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This old fashioned potato side dish has been a favorite in my family for many, many years. My grandmother made it for her family and my mother made it for us. My own children also enjoyed it.
Of course like any of these dishes, each generation adds something into the mix. I strongly suspect in my grandmother's day it was just the corn, milk, potatoes, onions and seasoning.
Mom always added a bit of summer savory to the mix. I no longer do that myself, but I do like to add some cheese to the layers.
Basically it is just creamed corn, sliced potato, and sliced onion layered in a baking dish with some flour and cheese, as well as seasoning between the layers.
A bit of milk is poured over top and then the whole lot is baked in the oven until the potatoes are tender. I also like to add a layer of buttered cracker crumbs on top.
I am a person who likes a bit of crunch on things like this. You can't beat buttered cracker crumbs, although I have also been known to use bread crumbs as well when I didn't have any crackers.
I love that crunchy buttery topping and my family did as well. When this was on the menu, my children were very happy campers!
I loved it because I could make the dish as large or as small as I needed it to be, depending on how many mouths there were sitting around the table. Its very easy to amp up or amp down. A lot of these old recipes are!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE CORN AND POTATO SCALLOP
Simple store cupboard ingredients. I love recipes like this. Simple ingredients put together in a most delicious way!
- potatoes
- onions
- grated cheese
- whole milk
- salt and black pepper
- creamed corn
- all purpose flour
- buttered cracker crumbs
Unlike regular scalloped potatoes, there is no need to make a cream sauce on top of the stove. This simple recipe leaves that step out.
Instead the creamed corn, milk, cheese and flour work together in this tasty dish to make a creamy sauce.
HOW TO PREPARE THE VEGETABLES FOR CORN AND POTATO SCALLOP
Generally speaking one large potato and a small onion will be all you need for every two to three people. I like to use a russet type of potato. I do peel both the potato and the onion.
Once you have your potato peeled, cut it in half lengthwise and then cut each half crosswise into thin slices, each resembling a half moon.
The onion is treated the same way. Peel, cut in half lengthwise and then cut in half crosswise into half moons.
HOW TO MAKE CORN AND POTATO SCALLOP
Once you have your vegetables all prepped it is as simple as just layering things up in your casserole dish. Its not difficult at all.
The size of the casserole dish you use will depend on how many people you are feeding and how many potatoes you are using. Today I was making a small-batch which would feed only two to three people.
I used a 2-cup (1-pint) round Pyrex casserole dish which has a lid. Butter the dish really well. (This makes clean up a lot easier.)
I start by spreading about 1/4 of the can of creamed corn in the bottom of the dish. Onto that I put a layer of potatoes. I tend to do this in concentric circles, beginning at the outer edge.
Next I add a layer of onion. I always separate the half moons of sliced onion into separate bits. I just scatter some of these over top, and then dollop on another 1/4 of the can of creamed corn.
I season with some salt and pepper and sprinkle on a bit of flour and some grated cheese. Not a lot of any one thing, but just enough so that you know it is there. If you don't want to use cheese, you can dot with butter.
The cheese/butter works with the flour and cream corn to make a sauce when it bakes. I just keep repeating the layers until everything is used up, ending with some cheese on top if I can. Over that I scatter the buttered cracker crumbs.
It works out to 4 layers of creamed corn and three of everything else, if that makes sense. Once you have everything layered in you add some milk.
How much milk you need depends on how much you have in the dish and the size of your dish. I use the tip of a knife to move things around a bit so that the milk can get right down to the bottom of the dish.
You do not want anymore than 1/3 of the casserole dish filled with milk, unless you want a mess at the end. (Milk doubles in volume when heated!) Cover tightly and bake until the potatoes are tender and everything is bubbling away.
You can remove the cover for the last five to ten minutes of baking so that the cracker crumbs get all nicely browned and crispy. That's it!
This is such a simple homey dish. It wouldn't win any beauty contests, but I can tell you it would probably come first place in a taste contest because it is extremely delicious.
I can't think of anything that wouldn't go with this. Yesterday I had it with some roast ham, but it is just as good with chicken, or pork, lamb, fish, etc. Its just plain good eating no matter what!
I really hope you will make it! I used the smaller can of cream corn yesterday. When I make it for a larger group I use a large can, maybe even more depending.
I don't personally think there is such a thing as too much cream corn, but then again, I have been known to eat it with a spoon, cold and fresh out of the tin. 😆 Yes, I am that person!
