Green Bean Casserole

Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away; and if you're thinking about how you might make green bean casserole - that Thanksgiving staple - healthier and fresher, then today's recipe is for you.

Green bean casserole is a traditional dish on many Thanksgiving tables. It's usually made with canned or frozen string beans, cream of mushroom soup, and canned fried onions. With just a little extra effort, you can made a healthier version from scratch with all of the creamy delicious-ness of original version.

Start with the Blue Lake string beans in today's CSA box, add fresh mushrooms, make a quick cream sauce, and use fresh, sliced onions to make your own tastier and healthier fried onions. And since you're starting from scratch, you can adjust the ingredients to your taste.

Prep the Beans: Trim the string beans and cut them into bite-sized pieces if you wish. Blanch them in a pot of boiling water or steam them for about 2-3 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside.

Thinly slice fresh mushrooms and saute them in a little bit of butter or olive oil. I like to throw in some sliced shiitake mushrooms for added flavor. Covering the mushrooms while they're sauteing over low to medium heat will prevent them from sticking to the pan, as the water they exude will not evaporate. Once the mushrooms are cooked, remove the cover and cook off the liquid, or pour it off and set it aside to use in your sauce.

I'm being vague about the amounts of beans and mushrooms on purpose. I tend to go heavy on the mushrooms, but you can adjust the proportion of beans to mushrooms to suit your taste. The amount of sauce you need depends on the volume of cooked beans and mushrooms combined. For a 1 qt casserole, you'll need 4 C of cooked beans and mushrooms. For a 2 qt casserole, you'll need 8 C.

While the beans and mushrooms are cooking, make the crispy fried onions by slicing 1 large onion in quarters lengthwise, then very thinly slice each quarter crosswise. In a large skillet, heat 1-2 t olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and stir to break apart the rings. Use a skillet that's large enough for the onions to be spread thinly on the bottom or work in batches. Cook the onions until they get crispy and brown, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

You need about 2 C of white sauce for a 1 qt casserole or 4 C of white sauce for a 2 qt casserole. Make your favorite white sauce or use this simple recipe:

Melt 2 T butter over medium low heat in a small saucepan. Stir in 2 T flour, 1 T at a time, and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Whisk in 2 C hot milk, 1/2 C at a time, whisking constantly to prevent lumps and sticking. Add salt and pepper to taste. A little nutmeg is also good. Cook over medium low heat, whisking constantly until the sauce just starts to boil. Remove from the heat. Double this recipe for a 2 qt casserole.

Canned condensed milk makes a particularly creamy sauce. Whole milk is also good.

Now you can assemble the casserole: Put the beans and mushrooms in a large bowl. Pour the white sauce over them and stir to coat. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary and pour into a greased casserole dish. Spread your crispy fried onions on top and bake in a preheated 375 F degree oven for 20-30 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the top is brown. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

You can blanch and freeze the Blue Lake beans you got in today's box to use on Thanksgiving. You can prepare the different elements of this recipe the day before Thanksgiving. Defrost the beans, cook up the mushrooms, stir them together and store them in the refrigerator. Make the crispy fried onions and the white sauce. You can leave the onions in a covered container on the counter but refrigerate the white sauce. On Thanksgiving day, follow the steps in the paragraph above on assembling the casserole. You may have to cook it a little longer if all the ingredients are cold when you put it in the oven.

Today's bounty included:

From Underwood Family Farms: Tatsoi, bok choy, celery, Blue Lake beans, red leaf lettuce, fennel, French Breakfast radishes, summer squash, bi-color corn, kale, arugula, broccoli, and Cherokee tomatoes

From Weiser Family Farms: Kabocha squash, golden beets, German Butterball potatoes, and dried Dragon Tongue beans

From Rancho Santa Cecilia: Hass avocados, limes and Satsuma mandarins

From Silver Lake Farms: arugula, basil, and cilantro microgreens and thyme

Enjoy!

Shelley

Collard Wraps

Jed digs local fruit

Walker shares loquats and nasturtium blossoms from her garden

Here's what Farmer John had for us at the Silver Lake pick-up this week:

Garlic
Beets, red and gold
Arugula
Mustard greens
Butter lettuce
Green chard
Russian kale
Collard greens
Mint
Red romaine
Chamomile

Collard greens are often prepared chopped and cooked slowly with a ham hock. This traditional preparation produces tender greens and a smoky pot liquor that's intoxicatingly delicious.

