Lithuanian Green Beans

This dish is definitely NOT low fat, and wouldn’t taste right if it were. It is a special treat kind of dish and everyone who has tried it loves it. Our family serves it at holiday times sometimes, like Thanksgiving or Christmas. It is not a holiday dish per se, but it does go well with any meat: beef, chicken, turkey or ham.

• Ready In: 24 hrs
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 4 (10 1/2ounce) cans  regular  cut green beans (retain 3 cups liquid)
• 1  large onion, minced
• 2  lbs bacon, cut in strips fried crisp
• 2⁄3 cup bacon drippings
• 2⁄3 cup flour (more if needed)
• 2  teaspoons garlic powder
•  salt (careful, green beans have salt in the liquid)
•  pepper
• 1 (32 ounce) package sour cream

Directions

1. Cut bacon in strips and fry until crisp.Drain off bacon grease and retain. Do not clean fry pan.
2. When bacon is crisp, set aside on paper towels to drain. but retain drippings in container, some of which will be used.
3. Open green beans in cans, but retain liquid from beans in a separate heat-proof cup or vessel (for later use).
4. Dice onion, set aside.
5. In same fry pan you fried bacon, add back 2/3 cup bacon grease to skillet and heat up skillet until grease is hot.
6. To the hot bacon grease add in the minced onion and fry until onions are almost translucent.
7. Continuing to fry, add in flour to hot bacon fat drippings with onion until the flour loses its ‘rawness’ and forms a 'roux' (paste) that begins to fry and even begin to turn a little brown.
8. Quickly add green bean LIQUID to the paste in order to begin to make a gravy from the green bean liquid.
9. Keep adding green bean liquid to the roux a little at a time, until you get gravy that is about normal gravy consistency, not too thick, not too thin.
10. Once you have made the ‘green bean gravy’, put in all of the sour cream.
11. Immediately reduce heat to low simmer and cover pan until sour cream melts over very low simmer heat. Do not boil the sour cream, just heat over low heat until it melts, then mix it in with the green bean mixture. It should melt in about 5 or so minutes (might be more).
12. When sour cream has melted, open lid and add in all the drained green beans into the sour cream gravy.
13. Add back the fried bacon.
14. Gently stir all together.
15. Cover pan and put back on low simmer. Do not boil this or it will break down the sour cream.
16. Let it slow simmer and gently blend the flavors for about 15-20 minutes, occasionally lifting the lid and gently stirring to avoid sticking. You may add enough green bean liquid to thin it a bit if you think it is getting too thick.
17. Note: Even though you retain the green bean liquid during the preparation of the dish, you may or may not need to use all of it. Just set it aside and use as needed to make the sauce and to at the end of cooking, adjust the sauce for consistency if need be. If you run out of bean liquid, use a little water if you need it.