Every year I try to jazz up our Thanksgiving menu in some way or another. It's not acceptable in my family to change too many things. The trick is to adapt just one or two recipes that we'd be having anyways. There are foods you can't do this with (the turkey, my grandmother's sweet potato casserole), and then there are things that you can sneak a few extras in without anyone really noticing unless it doesn't turn out well. I will warn you when doing this that you're around family, and family is perfectly comfortable sharing opinions on food, so change recipes at your own risk.

Last year I made this homemade green bean casserole. It was delicious, but not necessarily worth the work for a group who would be perfectly happy with the standard canned beans, cream of mushroom soup and french fried potatoes recipe. My grandmother also didn't understand why we served "uncooked" beans in our green bean casserole (see statement at the end of previous paragraph). We explained the difference between haricot verts and canned green beans to her, but it went in one ear and out the other.

This year I saw a recipe in Cooking Light for Green Beans with Sherried Mushroom Sauce. If you haven't experimented with adding sherry to recipes you are missing out. I didn't realize my love for it until I put two and two together and realized that's what gives She Crab soup part of its kick. Now I want to add sherry to everything.

Unfortunately one thing my family doesn't do on Thanksgiving is anything "light"...so we used a different recipe that had many of the same components and added sherry instead of white wine. This recipe also has all sorts of delicious, unhealthy things like cheese, a roux and heavy cream. I'm not claiming it's healthy, but it's delicious. We bought the big bags of green beans from Costco which made things much easier. You can find steamer bags in the fridge section of the grocery store. This recipe called for homemade french fried onions, but we bought French's instead. I'll pretend we did that to preserve tradition...but really it was just for an easy shortcut.

Enjoy!

Sherried Mushroom Scratch Made Green Bean Casserole
Recipe adapted from Serendipity doo-dah

3 steamer bags green beans, blanched, drained and cut in thirds
1 pound mushrooms, sliced (your choice)
1 yellow onion, diced
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
1/2 cup sherry
2 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan and Asiago cheeses, mixed together

Make soup:
Sautee mushrooms, onions and thyme in cooking oil.
Season with salt and pepper. When lightly caramelized, deglaze pan with sherry. Once it evaporates, add chicken stock. Bring to boil.

To make the roux, melt the butter over medium heat. Once it begins to melt and turn frothy, stir in a tablespoon or so of the flour (it should slightly bubble). Whisk in remaining flour and continue whisking until the mixture thickens and turns the color of peanut butter.

Stir roux into mushroom mixture, a bit at a time until it turns into cream soup thickness. Take off heat, pour in cream, and stir.

Place drained beans in bowl, mix in 1/4 cup of the Parmesan and Asiago cheese mixture, and soup. Pour into greased dish and refrigerate.

Assembly and baking: Sprinkle beans with remaining cheese, then top with onion straws. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until crispy and bubbling.

*And if you want to make your own french fried onions:

Ingredients
1 large white onion, sliced into paper thin rounds
2 cups flour
Oil for frying
Salt & pepper

Put oil in large heavy pot. Heat on medium until it comes up to 350 degrees. Dredge sliced onions in heavily seasoned flour and shake off excess. Fry in small batches until golden brown and crispy. Sprinkle with salt and drain on paper towels. 

*To blanch, shock the green beans in ice immediately after cooking to stop them from cooking more.

Sorry for the harsh lighting on these. There's only a limited amount of time to take pictures when you have a table full of hungry people waiting!

I'm a mushroom fiend (normal 'shrooms, people). Seriously, I will throw them on anything and everything. I was in New York for Santacon this past weekend and managed to get a portobello mushroom sandwich from one of my favorite sandwich shops there three times from when I got in Friday night to when I left Sunday night. I also order a mushroom dish on any menu 9 out of 10 times. Coming from a huge meat eater, it's kind of an odd obsession. 

I know mushrooms aren't for everyone, though. I actually made this pizza over the summer and never posted it because look at it - that's a mushroom overload. But I realized that it's a delicious pizza and there's no reason it has to have mushrooms on it for those who aren't fans of fungi (I do somewhat understand the aversion if you've never tried them). The method for making the crust is the part I found most interesting about the recipe. Resist temptation and add the extra step!

I've obviously made it pretty clear on my blog that I make pizza all the time. It's so easy and I love being able to mess with ingredients however I want. For those of you who like mushrooms, feel free to make your pizza look more like mine. I think my goal when making this was to cover every inch of the pizza with mushrooms. If that's not your thing, add all of your personal favorite toppings. Also, if you don't want to splurge on truffle oil you can do without it.

Enjoy!

p.s. get excited for holiday cooking...it's coming!

Truffled Fontina and Mushroom Pizza

Recipe adapted from Flying Fourchette

Active time: 10 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Makes 4 servings

 

1 pound pizza dough, thawed if frozen
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
3/4 pound cold Italian Fontina (or Taleggio), rind discarded and cheese sliced, or freshly grated (use good fontina for this)
1 teaspoon white truffle oil (optional)

1 tablespoon minced garlic spread

Directions:

Put a large heavy baking sheet (17 by 14 inches) on lowest rack of oven, then preheat oven to 475°F.

Stretch out dough on a lightly floured surface, pulling on corners to form a roughly 16- by 13-inch rectangle. Transfer to a tray lined with parchment paper. Lightly prick dough all over with a fork.

Slide dough (still on parchment) onto hot baking sheet. Bake until top is puffed and pale golden in patches, 6 to 10 minutes.

Remove from oven; prick any large bubbles with a fork and flatten. Gently spread garlic over crust, and scatter mushrooms or your toppings of choice on top.

Season with salt and pepper and lay or sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake pizza until edge of crust is deep golden and cheese is bubbling and golden in patches, 8 to 10 minutes.

Drizzle with truffle oil (if using) and season with pepper. Serve immediately.

I'm not sure what it is about green bean casserole that makes it somehow only seem normal at fall and winter holidays (at least that's how I feel). I remember eating it at potlucks every once in awhile, but green bean casserole was never something I ate much growing up. It wasn't until high school that I asked my mom if we could please add green bean casserole to our Thanksgiving meal. I had seen the countless "Who brought the green bean casserole?" commercials and being the advertising junkie that I am, I suddenly began to wonder why no one in my family ever brought the green bean casserole. Where was this delicious looking dish that I'd only had a handful of times?

Of course my mom was happy to add such an easy dish to her Thanksgiving repertoire. It's little effort and big payoff. So, why change up a timeless dish that everyone already loves and make this more complicated version? I don't have a great answer for that, but I liked the idea of having real mushrooms and I also think this spin on the dish looks far more elegant. Sure, it's green bean casserole, but no one would know it if you brought it to a party. They'd take a bite, love it (because it's fantastic) and then realize that it's a dressed up version of an old favorite. I kind of like that about it. It's seems much less "holiday-only" and much more of a dish that is really just a combination of a lot of delicious ingredients. You'll notice it says "Best Ever" on Alton Brown's recipe. That's his wording, not mine. I loved this variation, but now that I've been exposed to a whole new world of GBC I think I may have to try out a few more before awarding that title! (Starting with Paula's...which had even better ratings!)

Enjoy!

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

Recipe from Alton Brown

Ingredients
For the topping:
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Nonstick cooking spray

For beans and sauce:
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 pound fresh green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
Directions

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Combine the onions, flour, panko and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine. Coat a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, approximately 30 minutes. Toss the onions 2 to 3 times during cooking. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside until ready to use. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.

While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans. Bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in an 8-quart saucepan. Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately plunge the beans into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans. Top with the remaining onions. Place into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.