vote attractor.
24
In light of this, shouldn’t Dr. Andy (chef)McGuire’s license to practice medicine be revisited? Also her position as chair of Doctors Without Conscience?
3
With all the fat and sodium in that recipe, Amy sure doesn't care about the health of her constituents.
We should check to see if she has a financial interest in one of the big hospital chains.
4
No way that that Amy’s hot dish could ever be eaten with a comb.
7
@Susan No, for this entree she uses a hairbrush!
The primaries remind me continually of how phony they are when candidates have to share their “homemade” dishes with voters that have prediabetes.
3
Amy had me until I read that terrible, unhealthy recipe. Oh well, maybe I will vote for her to get her out of the kitchen, a place she decidedly does not belong.
5
"Brown the ground beef, then drain off the fat." I suppose that's to make room for the oodles of fat pre-packaged in the cans of cream of mushroom and chicken, pepper jack cheese and tater tots. If you're an adult, you can make your own poor choices. But please don't "save time" by feeding this to your children. If this is an iconic Midwestern food redeployed as a campaign symbol by Amy Klobuchar, it only conveys to me that the Midwest and Amy Klobuchar have nothing to say to the rest of the nation worth attending, nutritionally, gastronomically or politically. It pretty much sums up what I think of Democrats who label themselves "moderate": drain away something noxious here only to add it back there, so nothing really changes.
6
Why is a dazzling urbanite like myself reading a recipe that calls for salty cans of everything dumped into a pile of tater tots covered with cheese? Pass the Pepcid...
3
Tater tots, frozen mixed vegetables, canned mushroom soup,layers of cheese. That is enough to keep me from voting for her. I find this dish horrifyingly unhealthy. I feel that she could learn some things about the health and diet of the American people from Michele Obama.
5
OK with the two cans of condensed soup are you supposed to add a can of water each? Or just omit the water?
1
@J Clark
omit the water unless you want a soggy mess
6
@J Clark No water. The soup acts as a binder. (In my Mom's recipe the hamburger is not precooked, it makes a hamburger like layer on the bottom so the its purpose of the soup is to hold the tater tots to the hamburger layer)
3
If you’re serious about fighting climate change you don’t eat food made from animals.
2
"Now, hot dish has been conscripted to help Amy Klobuchar, the senator from Minnesota, win the Democratic nomination for president."
I can understand that candidates have to eat local or ethnic food in their bid to pander to voters but “Hot dish is a great unifier — just like Amy,” the campaign’s cheery invitations read" --is embarrassing and an insult to intelligence of the voters. I can even understand doing a feature story on this. But as part of a campaign?? As someting that might impact on the qualifications of a leader?
Or apparently it is not embarrassing nor is it an insult to the level of the intelligence of the voters.
This type of thing (and giving it publicity) is pathetic.
4
Looking forward to articles about the male candidates’ cooking forays!
28
I kept waiting for the part where we would learn how poorly hot dish would go over in other, more sophisticated parts of the country, but it was gloppy gooeyness all the way through. That’s what happens when Democrats try to be “down home” in “deplorable land.” The phoniness is hard to swallow.
1
Casserole: the container for a hot dish*
No need to thank me.
Sincerely, lifelong Minnesotan
*unless the hot dish is cooked in a pan
13
Where I'm from, this is called a "covered dish," the implication being there is something worth eating under the cover.
3
My husband used to make this for us too when we were both in college and too busy or broke for much else, how funny. Over the years after several kids and 5 dogs, I have also changed the recipe to include different veggies and spices for a healthier alternative, but the ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, and tater tots remained (although now we buy grass fed & organic). It’s still great comfort food in cold weather.
15
HOT DISH suggests gossip or an attractive, perhaps mildly disreputable person.
HOTDISH suggests a church potluck. And how fondly I remember them from visits in the 70s to my Minnesota grandma and aunts (who would NOT have splurged on tater tots - how decadent).
Thanks for the happy memories, NYT, and good luck Senator Klobuchar.
19
@Heather Hadlock: Minnesota Lutherans, like my husband's grandparents, were definitely known for their frugality. Oh goodness, I can just imagine the gossip among the church basement ladies over the decadence of Tater Tots! Thanks for the chuckle.
5
Here’s my “hot dish” recipe and I’m from NYC:
Box of elbows (cooked)
1 pound of ground beef
Onions
Green pepper
1 can of San Marzano purée tomato
Cumin - lots!
Salt
Sauté onions / peppers with cumin in olive oil
Brown ground beef in that
Throw in can of tomato sauce
More cumin (trust me)
Throw in cooked elbows
Done!
Serve with big green salad and it’s relatively healthy and very tasty!
18
As Garrison Keillor once famously remarked, on Prairie Home Companion, "the hot dish is the only culinary masterpiece named after the container that holds it, rather than after its contents."
:)
43
My roommates Mom would make this for us when I was in college. Good with a layer of green beans under the tots. Yum
6
"Hot dish" may be peculiar to Minnesota, but "_a_ hot dish" has been the staple at church potlucks all over the country for as long as I can remember - well back into the '50s. And every family has its own favorite drawn from a list of "casseroles."
14
Old family recipes with tater tots, canned soups? Does anybody remember how to make a basic white sauce? Boiled cubed potatoes in a cheese sauce? This fallen-away Hoosier, having just made creamed turkey in a (homemade) pie shell, has modernized...somewhat; a broccoli-cheese-rice dish using cream of broccoli soup. It feels like cheating. Okay, it is cheating. But what it isn’t is old or family.
