Potato Casserole

I'm not entirely certain why I keep turning on the oven as the weather heats up. I'll just blame it on the fact that we've got too much ground beef sitting around.

Anyway. I was actually hoping for something similar to what my cousin brings to almost every family xmas dinner, but this substantially different, mostly because I needed a main dish, and not a side. It's like a shepherd's pie, but with layers of scalloped potatoes, kinda.


Ingredients:
2 cups ground beef
0.5 tsp ginger paste
0.5 lbs mushrooms, sliced
1 red pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
3 large potatoes, thinly sliced
4 cups shredded cheese
250 mL cream, mixed with 125 mL milk
seasonings


Method:
Brown beef with ginger. Drain away the fat.
Add mushrooms and lightly sautee.
Turn off heat and mix in onions and pepper.
Season as you wish. (We used garlic powder, pepper, oregano, basil, paprika)

Preheat oven to 425F.
Assemble the casserole. If you have a large casserole dish, great. We had a round 3L and a deep square 2L, I think.
Layer like so: potatoes, meat mix, sprinke some cheese, potatoe, meat mix, cheese. Use your judgement for how thick the layers should be. Leave room so the liquid doesn't boil over.
Pour in the cream/milk.
Cover and bake for 35 minutes.
Reduce heat to 400F, uncover, and bake for another 30 minutes, until top is brown.
Let stand 10 minutes before serving.


Comments:
The red pepper made this tex-mexy. I felt like I needed salsa.

The original recipe called for mixing the seasonings with the cream and then pouring it on. I found this caused uneven distribution of taste.

Some potatoes were still semi-crunchy, but letting stand took care of it.

The v-slicer rocks! We used it for all except the mushrooms.


Verdict:
Good, but not really a stand-alone dish.