Saturday, November 20, 2010

Pre-Thanksgiving

The crew in Orlando will be going different places for Thanksgiving, so there was a pre-dinner dinner so that we could share some traditional grub together. My job was to make the green bean casserole. Now, I think cans are convenient, but canned condensed soup has a LOT of useless stuff in there. Namely, an heckuva lot of salt. So I made Alton Brown's version from foodtv.com.

First: Blanche the GB's

Nothing prettier than shocked veggies

It's very important to practice your mis en place. That is, make sure everything's ready for your use. If not you'll have an "Oh crap! I forgot to put in the *insert food item here*!" moment. Trust me, it's happened to me so many times, it's worth the time, and saves you the agony.
All the ducks in a row

And since we're doing things from scratch here, just go ahead and grate that nutmeg.


It's pretty too.

So, melt some butter, then put in the mushrooms salt and pepper (though I just dumped in the sliced ones you get at the store, it might be a good idea to chop them up a little smaller, just to get a slightly more similar consistancy to the canned stuff)


After that, add chopped garlic

At this point, you'll see more liquid in the pan than you remember seeing. That's water from the mushrooms. Weird, huh? This will help in the second step, adding the flour and grated nutmeg. I'm actually going to try it with a little more flour next time to get a thicker consistancy.


After it's been mixed well and cooked for a few minutes (we don't want no flour taste here), you first add stock, cook a little more, and then add the half and half, with.. wait for it... a little more cooking.


Hello there gorgeous.


Cook it until it thickens. Now, truthfully, you could do both things the day before. Or *gasp* even two days before. Just don't mix them together. Put your beans in one container, and the sauce in a second. When you're about 25 minutes away from wanting to eat it, mix them together, put crispy onions on them (I have yet to be successful with making my own, so for now, store bought will have to do), and pop them in the oven.

Now, here's a free tip, make sure that the rack is in the middle of your oven. I just popped it in on the top rack that was ONE step above middle, and before the timer went off, I smelled some burning.... those onions are delicate morsels of goodness. Treat them with care.
Although it seems like a lot of work, it really wasn't that long. Again mis en place! Say it with me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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1 Comments:

At 8:37 AM, Blogger Lovely Little Nest said...

That looks delish, and I don't even usually like that casserole!

BTW thanks so much for your input on our fridge debate! We will definitely be considering Sears Outlet! :)

 

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