ACS
Posted by parker over 2 years ago
Every month or so I make a big casserole that follows a recipe I learned from my mother. When I was growing up, we used to be able to finish a batch off in about a meal and a half (all four of us for dinner, plus leftovers for my father's lunch the next day.) When I was in my first job, I discovered that the leftovers microwaved extremely well, and a batch was about three days of lunches and dinners for me, which for a single apartment-dweller is a pretty good yield.
The puzzle was, what to call it? Growing up, it was "American Chop Suey" (which is one of the names it's known by.) When I left home and started associating with people who might be expected to know what real chop suey was, however, that name started feeling a little silly, and I tried to avoid it; why make this dish, which I liked, into a pale imitation of something authentic? (My paternal grandmother made another version of this dish which was hard to recognize as the same thing and certainly wasn't something I would've tried to imitate.)
Some research found that the dish is also sometimes known as "American Goulash," but having eaten Hungarian goulash, I think I can safely say it's not that, either. I then realized that, in the shift to email and text-based communication, my family had adopted the relatively meaningless abbreviation "ACS." So that's what I call it now: Ay-see-ess.
It's a great single-guy (or single-father) recipe because it requires almost no measurement and very little prep; with one or two exceptions, all the ingredients go in right out of their supermarket packages.
- 1 box elbows (whole wheat is fine)
- 1 pound ground meat (ground beef is the original version, but ground chicken or turkey is fine)
- 1 can tomato soup concentrate (e.g. the iconic Campbell's can)
- 1 can tomato sauce (a 12-oz. can, I think - slightly larger than the soup can)
- a dollop of ketchup (maybe a quarter cup, but whatever)
- About half an onion, chopped (this is the extent of the preparation)
- (Optional) Paprika and/or chili powder
Boil water and put the pasta in to cook. While it's cooking, brown the ground meat with the chopped onion in a skillet. If it's not non-stick skillet, you'll want to heat some oil in the skillet first, and put the onions in for a minute or so before the meat. The meat should get chopped into relatively small chunks in the course of browning. You can sprinkle some paprika or chili powder on the meat in this process for some extra flavor; I like the kick of the paprika, especially when I'm using turkey.
Meanwhile, mix the tomato sauce, soup concentrate, and ketchup in a casserole dish. (This is why I never measure the ketchup; I just squirt it in on top of the soup and sauce.) When the meat is browned, add to the mixed sauce and stir well. Finally, when the elbows are done, drain them and mix with the sauce and meat. If your casserole dish isn't quite big enough, you may need to be careful about this.
You can serve this immediately at this point, and refrigerate the leftovers for as much as a week, serving out portions to microwave at work as lunch.
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