The holiday table — that celebratory feast — a table of spectacle and aroma, a pinnacle of gastronomy covered with colorful serried plates and platters heaped high with holiday love – the kind of love that will drive us into a surfeited lethargy at the end of the feast. The Stars: Steaming salvers of fresh-from-the-oven standing rib roast, Virginia ham, rack of lamb, or free-range turkey. These grasp your attention at first, but soon your eye wanders to the other culinary wonders – plates and bowls of mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, rolls, bread and butter, cranberry sauce and those others - the traditional supporting dishes that you truly would miss if they hadn’t been prepared. These are the ones - American standards - ones that your mom made and maybe her mom made — accompaniments rich, tasty and filling. We know what they are, but I decided to take an un-official poll of friends and family to list favorite recipes. These originally were inventions of ease, formulas that were supposed to save time and energy so the chef could focus on the main courses. They took advantage of modern convenience foods - ones that were canned, frozen or “instant” products. But as fortune would have it they were also satisfyingly delicious. Some were invented by famous soup companies or ones that made canned foods, others came from the makers of cheese products and the like – but they all had a few things in common – their recipes were easy to find, easy to make and economical.
And the winners are – drum roll please; Green Bean Mushroom Soup Casserole with Fried Onions, Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows, Broccoli with Cheese Whiz and Ritz Cracker Crust, Cranberry Jell-O Ring and Creamed Spinach.
But these same recipes can also be created from scratch with fresh products, and as you would have guessed, resulting in a far superior dish – hence, redux – from the French to bring back, revive, recreate.
Following are some of the original recipes with recreations.
Happy Holidays and Bon Appétit.
The Original – String Green Bean - Mushroom Soup Casserole with Fried Onions
Ingredients
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/4 c. milk
1/8 tsp. black pepper
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans string cut green beans, drained
1 1/3 c. canned French-fried onions
Method
Combine soup, milk and pepper in a 1 1/2 qt baking dish; stir until blended. Stir in beans and 2/3 cup fried onions. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until hot. Stir. Sprinkle with remaining 2/3 cup fried onions. Bake 5 more minutes or until onions are golden.
Served 4
The Redux - String Bean and Creamy Mushroom Sauce Casserole with Crisp Onion Rings
(For this recipe I had to find a green bean “stringer”. This is a kitchen tool that you insert the trimmed green bean into and it cuts it lengthwise. I found one at a culinary store in Walnut Creek for $6.95, and it worked great. If you want to avoid this step then simply cut the beans into 2 inch lengths after trimming and before blanching)
Ingredients
1 ½ lbs. fresh green beans – ends trimmed “string” cut and blanched
for “soup”
1 lb. fresh Crimini or button mushrooms thinly sliced
½ c. chardonnay or sherry wine (depending on what’s in the cupboard)
6 tbsp. sweet butter or salad oil (butter is better)
7 tbsp. all purpose flour
2 c. low fat half and half
1 c. chicken stock
4 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
for onion rings
2 small yellow onions peeled and sliced into ¼ inch wide rings
batter =
½ c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. corn starch
1 pinch paprika
2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/3 c. beer
1 egg white
½ c. canola oil for frying
Method
Green beans – trim off stems and “string cut beans”. Blanch in boiling salted water for 2 minutes then drain and plunge into ice water. Drain well. Reserve.
For “soup”
In a 2 qt. sauce pan a heat stock, wine and half and half to a simmer.
In a separate sauté pan melt butter and sauté sliced mushrooms over medium heat until they start to soften. Add flour and remove from heat. Stir until flour is incorporated. Add mushroom - flour mixture to the stock, wine – half and half mixture and bring to a slow simmer stirring constantly until it starts to thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Cook over low heat for at least 5 minutes, remove from heat. Taste to adjust seasoning. (remember this is the major flavoring agent for the green beans so add enough salt and pepper.)
**You can do these two steps a day or so in advance.
For onion rings - these can be made an hour or so before assembly.
