Green bean casserole with fried shallots

Wash the cremini mushrooms, chop them and get them into the pan.

Salt the mushrooms straight away to draw the moisture out; they will look wet, then the moisture cooks off and they brown and concentrate.

Add garlic and thyme to the mushrooms.

Trim the ends off the green beans and cut them into one inch pieces.

Blanch the green beans in boiling salted water until just crisp, tender and bright green, then shock them in plenty of ice water.

Pluck the thyme and the garlic cloves out of the mushrooms.

Make a roux from the reserved basting butter and flour, using slightly more fat than flour, and use it to thicken milk into a mushroom cream sauce.

Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

Set a strainer in a bowl before you start. Cover the sliced shallots three quarters of the way with cold oil and fry on high heat, stirring constantly.

Pull the shallots from the heat before they look done, spread them out immediately so carryover does not burn them, and salt while warm.

Fold the green beans into the mushroom sauce with a handful of the crispy onions, pour into the dish and scatter the rest of the fried shallots over the top.

Bake until bubbly.

Cool, portion and freeze dry.