Green Bean Casserole with Madeira Mushrooms, Cooking Light November 2011
This was a bit of a labor-intensive meal! But amazingly, everything ended up getting finished right around the same time. First to start were the popovers, which are just milk, egg, and flour that starts by sitting for 30 minutes, and then the dried porcini, which rehydrate for 15 minutes. During that time I got started on the green bean casserole. The green beans are just parboiled, and then the onion, thyme, and mushrooms are sauteed in turn before adding Madeira wine, then some flour to thicken, then some chicken broth to turn it into a sauce. This joins the popovers (who were put in the oven at some point during the sauteeing) in the oven.
Then while that was all baking, I... did the exact same thing for the main dish's mushroom sauce. The shallots, thyme, garlic, and mushrooms are sauteed before adding red wine, then some flour to thicken, then the dried-mushroom-soaking broth to turn it into a sauce.
The magazine pictures the popovers and beef on a plate with some plain steamed green beans, and so I had those in my mind, but also had the recipe for the green bean casserole I wanted to try. Somehow I thought having mushrooms in both would be unifying or something, without reading the recipe details to see that really, it's the same sauce, just one is mixed with green beans and the other tops meat. But this let us compare and contrast. We did think that the main dish's sauce was a clear winner, probably because of the additional flavor of fresh sage that gets added in right at the end. And maybe it was just nicer in part because it was served with meat instead of green beans. For the meat, I used pork tenderloin instead of beef tenderloin when I realized that beef tenderloin = file mignon = $18/lb. We like pork tenderloin more than steak, and it's about $3/lb this month! We used a meat thermometer to check when it was cooked and it was so juicy and good. We didn't miss the beef.
The popovers were the biggest surprise. I was sure that the lack of a leavening agent was some oversight-- how are they supposed to pop if there isn't any yeast or baking powder? But sure enough, when I went to check on them, they were twice as tall! Turns out, it rises from the steam. I'm not sure how that relates (if it does) to the long sitting time. But I was quite impressed! They were quite eggy, like a crepe or the outside of an eclair. Other than needing to be started a while in advance, they were absurdly easy but tasted/looked like they required skill to make. That's my kind of recipe! The funny thing is that two of them turned out bifurcated, like with cat ears. I think those might have been the two right under the electric heating element in the stove! Very funny looking:
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