As you know we had the Missionary Elders here for their supper the other night.  That's when I made that gorgeous Profiterole Cake.  

Today I am going to show you what they had for their main course.   A delicious Hamburger and Potato Casserole!  They both had seconds! 

There are not a lot of ground beef and potato recipes out there when you take Cottage Pie out of the mix. This ground beef and potato casserole is amazingly delicious, I kid you not!

I always figure they get enough roast dinners and so when they come to us I always try to cook them a meal similar to one they might get at home from their mums.  

Family type of food.  Home cooking at it's best.

This went down a real treat.  It's simply potatoes, browned ground beef and cheese layered together with a simple sauce made  using tinned condensed soup, sour cream and regular cream.  

 I know it's a bit of a cheat using tinned soup, but I'm not a tinned soup snob.  It has it's uses.

There are not too many tinned soups (except maybe tomato) that I would eat as soup, but they do make great sauces for Casseroles in a pinch!!   

And this meat and potato casserole is a wonderful way to use it.   I simply serve it with some vegetables on the side, a salad and some crusty bread to mop up all that cheesy sauce.   Scrumptiously tasty!

*Beef and Potato Casserole*
Serves 4 to 6

Printable Recipe  

  

A delicious casserole made by layering potatoes, tinned soup and cheese in a dish along with cooked ground beef.  Simple ingredients that taste delicious when put together. 

1 pound extra lean ground beef

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

1 small green pepper, trimmed and chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

1/2 tsp seasoning salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced (parboil in lightly salted boiling water for five minutes, then drain)

120g of grated cheddar cheese (1 cup)

For the sauce:

1 tin of condensed Cream of Chicken soup, undiluted

1 small onion, peeled and grated

125ml of single cream (1/2 cup)

1 heaped dessert spoon of sour cream (about 1/4 cup)

3 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp seasoning salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.   Butter a large oblong glass casserole dish.   Set aside.

Whisk together the soup, onion, cream, sour cream, Parmesan Cheese, garlic powder, seasoning salt and black pepper.   Set aside.

Spray a large skillet with non stick cooking spray.  Crumble in the ground beef.  Scramble fry until it is no longer pink.  Add the onion, green pepper, garlic, seasoning salt and black pepper and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the beef begins to brown and the vegetables have softened.

Begin to layer the ingredients into the prepared baking dish as follows.  One third of the potatoes, half of the meat, 1/3 of the soup, 1/3 of the cheese, one third potatoes, remaining half of meat, 1/3 of the soup, 1/3 of the cheese, remaining potatoes, then remaining soup and cheese.  

Cover with a sheet of foil which has been buttered on one side, buttered side down.   Place on a baking sheet and bake for one hour in the preheated oven.  Uncover and bake for about 30 minutes longer until the potatoes are fork tender and everything is nicely bubbling and golden brown.

Note: If you want you can add an additional handful of cheddar cheese to the top for the last half hour of baking.  I often do and nobody complains at all!  Delicious! 

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Chocolate Eclair Cake. We had the Missionary Elders for tea last night and I wanted to make them a special dessert to enjoy.  This chilled dessert always goes down a real treat with everyone I serve it to.

Another name for it would be Profiterole Cake.  It's basically a choux pastry base filled with a vanilla  and cream cheese filling, topped with whipped cream and then drizzled with a chocolate sauce!  It is fabulously delicious! 

Chocolate Eclair Cake from scratch is one of those desserts that will have people thinking about it for a very long time. Its a lot simpler to make than one would suppose as well!

One of the things I love most about this cake is that it is a chocolate eclair cake without coolwhip.  I would much rather use the real thing rather than a petroleum by-product, wouldn't you?

I have never had anyone turn their noses up at this . . .  in fact most people want seconds and the Elders were no different. 

When I offered seconds they jumped at the chance!  It just so happened that Eclairs was our Alaskan Missionaries favorite dessert, so he really enjoyed this!

It is a North American Recipe that I had to adapt to English ingredients when I moved over here fourteen and a half years ago. 

Many of the original ingredients were not readily available here and still aren't.   I have listed the original North American Ingredients in the recipe.

It's such a simple dessert to make and yet it is a show stopper!  You might be a bit afraid of making choux pastry, but if you make sure your boiled mixture is cooled to lukewarm and you persevere when beating in the eggs, you have every chance for success.   

Adding eggs to a boiling hot flour mixture is always a sure recipe for disaster.  Been there, done that when I was thirteen.  A mistake I never made twice. Experience is a great teacher.

That rich custardy filling is deliciously creamy and just sweet enough without going over the top . . .  a nice layer of lightly sweetened whipped cream is layered over the whole cake and then a delicious chocolate sauce is drizzled over all.   

Again, let the sauce cool before you drizzle it on.  You don't want  it to melt the whipped cream.   Altogether this simple dessert is a real delight both to make and to indulge in!

*Profiterole Cake*

Serves 6

Printable Recipe 

I have heard this called Chocolate Eclair Cake as well.  It's an oldie but a goodie.  I have adapted the recipe to what is available for me to use here in the UK, but will put the American ingredients in brackets.  It's delicious!  Make this several hours prior to serving it so that it has ample time to set up. 

125ml of water (1/2 cup)

2 ounces butter (1/4 cup)

70g of plain flour (1/2 cup)

2 large free range eggs 

Filling:

115g of cream cheese (4 ounces)

300g instant dessert mix such as angel delight (1 (3 1/2 ounce) package of instant vanilla pudding)
(I used Banana Flavoured Angel Delight)

355ml of whole milk (1 1/2 cups) 

To top:

335ml of double cream (1 1/2 cups)

1 tsp vanilla

1 TBS caster sugar 

Chocolate Sauce:

30g of sifted cocoa powder (1/4 cup)

200g caster sugar (1 cup)

180ml of evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed) (3/4 cup)

2 ounces butter (1/4 cup)

pinch salt

1/4 tsp vanilla

 

First make the base.  Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.   Butter a 9 inch square glass baking dish.   Set in the fridge to chill. 

Place the butter and water into a saucepan.  Place over medium high heat and bring to the boil, stirring to melt the butter.   Remove from the heat.  Add the flour and beat it in all at once.   Beat in one of the eggs.  It will seem at first that it won't combine, and will look a bit slimy, but persevere, if you keep beating all of a sudden it comes together.  

 Beat in the other egg in the same way.   Spread the dough into the chilled baking dish, spreading it evenly and at least 1/2 inch up the sides.  Place it into the oven and bake it for 25 minutes.  It should be well puffed and golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before proceeding.

 

 

Whip the  dessert mix and milk together until the mixture thickens.  Beat this into the cream cheese a bit at a time until it is completely amalgamated.   Spread this mixture over the cooled base.  Whip the cream together with the vanilla and caster sugar just until soft peaks form.  Spread this over top of the pudding mixture.  Place into the refrigerator to chill.

 

To make the sauce whisk the sugar and cocoa powder together in a saucepan.   Whisk in the milk.   Drop in the butter.   Cook over medium heat, stirring to melt the butter.  Bring to the boil, whisking constantly.  Boil for two minutes then remove from the heat.  

Whisk continuously during this time.  Whisk in the salt and vanilla.  Cool to room temperature.   Drizzle the chocolate sauce decoratively over top of the chilled cake. Chill the cake until ready to serve.  You will have plenty of sauce, so put the remainder into a pouring jug.  Pass any additional sauce at the table. 

This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again! 

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