waderoberts wrote:The Cheez Whiz goes into a hominy casserole (along with cans of condensed cream of mushroom and cream of celery soup

, shredded cheddar, and crushed Frito topping)....
Alas, I long ago lost the detailed recipe, but it's damned easy to reproduce:
Canned hominy
can(s) condensed cream of celery soup
can(s) condensed cream of mushroom soup
Cheez Whiz
crushed Fritos
After several preparations, I ended up just eye-balling the proportions to my sight/taste (I had already been adjusting them). I think I've been using about three large cans of hominy, two cans each of the soups, and two jars of the Whiz.
Drain and empty hominy. Stir in soups straight from can. Fold in Whiz (easier if you microwave it to soften up a bit) (I love using terms like "fold in" in recipes such as this one). Top with finely crushed Fritos. Bake in casserole dish at 350 degrees about 30 minutes (until you see bubbling and browning at the corners. Serve.
In a displaced-Texan equivalent to grape-stomping for wine, I usually pour the Fritos into a freezer bag and crush them by foot. The Frito-foot-stomping highly impresses particularly refined guests!
It is admittedly full of sodium and preservatives and such, but highly picky health-obsessed acquaintances have raved about this dish.
I made this dish for the first time for the
LTHForum 1,000-Recipe Potluck. It actually turned out better than I thought it would, given the ingredients. I note, however, that although several people made a point of coming up to tell me how much they enjoyed it, there was a lot of it left to take home. I don't know whether that means that people didn't try it at all -- scared of hominy? put off by Cheez Whiz? (not that it seemed as if too many people had looked up the recipes ahead of time) -- or they tried it and didn't like it.
However, it makes a huge portion, filling a half-size steam-table pan to the brim. I made it almost exactly as Wade directed, including foot-stomping the Fritos, which startled Cathy2. Giles, who sampled the dish without realizing I had made it or what else was in it, was somewhat aghast that anyone would make a dish with Fritos in it for an event like this.
When I was stirring it together, though, I decided it needed something to add punch. I didn't have any chilies in the house, so I "Chicagoized" it by throwing in half a jar of giardiniera. Frankly, I think it could have used the whole jar, but I didn't want to take it too far beyond Wade's original. Himself, tasting the leftovers, thought it was better the second day, by which time the giardiniera had more fully flavored the dish.
In general, I think this casserole would be more popular with a Southern/Southwestern audience that's used to hominy and/or one that's more of a hotdish crowd. I actually found the hominy the best part of this dish and making it has interested me in trying other hominy dishes. (By the way, I looked for canned hominy in the canned vegetables department of the supermarket and couldn't locate it, but ultimately found some in the Mexican foods aisle.)
As for this recipe itself, it was too gloopy for me, and if I were to make it again I would cut down on the proportion of soup. I don't, however, think you could improve it significantly by making homemade cheese sauce with bechamel.
Here is the version I made.
Chicagoized hominy casseroleCooking-oil spray
3 29-ounce cans hominy, drained well (from the Mexican foods aisle)
2 10-3/4-ounce cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 10-3/4-ounce cans condensed cream of celery soup
2 15-ounce jars Cheez Whiz
1/2 16-ounce jar hot giardiniera, drained
1/2 pound extra-sharp cheddar, shredded
1/2 9-3/4-ounce bag corn chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a half-size steam table pan (10.5 x 12.75 x 2.5 inches) or 4-quart casserole with cooking spray. Add the hominy. Using a rubber spatula, scrape soups out of the cans into the dish.
Remove the lids from the jars of Cheez Whiz and microwave on high for 2 or 3 minutes, until melted. Scrape into the dish and mix thoroughly. Stir in the giardiniera.
Sprinkle with grated cheese. Transfer the corn chips to a heavy-duty plastic zipper bag and seal, pressing out most of the air. Crush until the chips are large crumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the casserole.
Bake until the mixture is bubbly and starts to brown at the edges. 20 to 30 servings.
Reheating notes: I decided to see if the chilled leftovers could be fried into a kind of hominy cake, like polenta. The Cheez Whiz is too melty for that, but cooked in a bit of melted butter in a nonstick pan, the casserole developed a tasty crust. That makes me think that broiling the top a bit would be an improvement on the original.
Last edited by
LAZ on July 6th, 2008, 9:21 pm, edited 6 times in total.