And reading her recent interview in the NYTimes, didn’t require any get-together; just coffee and (homemade) blackberry bread. I liked the interview.
6
Below 14th St., serving the Hot Dish has a whole ‘nother meaning.
4
Being from Southern California, I assumed (shame on me) that the Taconite Hot Dish was Going to have Mexi flavors. Guess that Pepper Jack is the nod to the Southwest, but I never knew that Taconite is also a rock, which may be what you feel in your gut after having some of these dishes.
Amy’s recipe looks super tasty, tho. I would
Love the recipes from Rep Omar, and Al Franken’s as well. Yum.
7
Sorry to rain on this parade, but not every tradition is worth upholding. We can’t afford to eat like this anymore, both for our personal health and, more importantly, for the climate.
Here’s some real leadership I would like to see: upend our whole subsidy system to favor earth-friendly, healthy, mostly plant-based foods. Make a plan to re-forest the vast majority of our grazing lands and train ranchers to manage them. Put vertical farms on our cities’ rooftops so that city-dwellers can have locally grown fresh food without having to transport it 100s of miles.
We can solve our problems. We can stop filling the atmosphere with carbon. We can greatly reduce diet-related disease. This is not an elitist agenda, it’s survival.
37
I do not disagree with you. My family and I are trying to eat more plant-based. However, poor people rely on this type of food because it is filling, has high calories per serving, and is low cost per serving. What is the plan for an impoverished family of 4 to have enough food that is filling, quick to prepare, and fits within their budget, while avoiding waste and spoilage that they cannot afford? Many people need to cook to feed their families at under $1 per serving. Google it- there's over 5 million results for "meals less than $1 per serving." It will be a long, slow slog to convert both consumers and producers to a plant-based culture.
18
@From a poor peanut town
You are right, of course, which is why this is an issue of leadership. It’s why I said we have to upend our subsidy system. Make the healthy, sustainable food cheap, and let the price of more destructive food reflect its true cost.
Yes, it is a complicated, difficult problem whose complexity is compounded by culture. But we can figure it out if we want to; I’m saying that we must. I want a leader who will try.
6
@ Bubbles Burlington, VT
If you are one of those who believe that our food-eating habits have a ything to do with global climate change, then the only feasible solution would be to starve ourselves. Fot disclosure, I am an omnivore tending to carnivorousness, but I have a deep respect of the vegetarian pescetarian diet of the medieval Manicheans and Cathars.
2
When I first heard of this dish 20 years ago, I almost gagged. Till I tasted it. Then I was hooked. (And then later, created a spicy version using ground turkey and Hatch green chiles.)
19
@Tanner using hatch Chile definitely adds flavor and vitamins to this carb heavy dish. When you travel to ABQ, stop at Grandma’s K&I kitchen on Edith and eat a Traverse.
1
Is there anything better than Tater Tots? Worth every single calorie.
19
Classic Midwest church-supper, potluck dish. Comfort food. Appropriate to the setting. I'm still for Warren, though.
15
@writeon1: I like both women in the running for the nomination and believe either would be an excellent choice to lead the country these next four years.
As for hot dish, I grew up in a different part of the Upper Midwest, and we just called that kind of meal a casserole. The version I grew up with involved tuna, but my modern take is an infinitely healthier vegetarian version of spaghetti pie, which is much lower in calories, too. In any case, I agree that a hot dish (or casserole) is the perfect winter comfort food for bonding with others during an otherwise contentious election season.
4
Oh come on - food like this is a guilty pleasure! I eat healthfully most of the time, but I'd tuck into Hot Dish in a second. Once every couple of years would be enough, though.
26
I grew up in MN and thought I was a picky eater. It turns out I just don't like food using cream of mushroom soup as a binding agent.
18
What a nice report reflecting gentler times when the political discourse was not so vitriolic. Thank you!
48
I'd replace the tater tots with French's fried onions, eliminate the meat, skip the cream of chicken, add french cut green beans and serve.
4
@JAY
The point is to get her nominated, though.
2
@JAY So you'd make green bean casserole instead.
8
@Emily
Yeah, but I'd add sliced shiitake mushrooms and make air-fried onion bits if I was in no hurry.
If you want a heart stopper, try funeral potatoes. Disco fries are also good. My family was originally from the mid-Atlantic though. So anything from mac-n-cheese to spoon bread pudding was more traditional. Hot dish sounds like a canned pot pie with a tater tot crust. I just as soon make the pot pie.
Of course for potlucks, I'm generally trying to impress people a little bit. The goal is something thoughtful, unique and tasty that travels well. Preferably without much effort. Never exceed your own abilities. Know your limits.
My personal favorite for a winter dish is essentially a self-made variation of a Spanish Pulpo a la Gallega (octopus and potatoes with a red sauce). If you don't have a fish monger, you can generally find frozen octopus at any Asian market. The recipe is time consuming but generally easy. Just a lot of boiling. You can therefore prepare whenever. I then casserole the dish into a finished product the night before.
I've never once seen any leftovers.
2
My wife, who grew up in a town much like the mythical Lake Wobegon, invited me over for tater tot hot dish on one of our first dates. The idea for a hot dish is to be an easy hot meal with all the food groups mixed together (and if you want to add a vegetable, throw in a can of corn). We're still married 35 years later, so apparently it worked.
27
Corn is too starchy. A can of green beans works better.
2
I came here expecting "Taco Nite" hot dish, abounding with Tex-Mex flavors.
4
@Thomas, that was confusing - "taco nite" versus taconite, an iron ore found pretty commonly in MN. I think I'd prefer the taco version of the recipe.
