Broccoli Cheese Casserole

Oh la la. This is not your grandma's broccoli cheese casserole. Ever since Christopher Kimball challenged people to Google broccoli casserole, insisting they would be disappointed with what they found, I've been meaning to post a killer broccoli casserole. And dear readers, this is it. The ingredients? Broccoli of course, then bacon, flour, milk, cream, eggs, cheddar cheese, a little Dijon, salt, and lots of freshly cracked black pepper. The tricks are to pre-cook the broccoli florets a bit so they cook up tender in the casserole, use bacon because bacon makes everything taste better, and spice it up with black pepper. Just simple freshly cracked black pepper. Use as much as you can stand; it will make your broccoli casserole sing.

Many thanks to the new love of my culinary life, Dorie Greenspan, who provided the inspiration and basic structure for this recipe with a fabulous cauliflower gratin in her cookbook Around My French Table (hint, buy this book for yourself and all your friends, it's stunning.)

Broccoli Cheese Casserole Recipe

• Cook time: 55 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 pounds broccoli, stems removed (can use vegetable peeler to peel, then slice and eat like celery), large florets cut, yielding about 8 cups of broccoli florets
• Salt for blanching water
• 2 strips of thick-cut bacon (about 2 ounces), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch wide strips
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 5 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 to 3 teaspoons of freshly cracked black pepper (1 to 2 teaspoons if using fine ground black pepper)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated

Method

1 Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (1 Tbsp salt for 2 quarts of water). Add the broccoli florets and boil for 3-5 minutes or until just tender enough so that a fork can easily pierce the floret, but still firm. Strain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.
2 While the water in step one is coming to a boil, cook the bacon pieces on medium heat in a frying pan until lightly browned, but not crisp. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the excess fat. Set aside.
3 Preheat oven to 425°F. Butter a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish. In a bowl, whisk the eggs into the flour, then whisk in the cream and milk. Add the black pepper (more or less to taste), salt, and mustard. Mix in about a third of the cheese.
4 Place the parboiled broccoli florets in the casserole dish, sprinkling about a third of the cheese over the broccoli florets as you lay them down. Sprinkle the bacon pieces over the broccoli. Pour the egg, cream, milk, cheese mixture over the broccoli, moving the broccoli pieces a bit so that the mixture gets into all the nooks and crannies. Sprinkle the casserole with the remaining cheese.
5 Bake for 25-40 minutes, or until set. Once the top has browned, you may want to tent with aluminum foil to keep from burning.
Yield: Serves 5 as a main course, 10 as a side.

Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

If there is one true expression of Southern love on a plate, it’s homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy. There are so many ways to make biscuits and gravy, but this one’s my favorite. The biscuits are easy to make, and the gravy is loaded with sausage.


This version of sausage gravy is a beloved Southern recipe – there are many variations to be found. Sage and nutmeg are two of the more pronounced flavors in the gravy, giving it a slightly more elevated taste than you would find in simple milk gravy. If you dislike these flavors, omit the nutmeg and use a regular pork breakfast sausage instead of the sage-flavored variety.

One of the differences you’ll find when you talk to people about how they make sausage gravy is whether or not they make a traditional roux (just drippings and flour), or they add the flour directly to the sausage after it’s browned. I’ve made it both ways; the gravy thickens up just fine when you add the flour to the browned sausage mixture.

As for the biscuits, there are countless recipes that have been handed down over the years in Southern families. Many swear that White Lily Self-Rising Flour is essential to making light fluffy biscuits. However, in my experience you can make perfectly respectable biscuits even if you can’t get your hands on that Southern staple. You can also mix up the ratio of butter and shortening, or just use one or the other, or lard, if you prefer.

In the spirit of the gracious South, please share with us your favorite way to make biscuits and gravy.

Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Recipe

• Cook time: 35 minutes

I recommend preparing the biscuits first (not baking them), getting the gravy started, and then baking the biscuits while the gravy is thickening up. That way you can stir the gravy frequently which is hard to do when your hands are covered with flour and dough. If you don't have self-rising flour, you can substitute using a ratio of 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, plus 1/8 teaspoon of salt, for every cup of self-rising flour.

Ingredients

Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups self-rising flour (plus extra for flouring your surface)
• 2 tsp sugar (Optional)
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 4 Tbsp vegetable shortening (see Baking Tips below)
• 4 Tbsp butter (chilled)
• 1 cup chilled buttermilk (plus 1-2 tbsp more, if needed)
• 1 tbsp melted butter (Optional: to brush on top of biscuits after baking)

Sausage Gravy Ingredients:

• 1 lb sage-flavored pork sausage
• ¼ cup finely chopped white or yellow onion
• 6 tbsp all purpose flour
• 4 cups whole milk
• ½ tsp poultry seasoning
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1-2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 dashes of Tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, or other hot sauce
• 1-2 tbsp butter or bacon grease (if needed)

Method

Buttermilk Biscuits
Baking Tips: 1) Spoon the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off with the back side of a knife. If you scoop the flour, it will pack into the measuring cup, yielding too much flour, 2) Instead of 4 Tbsp each of butter and shortening, feel free to use 8 Tbsp of shortening or butter, or any combination up to 8 Tbsp.

1 Preheat oven to 450 F. Prepare a floured surface for shaping the dough and have an ungreased baking sheet ready (lined with Silpat sheets if you have them).
2 Whisk together flour, sugar and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Using a fork or a pastry blender cut in the shortening and butter. Work quickly, you don’t want the fats to melt – the key to fluffy biscuits is minimal handling. The mixture should be crumbly.
3 Make a well in the flour mixture, and pour in the buttermilk. Stir with a spoon and blend just until the liquid is absorbed and the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl – add 1-2 tbsp more buttermilk if the dough is dry. Do not over mix; the dough will be tacky, neither wet nor dry.
4 With lightly floured hands, turn out the dough onto a lightly-floured surface and gently fold it over on itself 2 or 3 times. Shape into a 3/4” thick round. If you use a rolling pin, be sure to flour it first to keep the dough from sticking to the pin.
5 Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits pressing straight down (avoid the temptation to twist the cutter as twisting keeps the biscuits from rising). Dip the cutter in flour between cuttings to keep the dough from sticking to the cutter. Place biscuits on the baking sheet so that they just touch (for crunchy sides, leave space in between). Reshape scrap dough and continue cutting. Remember to handle the dough as little as possible.
6 Bake for 15-18 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top. Turn the baking sheet around halfway through baking.
7 Optional: Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter.

Sausage Gravy
1 Preheat a 4-quart saucepan over medium high heat (put a few drops of water in the pan – when they evaporate, you know the pan is ready). Crumble the sausage into the pan and let it brown for a minute or two, then turn down to medium heat. Continue cooking, breaking up the sausage into smaller pieces, until no pink remains. Stir in the onions and cook until they are transparent.
2 Remove sausage with a slotted spatula or spoon, leaving the drippings in the pan. If less than 3 tbsp of drippings remain, add enough butter (or bacon grease) to equal about 3 tbsp of drippings. Add the cooked sausage back to the pan on medium heat, and sprinkle the flour over the sausage. Stir in the flour and cook for about 6-8 minutes, until the mixture starts bubbling and turns slightly golden brown.
3 Stir in poultry seasoning, nutmeg, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce and salt – cook for 1 minute to deepen the flavors. Slowly add the milk and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened (about 15 minutes). Be patient, it will thicken!

Yield: Makes 10-12 servings

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