JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Thursday, December 06, 2007

Onion, bacon and potato hotpot























The first cookery book I ever bought was called The Pauper's Cookbook, by Jocasta Innes, who later went on to become an expert in the sort of paint effects that everyone except idle me put on their walls in the 1980s - you remember, all that rag-rolling and dragging and stencilling. I've still got my copy, an old, browning food-stained Penguin, the front cover falling off. I've always loved it, and this is one of my favourites from it ... easy to make, although it needs a long time in the oven too cook through. A good dish for supper when you've been out Christmas shopping - cheap winter comfort food.

Onion, bacon and potato hotpot

for 4

4 large onions
4 large potatoes
100-200g bacon
one pint of white sauce

Make the white sauce with oil and skimmed milk. Season with pepper and nutmeg. Peel and slice the vegetables (bear in mind that the onions take a little longer to cook so need to be sliced a little more finely than the potatoes). Chop the bacon (I used largish pieces, but you can use chopped rashers, or those little bits you can buy ready-cut in the supermarket). Grease a casserole (one with a lid). Layer the potatoes, onion and bacon, ending with potatoes. Pour on the white sauce. Cover. Bake in a hot oven, 200C, for an hour. Uncover, then bake at 150C for a further hour.

This is good with cabbage or sprouts.

6 comments:

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Geeze that looks like you might order that at a high class place with a fancy name with stack in it! That's really lovely Joanna.

Anonymous said...

That has my appetite perking up,I love anything with potatoes and bacon.

Joanna said...

So glad you spotted that, Tanna - most uncharacteristic, as you know!

David Hall said...

Hi Joanna

This is almosy like our pan haggerty - well, same ingredients anyway, without the white sauce. Lovely!

Cheers
David

Anonymous said...

My copy of the book says cook for another hour at 180 deg C not 150 deg C.

Great recipe though!

Paul

Joanna said...

I've double checked, Paul, and mine says 150, so it's probably what I've always done. My copy is a first edition - perhaps you have the newly republished edition, which I know was revised. I'd be interested to know the difference, so I'll probably try it next time

Joanna