4
It would be called taconight hot dish if it was from Mexico. Or perhaps it would just be called the Tuesday hit dish.
@Al Warner
And while you're up in iron ore country try the pasties.
2
I love Tatter tot hot dish. Its a staple dish for winter blues here in Minnesota.
14
In older days, calories and cholesterol got midwesterners through eight or so months of working hard in the cold and snow. Hard work kept people lean, despite hot dishes, casseroles, cream of anything soup, and starch. It may not be the food of dreams for you, who drive to the gym to do a choreographed workout in your thousand dollars exercise outfits, but it got millions of people through years of hardship.
Complaining about the food shows how easily distracted we are. It’s why we live with a demented and narcissistic megalomaniac in the WH.
132
@JSBNoWI . Tater tots were invented in 1953. So "older days" insults a lot of people.
4
Calories and cholesterol were around long before Tater Tots.
5
I was born in ‘51. I know who I’m insulting.
15
Sounds a lot like shepherd’s pie, which we Irish-Americans top with mashed potatoes. Great way to use up leftover veg, gravy and a lb of browned ground beef or leftover brisket.
42
@Lawyermom
Oh I haven had shepherd pie in ages! I love that dish! I'm going to make one right now!
Yeah, except shepherd’s pie doesn’t involve an ingredient list full of processed food.
@Mathilda it's nothing like shepard's pie. The only thing they have in common is baked in an oven.
That tot casserole is greasy, pasty, gloppy mess. And salty, even if you add no salt to the recipe.
Tater tots are delicious, although the recipe seems to have changed. My partner and I indulged very recently -- for the first time in 20 years -- as a nostalgic culinary trip. Addictive.
5
Say what you like about processed foods, the classic Tater Tot hot dish with mixed veg and canned soup is a boon to the soul. It suffuses you with gratitude and stuffs you with carbs, and leads directly to the kind of deep nap you may have forgotten you needed. Good for Amy, who never lets us down.
45
@Rune
Love this post... laughing out loud
2
Sounds grotesque. I've always found it bizarre that the midwest, supposedly the bread basket of the country where so many crops are grown, never really developed a regional cuisine with any characteristics that traveled well. The South has, California too, New England with its seafood.
Hot dish will certainly NOT be one of them...the list of ingredients reads like a recipe for artery clogging!
41
@History Guy The items distinct to Minnesota cuisine, for the most part, aren't commercially available — or at least, they aren't sourced locally.
Wild rice is an exception. But the proteins — wild game such as duck, goose, pheasant, quail and venison, and fish like walleye pike — can't be raised or harvested for commercial use, except by Native Americans on reservations. This is mostly due to the significance of sport hunting and fishing, and related tourism, to the state's economy.
The result is that you don't really see most of these foods on restaurant menus there. Walleye is commonly found on them, but virtually all of it is imported from Canada.
10
@History Guy Upper Midwest cuisine owes a lot to its Scandinavian and German immigrants.
5
We in northern Michigan have the pasty to distinguish ourselves; but otherwise I agree with you about the fish and game.
3
A friend once told me the difference between a casserole and a hit dish is a can of corn.
11
Sorry, “hot” dish. Hit dish sounds like a name Peloton riders would give it, with a nod to Minnesota Mafia...
1
Having a son living in Minneapolis, and driving there when I visit, I have concluded that 'Minnesota nice' is actually passive aggression. Much prefer Boston where the aggression is out in the open.
94
@VJBortolot
Serving this dish to anyone with a palate is passive aggression.
13
@VJBortolot Absolutely. As an Iowan I can confirm that Minnesota Nice disappears as soon as they hit Interstate 35.
12
Hmmm . . . People won’t even make eye contact in this city. Open aggression? That’s Philadelphia.
13
I once spent a Thanksgiving dinner with my husband’s family in Minnesota. After sitting down to eat I leaned over to my husband and whispered into his ear, “There isn’t a single vegetable on this table, and cornbread and potatoes don’t count.” I understand the convenience of a hot dish, but if it’s the only thing you are feeding your family, every dinner should include at least one vegetable.
24
@Kevin Ya. That's why they serve green bean casserole on Thanksgiving. Nobody eats it, but you feel good about offering a choice.
7
@Jack Kimmes
Which ironically, is also made with mushroom soup and french-fried onions.
1
Any candidate who puts pepper jack cheese in casserole gets my vote, that is really using compromise and imagination to get things done. But then again I am a Minnesotan -- it doesn't take much to make hot dish better because it can't get much worse, like our winters.
32
I think it is a fine thing if a female candidate performs a traditional homemaker function as part of her campaign. I think it was admirable that Golda Meir, when Prime Minister, herself served tea and cake to visiting diplomats like Kissinger.
Therefore, I think it would be a credit to Amy Klobuchar if she prepared her recipe herself and it was then served at her rallies (regardless who served it). Or, it would be a credit to her if she simply personally served anything herself regardless who made it.
But to me, it does not paint Klobuchar in a favorable light when others prepare the food and others serve the food, and then somehow Klobuchar seeks to be more highly regarded because one of the items was a recipe she used long ago for her family.
The whole appeal of the person occupying high position doing personal service for a guest is that the person is DOING PERSONAL SERVICE. Klobuchar is not doing any personal service for anyone when others prepare the food and others serve it. Pointing out that the work and service that others did used an old recipe that Klobuchar used is more accurately an expression of vanity.
