Not My Grandma's String Bean Casserole

There are a couple "classic" dishes that people tend to associate with "Thanksgiving." Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potato and marshmallows, etc… Growing up, I remember my grandmother used to always bring string bean casserole to Thanksgiving. I don't know why, but she always called it "string bean mush-mash." This was a really long time ago and I don't remember how the dish tasted, but I just remember that grandma always made it and I rather liked it.

This year, I wanted to re-create my grandmother's "string bean mush-mash", but revamp it --- make it a bit posher. Instead of using French's fried onions, I used fried shallots. Instead of Campbell's canned mushroom soup, I made a mushroom cream from scratch. I guess this is my homage to my grandmother. My updated version of Grandman's string bean casserole turned out really delicious, however, I learned why she used the pre-made stuff. 

I prefer to make things from scratch when I can, but this recipe proved a bit challenging (but that may have been my own doing). I actually recruited my mother to help me with the shallots because there was so much to do. It took me 1 hour to clean, de-stem, and hand chop 10 cups worth of mushrooms. Then making the sauce was rather time consuming since you have you evaporate the water out of the mushrooms and then later wait for the sauce to thicken. Still, the recipe was easy, just time consuming.

This dish can be made one day in advance and frankly, I suggest that you do that! Once you eat this updated version of "string bean mush-mash", you'll never go back to the ready made stuff!

Ingredients:

- 3 cups vegetable oil (about)

- 3 large shallots, cut into 1/8 inch thick rings (about 3 cups)

- 1 cup flour

- 3 tbsp Kosher salt

- 2 lb trimmed haricot verts, halved crosswise

- 2 oz (4 tbsp) unsalted butter

- 1.5 lb mixed mushrooms, coarsely chopped (about 7~8 cups) 

- 2 tbsp sherry

- 2 cups chicken broth

- 1 cup heavy cream

- salt and pepper, to taste

*These are the quantities for the original recipe, which serves 8. We were cooking for about 13, so we multiplied the recipe by 1.5

Directions:

1. Clean and prep your haricot verts. Then boil beans in salt water. Boil long enough that they are cooked, but still have a bit of bite to them. 

2. Once haricot verts are boiled, drain water. Then run beans under cool water --- so as to stop the cooking process. Set aside. 

3. Heat oil until shimmering hot. 

4. Slice your shallots.

5. Coat shallots with flour and salt. 

6. Get rid of excess flour by placing/shaking shallots off in a colander. 

7. Fry shallots until golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Season lightly with salt. 

8. Prepare your mushrooms. We used a large selection of mushrooms, as you can see. 

9. Clean and coarsely chop the mushrooms. 

10. In a large skillet, melt the butter.

11. Add the mushrooms to the pan and season with some salt.

Stir frequently. You want the water from the mushrooms to evaporate off. 

12. Whilst the mushrooms are cooking, prepare the sherry, extra flour, chicken stock, and cream. 

13. Add the sherry and let the alcohol burn off. 

14. Slowly mix in the flour. Toss to coat the mushrooms.

15. Slowly whisk in the broth and cream. 

16. Allow the mixture to simmer and thicken.

17. Remove from heat and stir in haricot verts. Season with salt and pepper. 

18. Transfer mixture to a baking dish. If you want to cook/serve immediately, be sure to pre-heat your oven to 400F and let the casserole bake for 20 minutes. 

19. Once the casserole is done, top with the fried shallots.