The Importance of Mushrooms in Cooking
Mushrooms are one of the most important ingredients in the world, according to their enthusiast. They bring a depth of flavor and texture that can elevate even the simplest dishes. In this article, we will explore the art of cooking with mushrooms and how they can be used to create a truly exceptional green bean casserole.
Preparing the Mushrooms
To start, the mushrooms are sautéed in butter and oil until they are soft and fragrant. This process brings out their natural sweetness and allows them to develop a rich, earthy flavor. The addition of finely diced onion, sliced fresh garlic, and chopped rosemary adds depth and complexity to the dish. The key is to cook the mushrooms slowly over low heat, allowing them to release their moisture and develop a nice brown color.
Creating the Cream Sauce
Once the mushrooms are cooked, they are mixed with all-purpose flour to thicken the sauce. A little more butter is added, and the mixture is stirred until it forms a smooth, creamy paste. The key is to cook the flour for just the right amount of time, allowing it to form a roux without burning or developing an unpleasant flavor. Finally, low-sodium chicken broth and heavy cream are added to the pan, stirring constantly as they bubble and thicken.
Assembling the Casserole
The sauce is poured over half of the blanched green beans, spreading them evenly to ensure that every bite is coated with the delicious, creamy mushroom sauce. The remaining green beans are sprinkled on top, followed by a generous helping of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. The casserole is then assembled and placed in the oven, where it will bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.
Making the Fried Onions
One of the most challenging parts of making this casserole is making the fried onions from scratch. This requires some patience and attention to detail, as the onions must be cooked until they are crispy and golden brown. To do this, sliced white onions are mixed with whole milk and flour, then dredged in a seasoned salt mixture before being fried in hot oil. The resulting onion bits are crunchy, flavorful, and absolutely irresistible.
Finishing Touches
Finally, the casserole is removed from the oven and sprinkled with chopped fresh parsley for a burst of color and freshness. A generous helping of fried onions is placed on top, creating a textured and visually appealing finish to the dish. The result is a truly legendary green bean casserole that is sure to impress even the most discerning palates.
The Final Product
When the casserole emerges from the oven, it looks magnificent. The creamy mushroom sauce coats the green beans evenly, while the fried onions add a satisfying crunch and flavor. The parsley adds a pop of color, creating a vibrant and visually appealing finish to the dish. It's clear that this is no ordinary green bean casserole – it's a true masterpiece that showcases the best of what cooking with mushrooms has to offer. Whether you're serving it at Thanksgiving or any other special occasion, this casserole is sure to be the star of the show.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmy family is like a lot of families when it comes to the Thanksgiving meal they would be blissfully happy if we had the exact same thing year after year after year and while I love the Thanksgiving Classics this year I thought I would take a handful of Legends from the meal and give them a little update in my humble opinion green bean casserole is absolutely mandatory at Thanksgiving and I already make a version that is from from scratch so I'm going to dive into that one and give it an even more delicious update starting with the best mushroom sauce you have ever tasted I've been slicing up some crini mushrooms and I'm going to get these into a skillet with some butter and oil I am such a fan of mushrooms I just think they are one of the most important ingredients in the world to the mushrooms I'm going to add some finely diced onion quite a bit this is going to make a pretty generous casserole some sliced fresh garlic and some chopped Rosemary probably my favorite Thanksgiving herb all right I'm going to cook this mushroom mixture until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are starting to Brown it'll just take a few minutes oh boy this is looking good now that the mushrooms are starting to cook I can add some salt and pepper if if you add salt right when you put the mushrooms in the pan they can cause the mushrooms to give off too much water and it's hard to get them Brown after that and now I'm going to add a little more butter and swirl it around the pan and let it melt and I'm going to turn this into a really really scrumptious cream sauce o that smells so good and I'm going to sprinkle in some allpurpose flour and I'll mix it in with the mushrooms and onions I need to stir this around until the flour has a chance to cook and the Rue is starting to Brown so give me a couple more minutes to do that all righty that Rue has cooked it looks perfect and now it's time to add the liquid in which is going to make the sauce so first some low sodium chicken broth and as I pour it in I want to scrape the bottom of the skillet because there are all those glorious bits of flavor from the garlic and the onion and the mushroom and this is a creamy mushroom sauce so I'm adding cream all right so it's just about bringing up the heat and letting it bubble just a bit and oh my gosh it's beautiful and thick look at this I mean you can just call that cream of mushroom soup basically now I'm going to assemble the casserole I have some blanched fresh green beans I let them cook for about 3 minutes and then I took them out drained them and plunged them into ice water to stop the cooking and then the green beans keep their color while the casserole bakes a little better and now for this gorgeous sauce and I'm going to pour half of the sauce over half of the green beans Glory Glory Glory I am in love and I don't care who knows it all right I'll spread it out so the mushrooms are kind of evenly distributed and I'll add the rest of the green beans and you guessed it the rest of the sauce oh this looks so good before it goes into the oven I'm going to add some freshly grated Parmesan you can use guier you can use cheddar you could do pepper jack honestly whatever cheese you like it works all right this is going to go into the oven I'm going to bake it at 350° for 20 minutes then I'll take it out and let it rest and then I'll finish it with a gorgeous topping the casserole's out of the oven it looks magnificent so the original green bean casserole has