Potato cake

Today we are going to prepare a potato pie with meat. It is an inexpensive recipe, ideal as a main dish or a single dish. This cake is typical of Argentine cuisine, although we can find similar dishes in other countries such as the traditional British cottage pie or the French parmetier hashish. Its preparation is very easy although it takes time. The secondary ingredients can vary, for example, there are those who put tomato, garlic and red pepper, but we will make the traditional cake of my house with only two layers.

Time of preparation: 50 minutes

Ingredients (for five people)

1kg of new potatoes (for mash)
50 gr manteca
milk, quantity needed
shawl
nutmeg
700 gr of minced beef (little fat)
3 onions
1/2 green pepper
1 teaspoon of cornstarch.
3 hard-boiled eggs
100 gr of grated cheese
100 gr of pitted olives
50 gr of raisins
sweet paprika, cumin, pepper and ground chili.
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

Preparation

When we have all the ingredients at hand, we cook the potatoes with their skin in plenty of water.

Then we chop the onion and the green pepper. Before cutting the pepper, do not forget to remove the seeds and the white part of the interior well, because they give a bitter taste.

In a pan we put a bottom of oil, heat it and add the chopped onions, when they are transparent add the chopped pepper and let it cook over low heat. When the pepper is cooked, add the meat and stir until the ingredients are well mixed. Season with salt, and spices to taste, we today will put sweet paprika, cumin, pepper and ground chili pepper. With a fork we undo the balls of minced meat that may be there. We stir all the time until the meat changes color. So that this preparation has a creamy and shiny appearance, we will be careful that the meat does not get fried, and we add a teaspoon of cornstarch with a little water and stir well. Sometimes when the meat that we use long a lot of liquid, it is not necessary that we add water to the preparation.

Finally, off the fire, add the halved olives and raisins to the mince. And we distribute them evenly throughout the preparation.

Surely we will have the potatoes very soft then, we take them out of the water and peel them hot, with the help of a fork so as not to burn ourselves, we put them in a bowl and mash them with a potato masher, until there is not even a piece of Potato without stepping and always hot we add the butter.

We complete the preparation of the puree by adding half the grated cheese and the necessary milk to achieve a creamy but thick puree. Salt and add a pinch of pepper and another of nutmeg.

We can assemble the cake hot, or have a coffee and check Facebook and then finish the cold preparation.

To present it, we look for a baking dish about five cm deep, put all the minced meat in the bottom and place the chopped hard-boiled eggs and the rest of the grated cheese on the surface.

Finally, we cover it with all the puree evenly, it is customary to make furrows with a fork to suit each one and then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. If you don't like this combination, you can sprinkle it with a mixture of cheese and breadcrumbs and bits of butter. We take it to a hot oven to gratin it.

When it is golden brown, we take it out of the oven. Now you can change your status and put THE CAKE READY !!!

You can prepare this cake in advance and heat it up when you are going to serve it, that is why it is a good option too, for when you have a lot of people to eat, you can double or triple the recipe, assemble it in a large roasting pan or in several small ones.

There are those who make it in three layers, the first of potatoes, I don't like it that way, because when the meat is heated it impregnates the lower layer with its juice and then a dry mince remains. You can practice and then tell me which is the traditional potato cake of your house.