BeBe Casserole

There exist several food items that I associate with my grandmother’s cooking. Ground beef with carrots (when I asked her why, she said, “You gotta add some flavor.”), always smooth and thick brown gravy with roast, shredded green beans with onions and bacon smothered beyond belief. I could actually go on for a while.

However, there is one item that sticks out above all the rest: BeBe casserole. This casserole takes many forms, eggplant and ground beef, patty pan and ground beef, but the formula is the same. Cook the fleshy vegetable down with onions,  bell pepper, green onion, celery, and then add in the ground beef (and salt and seasoning, of course). Put in a casserole dish, cover with buttered bread crumbs and bake it so that it comes together. Voila. 

It’s mushy… but it’s delicious. Just a forkful of pure awesome flavor without things like crunch getting in the way. I loved this so much as a kid, I wasn’t really a fan of crunchy things.

Tonight I am making another variety, mirliton and shrimp. Same formula as above. The mirliton take a little more cooking than the eggplant, but it comes out well. It is very easy to get mirliton here as they are sold with a different name: chayote squash. My big group at work is having our Thanksgiving potluck tomorrow, so I decided to bring this. I think this is probably one of those things that everybody’s Cajun grandmother makes in some variety. But to me it is always BeBe Casserole.