Corn and Potato Scallop
Yield: 2 - 3
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 45 MinTotal time: 1 Hour
This old fashioned side dish is an old family favorite. You can multiply it very easily to serve more people if you wish. Its delicious, easy to make and goes with just about any protein you can think of!
Ingredients
- 1 large potato, peeled
- 1 small onion, peeled
- 1 can of creamed corn (you may not need it all)
- 2 TBS flour to sprinkle
- salt and black pepper
- grated cheddar cheese to sprinkle (about 4 TBS)
- a handful of buttered cracker crumbs
- milk as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a small (2 cup/1 pint) deep glass baking dish.
- Cut the potato in half lengthwise and then cut into thin half-moons cross-wise. Do the same with the onion.
- Place 1/4 of the creamed corn in the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with 1/4 of the potatoes and the onions. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with 1/2 TBS flour and 1 TBS of the cheese. Repeat 3 times until you have all layered in the dish.
- Pour the milk over top, using the tip of a knife to move things around a tiny bit in order to allow it to get down to the bottom. Do not fill more than 1/3 of the baking dish with milk. Scatter the buttered cracker crumbs on top and then cover tightly with a lid.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until the potatoes are soft and everything is bubbling. Uncover and allow to brown for about 10 minutes.
- Remove and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Notes:
You may want to place the casserole dish on a baking tray just in case it bubbles over in the oven. Also, I sometimes start this in the microwave to help it cook quicker. About 6 minutes on high, and then pop into the oven as above. It should be done in 35 minutes or so.
Chimichurri Sauce may not be a sauce you are familiar with. Its a lovely lush and spicy sauce which hails from Argentina.
Its deliciously created from fresh herbs, vinegar, seasonings, red pepper flakes and plenty of garlic, and there is not much it doesn't go with!
Today I created Chimichurri chicken breast, but it goes with all sorts of grilled meats. Steak is a real favorite with me as well!
I adapted this recipe from one found in the cookbook entitled Seriously Simple, by Diane Rossen Worthington. Its a great book filled with lovely seriously simple recipes. I really enjoy my copy.
Most require nothing more than simple ingredients, cooking methods and cooking equipment. Simple flavors and foods done really well in a very simple way.
It doesn't get much better than that in my opinion!
Of course the star of this is the chimichurri recipe. Such a simple sauce, but the flavors are just wowza! I am sure once you have made it and tasted it, you will be able to think of all sorts of applications for it.
It is not only great as a sauce, but makes an excellent marinade as this recipe today expertly illustrates!
You do need to be fond of garlic however and a little bit of sauce goes a very long way as it is rather spicy. Because the garlic isn't cooked it has a bit of a bite! But trust me when I say it totally works just as is!
Diane says that the sauce got its name from the legend that British laborers working in Argentina saw bowls of this sauce and would say, "Give me curry," which over the years evolved into (as things do) "Chimichurri!" Makes sense to me!
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE CHIMICHURRI SAUCE
First of all, the most important ingredient here is the food processor. You could use a mortar and pestle as well if you have one, but you can't beat a food processor for its ease of preparation!
- garlic cloves, peeled
- flat leaf parsley
- olive oil
- white wine vinegar
- water or chicken broth
- dried oregano
- dried parsley
- salt and pepper
- red pepper flakes (crushed chilies)
HOW TO MAKE CHIMICHURRI SAUCE
Nothing could be easier, especially with a food processor.
You will need to puree the garlic first. Simply peel it and pop it into the food processor. You then pulse it until it is very fine or as fine as you can get it. You then add the parsley leaves and pulse until they are finely chopped.
The original recipe called for a whole bunch of flat leaf parsley, just the leaves. I used approximately 1/2 a bunch, and yes, stripped the leaves from the stems. It doesn't really take that long.
Once you have the garlic and parsley minced, it is a simple matter of whisking in the remaining ingredients. You can also give them a quick whisk in by pulsing them in a few times in the food processor.
That's it your marinade and sauce is done! Do taste it to make sure you have enough seasoning.
HOW TO CUT UP A WHOLE CHICKEN
Cutting up your own chicken is a lot cheaper than buying store cut chicken and its really easy to do if you have a sharp boning knife and a set of kitchen scissors.
1. Lay the bird on its back. Wiggle a wing to determine where the joint attaches to the breast. To separate the wing from the breast, use a sharp knife to cut through the ball joint where it meets the breast. Repeat with the other wing.
2.Pull a leg away from the body to see where it attaches. To remove the whole leg, first cut through the skin between the thigh and the breast.
