Savoring the World: Anita’s Potato Casserole

Four years ago, the world lost one of the best cooks I have ever known, and a wonderful person.

Anita (with one T, but if you landed on this post looking for something about Anitta with two Ts, give this a try too. I’m certain the singer would love this delicacy from the rural cuisine of Minas Gerais) was a food alchemist, someone who could make any simple dish taste like the best food in the world.

Once, she asked me what I wanted to eat. I said “gnocchi”, even though I had never eaten gnocchi before. And Anita, a simple countrywoman who worked for my paternal grandmother, made the gnocchi in question. They were wonderful. The only time I’ve eaten anything similar was at a restaurant in Itaim Bibi, São Paulo, when I was there to take a course with the late, much-missed Lula Rodrigues. And just like that, we’ve gone from the countryside of northern Minas Gerais to the Rio–São Paulo axis in a single paragraph! A little nomadic experience! 😉

The other day, someone on Quora asked me what the best inexpensive food I had ever eaten was, and I remembered this casserole. But I couldn’t find my recipe notebook at the time, so I mentioned the coffee this same cook used to make on her wood-burning stove instead. Some people got all worked up, insisting that the flavor of coffee depends exclusively on the flavor of the beans. They clearly know nothing about the difference water quality makes, the brewing method (cloth filter, paper filter, French press, and so on), or the effect of wood smoke in the air around a wood-burning stove. Or the flavor of coffee left in a pot on the corner of the stove to keep it warm...

The coffee was made on the stove in the photo at the top of this post (and I hope you can see it. If you can’t, let me know).

Now, let’s get to the recipe for the casserole.

Ingredients (for the potato mixture)

• 2.2 lb (1 kg) potatoes, mashed using a potato ricer

• 2 eggs

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons grated cheese

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

1. Prepare the filling with shredded chicken, peas, pitted olives, tomatoes, onion, parsley, and whatever seasonings you like. The recipe says “one chicken”... Since you probably live in an urban area and aren’t going to kill a chicken in your backyard (I’ve never killed one myself, and I never would), adapt as needed. Chicken breast on its own is much drier than meat from the various parts of a whole chicken, so adding more tomatoes and perhaps some cheese to make the filling juicier are good options. I recommend using Brie with the rind removed. If you’re vegetarian, avoiding meat from domesticated land animals, or simply in the mood for a change, leave out the chicken and use fish fillet or whatever vegetables you prefer. If you use fish, don’t add cheese to the filling.

2. Go ahead and cry because I haven’t explained step one in detail. (All you need to do is mix the ingredients and taste as you go until the seasoning is to your liking. I recommend shredding the chicken after cooking it.)

3. Before you have to cry again because my recipe notebook tells you to line the baking dish with the potato mixture without explaining how to make it, let me help: mix the mashed potatoes with the eggs, butter, and grated cheese. Gradually add the flour. Finally, add the baking powder and mix a little more.

4. Spread half of the potato mixture in an oven-safe baking dish and cover with the filling.

5. Spread the remaining potato mixture over the top.

6. Brush the top with egg yolk.
7. Bake in the oven. Yes, the notebook doesn’t say how long or at what temperature. That’s the problem with family recipes. People who cook intuitively don’t follow recipes. They adapt as they go, observing what happens. And, in any case, cooking times and temperatures vary depending on the oven, its power, how long it takes to preheat, and so on. You’re on your own here: think creatively, figure out the temperature and baking time, and check on the casserole from time to time until it looks right. Then come back and tell me what temperature you used and how many minutes it took to bake. 

You’ll find more slightly chaotic recipes on this blog because I cook intuitively, too... And that’s a good way to get you out of your comfort zone and encourage you to pay closer attention to what you’re doing. My recipes are mindfulness in its purest form, in the best possible sense: they force you to focus on what you’re doing instead of following someone’s detailed instructions as though you were a three-year-old child.

When you make it, post some photos and tag my social media profiles. 😍

Nycka Nunes

Supermarkets and brands of food products, kitchen appliances, and other kitchen and tableware products are welcome to explore partnership opportunities, as are brands of furniture, clothing, socks, and a whole range of other things that might be connected in some way to repertoire expansion.