6
@Errol Oh for pete's sake! Klobuchar has visited all 99 counties in Iowa, plus New Hampshire, plus debates, etc. It's not true that women (or anyone) can have it all, nor is it true that women can DO it all. She's got a campaign to run, but knows that sharing who she is and where she came from means something.
17
@Errol
You may not have noticed that she's been engaged in other business in DC. A long reach to Minnesota. She can't consider impeachment and cook. She would have been campaigning had Pelosi not stonewalled getting impeachment papers moved along rather than hamstringing Dem candidates.
5
@Errol I don't think you understand the concept of leadership and delegation.
5
What a great article. The Iowa elections have been cover from the top of the corn stalk to the deep soil roots. This reporter takes a different look and comes out with a wonderful tale of an election from our stomachs.
Who cares wether the dish passes the always politically correct test for healthy eating. I envision that my fellow NYC residents are both reading this wonderful article and counting carbs.
I wish Amy Klobchar success in Iowa. More Hot Dishes for America!
35
My mother worked as a home demonstration agent for USDA/Coop Extension in the 50's. Among other things, her job was to show farmer's wives how to prepare healthy meals — but my guess is that her actual role was to encourage farmer's wives to start using all the "time-saving conveniences" that U.S. food companies needed help marketing. That's why so many rural areas across the country have versions of recipes using processed ingredients like canned soup, jello, Cool Whip, and frozen vegetables. And also probably why obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are so entrenched in those communities. Down here in rural Alabama, if at least one dish of chicken and dumplings (made with cream of chicken soup) isn't on the table at the church homecoming, you're going to have a riot.
57
Her recipe seems more promising than her campaign for potus. Sorry, Amy.
7
Chiming in as expat in France, I’d have to walk many a long country mile in freezing weather before any dish of that nature would make my mouth water. Can of cream of mushroom and can of cream of chicken ?? How much more processed can food get?
86
@Corkpop Don't knock it until you've tried it. I grew up on many a good church potluck with those kinds of foods. To me, they re the taste of home and I love them. Yes, I have been to France and have eaten in Michelin starred restaurants. Home taste is still home taste.
59
@Corkpop
Just swallow a forkful of truffle this evening, feel even more superior.
17
@Corkpop
If you eat this, you will be able to walk that country mile in freezing weather.
16
ENOUGH with Iowa! The media is playing this to the hilt and, really, how a few hundred Iowa caucus members should for an instant reflect the average American voter is stupefying. We will forget Iowa exists about 2 seconds after the few votes are counted and when we’ve moved on to New Hampshire and South Carolina? “Iowa? Who? Which?”.
51
I think a lot of Americans would say “Enough with NYC,” that attention-hogging metropolis that represents about 2 1/2 percent of the US population. Let Iowa have its day in the sun.
11
@ManhattanWilliam The primary system is unbelievably stupid. A year before the Iowa primary even starts, candidates will throw vast amounts of resources into this state that ultimately doesn’t even matter in the general election, even if the popular vote was counted.
5
@ManhattanWilliam
Who could forget about the Iowa Writers' Workshop?
2
Thanks for giving me my solution for dinner tonight!
I remember a lot of these casserole type meals being served in the 1990’s, for some reason.
Perhaps food drenched in canned soup became passé or it’s not in any of the foodie recipe books or blogs.
Anyway, I miss some of it.
The article reminded me that I haven’t seen a really comforting casserole in a long time- and that’s a darn shame.
23
Wow. So many varying opinions about food and Amy's casserole in these posts---which kinda proves the point of this article---that food brings people together. I think some of you may have missed that....
17
@Mary
Food DOES bring people together and I love the idea of being around people who are not wearyingly uptight for one dinner, about transfats, gluten, sodium, calories, butter, "local sourcing" and so on.
I loved entertaining in my modest East Coast ultra-liberal area of the country. But I no longer do because the list of food restrictions from guests is always too exhausting.
And I'm a great cook.
One friend even said she would not consume salad with vegetables and fruits combined because it made the nutrients less effective. No wonder so many severe liberals are frequently viewed as uptight.
Klobuchar for President. Oh, that's right. She's too tough a boss and now her "casserole" is under fire.
37
@Mary
Ah yes...even diet is now weaponized.
Could this cholesterol casserole be the current culinary counterpart of John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry?
@Mary That junk is supposed to bring us together? I could bring more people together with a happy meal, Mary.
2
Hate to say it, but I want a President who can lead the country in times of crisis, not drag out a 1950’s era comfort recipe filled with canned soup, salt, and processed potatoes. Compte this to Michelle Obama’s push for healthier eating. Im from the Midwest. I’d love to have her as a neighbor, but this doesn’t inspire me.
62
@Rob Merrill
Women have to cook too, curious as that may seem to some men.
7
I agree totally. The recipe that uses 2 cans of cream of something soup is revolting. I gave up on all these recipes when I checked the sodium level on the labels of the ingredients. Also, thanks to the marketing, especially around Thanksgiving, the Campbell folks raised the price of cream of mushroom soup so high, just starting the famous green bean recipe started out at just under 2 bucks! I remember when a can of soup cost a quarter. No way will I pay a lot of $$$ for a dish loaded with fat and calories.
4
@Mary Thomas
She's inviting people to have a spoonful portion as a testament to Midwestern hospitality. Relax, then you can return to your celery and ice water.
24
Hamburger mixed with canned soup and topped with tater tots? Not much imagination or health value there. A lot of calories, I suppose.
23
@Clark Landrum
And a lot of salt, sugars, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and numerous other things that shouldn't go into my digestive tract.
What is the incidence of intestinal cancers in hot-dish country?
There is a price paid for convenience.