3. Continue to pull on the leg and wiggle it a bit to determine where the thigh meets the socket in the back. Use a boning knife or paring knife to cut through that joint. Repeat with the other leg.
4. Place each leg skin-side down. With your hand and knife, bend the leg to feel for the ball joint. That's where the drumstick and thigh are connected. Then, look for the thin line of fat that runs along the ball joint. Cut through the line of fat to separate the thigh and drumstick. Wiggle the joint as needed so it's easy to cut. Repeat with the other leg. I often just keep the thigh and drumstick together as a chicken quarter joint. Its up to you.
5. To remove the backbone, start at the head end of the bird and cut through the rib cage on one side of the backbone with kitchen shears or a sharp knife. Repeat on the other side of the backbone to remove it completely. (I like to reserve the backbone and neck for chicken stock.)
6.Now cut the breast into two halves. Place the breast skin-side down. To protect your hand, fold a kitchen towel and place it on top of a heavy, sharp knife. Use your weight to cut through the breast bone and cartilage down the center of the breast.
7. Now that you have two breast halves, if you think they are overly large, you can cut each breast half in half again, crosswise. The wishbone is located at the thick part of the breast. If you want, you can tease the meat away from the two pieces of wishbone using your hands and/or a sharp knife to scrape the meat from the bone.
The first time you cut up your own chicken it can be a bit intimidating, but once you have done it you will see how easy it is and each time you do it, it becomes that much easier.
It just makes sense to cut up your own when chicken is so expensive to buy already cut up. Why not line your own pockets with the cash rather than the grocery shop's!
I marinated and grilled skin on chicken breasts for this and I did push a bit of the marinade in between the skin and the breast as well when I was marinating them. This really got the flavors right in there.
You can use the chimichurri sauce on any cut of chicken however, so don't limit yourself. If you prefer thighs, then use them! I would do them boneless as well. I do like to keep the skin on when grilling as it helps to keep the chicken from drying out too much.
In any case I hope you will try this simple and delicious recipe. I would serve these with some lovely boiled and crushed potatoes and a vegetable on the side, or even rice. Something that will absorb all of those tasty juices! 😋
Grilled Chicken Breasts with Chimichurri Sauce
Yield: 2
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 20 Mininactive time: 30 MinTotal time: 1 Hour
A wonderfully herby garlic sauce serves as both marinade and condiment to these delicious grilled chicken breasts. Amounts are for two, but can be doubled or tripled. You will need a food processor to make the sauce.
Ingredients
For the sauce and marinade:
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled
- a large handful of flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
- 1/3 cup (80ml) olive oil
- 2 TBS white wine vinegar
- 2 TBS water or chicken broth
- 1/3 tsp dried oregano
- 1/3 tsp dried basil
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- salt and black pepper to taste
For the chicken:
- Two skin on boneless chicken breasts
- 1 1/2 TBS of the chimichurri sauce
- 1 TBS olive oil
Instructions
- First make the chimichurri sauce. You will need a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the garlic cloves and puree. Add the parsley and chop finely. Add the oil, vinegar, water or broth and seasonings. Process to blend. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. It will be garlicky and spicy.
- Combine 1 1/2 TBS of the sauce with the olive oil in a bowl. Add the chicken breast to the bowl, turning to coat them. Marinate for half an hour at room temperature. (Alternately they can marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours.)
- Preheat an outdoor grill, a grill pan, or an electric grill for medium heat grilling.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and place onto the grill, presentation side down (skin side). Grill for 7 to 10 minutes. Flip over and grill for a further 7 to 10 minutes, until the chicken juices run clear. Timings depend on the size and thickness of your chicken breasts.
- Serve the breasts hot with the sauce on the side, ready for drizzling over them.
Notes:
This very versatile sauce goes with grilled steaks, lamb, pork or fish. It will keep for a few days, covered, in the refrigerator, but the parsley will not be as brightly coloured.
I am in the process of testing side dishes for the up and coming holidays and this week I really wanted to try this recipe I found in a book by Diana Henry. The name of the book is Pure Simple Cooking.
It is filled to overflowing with an abundance of simple recipes which require very few ingredients and not a lot of effort. When you are talking holiday meals, any recipe which meets those requirements is a plus for me!
I adore onions. They are quite simply one of my favorite vegetables and they go really well with roasts of any kind! Turkey, beef, chicken, lamb, pork, even ham.
These delectable onions would be a perfect side dish with any one of those meats. And when I say delectable, I mean delectable. These onions simply melt in the mouth.
