Some have called this a hipster party. I can kind of see where they get that from, since we are a large group of college-age people throwing a dinner party around something traditionally uncool and... well, weird. But I will be the first to say that our love for casserole is genuine, so the notes of ridicule and irony traditionally associated with hipster activities aren't even a blip on the radar.
And as I'm on this quest to bring life back into a dying casserole art, I'm not about to introduce something with canned soup mixes or prepackaged fried onion pieces. For this event, I saw a lot of nontraditional casseroles being made, so I decided to put my spin on a more homestyle sort of casserole. So was born the Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole.
Ingredients:
- About 3 cups of cooked basmati rice
- 1/2 cup sliced (or diced) regular white mushrooms
- 1/2 cup diced onion (yellow, white, or any sweet variety)
- 1/2 cup vegetable stock (I cook for a lot of vegetarians. Use chicken stock if you want)
- 1 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream
- 12 ounces of broccoli, cut to bite sized pieces
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- About 2 cups of a shredded cheddar/jack blend (or just cheeses with a similar bite to them)
- About 1 and 1/2 cups of panko bread crumbs (or regular ones, of those are all you have)
- 2 tablespoons of flour
- 2 cloves of minced garlic (more if you like garlic, of course)
- 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- Salt and pepper
0.5. Cook your rice now. Please. You don't want to be waiting on it while everything else is cooking. Depending on your rice, if you begin this step just before finishing step #1, your rice should be ready just about when you need it.
1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Coat a 1 and 1/2 quart (or similarly sized dish, go bigger if you have to) casserole/glass baking dish in a layer of the butter you have measured out. Melt the remaining butter in a medium sized pot.
2. When the butter is melted, put the onions in along with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Sauté the onions until they become translucent (i.e., not opaque and pure white, but not fully brown yet... kinda see-through).
3. When the onions are transparent, add the mushrooms, garlic (if you add them any earlier, they might get overcooked), cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Stir regularly until the mushrooms give up most of their moisture and turn a medium-dark brown.
4. Add in the flour and coat the veggies. Stir this pasty mess for about 2 minutes to get rid of the taste of raw flour. By the way, you're making a roux right now, it's what will thicken the sauce.
5. After 2 minutes, add the vegetable stock and then the cream to the pot. Stir until the sauce is well mixed and there are no chunks of floury roux floating around (there will with chunks of onion and mushroom left, of course). Bring this up to a simmer. You've just made soup much better than you could get out of a can.
6. When the sauce is simmering, add 1 and 1/2 cups of the cheese. Do this a handful or two at a time to allow the cheese to mix in evenly. Add in the broccoli, cooked rice, and 1 cup of the panko and mix well.
7. Take the mixture and put it in the buttered casserole dish, spreading the top to make an even surface. Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly on the top, followed by sprinkling the remaining panko in a similar fashion.
8. Place the dish in the oven, uncovered, for about 20 minutes or until the top cheese is melted and the panko is a golden brown. Serve hot.
You'll be surprised with how simple this is to pull off compared to how many remarks of "Mmmmmm!" and "Thish ish sho gooad! [chewing noises]" you'll get. Feel free to make little alterations wherever you see fit. While there is some science to casseroles, much of it is an art that you use your instincts for when you feel confident enough about your culinary abilities. Stay tuned for some more of the top casseroles from Night of 1000 Casseroles.