26
All that processed food is terrible. I don't know anyone who would make or eat that mess.
48
My partner makes a very similar dish. We live in PA. It tastes good and is filling.
13
I am a retired minister who served churches in Iowa. The can of soup and ingredients was a staple of the many potluck church suppers I attended.
The salt, fat and sugar was not good for anyone. But convenience was the watch word.
This taconite recipe is a reminder of how poorly many people eat.
83
@Art Seaman
Canned soups now come in low salt and fat versions and they cost no more than the regular ones.
2
I've promised to pray for Amy because she has won my heart. Then I found out some think she is not always as nice to her staff as she should be.
Part of that prayer was a petition that she would not be required to become president of the United States. If priors would be honest they might admit it is one of those things one should be careful about asking for.
I persisted in my love though, and I've been rewarded with another glimpse here of Amy's wonderfulness.
Once in love with Amy ...
3
@William
"Then I found out some think she is not always as nice to her staff as she should be." What the NYT did not do with that article is find out how other candidates are perceived as bosses.
10
@HotGumption Or they could have included scientific studies stipulating exactly how nice a boss is supposed to be in order to avoid claims from subordinates that they are unbearable or conversely doormats.
In our Midwest house, it was hot dish if it had meat in it and casserole (green bean casserole, never hot dish). And lasagna was always just called lasagna.
13
Thank you, Senator, for the recipe.
To those trying to ruin something fun, please take your negative comments elsewhere, say over to comment on Pompeo’s abuse of Mary Louise Kelly.
You want to make the recipe healthier? Throw in some green beans. Need it to be more ethnically diverse? Lots of choices there. Indeed, every culture has its own version of the hot dish/casserole/stew/call it what you like.
My childhood memories include community suppers, celebrating different cultures and diversity. Too bad we are now even polarizing food.
244
@JE I'm a proud Iowan who makes a mean classic tater tot casserole. i also make a "healthier" version that substitutes lentils for 3/4 of the ground beef, uses a homemade cream of celery soup based on almond milk. It's topped with homemade broccoli tots. Those obsessed with where their food comes will be happy to know that the cheese comes from a dairy 45 miles down the road and the ground beef comes from a friend's grass fed herd just outside of town. The broccoli, onions and other veggies come from my local farmers market. It's a healthier version but it still tastes like home.
13
@JE The article itself was polarizing about food. The whole premise of it and the dinners it describes is to force-feed a reverse snobbery to us, in highlighting the political importance of a dish that for many is too salty, too greasy, too gloopy, and at the same time too bland. I get that it serves the purpose of maximum caloric value in times of economic decline and diminished access to better nutrition. But elevating it to a symbol of folksiness that must be adhered to in campaigns really sticks in my craw.
11
@JE
Absolutely agree. Some pretty grim posters on this playful article.
23
As a life-long Nebraskan, I am familiar with “casserole”—made with egg noodles or some other type of pasta. I can’t say I’ve ever had tater tots be the starch of the dish.
11
I’ve always been curious about this tradition of using manufactured food in cooking. I’m sure it came out of 1950s advertising that promised women more convenience in the kitchen. I’m surprised that the concept still persists considering how much we have learned about healthy eating and the poor quality of processed foods. I grew up in MN and have eaten many a hot dish, but I’m still a little shocked when I go back and see people still cooking this way. Frankly, it would take an apocalypse for me to open a can of cream of mushroom soup today! Although I relate with Amy’s midwestern style and think she’s a good candidate, for me her hot dish represents a lack of political progressiveness.
91
I understand the remarks about processed foods. In my family we still love and eat casseroles, but have learned to roast the mushrooms, make homemade white sauce, purée, use fresh or frozen veggies lightly cooked and reduce the carb topping, still wonderful and convenient.
20
@RJ
The article doesn’t say it’s the only thing she cooks/eats. For a potluck it just seems convenient. I wouldn't eat it but I also thought I’d never include mac ‘n’ cheese for Thanksgiving until a family member originally from a southern state requested it. In fact, I would never have thought of serving it as part of any holiday meal. I grew up in NY with a Mom who cooked “real” food for dinner every night (and she worked) , my Dad didn’t eat casseroles.
I think you could say that adapting to different tastes and knowing your guests is politically progressive.
25
@Kim Of course I know that it's not the only thing she eats. And perhaps, I should have said, her hot dish recipe is reflective of her lack of progressive policies.
4
Hot dish was key to my childhood. My mom was a big fan of the pound of hamburger, elbow macaroni, can of tomato soup and cheddar cheese on top. For me, that is the classic hot dish. Easy, fast, filling and reheats beautifully. Tater Tot Hotdish was fancier, with the cream of mushroom soup and having to actually layer things. We didnt do tuna hotdish - being from North Dakota, seafood was kind of foreign, even from a can. There was also the one where you would mix cream of mushroom soup, another soup like onion or celery, with rice and bake chicken over it. That was a special one. Green bean casserole was for Thanksgiving. It is too a hot dish but Cambells named it a casserole but it is a hot dish.
Anyone dissing hot dish disses the culture I was brought up in. It is like dissing tacos or spaghetti. Hot dish is a solid food for working people. You can bring it with you and it feeds a lot of people. My grandma was a rancher’s wife and had a drawer of recipes cut off the back of boxes and cans and hot dishes made up a lot of them. This is the food of my people. Where I am from, Amy saying she makes hot dish is her creating a link to us, a link we all understand deeply.
Never call it a casserole.
190
@Carol
That one with rice, cream of mushroom plus one, and chicken on top was one I used for years. Kids eat it. Add a salad or some broccoli. Done.
