Help me identify this potato dish!

[NerdGirl]

My British mother, raising a family in Canada, regularly made a potato dish when we were kids. It was the 'soul food' of my youth and I'm curious as to its origins. Thought maybe the UK Chowhounds might know if it has its basis in Britain, or did she just make it up and give it some crazy name to get us to eat it? I never thought to question her about this while she was with us.

She called it, and I have no idea how to spell it, so here it is as phonetically as possible, "Lob - Skow - Shah". It was sliced potatoes and onion layered and simmered in water or stock in a cast-iron frying pan ... seasoned with beef buillion cubes and then thickened a little with flour. Not too appealing as I type about it here, but hey -- childhood memories!

[NerdGirl]

Well thank you all for your responses! I guess the dish was my mother's twist on the classic lobscouse, including a twist on its pronunciation also. :) A nagging mystery solved -- thank you Chowhounds!

[Robin Joy]

Sounds a bit like the deicious pommes de terre boulangere, which is actually oven cooked:

http://hedonia.seantimberlake.com/hed...

[Simon Majumdar]

sounds to me like a version of lobscouse, the dish which gave liverpudlians their nickname

S

[Gio]

Could it be a stew made from "meat, vegetables, and hardtack" ?

http://ie.thefreedictionary.com/lobsc...

[Theresa]

Yes, the name sounds like it could have derived from lobscouse, but lobscouse is a dish made with lamb - like an Irish stew. "Blind lobscouse" used to be the name given to a version of the dish without meat in ... not sure where the "shah" bit comes in though!

[rob133]

The name certainly sounds like Lobscouse (actually Norwegian in origin adapted by Scousers as our own).

My problem with this is even if its blind Scouse there are no carrots or turnips in the dish. Scouse is a long slow cooked stew, best eaten with (in my opinion) either pickled beets or pickled red cabbage.

Scouse was originaly made with the cheapest cut of meat available (hence blind scouse came about for those who couldn't afford any meat). Personally I always use beef - with chicken stock and lots of white pepper - for some reason it gives it the flavour I will always associate with my youth

[Passadumkeg]

Thanks. the only place I ate a lot of lobscouse was in Stavanger, Norway. The vikings took a lot to the British Isles; food, democracy, red hair, the fiddle and lobscouse! Boy am I gonna get it.