Pre-heat oven to 400°F
First of all take note that canned onion rings are not going to be as good as these. These are the BOMB so you need to protect them from the wolves!!.
Gently separate rings before dipping in batter. For batter mix dry ingredient together and slowly add the beer while whisking. Add the egg white and blend until smooth.
Heat oil in a high-sided sauté pan until just before it starts to smoke – turn heat down to medium. Dip onion rings into batter and start lightly browning onion rings a few at a time. (great tools – chopsticks and exam gloves). Remove to cooking sheets for final cooking. Bake for 10 minutes until brown and crispy.
Final assembly
Mix green beans with mushroom sauce and 1/3 of the onion rings. Place in a large casserole and top with remaining onion rings. Bake a 375° for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Serves 6 to 10 depending on how many other side dishes you have.
I will note that the entire process took more than 1 hour compared to the 20 minutes of the “prepared product” method. But you will be rewarded with oohs and ahhs.
The Original - Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
Now the original recipe that my mom made used canned whole or sliced yams, brown sugar, butter and marshmallows, which were browned on top. The yams were layered in a casserole with melted butter and brown sugar then topped with the sliced marshmallows and baked till the marshmallows browned.
The Redux - Sweet Potato Casserole with Meringue (instead of marshmallows)
This recipe is very similar to the classic casserole with marshmallows but unbelievably superior.
Ingredients
2 ¼ lb. - 2 to 3 garnet yams (all American yams are actually sweet potatoes)
1/2 stick butter
juice and zest of 1 orange (1/4 c. juice)
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. chopped toasted pecans
1/4 tsp. cinnamon to taste
1/4 - 1 tsp. nutmeg to taste
3 egg whites room temperature
4 tbsp. granulated sugar
¼ tsp. cream of tartar
Method
Peel sweet potatoes and rub with salad oil. Cover with foil and bake in a 350°F oven for 1 hour 20 minutes. You should be able to easily pierce the potatoes with a toothpick. Remove foil and let cool to room temperature. Slice into ¼ inch thick slices and lay in overlapping in rows in a 9” by 7” casserole.
Melt butter in a small saucepan add orange juice and zest and bring to a boil for 30 second or so. Pour over sweet potatoes. Then sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, pecans and salt evenly over the top. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 30 minutes while you are making the meringue. (Actually you can have this done early in the day and let the casserole wait to top with the meringue later.)
Preheat oven to 400°F.
For meringue: whip egg whites until frothy add sugar and cream of tartar. Beat until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Spoon or pipe meringue over yams and bake until meringue begins to brown about 5 minutes – watch closely as it can brown too quickly.
Serve immediately. This is looks and tastes really good, as you will find out.
Serve 6 to 8.
The Original - Broccoli with Cheese Whiz and Ritz Cracker
This recipe is just what it sounds like. Take de-frosted frozen broccoli flowerets and mix them with Cheese Whiz, place in a casserole and top with crushed Ritz Crackers then bake until hot and bubbly.
For a Redux simply make a cheddar cheese sauce with mild cheddar cheese, blanch fresh broccoli flowerets, toss with sauce, place in a casserole or individual baking dish, top with bread crumbs or cracker crumbs and bake until hot.
For complete recipe visit www.worldcooking.com
The Original - Cranberry Jell-O Ring
Ingredients:
1 (3 oz.) pkg. strawberry or cherry Jello
3/4 c. pineapple juice
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup boiling water
1 cup apples, diced
1/3 c. pecans, chopped
Method
Dissolve Jell-o in water. Add juice and sauce. Chill until slightly thickened. Stir in apples and pecans. Pour into 4 cup mold and chill until firm. Can be doubled but use only 1 cup pineapple juice. This is delicious with turkey.
For a Redux use fresh cranberries that you have cooked in orange juice according to the recipes on the package of cranberries.
Note – never use fresh pineapple in jello recipes as it will keep the jello from setting up.
The Original Creamed Spinach recipe that my mom used to make was nothing more that thawed frozen chopped spinach – well drained and mixed with heated cream cheese.
For a Redux visit www.worldcooking.com.
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