Don’t we all love how Ewan McGregor transformed himself to play two “different” brothers in Fargo 3? He could have reached out to my Food and the Series knowledge to invent a dish to help him putting on weight for Ray’s role and, at the same time, digging into Minnesota culinary tradition! I would have cooked for him GIANT TATER TOTS FILLED WITH MEAT AND CHEESE.
This dish is the solution of the gastronomic investigation I set out for you in my previous post about Fargo. I bet you were you still wondering about it…it was sooooo difficult 🙂
My inspiration started from a dinner prepared by Kirsten Dunst in season 2 because you always need a connection between the various plots, then I read that Ewan McGregor ate “fries with everything” to play a naked scene in episode 1 of season 3 and look really overweight without the help of prosthetics (what a genius idea to have him be both brothers!), moreover I took into consideration freezing Minnesota.
I have put the three info together and I invented a recipe that gives honor to Minnesota culinary tradition and Ewan’s need for calories: a giant version of fried Tater Tots that has a hidden (and juicy) secret inside.
Title: Giant Tater Tots Filled with Meat and Cheese
Director: Elena Maria Manzini
Cast of ingredients 🙂
1 lb of potatoes, 1/4 lb of ground meat, 1/2 white onion, 1 spoon of tomato sauce, oil, paprika, salt, pepper, 2 eggs, flour as needed, cheddar cheese, bread crumbs, frying oil.
INT. KITCHEN — STOVE
The potatoes have to boil with their skin till tender. Or else, to spare some cooking time, it is possible to remove the skin, cut them into cubes and boil them, but you’ll mash them you’ll have to add more flour because it is possible that they absorbed some water.
INT. KITCHEN — COUNTER
In a bowl, season the raw ground meat with paprika and leave aside. When the potatoes are tender remove the skin (if you don’t want to hurt yourself with the heat leave under cold water for a few minutes and remove the skin as fast as possible) and mash them with a fork when they are still warm.
INT. KITCHEN — STOVE
Mince the onion and leave in a pan with a little oil till golden. Before adding the ground meat mix it in the bowl with a spoon of tomato sauce, then cook for a few minutes.
Add also salt and pepper to taste and cook till brown. Let cool.
INT. KITCHEN — COUNTER
Mix the mashed potatoes, always using a fork, with one egg, salt, pepper and some flour if too wet. Cut the ceddar cheese into little bits and now you are ready to have fun!
Keep close water and flour to handle the potato mixture then put some of it in your palm, make a hole in the middle, add meat and a bit of cheddar cheese and close to form a giant tot. I would have made pictures of all this, but my hands were too dirty to touch my iPhone 🙂
INT. KITCHEN — FRIDGE
Leave the tots in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before frying if you don’t want them to flake.
INT. KITCHEN — STOVE
Prepare the frying oil. If you want to test if it is hot enough use either a little bit of potato mixture or a piece of an apple and see if it floats, if it doesn’t it means that the temperature of the oil it is not hot enough.
Pass the giant tots in a whisked egg and in bread crumbles and fry till golden.
INT. LEAVING ROOM — WATCHING FARGO
Enjoy in front of Fargo’s new episode!