The summer alternative to hot dish might be tuna macaroni salad: mac, canned tuna, shopped celery and onion, a few olives and mayo. Someone I know brought it to a picnic last year, and younger folk thought it was exotic.
These are all recipes that use little time, and cost little to make: things that get people through lean times. Stuff you can stock up on in case you run out of money at the end of the month. Not the usual NYT readers, but millions of others. I think that many people with low incomes would gain from learning a few of these tricks. Yes the soups are processed, but this isn't the same as cookies, potato chips and soda
21
@Carol Cream of chicken soup, Cream of mushroom soup and rice. Top with chicken. Sprinkle an envelop of Lipton's onion soup mix over the top and bake. You get a weeks worth of sodium in one shot, but it's still good in moderation.
5
Dishes like this exist for a reason: they’ve stood the test of time. Quibbling about them makes Putin smile. It’s distracting us from issues. Like debt, environment, DACA, income inequality, education.
76
@Dr. Dixie No Putin is wondering why we would eat such a thing.
16
@Dr. Dixie
Since when have the people in Iowa cared about anything other than farm subsidies and being first to vote?
2
@Dr. Dixie Sexism, racism, homophobia and all forms of bigotry have also stood the test of time. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work to eliminate them.
3
In 1966 we were assigned to a project in Illinois. Being from New England the flat farm land was something we had a tough adjustment to. But one thing that I'll always remember is a lunch at a local restuarant near the project.
Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans all smothered in gravy. Just yummy on a cold winter day.
Then there's Quebec with their Poutine, french fries, cheese curds, and gravy, also yummy.
And I wonder why my cholesterol is so high. Hmmm.
If Amy gets the nomination I'll definitely vote for her. Just imagine a state dinner at the White House with President Klobuchar.
34
I have friends who witness 6 to 8 Tom Steyer commercials a day here in Iowa. I have never tallied more than 4. So if Mr. Steyer’s campaign is listening could you please bump up the television exposure. I still am not convinced you’re right for the job, and I need your pitch drilled into my head until my eyeballs bleed.
28
Don't do it to the nation, Amy!
My family is from southern Minnesota and most of them ate like this. And most of them died of diabetes-related diseases.
We need people in leadership roles who inspire Americans to eat healthy dinners, not dump bubbling pans of processed foods. Michelle Obama where are you when we need you?
388
@avrds: You rather probably don’t have to budget SNAP benefits (a.k.a. food stamps). A small serving of this casserole (less cheese) with cabbage salad helps keep my two kids not hungry during homework time and warm until morning. As for me, I allow myself a few bites and plenty of cheap cabbage. I have no time to peel, wash, cook, and live according to Mrs. Obama’s dreams. At least we don’t go to McDonald’s, which is cheaper than this casserole. Trump is about slash food stamps again. What will we have to put up with next, Washington politicians?
small serving — food budgeting
less cheese — cheese is expensive
keep kids warm — furnace on 55° at night
201
@Eggs & Oatmeal
Try lentils. Cheap and nutritious.
43
Thanks for this post. I have a family member disabled in early twenties trying to live on ssi, I worked hard trying to figure out 2-3 meal plans that were affordable, not too hard and reasonably nutritious. Went to multiple stores including Aldis, I’m sad to say I could not make anything work. Even middle income people don’t realize how impossible it is to be poor in America
102
We eat pretty much the same things in Iowa as our neighbors do in Minnesota.
13
Pastored a church in Davenport, Iowa for 8 years including too many potlucks to count. Saw lots of ambrosia salad, mac & cheese, and green bean casserole, but never this dish (and never heard anything called "hot dish"). I guess it is truly regional.
18
Casserole? Here in New Zealand a casserole does not have a topping, and features chunks of meat (often beef), pieces of real potato, and vegetables such as carrot, onion, and celery. A dash of Worcestershire sauce and/or tomato paste might be added to stock or water. It is usually cooked in an oven dish or slow cooker.
A mashed potato topped dish with minced (ground) beef, and vegetables, cooked in a dish, is known here as Cottage Pie, or if sheep is used it is called Shepherd's Pie (many now use the pie names interchangeably).
Both are popular New Zealand winter comfort food. We may add our own quirky variations to them (such as red pepper).
Recipes for versions of New Zealand casserole and for both pies are available online.
29
In north MO we preferred tuna casserole topped with potato chips as the go- to potluck hot dish. As a cardiac rehab nurse I have since modernized the recipe.
36
@Robin Love this - I was born in Raytown MO and we had tuna casserole with canned peas, cream of mushroom soup, topped with crumbled tortilla chips!
11
Hi. Yes, these dishes sound like a health nightmare. None of these American 'casseroles' sound particularly healthy, and rely on processed products rather than actual natural food (e.g real potatoes, not 'tots' or chips). I can see how they are convenient for time or money stressed households, but as a day-to-day thing they're not healthy in the long term.
Here in New Zealand we have natural food based casseroles and 'pies'. You can use natural (low-salt processed) stock in them. In saying that, New Zealand now also has high rates of obesity, because of a switch to a more American-style diet of fast and processed food.
65
@Robin Growing up in the '50's, we ate tuna casserole made with canned mushroom soup, tuna (oil preserved of course) and potato chips. Very salty, totally yummy!
I'm inspired to serve it for dinner tonite. I'm certain that our arteries etc will survive our nostalgic trip into the past just one time. Tomorrow we can eat healthy.
