[Sca-cooks] Thanksgiving trends

[Patricia Dunham]

no trends here, 8-) just dull old traditional-traditional-traditional!  My husband does most of the cooking, I do some of the baking & sides & clean-up. He says he usually makes some small change(s) every year, especially with the dressing; but hasn't decided what for this year yet. Have to keep the sage as low as possible too.

Start with celery stix, baby carrots, plain black olives for crudites. Hmm, somebody mentioned deviled eggs. That sounds really interesting.

Turkey, stuffed, roasted. We brine, but very simply: water, kosher salt & the herb packet from unseasoned stuffing croutons.  We have moved beyond Shelton's organic birds, to "Diestel" brand. The Sheltons have a "bitter aftertaste" that doesn't occur in the Diestel. We assume the Shelton problem has something to do with feed, something that the Diestels aren't doing. 

Stuffing: Very plain. Unseasoned croutons & their spice packet, sweated onion, lots of parsley from the garden, home-made turkey stock and we do add chunked up antique yellow delicious apple (inherited a very old orchard tree with this lot, developed in the 50's). We don't do celery in the stuffing any more (allergy/sensitivity seems to have developed), but onion is still edible. By preference, we moisten the dressing with turkey stock from previous birds. Don't know if we have any (frozen in 1-cup sandwich baggies), but will be making more from this carcass. -- Oh goody, he found just enough!

Turkey-pan-roasted potatoes. We put a solid layer of small (no bigger than 1 inch) potatoes across the bottom of the roaster, then turkey goes on top of the potatoes. Throw another lump of turkey stock in for the potatoes. Turkey gets uncovered for the last 20-30 minutes. If all goes optimally, the potatoes will be crispy on the down-surface and there may be some caramel down there too! (schmalz-caramel from the turkey stock cooking down, eh? no sugar involved)

Home-made Cranberry sauce, with tangerine juice, pulp & zest (BeeSweet SATSUMAs are the ONLY tangerines, 8-), prefer Medium or Large size if you can find them, Giant & Mammoth are watered-down in the taste), maybe a spoonful of Major Grey's, probably a handful of walnuts.

Plain roasted sweet potato; we have a set of small French onion soup mini-casseroles with lids. Chunk up the peeled sweet potato, add about a Tbs butter and close 'em up. when the timing is right, you get MARVELOUS caramel on the bottom surface. This caramel does of course have sugars from the sweet potato.

Steamed broccoli (last minute; 4 minutes only)

Home-made bread, a semi-Ciabatta made with the 1847 Oregon Trail (not-very) sourdough starter. Available free, google it.

Roast beef meat pies (hand-pies), home-made, & KFC potato wedges for the pickiest eater of all.

Possibly some Black Forest ham, since I have one in the house (Fletcher's, Canadian brand, not too salty, a little smoky, NO SUGAR!)

Dessert will be a selection of cookies, primarily home sugar cookies & shortbread; maybe some brown-sugar biscotti. Maybe a little ice cream, because it's something our guest can bring. We don't do pies because fillings are too "mysterious" for the picky eaters, and I'd much rather spend calories on the roast potatoes, 8-). Although I may make some mince hand-pies this year, as I managed an almost-right batch of mincemeat last spring. The Cinnamon Ban makes holiday baking ... interesting. (no cinnamon in the house, "tree bark" makes the hubby literally stop breathing)

(We'll have the usual bacon & pancakes, and bacon pancakes, for breakfast, before cooking starts; and will make & eat our "sweetie pies" on Wed when doing the handpies. Any occasion requiring pastry, requires finishing with sweetie-pies. We will add a batch of pastry to the main multiple, to make sure there'll be enough left-over, 8-). I'm sure "sweetie-pies" are common as dirt, but just in case...

Roll your leftover pie crust pastry into as big and regular a rectangle as you can manage (ca. 10x12" minimum).  Butter the whole surface, then sprinkle medium heavy with plain granulated sugar. Be sure your butter is SOFT, but not melted, so you can slather it on good without tearing the pastry; have 2 cubes ready for a 10x12, you won't use it all, but don't want to run out in the middle! Fold over about an inch and a quarter of one long side. Butter and sugar that surface. Fold again, butter, sugar; repeat until you have used up your rectangle.  If you haven't ended with an even layer, trim it off & discard. Half-layers don't work so hot. At the end, butter the top, sugar lightly, and cut. Divide your long flat roll as evenly as possible, into rectangles that are slightly longer than they are wide. Sugar again, so there's a thicker layer on top than on the interior layers. Hopefully, this will crust up to some degree. 

Transfer to an oven-proof, footed cooling rack, making sure that the bottom of each sweetie-pie is supported as completely as possible; and they're not touching. Place your oven rack on a rimmed cookie sheet, because there is GOING to be excess melted butter! That's why you're using the raised rack, so the excess can escape the pastry. Cook at pastry temp, 425 in our recipe, for about 10 minutes, or as much longer as it takes for the top surface to start developing brown bits. Turn your exhaust fan on, too, as there will be carbonizing sugar in the butter puddle underneath. Pry "pies" off the rack (there WILL be some collapse through the grid, sigh), and eat as soon as they cool enough not to burn you! These are NOT keepers, they're "Eat while crunchy"s.)

chimene 


On Nov 17, 2012, at 10:17 AM, Johnna Holloway wrote:

> Time to talk turkey.
> 
> So what are people doing and what new items or dishes are you making?
> 
> The New York Times' Dining and Wine endorsed "Jacques Pépin’s Steam-Powered Turkey" on Wednesday.
> "So, yes, you’re reading this right: Jacques Pépin wants you to steam your turkey. He wants you to put that bird in that big pot (you can buy one for about $40 at a kitchen supply store), where hot vapors will melt off its fat. (If you prefer, use a large covered roasting pan.) Slicing deeply at key joints — between the drumsticks and thighs, and between the wings and breast — will help ensure that the meat is cooked through.
> 
> Then he wants you to roast it, letting the oven burnish its golden surface."
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/steamed-turkey-the-jacques-pepin-way.html?ref=dining&_r=0
> 
> Now where is it that we have seen recipes that simmer and then roast? Everything old is new again. 
> 
> I have also this one link on trends this year.
> 
> http://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/all-holidays/thanksgiving/newest-thanksgiving-ideas?nicam1=CONTENT_PPC&nichn1=OUTBRAIN&nipkw1={ad_Title}&niseg1=TDCORE_BC&esrc=16664
> 
> Happy eating
> 
> Johnnae
> 
> Sent from my iPad
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