This is basically a cottage pie, but with white sauce instead of gravy and "tater tots" in place of the mashed potato. It works quite well and is reasonably easy to throw together. Being able to skip making up a batch of mashed potatoes and still have a tasty potato layer on top is a nice convenience. I don't foresee myself making this one super frequently, but I'm glad I tried it and it's a nice option to have if I ever find myself craving cottage pie.

Tater Tot Hotdish

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2017

Ingredients

• 900g lean ground beef¹
• 450g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp. black pepper, ground
• 3 Tbsp. flour²
• 1 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 1 1/2 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 c. frozen peas
• 1 c. frozen corn
• 1 (800g) bag frozen tater tots (Tasti Taters

Directions

1. Combine beef, mushrooms, onion, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper and cook over medium-high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated (~25 minutes).
2. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position³ and preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
3. Stir flour into beef mixture and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add milk and broth and bring to a simmer.
5. Cook until thickened (3-5 minutes).
6. Stir in Parmesan.
7. Pour mixture into 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
8. Sprinkle frozen peas and corn over top.
9. Arrange tater tots in a single layer on top. Do not press into mixture. You may have a couple extra tater tots left over.
10. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for 35 minutes.
11. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
12. Serve with ketchup/tomato sauce.

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¹ The original recipe called for 680g 85% lean ground beef. Our beef comes frozen in 450g packages so, rather than try to split a package and then try to figure out what to do with the extra half package, we just put in two full packages and rolled with it. I also think our beef is more than 85% lean, so I added a Tbsp. of unsalted butter to compensate. ^Back
2 The original specifically calls for all-purpose flour. That said, I think any (wheat) flour would be fine for this application. ^Back
3 The rack must be in the upper portion of the oven as the heat reflecting off the top of the oven is needed to crisp the tater tots. ^Back