6
Iowa has an ever-growing population, albeit still minority, of Latinx
people. “Hot dishes” are not culturally relevant to us so any smart pres. candidate will use more inclusive ways to draw voters.
Gathering around food is a good start, just needs more thinking through.
12
@Left Coast
I'm sure any dish, Latin-origin or other and its bearer would have been warmly welcome. The idea is to bring food, share, eat, talk, and mingle.
161
@Left Coast You're forgetting that Ilhan Omar made a Somali-inspired hotdish. Can't be too hard to make a hot dish of any culture.
123
Just the other day I made a different type of hot dish: one with lamb mince, chickpeas, onions, garlic, tomato, feta cheese and a Harissa spice theme with a puff pastry top. Be creative, use what you have on hand and try to harmonize flavors.
62
Hot dish? In my family, the baked mix of vegetables, onions, ground beef topped with deep-fried cylindrcial-shaped and crispy potatoes is called Quick Shepherd's Pie!
14
@Berkeley Bee Exactly. It's from merry old England. Shepherd's Pie is with lamb. Cottage Pie is with beef. Americans' adopted it and called it a casserole, then tweeked it by changing ingredients and re-naming it in accordance with their religion or where they lived. At any rate, a rose by any other name smells as sweet.
1
@Foodlover: I keep thinking of Moussaka when I see hotdish. The Greek version is made with eggplant, but in other regions potatoes are used instead. The world offers many variations of layered casseroles to feed a crowd.
1
What a great theme to use in a campaign. Hot dish (or casseroles) are indispensable for various social gatherings and a welcome care package to bring to someone or a family in need of support. I remember reading in the "The Lutheran Handbook: A Field Guide to Church Stuff, Everyday Stuff, and the Bible" a section titled "What to Bring to a Church Potluck (By Region)". In this section it gives descriptions of various "salads", casseroles (or hot three-layered dish) and desserts with regionally favored flavors and components and useful guidelines. It's a funny cultural overview. Hot dishes nourish bodies and souls and are an integral part of church fellowship and community culture. I haven't had a tater tot topped one yet but will give it try. Be creative and share!
35
As an Iowan, calling this classic casserole 'hot dish' is deeply insulting :)
It's best with cheddar cheese soup.
11
"Tater Tots" is a registered trademark by Ore-Ida. The fact that it is often (mis)used as a generic expression may be a compliment to the company that created it, but it's still a no-no.
https://www.oreida.com/product/00013120000829
13
Bandaids. Kleenex. Coke.
Quibbling gets us further behind.
8
@GreaterMetropolitanArea I'm going to xerox your comment and get some kleenex when I got shopping today for tater tots.
3
The last sentence of Ms. Klobuchar's recipe reads as follows:
"Cover with remaining cheese and back until cheese melts."
Taking this sentence literally, one would sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese on top and then lie supine on top of it until one's body heat melted the cheese--a gooey prospect and one that could hurt a lot if one then returned the dish to the oven, as is not stated.
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Oh wow, the best laugh of the day so far! Thanks for picking up that error!
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An article about hotdish in Iowa that makes no mention of cheesy potatoes, which is the definition of hotdish in Iowa, seems under-researched (ask someone from Omaha about the definition of runzas, not about what is called hotdish Iowa). I'm not sure if Iowans will take to this crazy Minnesota import.
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"“I think it’s like the whole Coke-soda-pop thing,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you call it. We all know what it is.”"
Right. It's POP.
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@CatPerson
Um, no. It's TONIC. (New England).
And don't get me started on people who call frappes "milkshakes". Or jimmies "sprinkles".
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@CatPerson Up here in my neck of the woods in Canada we avoid any such dispute by calling it "soda pop."
How Canadian, eh?
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@Cousy
Only in New England is a milkshake not a milkshake!
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I do not think that the Deep Midwest is known for haute cuisine. I would recommend to Ms. Klobuchar not to commingle her leftist radicalism with the art of gastronomy.
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How about someone combs through the recipe and fixes the typo and while they're at it adds some clarification about the medium in which the onion (or is it onions) should be sauteed with the garlic?
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You fry it with the hamburger. You have to sliver it enough so they cool at the same rate.
Funny Andrew Zimmerman has an old “family recipe” for hot dish, since he’s a New Yorker and hot dish is purely Minnesotan.
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@L Quin
Aw, I love Andrew Zimmern; I knew him in Mpls. in the late 1990s when he was executive chef of Café Un Deux Trois, and he'd already fully embraced the area like he was a true local. I'm curious about the origins of his family recipe, too. I think "hot dish" goes a little beyond MN, surely to WI, but certainly not to his hometown of NYC.
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@L Quin
Oh, sheesh; all we had to do was click on the link to his "family recipe" to find that it's actually from his wife Rishia Haas' family. Like Garrison Keillor, she's a native of Anoka, which you will know is a northern suburb of Minneapolis.
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@L Quin It's his former wife's.
When my parents moved to Texas at the end of the 80's, my mom informed me that hotdish — which is more dominated by macaroni than the recently invented (and unfrugal) tater tots in North Dakota — is called "cover dish" in the Lone Star State.
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My mom used to make casseroles and we kids complained about the tuna noodle version. One night, sick our complaints, she put blue food coloring in it.
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@Talbot
That blue color would appeal to young boys. I remember back almost 70 years ago going to a neighborhood store to get popsicles with girl cousins and grossing them out by getting blueberry.
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@Talbot ha! My Mom served us green mashed potatoes on St. Patrick's Day. Moms are the best.
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Hot dishes are perfect for potlucks and large families -- and they can expand to feed an extra guest or two at the last minute. It's no different than other candidates touting their jambalaya or cheese platters.