store-bought canned fried onions over the top but I made a batch from scratch hey I'm a poet and didn't know it here's how I made these the onions are easy I just put two large sliced white onions in a bowl along with half a cup of whole milk and mix them together then I dredged half of them in a mixture of one cup of flour and 2 tpoon of seasoned salt shook off the excess and dropped them into a high-sided heavy bottom pan with 2 in of oil heated to 375° I fried them for a minute until they were golden and crisp took them out onto a paper towel lined sheet pan and dropped the second batch in I gave them a minute to crisp up and took them out to cool honestly the most challenging part of making this casserole is making these onions not because they're complicated to make but because you have to resist the urge to go get the Ketch chip out of the fridge and just snacking on all of these before the meal begins they are that good all right and then I'm going to sprinkle on some parsley just to give it a little pop of green and a little fresh flavor this is hilarious I love this huge mound of fried onions and I want to show you what this looks like I love it because it's just really textured and you get these great big onions see how bright green those green beans still are and they're nice and tender so you just get the best of both worlds you definitely want to make sure you get plenty of the mushroom sauce and plenty of the onions all right legendary green bean casserole make this for your Thanksgiving feast this year it will definitely be the star of the show sorry turkey formy family is like a lot of families when it comes to the Thanksgiving meal they would be blissfully happy if we had the exact same thing year after year after year and while I love the Thanksgiving Classics this year I thought I would take a handful of Legends from the meal and give them a little update in my humble opinion green bean casserole is absolutely mandatory at Thanksgiving and I already make a version that is from from scratch so I'm going to dive into that one and give it an even more delicious update starting with the best mushroom sauce you have ever tasted I've been slicing up some crini mushrooms and I'm going to get these into a skillet with some butter and oil I am such a fan of mushrooms I just think they are one of the most important ingredients in the world to the mushrooms I'm going to add some finely diced onion quite a bit this is going to make a pretty generous casserole some sliced fresh garlic and some chopped Rosemary probably my favorite Thanksgiving herb all right I'm going to cook this mushroom mixture until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are starting to Brown it'll just take a few minutes oh boy this is looking good now that the mushrooms are starting to cook I can add some salt and pepper if if you add salt right when you put the mushrooms in the pan they can cause the mushrooms to give off too much water and it's hard to get them Brown after that and now I'm going to add a little more butter and swirl it around the pan and let it melt and I'm going to turn this into a really really scrumptious cream sauce o that smells so good and I'm going to sprinkle in some allpurpose flour and I'll mix it in with the mushrooms and onions I need to stir this around until the flour has a chance to cook and the Rue is starting to Brown so give me a couple more minutes to do that all righty that Rue has cooked it looks perfect and now it's time to add the liquid in which is going to make the sauce so first some low sodium chicken broth and as I pour it in I want to scrape the bottom of the skillet because there are all those glorious bits of flavor from the garlic and the onion and the mushroom and this is a creamy mushroom sauce so I'm adding cream all right so it's just about bringing up the heat and letting it bubble just a bit and oh my gosh it's beautiful and thick look at this I mean you can just call that cream of mushroom soup basically now I'm going to assemble the casserole I have some blanched fresh green beans I let them cook for about 3 minutes and then I took them out drained them and plunged them into ice water to stop the cooking and then the green beans keep their color while the casserole bakes a little better and now for this gorgeous sauce and I'm going to pour half of the sauce over half of the green beans Glory Glory Glory I am in love and I don't care who knows it all right I'll spread it out so the mushrooms are kind of evenly distributed and I'll add the rest of the green beans and you guessed it the rest of the sauce oh this looks so good before it goes into the oven I'm going to add some freshly grated Parmesan you can use guier you can use cheddar you could do pepper jack honestly whatever cheese you like it works all right this is going to go into the oven I'm going to bake it at 350° for 20 minutes then I'll take it out and let it rest and then I'll finish it with a gorgeous topping the casserole's out of the oven it looks magnificent so the original green bean casserole has store-bought canned fried onions over the top but I made a batch from scratch hey I'm a poet and didn't know it here's how I made these the onions are easy I just put two large sliced white onions in a bowl along with half a cup of whole milk and mix them together then I dredged half of them in a mixture of one cup of flour and 2 tpoon of seasoned salt shook off the excess and dropped them into a high-sided heavy bottom pan with 2 in of oil heated to 375° I fried them for a minute until they were golden and crisp took them out onto a paper towel lined sheet pan and dropped the second batch in I gave them a minute to crisp up and took them out to cool honestly the most challenging part of making this casserole is making these onions not because they're complicated to make but because you have to resist the urge to go get the Ketch chip out of the fridge and just snacking on all of these before the meal begins they are that good all right and then I'm going to sprinkle on some parsley just to give it a little pop of green and a little fresh flavor this is hilarious I love this huge mound of fried onions and I want to show you what this looks like I love it because it's just really textured and you get these great big onions see how bright green those green beans still are and they're nice and tender so you just get the best of both worlds you definitely want to make sure you get plenty of the mushroom sauce and plenty of the onions all right legendary green bean casserole make this for your Thanksgiving feast this year it will definitely be the star of the show sorry turkey for\n"
