Green Bean Casserole

Well, if you read my last post, you know my sister-in-law, Barb, was here visiting.  Her first evening here, we took her to Chef Joseph's.  She finally got to meet our dear friend who is such an incredible chef.  She loved her chicken parmesan.  And, Connie and I loved our lamb confit tacos!!! 

The next evening we headed to Mom's and from there went out to Zionsville for dinner at the Friendly.  That evening there was a drag race on Main Street to raise money for Alzheimers.  I wish I'd gotten photos of the guys in drag coming in the bar to collect donations.  They were wonderful! 

Saturday, it was State Fair time!  David and Kara and Bradley and Rosie came over from Columbus to see Auntie Barbs.  The kids got to feed the sheep, eat enough sugar to last a month (or more) and just generally have a great time.  One of the highlights for me was getting to see the sculpture that won my friend, Kathy Cunningham, first place in the professional division.  Then, I turned around and said, "Oh, look at that cool piece!"  Turned out it was another by Kathy...  

The fair was followed by a run through the sprinkler at home.  Picking flowers for Momma.  Playing with Annie.  PIcking tomatoes.  Climbing the tree.  Then, it was time for dinner - and helping Grammie.  Barbecued chicken on the Big Green Egg, corn on the cob, homemade green bean casserole and two pies - one chocolate, bourbon pecan and the other mince walnut. 

Our friends Barb and Tom had been in the office and brought us three bags of goodies.  Corn on the cob, green peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, green beans...  Connie took one look at the green beans and asked if I'd make green bean casserole.  He meant the stuff with the cream of mushroom soup topped by the store-bought fried onions.  I had other ideas.  Shocking, I know.  I set out to create REAL green bean casserole.  Now, I did not write down official measurements as I went...  so, these are estimates!

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

for the casserole:

2 lbs green beans, trimmed and halved
1 lb cremini mushrooms, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
2 T butter
4 T butter
4 T flour
1 1/2-2 c milk (I use 2%)
1/4 - 1/2 c dry sherry
salt and pepper

for the onion rings:

one small red onion, peeled and halved
flour
Cajun seasoning (we make our own Emeril's)
milk
vegetable oil

Directions:  

You're going to feel like a three ring circus while making this...  In a large, heavy pot, pour about an inch of vegetable oil.  That's for frying the onions...  It needs to heat slowly and you need to stay with it.

In a medium skillet, melt the two tablespoons of butter and sauté the mushrooms and shallots.  As they cook, they will give off moisture.  You want to sauté them until the pan is almost dry.  Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside. 

Start the roux for the sauce by melting the butter in a medium saucepan.  While it's melting, cook the green beans in a small amount of salted water.  Because I want the beans relatively soft, I cover the saucepan and leave the beans to steam a bit.  Once the butter is melted, add the flour and stir for a few minutes.  You want the flour to cook but you don't want it to color much if at all.  Next, add the milk slowly, stirring constantly.  Once you've added the milk, add the sherry.  Now, you can stir the sauce occasionally while you fry the onions.    

Slice the onion VERY thinly.  Pour about an inch of milk into one shallow bowl.  Put flour and Cajun seasoning in another.  One the oil is hot enough to sizzle when you put an onion ring in it, you're ready to go.  Put a handful of the rings in the milk, then into the flour.  Toss them with the flour until they're well coated.  Put them in the hot oil and cook for about 5 minutes a side.  They need to be nicely browned.  Drain them on paper towels or a paper bag.  

Now, it's time to put the casserole together.  Drain the beans.  Mix them with the mushrooms, shallots and sauce and pour them into a baking dish.  Top with the fried onions and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  

Yes, it's considerably more trouble than canned soup and canned fried onions.  It's also about 1000% better :-)      

Five Spice Shrimp with Onion Rice, Oriental Celery and Onion Rings

Somewhere between Peyton's 2nd and 4th interception of the game, my mind started wandering... to food.  What was I going to fix for dinner when we got home?  What needs to be finished in the freezer?  What do we have all the ingredients for?  Alas, the game went into overtime and we didn't even get to our car til 8:00.  At that point we decided to stop at the grocery on the way home instead of trying to cook an elaborate meal.  So, when we finally got home around 7:00 Monday I was ready to cook.  More than ready!


