Broccoli Cheese Casserole

I was searching for a vegetable side dish to go along with the Beast for Feast of Christmas Eve.  I knew I could have gone with something like steamed green beans or broccoli, but I wanted to try something new, and something with a little pizazz.  I had looked on Pinterest a couple times, but it wasn't until about noon today when I was forced to make a decision.  After looking at the actual recipes of several broccoli casseroles, most of which involved using cream of mushroom soup, which I don't love.  I'm not a mushroom fan.  I would go so far as saying I hate mushrooms.  Sure, I could have gone with cream of something-else soup (broccoli, cheddar, celery, or even chicken); but I didn't want to use that.  Then Catherine and I found this recipe -- no cream of anything soup needed AND it called for bacon.  Everything is better with bacon!  We had our winner!  This was a delicious side dish that was well worth the wading through recipes to find!

• 2 pounds broccoli, cut into large florets, yielding about 8 cups of broccoli florets
• Salt for blanching water
• ½ pound of thick-cut bacon, diced
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 5 eggs, beaten
• ½ cup cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2-3 tsp. of freshly cracked black pepper (1-2 tsp. fine ground black pepper)
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 cup (or more to taste) Panko bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. 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.
3. Strain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.
4. 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. (I cooked the bacon as I now tend to make it for any type of cooking – I take a barely thawed pound of frozen bacon and slice vertically so that it is cut into natural diced segments.  I then take a non-stick saucepan and preheat on high, adding the bacon, cooking until crisp, and then draining.  Such an easy way with very little prep or mess.)
5. Preheat oven to 425°F.
6. Butter a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish. (I used a 9x13” Pyrex dish)
7. In a bowl, whisk the eggs into the flour, then whisk in the cream and milk, and adding the black pepper (more or less to taste), salt, and mustard.
8. Mix in about a third of the cheese.
9. 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.
10. Sprinkle the bacon pieces over the broccoli.
11. 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.
12. Sprinkle the casserole with the remaining cheese plus the panko bread crumbs.
13. 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. (Since I was making this along with the Beast for our Feast of Christmas Eve, I actually had to start with an oven temperature of 325°F; when the Beast came out, I covered the casserole with aluminum foil, but kept the temperature low, just cooking it for 40+ minutes to ensure it was fully set and cooked.)

Yield: 10-15 as a side dish.

Adapted from Simply Recipes