Sunday, March 9, 2014

Sausage and Potato Casserole, courtesy of Julia Child and Pat Kennedy



 LUCY BURDETTE: Didn't it make your mouth water the other day when our friend Pat Kennedy talked about sausage and potato casserole? This week she not only agreed to make it for this blog, she invited us to share it! So here she is again...thanks Pat!

PAT KENNEDY: This recipe is from the The French Chef Cookbook by Julia Child -- a compendium of the recipes she demonstrated on her first PBS television show.  I always say that I learned to cook watching her because I made at least one thing from the show every week.  This is not a low-calorie dinner, more of a comfort food dish. But as Julia said, “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.”



3 cups sliced, previously boiled potatoes

(about 1 pound -- use a waxy potato such as a red-skinned potato NOT baking potatoes.  You can also buy the peeled and pre-sliced potatoes frozen.  But cook those potatoes until they are just fork tender. )

1 cup minced onions, slightly cooked in butter

1/2 pound of Polish Sausage (Kielbasa)  (more for the side dish)

(I always heat more sausage and serve it alongside the potato casserole.)

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups light cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

¼ cup Swiss cheese

(You can also use Emmenthaler or even Cheddar – you want a cheese with flavor)

1 tablespoon butter



METHOD

1.       Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2.       Lightly grease (PAM spray) a 10” pie plate

3.       Arrange layers of potatoes, onion, and sausage in the pie plate

4.       Blend eggs, cream, salt and pepper in bowl; pour over potatoes/onions/sausage in the pie plate

5.       Sprinkle top with cheese

6.       Bake in upper third of preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until top has nicely browned


I like to serve this dish with a deeply-green vegetable such as broccoli or Swiss chard.  

Mmmmmm, it was delish!

10 comments:

  1. This sounds [and looks] delicious . . . thanks for sharing the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perfect recipe for our house: The wife got rope a doped into buying 10 pounds of sausage, currently taking up 1/3 or our freezer space.

    Thank you, Pat.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I sent the link to my kids, it started a rapid-fire exchange of "remember whens" from their childhoods. Michael insists that I tried to claim this dish as my own invention and didn't fess up that it was Julia Child's until Lisa, his wife discovered it in an early JC cookbook. This is not true as I always credited Julia. Clarissa says that when she was an Amigo volunteer in Oxaca, Mexico in 1984 "I dreamed of Mom's sausage and potato casserole after yet another dish of rice and beans." Anyway, this is a homey, comfort food dish. Makes good left overs too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yum! Thanks for this, Pat! It's perfect for the weather we've been having.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pat, at the risk of being accused of blasphemy, I am wondering if I could fix just the potatoes, without the sausage. I'm always looking for new potato recipes, and this sounds as if it would be great as just that. However, I'm not a big sausage eater, not that I don't occasionally partake of it. Of course, I'm sure if I ate this recipe as you have fixed it, I would become a sausage convert. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yum, Pat, that sounds delish and so comforting! I splurge every so often on a Pederson's Natural Kielbasa (usually for a soup I make with sausage, white beans, spinach, and orzo) but next time I'll try the potato casserole.

    Right now I'm dreaming of salads and things cooked on the grill!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm not a sausage person either...but I will confess it HAS happened that I'll say--this is so yummy! And the chef will say: "sausage.". I guess it's that I can't know in advance. But theoretically this sounds fabulous--Pat is the BEST cook!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That sounds yummy, I'd have to sub with Turkey sausage

    Thanks for sharing !!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Um, why did I go back to being vegetarian this past week? D'oh!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Friends, yes you can make this with turkey Kielbasa, which is what I use anyway. Yes, you can make it without sausage but it won't be as tasty. Yes, you can even make it without onions but I don't recommend that even thought I always make it without onions because my husband insists.

    ReplyDelete