How did this come about?  A couple of years ago when I was one of the ones who cooked the issue in Fine Cooking's cook the issue challenge, one of the dishes was a salt and pepper shrimp.  It was one of our favorites from the issue and I'd not made it since.  The celery was reminiscent of the stir-fried chicken and celery we made a few weeks ago.  The fragrance of the ginger and the little bit of heat would be perfect here.  In my new 1001 Ways to Cook Southern Cookbook there's a recipe for a five onon sauce.  An onion blend has been running around in my mind since reading that. What if I did a very finely sliced red onion with the batter from the Deep Fried Green Beans then mixed a blend of green onions, shallots and chives into the rice - brown of course. 


What did we think?  Amazing.  The sum was better than the parts.  And, unless you want to eat at 8:30, please start dinner a bit earlier than I did- lol.  I really can't think of any changes that I'd make other than possibly omitting the onion rings and serving them with a different dish.  I thought that by putting a good pinch of the five spice powder into the batter, they'd blend more with the other three dishes.  They didn't but we really didn't care since they were fabulous.  Now, I confess that I threw together the ingredients for the celery and the rice and didn't measure any.  I did, however, take a lot of photos so that'll help those of you who want measurements.   And, I've put some guesses in the directions.

 Ingredients:

for the celery:
4 ribs of celery
brown sugar
sweet chili sauce
soy sauce
dry sherry
ginger
sesame oil


for the rice:

brown rice
scallions or green onions
chives
shallots
sesame oil
olive oil


for the shrimp:

shrimp - the number per person will vary depending on the size - we used 20 of the 20-25 size
4 T corn starch
salt
pepper
2 t sugar
1/2 t five spice powder
oil


for the onion fries:
1 small red onion
oil
1/2 c flour
2 t cornstarch
1/4 t five spice powder
2/3 c beer

Directions:

For the rice:


Start the water for the brown rice.  I wanted to end up with about a cup and a half of cooked rice so started with the correct amount of dry rice.  We much prefer the real brown rice to the instant stuff.  I love the chewiness of the real stuff!  Once the water is boiling, add the rice and simmer until it's done - the time will depend on the type of rice you're using but I typically count on about 25 minutes.
 
Dice the green onions and mix them with chives and shallots.  I used about 5 green onions, a tablespoon of shallots and a teaspoon and a half of chives.  Since it was about 9 degrees out, I didn't venture to the herb garden to see if any of my chives made it, so I settled for freeze dried.  And, I typically use Penzey's freeze dried shallots.
 
Start half olive oil and half toasted sesame oil in a small skillet.  You'll want about a teaspoon of each.  Heat the oil to shimmering before adding the onion mixture.  Once you add the onion mixture, 
 
 

 
cook on relatively low heat until the onions are softened.  You can either remove the mixture from the heat or turn it to low while you finish everything else.  
 
When the rice is done, drain it well and toss it with the onion mixture.
 
 

 
For the shrimp:
 
Thaw, peel and dry the shrimp.  Mix the cornstarch, sugar, salt, pepper and five spice powder. 
 
 

 
Toss the shrimp in the cornstarch mixture. 
 
 

 
Heat 1 1/2 T of vegetable oil in a large skillet.  Once it sizzles when you toss a drop of water into the oil, you're ready to add the shrimp.  When the shrimp are nice and brown on one side,
 
 

 
flip them with a pair of tongs and brown them on the other side.  Drain on paper towels.
 
For the celery:
Mix about 2 t each of brown sugar, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and dry sherry. 
 
 

 
Thinly slice the ribs of celery.  Pour the sauce into a medium skillet and heat it to bubbling.  Add the celery and a finely minced knob of ginger (about the size of your thumb from the middle knuckle to the end.) 
 
 

 
Cook the celery only until you've taken the edge off.  It should still be pretty crunchy.
 
For the onion rings:
Strangely enough, these actually take longer to cook than the shrimp or the celery. Thinly slice the onion on a mandoline or with a knife. 
 
 

 
Mix the batter. 
 
 

 
Toss the onion rings in the batter. 
 
 

 
Heat oil about 1/4" deep in a skillet.  Make sure it is nice and hot or you'll just simmer the onions.  Carefully add the onions to the oil. 
 
 

 
Once they're crispy and brown on one side, turn them over and cook the other side.  Drain them on paper towels.
 
To put it all together:
Make a bowl or plate of a serving of rice, a serving of celery and a serving of shrimp.  Spoon the remaining sauce from the celery over the rice.  Top with the onion rings - or not.  We wound up eating our onion rings then stirring everything else together.