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The Ultimate Recession Food
Sweet Potato Not Pie
I joke that this dish is the savory answer to my dad's candied sweet potatoes, made with sweet potatoes from a can, marshmallows, and brown sugar. And it works as well for Christmastime as it does for Thanksgiving. While this has a similar color scheme as traditional yams, it's made entirely out of fresh ingredients and will show up candied sweet potatoes at any table in any part of the country. Also, it's gluten free.
Serves 5-6 as a side dish
Ingredients
5-6 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large white onion, chopped
6-8 oz. fresh goat cheese
1 green habañero or jalapeño pepper (depending on how much spice you like), chopped approximately 1/3 cup of olive oil (you may not use it all)
Salt to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Cover the bottom of a 2-qt. casserole dish with a layer of sweet potatoes. Add a layer of onions, peppers, and crumbled goat cheese. Drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Repeat layers until you reach the top of your dish (try to finish with sweet potatoes and just a drizzle of olive oil), saving at least 1 oz. of goat cheese for the end.
Cover and bake at 400º for an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half or until a fork goes through the entire dish easily. Remove from the oven and cover with the remainder of goat cheese. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 10-15 minutes.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Why America Must Learn to Bow
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
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In the UK people are turning more to haggis as times get tight http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/in troducing-the-national-dish-of-sassenachs-1055689.html not much of an idea for vegetarians out there though
I find it so weird that people are anti-casserole.They are really good! Isn't the idea partly that they are cheap? I find these articles I have been seeing lately where people are saying casseroles are back and then giving us recipes that have ingredients that cost $20 or more kind of silly. I can make a good casserole for under $10. If I am needing to spend more than that, I might as well make something else!
Also, what's up with the boyfriend being embarrassed she brought a casserole? Get a life!
Like Midwesterners (to whom so many of us relate), we Brits have never given up on casseroles. And even after 27 years in the US, as a poorly paid freelance writer, I still make them weekly: cauliflower or broccoli cheese, shepherd's pie, ground buffalo chili, you name it, using cheap but natural/organic ingredients. The best inexpensive, hot, and lasting one-dish meals in the world. Why would anyone even think of querying such logical food choices, especially in this economy? Great little piece, Emily. Daily Beast should do more of these shoestring budget pieces as a column.
Yum, love cheap food! There is something really comforting about it.
a $20 casserole? Seriously? I love one pot food with an unholy enthusiasm, always have, but with 20 bucks I could also do 4 classy courses for a family of 6. Show me a 5 dollar casserole that feeds 8, tastes good and still has leftovers and I'll be impressed.
THERE IS NO TILDE IN HABANERO!
And, they are sold in the orange-red state, not green, in the super mercado.
a 5 dollar casserole that feeds 8? Dunno what the grocery prices are like where braindouche lives but unless you're shopping at the dollar store and are prepared to have a mushy all-canned-items flavorless casserole, food costs more than that.
Anyhow I loved this column. The last recipe looks freaking amazing and I'm ready to try that sweet potato recipe. And I suppose I'll make the tuna one for my midwestern-descended bf.
You go girl! In an effort to reduce my grocery bill last week, I took to cleaning out my fridge with my roommate out of town. I came up with some interesting combinations such as bacon, pickled pepper, aging mushroom pasta. It rocks. Now, to find something to do with the organic filet mignon I found in the freezer. But it's nearly four years old. Perfectly preserved but still. Can't chance a visit to the emergency room. God knows how I'd pay for it.
On a cold, windy winter night, there are few dishes so satisfying as an Alsatian potato and bacon casserole. Just thinking about this, I wish it were cold and windy right now.
"I was barely out of the bassinet when the country last experienced a recession."
That would make you...six years old?
Let's hear it for casseroles! Now, if I can just get a finicky teenager to eat 'em!
yucky!
casseroles aren't popular because they are disgusting. I don't care if you use organic Gorgonzola and fresh organic arugula it's still a weird dish of mush. Plus there are a lot of us who were raised on enchiladas, posle, and tamales... talk about cheap and delicious!
maybe the cookware, cooking show, and cookbook industry makes more money on multipart, multiplate, multipot, multitrend food.
Adrien - I hope you didn't ditch the frozen organic filet mignon. Thaw it, smell it. If it smells fine it is fine. If it was wrapped well it is just fine. Make a beef strogonoff with it.
Aloha,
Ellie
Thank you.
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