The thing you notice about living in Europe is, (if you come from a place like Singapore where global influence pretty much pervades culture, language, food and entertainment) is how hard they try to keep themselves apart. Different. Even though they share the same border, language, air and water. I'll give you an example how (there are of course numerous but I like to talk about food so here goes).
We like to go to France sometimes for dinner at this restaurant called Au Vieux Moulin, just because, hey we get to eat French food in France after a 30 minute drive to a town called Lauterbourg. It is right at the border, except that there is literally no border. You just notice after a while that there are more cars with yellow French plates instead of white German ones and the roofs on the houses are tilted at a slightly different angle and there are more people who speak French-accented German unwillingly and voila! You are in France. And then you notice the butchers are no longer Metzgerei but Boucherie and the bakeries are no longer Baeckerei but Boulangerie/Patisserie with cute little chairs and tables with checkered tableclothes selling dainty things that call out to you. And then you buy a croissant and they taste like the real thing. And you eat what the Germans call Flammkuchen (known as Tart Flambee in France) and it tastes, better. But what I don't get is, you go to the German cafe 5 minutes away in the bordering German town and you order the exact same thing and somehow, it is no longer French. But it's the same ingredients, the same air, the same water. And yet somehow, they have been able to make it quintessentially so different that you know you are no longer in Kansas, Toto (if you don't know this quip, you have to watch Wizard of Oz ok? Promise me).
Anyway being the Singaporean I am, and since I am living the fusion life, of course I live, breath and eat multiculturalism, even if it is just in my kitchen. All this "mine is better yours" and "we are so different because we are better" is kinda lost on me. Or I am attempting to shake off this attitude. At the very least, my children will get the best of many worlds, cultures, languages and food. And at the very most, why I am promoting world peace of course. And yes, it starts in my humble kitchen.
Which is why I have married these 2 versions of the popular meat-and-potatoes dish as a political statement to promote cultural understanding and to show that we are all actually very similar. Or it could be that I was searching for the most delicious and least time-consuming way of feeding my family meat and potatoes. Either way, the outcome is pretty tasty and now y'all know how I feel. Peace, out. And enjoy the cassoulet/Auflauf/casserole.
Meat-and-Potatoes Casserole (or you can call it Cottage Pie on-the-fly Andriana Style but some people might object to me rapping)
For the Mashed Potato layer
4-5 large potatoes
4 tablespoons of butter
Sprinkling of salt, black pepper and garlic powder
1/2 cup milk (more or less)
The slow and full-of-loving French-like way :
Bake the potatoes until soft. Then cut into halves, scoop the filling out and mix it together with the rest of the ingredients. Set aside.
The good thing about this method is that you can bake the potatoes the night before, if you are planning to make it on that day. If you are the sort of person to plan meals, that is (just because it takes about 1 hour to bake the potatoes)
The quick and dependable English-like way :
Peel the potatoes and cut them into somewhat even-sized cubes. Boil in salted water. Drain and mash together with the rest of the ingredients. Set aside and try not to finish eating it all up before the pie is done. Takes about half hour from start to finish.
The minced meat layer (actually I am just nipping the sauce from my Easy Peasy Fusilli recipe with a few additions)
- 500g minced meat
- A can of tomatoes in tomato juice
- Half a can of water, swirled around to get all the tomatoes out
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic powder (or 1 minced garlic)
- A tablespoon of balsamic vinegar,
- A teaspoon of sugar (to cut the acidity)
- French or Italian dried herb seasoning
- 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
- Carrots, peas or whatever vegetables you wanna add, chopped
For topping
Parmesan cheese shavings
1 beaten egg for egg-wash.
The Assembly.
Now just place the minced meat sauce into a casserole dish and add the mashed potatoes on top. Then pour the egg on top of the potato layer and, using a fork, spread the egg around, making fork marks and little mounds or hills to encourage the top to crisp and brown. Finish off with a layer of parmensan. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes or until you think the top layer is brown enough. Serve with a nice green salad and lots of love and laughter. :-)
(Like most things in life, appearances do not matter much. But you get the idea of how your casserole might turn out).
