Okay, I'm a Minnesotan. I've been making Hotdish my whole life. However, I never really knew what Minnesota Hotdish was until a friend of mine had me over and we decided to make "Hotdish."
He said, "We have a starch, a meat, a vegetable, and some sort of cream of something soup. I think that constitutes as a Minnesota Hotdish." When he said that, I thought, hmm... I never knew there were rules for it. So, today I looked it up on Wikipedia. Low and behold, he was right!
I always make "Hotdish" on my stove-top. I never knew that I was naturally doing it right, until now! All of my Hotdishes follow those rules. Basically, I make this when I don't feel like cooking.
Here's the basic recipe that I follow: (Lazy Man Hotdish)
- Fill the bottom of a large frying pan with "Noodles" (any noodle that's handy) spread out until the bottom of the pan is covered. Add water until the noodles are submerged. Cook on high-heat until the noodles are done.
- Drain most of the water. Just grab a fork or spoon and use it to block the noodles when draining over the sink.
- Once most of the water is drained, put in a can of "Cream of Something Soup" I usually use either "Cream of Chicken," "Cream of Celery" or "Cream of Mushroom."
- Stir until the "Cream of Something Soup" is mixed evenly with whatever water was left-over from when you drained it and make sure all the noodles are covered evenly.
- Now add a can of "Whole Kernel Corn," "Green Beans" or "Peas."
- Then add a can of either "Tuna," "Chicken," "Salmon," or "Deviled Ham."
- Put it back on the burner, set to a low temperature and stir until everything is evenly mixed.
- When you get sick of waiting for the stuff to cook, it's done.
- Scoop it into a bowl to eat. For the finishing touch add salt and pepper.
- Put the rest into a storage container and refrigerate.
Note: Hamburger is a popular meat used in Hotdishes, but I don't usually use it because then I'd have to brown the burger. I'm lazy. So, I use canned meat. Usually tuna or chicken.
