They're cheesy, cheap and classic. What are talking about? Casseroles, of course! In this brand-new series food writer and blogger Emily Farris, author of "Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven" crafts tasty new casseroles exclusively for Slashfood readers. Green Eggs and Ham is her premier dish -- just in time for Easter.
As a kid, I never understood why Easter dinner was called "dinner" if it happened at noon. Luckily, one of the great things about being an adult is that we can make our own rules and name our own meals. And because I still can't bring myself to call a meal that happens that early "dinner," this year I'm hosting Easter brunch.
Am I making a 10-pound ham and scrambling three-dozen eggs while my guests drink free-flowing mimosas? Nope, this thing is happening potluck style. Like most people I know, I can't afford to host lavish brunches (not to mention dinners!), but wanted my meal to incorporate the different elements of Easter and, well, be a little brunch-y. So green eggs and ham it was, with eggs, ham, spinach, biscuits and my favorite thing in the world: cheese.
After a bit of experimentation, I wound up with a sort-of upside-down quiche with a biscuit crust, and who wouldn't go crazy for that? Although it'd be a wonderful meal for Easter brunch or supper, it's also a great way to use up that leftover Easter ham. Regardless, it's the sort of thing that would make Dr. Seuss -- or the Easter Bunny -- proud.
There are few holiday dishes so polarizing as green bean casserole. If it was part of your usual Yuletide feast growing up, the stuff is sacrosanct and utterly essential to holiday joy. The bulk of it -- the french-cut green beans, cream of mushroom soup and French-fried onion strings -- must come blopping and clattering from cans and be baked in a casserole until it resembles a roiling green bog topped with a dry moss of frizzled onion straws. There are always seconds, and there's hardly ever any left over for a midnight refrigerator picnic.
If you didn't grow up with it skulking on the holiday table, good gravy, does that stuff look ten-foot-pole nasty.
Though the month of January is usually long, cold, dreary, and just all-around blah after the hype of the Holidays, one of the best things about it is the sale season! January is an awesome month for taking advantage of sales to stock up on small appliances, gadgets, and utensils, especially if one (or more) of your New Year's Resolutions was something along the lines of "cook at home more."
Amazon.com has a pretty sweet deal on a 9-piece Corningware set in French white. The entire set retails for $50, but is on sale right now for $14.99. We can't think of a better reason to buy the set than all the warm, hearty casseroles and oven-baked dishes you want to make to get you through the rest of winter.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been posting links to good Thanksgiving sides. Some of them have come from the recesses of my brain and some of have been pinched from other sites. I thought it might be helpful to round all those posts up in one place so that you can see some options in one place and narrow down your finalist dishes.
If after all those posts, you still don't think you have enough side dish options, I'd also like to point you in the direction of the oven roasted brussels sprouts I made last month. They are also excellent (and add a nice, green counterpoint to your plate) on the Thanksgiving table.
This week, we not only find out which store-bought
marinara sauce is the best, but we also find out just what the hell that is in the picture on the right (at first I
thought it was something from Lileks' Gallery of
Regrettable Food, but maybe that's too harsh).
I've decided to finally approach my fears
head-on and make cassoulet. I've searched high and low for a good recipe and found a couple of great blueprints. I
linked to this extremely detailed post on
cassoulet when I spoke of it before, and I'm printing it out to use as a guide through my adventure.
Before you can make cassoulet, you have to decide how you're going to handle the meats. Most cassoulets are
centered around duck, and use several parts of the bird. A classic rendition has the chef roasting the duck, rendering
the fat, and making a 'confit' of the leg and a demiglace (French for stock) of the carcass. What's more, after all
that, you have to select which other meats to include.
I made a critical decision when faced with my favorite butcher's meat counter and decided to buy duck confit
already made. Brilliant no? It's pictured here. I also decided to go without the authentic duck stock and just buy
storebought chicken broth. Hey, I don't have 48 hours to make this thing. I need cassoulet to be easy, or it's not
happening.
Want to cook this live with me tonight? You'll have to head to the market. Here's what you'll need:
Tuna casserole is, likely, the ultimate in American food. It's not hamburgers, no, it's not
meatloaf, and it's definitely not apple pie. The French invented apple pie, after all, and the Viennese probably
developed the precursor to meatloaf. They eat hamburgers everywhere.
But tuna, mixed with noodles, cheese and one of a variety of canned or frozen vegetables: that's got to be
America's very own. Tuna casserole is to America what cassoulet is to the French: every homey cook has her own recipe,
one of endless variations on a common theme (a blueprint, if you
will).
Every tuna casserole has one thing in common: tuna. Let's say, for the sake of argument, two cans of the stuff -
that's 12 ounces, or 1 1/2 cups, or about 350g. And let's say every casserole is cooked in a three-quart casserole
dish, in a 400F oven for 25 minutes. For most of these recipes, you can basically follow my aforementioned tuna casserole
blueprint; I'll point out differences in procedure along the way.