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@kate
WAAAAAY different from jambalaya. But then you probably don't do jambalaya in Massachusetts.
Would you call New England boiled dinner "hot dish"? Would you call clam bake "hot dish"?
"Hot dish" could be made using fresh, natural, unprocessed foods; but then it would have to be called something else.
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Why doesn't she call it "pander casserole". There are plenty of sensational cooks all over the midwest who cook from scratch who make wonderful things that the New York Times should be writing about.
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Amy's recipe calls for a "package" of Tater Tots. I recognize this is not rocket science. but, what size package?
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@EEFS depends on the size of the pan you are cooking the dish in.
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@EEFS
Not sure if this helps or not, but I've only seen one size of frozen tater tots in the freezer section.
You would want enough of them to cover the top lawyer of the casserole, whether the pan size is 9 x 12 or a 9-inch round casserole dish.
I would buy two bags and kept whatever is not used in the freezer for the next round of casserole heaven on a Sunday afternoon.
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@Marge Keller
Is your instruction to cover the top lawyer of the casserole a political comment of any kind?
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Yet one more reason for me to remain an expat in Italy. Must everything in my former homeland be over-big, over-cheesed, over-goopy, over-caloric, overpowering and just plain bad for you?
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@mrfreeze6
I dunno; I was an organic farmer near Seattle all through the 1980s, growing seasonal salad greens, edible flowers, gourmet baby vegetables, and culinary and medicinal herbs, and none of it had any of the "overs". My customers were the produce brokers in Seattle, who in turn distributed it to the fancy restaurants in the greater PNW region. I sold the medicinal herbs to herbalists. Side note: I used to sell the individual greens in separate bunches, until one day one of the produce brokers told me the chefs were asking for the greens to be all mixed together in a bag. Fine then; mixed greens it became.
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@mrfreeze6 Nope. Not in my house.
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@mrfreeze6 it would be nice if someone had entered a healthy AND delicious hot dish in the competition. As an avid cook, I tell people it's easy to make things tasty -- just add a lot of butter/ sugar/salt/ bacon, etc. -- it's harder to make it healthy and tasty.
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If you like this article you must read "Kitchens of the Great Midwest." about the Lutheran's cooking.....just wonderful. I don't eat meat anymore so I do miss "hot dish."
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@Calleendeoliveira Beyond Meat sells crumbles and frozen bricks of ground Beyond Beef protein that work beautifully in shepherd's pie.
I'm going to use it for a classic hot dish later this week.
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@Calleendeoliveira I loved that book, as well as Stradal's second book, "The Lager Queen of Minnesota."
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Believe it or not, as I read this I am lunching on Perfect Potluck Casserole. Basically, hamburger, tomato sauce, cheese, onions, noodles, corn -- and I threw in some black and green olives. Nothing went to waste growing up in my Iowa City family. We lived on casseroles and soups made from scratch. My dad always said his favorite meal was leftovers.
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News to me here in New York City. But if anything it shows, even more than geography, how this dish defines a part of our nation's cuisine.
And that is what makes America so truly great!
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@N. Smith
Casserole dishes are to the Midwest what fried chicken is to the South.
The very best fried chicken I ever had was at a tiny dinner outside of Atlanta. Dang, that owner could cook.
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@Marge Keller
Thanks for clearing that up.
But just for the record, it's still hard to define what the "Midwest" really is.
I have relatives in Ohio and never heard of a "Hot Dish" before reading this article -- but I have had (Northern) Southern Fried Chicken...does that count?
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@N. Smith
In my experience, hot dish is more of an Upper Midwest thing. When I lived in NY, I was always mystified when someone would make a blanket (often uncharitable) reference to "Midwesterners": were they talking about Chicago? Detroit? A random small town in Kansas or Missouri or Nebraska? It was also news to me to hear Ohio referred to as the Midwest; this Upper Midwesterner always thought it was an eastern state! It's funny how context influences perception, isn't it?
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I am a transplanted Chicagoan. We never had these dishes until we moved to Iowa. Don't forget the noodles and chicken served over a mound of mashed potatoes....
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@Pam P
Ooh, that reminds me of Chicken a la King! Creamed chicken (with pimientos, for some reason), served over that mound of mashed potatoes.
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@Pam P
Also from Chi-town and tuna casserole and curried chicken (creamed chicken with curry powder from a bottle, like other spices -- a long way from authentic curries) over rice staples.
And chipped beef on toast, also in some kind of cream sauce another go to for my working mom in the 60s as well as sloppy joes.
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@White Buffalo My dad was a soldier. I don’t think they will print the full name, so I will tell you that chipped beef on toast in Army parlance was “stuff on a raft” (a much more vulgar word than stuff). With that moniker, I have never tried it!
3
I thought taconite was just another term for iron ore. It is, kinda, sorta, not-quite; Wikipedia will 'splain you. That's why the writer chose this particular description.
Most of us learned the term "hotdish" from Prairie Home Companion.
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@Leading Edge Boomer
Yes, low-grade iron ore, a reference to the mighty Iron Range of northeastern Minnesota, conveniently located near the shipping corridors of Lake Superior. That's Bob Dylan's North Country!
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@Leading Edge Boomer
Most of us learned the term "hotdish" from Prairie Home Companion.
Yes!
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@PBS
Having grown up in Minneapolis (Mr. Keillor hails from a northern suburb), I've always wondered why it had "Prairie" in the title. Most of Minnesota is in the same forest that blankets New England. How I miss those fall colors!
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