When
asparagus spears poked their heads up in the back yard, my mother snapped them
off and headed for the kitchen to make her famous asparagus casserole. Mother
has been gone for many years, but her asparagus casserole is recreated in her
granddaughter’s kitchen and mine every spring. This dish is so tasty there’s
never any left over.
Here’s the
recipe, in case you want to try it.
3
hard-boiled eggs
2 cups of
thin white sauce
1 bunch of
asparagus
cracker
crumbs or bread crumbs
First,
make the white sauce, using 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of flour.
Melt the butter in a 1-quart saucepan. Add the flour and let the butter and
flour bubble together for a minute or two. (I think of this as “marrying the butter
and flour.") Meanwhile heat 2 cups of milk in a pan or in the microwave. Stir
the heated milk into the butter-flour mixture and continue cooking and stirring
over medium heat. The sauce should come to a slow boil and begin to thicken.
Then it’s done. Add salt and pepper as you desire.
Set the
sauce aside and prepare the asparagus for steaming. Snap off and discard the
tough end of each spear, then snap each spear in half. I like to steam the
lower halves separately for 10 minutes. Then I steam the tip ends for 6 or 7
minutes.
Peel the
hard-boiled eggs.
Now it’s
time to assemble the layers in an 8-inch baking pan. First spread a bit of
white sauce in the bottom of the pan and arrange the bottom ends of asparagus
on top.
Next, slice
the eggs, arrange the slices on top.
Add
another layer of white sauce, the asparagus tips and then the last of the white
sauce.
Finally,
crush some saltines.
Now, scatter
the cracker crumbs over the top and dot with butter.
Bake in a
370ยบ oven for about 20 minutes.
While
enjoying this dish be sure to remember your mamaw.
Copyright
2013 by Shirley Domer
2 comments:
I made this last week! I thought of Mamaw!
Do you make it pretty much they way I've described? I've never had a recipe for it so I just made one up. After I told Jayni Carey about this casserole she found a recipe in an old Better Homes and Gardens recipe book from the 1970s.
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