It's not that it was much different in appearance, but the difference comes from the quality of the ingredients.
Unless you're making it from scratch or buying super-premium pasta, the noodles are about the same. However, there is a
big difference when you make a meat-based tomato sauce from scratch and add your own hand-shredded cheese.
As someone who wasn't around for the 1950s, I have to ask, is this what it was like?
I recently stumbled upon Plan59, "the museum (and gift shop) of
mid-century illustration." While Plan59 has all manner of illustrations and advertisements from the 1950s, what
really drew me in was the Gallery of Demonic Tots and Deeply Disturbing
Cuisine. That's where I found the charming young lady you see here. I thought of including a different illustration, but I didn't want to freak anyone out too much
right off the bat. Personally, I think these images are great (they sort of have an eerie, Loretta Lux quality). However, I don't know what the original advertisers were
thinking. I don't have kids, but I don't think I'd ever want them to feel the frenzied, lock-jawed type of glee this
little girl seems to be experiencing. Especially not over a loaf of bread or a can of beans.
Oh, and if the kids are too much for you, there are ads with just pictures of food. Truth be told, these no less
disturbing (ok, maybe a little less). But really, the Velveeta Golden
Glory Casserole? It appears to be a bowl of mac and cheese, topped with hard boiled eggs and more Velveeta, all
ringed by some less than ideal tomatoes. Oh, and remember, keep the box of Velveeta on the table for good measure.
It is a slowly cooked mixture of a number of foods, often including meats and vegetables. Pies both sweet and
savory are the forerunners of the modern casserole. The word casserole comes from a French term meaning "served in the dish
used for cooking." While this does describe the modern casserole, it is much too broad a definition.
Today, many meals are served in the same dish they are cooked in, from soups to baked and roasted chicken. To
really pinpoint what defines a casserole, a more specific description is needed.
Cakes and other "baked goods" must be excluded, though they can be baked and served from casserole
dishes. Cakes and brownies do not maintain the distinction of their various ingredients as they cook; they change to
result in a wholly new product.
Dishes like tuna noodle casserole and lasagna are classic and familiar examples of casseroles. They both contain a
mixture of ingredients baked together and are served straight out of the baking dish. The ingredients do not meld
together in any significant way, remaining mixed, yet separate. Both dishes also hold their shape fairly well when cut,
so many think of casseroles as having a high degree of sliceability.
Tuesday, then, we'll be taking you back to the 1940s, 50s and 60s. We'll be making tuna casseroles 20 ways. We'll
discuss MSG - then a miracle ingredient called for in
nearly every cookbook - and we'll reprise our favorite meatloaf and macaroni & cheese recipes.
We'll take you through a few more vintage cookbooks, we'll explore the wonders of 50s-style Chop Suey, we'll
delight in frozen peas & carrots, we'll put "hidden surprises" in everything we can. We'll bring you back
50 years to the era where "housewife" was a designation of pride and little boys wore sailor suits. Now, if
you'll excuse me, I have Chicken Pie De Luxe to start baking...
I think I
may have finally cured my family of the green bean casserole.
Every year I try to introduce new dishes to my
family's Holiday dinner tables in order to get replace some of the ones that I *ahem* hate. Okay, so I
don't hate creamed corn, and mashed potatoes aren't terrible; it's just that we have the exact same thing
every effin' year, and the dishes that we could "jazz up" into Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes
or Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing, are rejected the next year for the boring, plain traditional ones. The one I hate
the most is the ultimate poster child of the Food Network show Unwrapped - green bean casserole. It's made from frozen vegetables, canned soup, and pull top canister onions.
But this year, I blanched fresh green beans for a
few minutes, wrapped them in bacon, and roasted them at 350 for 15 minutes, a la Paula Deen. They were awesome. Not a
single one left. My sister made them the next day for her party, too.
We'll see if the green bean casserole
makes it to the table next year.
Though the month of January is usually long, cold, dreary, and just all-around blah after the hype of the Holidays, one of the best things about it is the sale season! January is an awesome month for taking advantage of sales to stock up on small appliances, gadgets, and utensils, especially if one (or more) of your New Year's Resolutions was something along the lines of "cook at home more." 
This week, we not only find out which store-bought
marinara sauce is the best, but we also find out just what the hell that is in the picture on the right (at first I
thought it was something from Lileks' 
Tuna casserole is, likely, the ultimate in American food. It's not hamburgers, no, it's not
meatloaf, and it's definitely not apple pie. The French invented apple pie, after all, and the Viennese probably
developed the precursor to meatloaf. They eat hamburgers everywhere.
What exactly is a casserole?
I think I
may have finally cured my family of the green bean casserole.
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