Jed suggested a completely different approach to collard greens - using them as a wrap with a vegan filling of vegetables and grains. What a great idea!

Collard Wraps

For 4 wraps:
5 medium collard leaves
2-3 T finely chopped red onion
1 C sliced mushrooms, shittake are particularly tasty
1/2 C grated carrot
1 C cooked brown rice, or quinoa, or barley
1 T canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Start by selecting 4 medium collard leaves that are intact (no holes). Bring a 3-4 qt pot of water to a boil and blanch the 4 leaves, one at a time, by holding the stem and dipping the leaf in the boiling water for 5 seconds. Set aside and repeat with the other leaves.

2. Remove the stems from the blanched greens and slice them thinly. Set aside.

3. Take the remaining unblanched collard leaf: Chop the leaf in coarse strips and chop the stem thinly, same as the others.

4. In a 10-inch skillet, heat the canola oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until translucent, about 1 minute.

5. Add the thinly sliced collard stems and the mushrooms. Cover and turn down the heat a little. Cook until the mushrooms have exuded their moisture.

6. Add the chopped collard leaf and cover again until the it has wilted and softened somewhat.

7. Uncover the pan, turn the heat back up a little. When most of the water has cooked off, add the grated carrots and the cooked brown rice (or quinoa or barley). Cook until the carrots are slightly softened and the grain is heated through, stirring to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste

8. Remove the filling from the heat and assemble the wraps: Take one-fourth of the filling and place it in the center of one blanched leaf. Fold the top of the leaf over the filling, then fold each side in toward the center, leaving the stem end open [or use the whatever wrapping technique you prefer]. Repeat with remaining blanched leaves and filling.

Enjoy!

Shelley

Beachwood Canyon CSA pick-up & Panade Recipe

Vollies John and Laura with CSA shareholder Fran at the Beachwood Canyon pick-up.








Here's what Farmer John had for us at the Beachwood Canyon pick-up today:

turnips (pictured left)
arugula
Russian Kale
red & golden beets
curly mustard (pictured below)
japanese cucumbers
celery
adolescent romaine (red & green)
fresh garlic
mint
butter lettuce

Meanwhile, Mars, who happens to be launching a unique neighborhood school in Beachwood Canyon, sent in this amazing recipe for Panade - a savory bread casserole.

Make Panade with greens (kale, mustard, beet tops, turnip tops) and bread - even if it's old, stale bread - it doesn't matter. Mars brought some Panade to the CSA pick-up for us to taste and it was DELICIOUS. Here's her recipe, dapted from Judy Rodgers’s recipe from The Zuni Café.

Panada - a savory casserole

Choose a 2 quart soufflé dish or cast iron dutch oven, The size will be a gauge as to how much bread etc you will need.

2-3- thinly sliced yellow onions
mushrooms of all kinds
Garlic cloves peeled, as many as you like
ham
Salt
1 lb green Swiss Chard, thick ribs removed, or any bitter green (kale, mustard or beet green) cut into ribbons
Day old chewy bread (not sandwich bread) cut into cubes-enough to fill your casserole
Big box of chicken stock or vegetable broth
Fontina or Gruyere or swiss cheese coarsely grated (2 cups loosely packed) or more!

HEAT ¼ cup of the olive oil, add the onions and garlic, cook 3 minutes, stir and repeat.

When golden, add garlic, reduce heat to low with a few pinches of salt.

Stew, stir occasionally -- 15 minutes. Onions should not be mushy. Remove from pan.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees so as to cook for 1 hour 45 minutes.
Heat oven to 250 degrees so as to cook 2 hours 45 minutes.

In same large pan as you cooked the onions, wilt the chard with a drizzle of water and oil. Add a few pinches of salt.
3-4 minutes. It will taste bitter—ignore that. Toss in the bread with few T of olive oil and some stock.
Arrange layers of bread and greens with handfuls of cheese and a grind of pepper. Place cheese on top.

Bring the stock to a simmer and taste of salt.
Add stock to dish, nearly to the brim (1 inch below) Wait till it is absorbed.

BAKING THE PANADE
Cover the top with parchment paper then loosely wrap the top and sides with foil--With dull sides out.
Place a piece of foil on the floor to catch the inevitable drips.
It will rise a little, lifting the foil with it.
The top should be pale golden in the center and slightly darker on the edges.
Not really necessary but you can finish by uncovering the panade and raise temp to 375 for 10-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Excellent the next day. Great for freezing.

Thank you Mars! tara