Green Bean Casserole - Review & Recipe

While I generally "loath" the holidays, I love to cook during them. Usually our (wife and I) place is the de facto meeting place as we have a house. So year upon year I've made the green bean casserole off the back of the French's Fried Onion can, with a few modifications, but I get bored... oh do I get bored with "traditions" and sacred culinary cows year after year.

This year I'm trying GBC from scratch... well last night I made it and well.. it's pretty damn good, despite my cheddar selection - more on that later.

So aside from the mushrooms, green beans, and fried onions, I followed the recipe to the letter. I bought 2 packages of baby bella mushrooms and I think about a pound (maybe a pound and a half) of fresh green beans. Now I should have purchased the cheese at this time as they had the "correct" variety, hindsight aka "tastesight" I realized my cheese selection more or less killed the fresh flavors of the green beans and mushrooms. Instead I waited the next day and couldn't find white cheddar anywhere.... aside for a extra sharp white cheddar.

Which by the way makes a horrible grilled cheese and should be used on a cheese platter only. Do not use it in cooking, it will overpower anything else. Otherwise it was good, also though the recipe does not call for fried onions I added them anyway for nostalgia.

Make sure you blanch your green beans. Once they are cut and ready, rinse then put in a boiling pot of water for about 3 minutes. Drain, rinse then follow the directions.

Ingredients

• 3 cups milk
• Bay leaf
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Freshly grated nutmeg - you can use canned.
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup grated white cheddar MILD WHITE CHEDDAR if you can find.
• 1 1/2 cups chopped green beans, cut in 2-inch pieces, blanched
• 3 cups sliced assorted wild mushrooms (such as portobello, shiitake, or cremini)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
• 1/2 cup buttered bread crumbs
• OPTIONAL - fried onions - large can use half or one small can.

Directions

Make sauce: In a saucepan scald milk and bay leaf. In another saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly, 2 minutes.

Remove bay leaf from milk and slowly pour into butter-flour mixture, whisking constantly. Season, to taste, with mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add cheddar, stirring until melted and smooth.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Fold green beans and mushrooms into sauce, then transfer to a buttered casserole. Sprinkle top with Parmesan and buttered bread crumbs. Bake 50 minutes, or until casserole is bubbly and topping is lightly browned.