Are you the person who always wants to pig out on that onion which has roasted in the middle of your roast chicken? (and who isn't!) If so, then this recipe is built just for you!
I don't know why I am always amazed when such simple ingredients and techniques come out crazy delicious. I shouldn't be. We all know its the simple things in life which bring us the most pleasure after all!
Caramelized onions are one of my favorite things to eat, but they are rather time consuming and you do have to keep a close watch on them. Worth the effort, but still . . .
When you are cooking a roast dinner you have plenty of other things to do, without having to babysit a skillet of onions! With a tiny bit of prep, these quite simply cook themselves! Easy peasy!
As you all know by now, I am a no fuss no muss kind of a girl. You can call it lazy if you want to, but the truth is I like recipes that can get me in and out of the kitchen with little or no effort.
Yes, they have to taste delicious, but recipes that cook themselves? Sign me up!
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE MELTING ONIONS
Very simple ingredients are needed to make these onions and you only need four ingredients.
- medium sized brown onions, skins on
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- salted butter
HOW DO YOU MAKE MELTING ONIONS
Nothing could be easier to make. With just a tiny bit of prep, these can be in the oven and roasting in no time at all.
First of all you will need six medium sized brown onions. By brown onion I mean onions with brown skins. You need to do a bit of prep on them, but not a lot.
Wash them really well and dry them and then trim all those hairy bits from the root end. You can just cut them off as close to the root as possible. You want essentially to make sure that the root end stays intact.
Although it is not essential you will also want to trim a bit from the stem end of the onion. I like to cut a thin slice from the top, discarding it.
You then need to make a deep cross cut down the height of the onion towards the root end, only going down 3/4 of the way.
Make sure you don't cut them all the way through the bottom. You want them to stay together.
You then rub them all over with some extra virgin olive oil. This is when you want an oil with some flavor, so extra virgin olive oil is perfect. You will also be seasoning them with some salt and pepper.
I like to use fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Once you have rubbed and seasoned them you need to pop them into a roasting dish that is small enough to hold them all snugly in a single layer.
This helps to keep them intact during the long roasting time. I used a 6 inch cake tin because I was only roasting 3 onions today for testing purposes.
They are then covered tightly with some more foil and popped into a moderately hot oven. (375*F/190*C) Initially they need to roast for a fairly long period of time. 70 minutes.
But essentially, they are cooking themselves. You can just walk away and get on with whatever else you need to be doing.
At the end of the that time you remove from the oven and add some butter. Just plain salted butter.
I cut it into slivers and inserted it into the cuts of the onions so that the flavor gets right in there.
Back into the oven they go for another 25 minutes, until that butter gets all nut brown and golden and the onions get to the point where they really do melt in the mouth.
You will need to baste them a couple of times with the melted butter. Not a problem. The end result is something that brings pure and simple taste satisfaction.
You can also turn these delectable little morsels . . . cheesy melted onions . . . by adding some grated strong cheddar cheese and popping them back into the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt.
Cheese and onion are perfect partners and this makes for a fabulous finish for what is essentially one of the simplest and most delicious sides dishes you could ever put together. I highly recommend!
PS - Do caution your guests to peel off the skins prior to eating. The onions slip out of them very easily. This tiny bit of hassle is well worth it. Trust me on this.
Melting Onions
Yield: 6 as a side dish (can easily be halved)
Prep time: 8 MinCook time: 1 H & 32 MTotal time: 1 H & 40 M
These will be the star of the show! These delicious onions melt in your mouth.
Ingredients
- 6 medium onions, skins left on
- 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup (60g) salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/gas mark 5. Have ready a baking dish that you can fit all the onions in upright, snugly.
- Carefully trim the bizarre bits from the root end of the onion, leaving the root and skins intact. Trim a sliver from the other end as well. Make a cross cut into each onion 3/4 of the way down the height of the onion, taking care not to cut all the way to the bottom.
- Rub the onions all over with the oil, season with salt and pepper and then fit snugly into a small ovenproof dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Roast for 70 minutes. Uncover. Divide the butter amongst the onions, sliding it down into the centers. Bake for a further 25 minutes, basting them with the melted butter a few times. Serve at once.
Notes:
You can turn these into melting onions with cheese by adding some grated or cut strong cheddar (about 6 ounces) and stuffing it into the centers of each onion when done. Return to the oven just until the cheese has melted. Delicious!
You can also add herbs to these. Fresh thyme leaves are especially nice.
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