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12-18-23, 09:39 PM | |
VF Supporter
Join Date: Mar 2002
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I haven't cooked for several years for multiple practical reasons, but I've made dinners like this. (With planning, organization, a well-appointed kitchen, energy, and some reheating, it's possible--I've usually had to use a kitchen that wasn't organized and furnished as I'd like, and I survived )
ham (for larger groups) turkey pan gravy cranberry-orange relish stuffing in a separate pan garlic mashed potatoes four "combination" vegetable dishes (details below) biscuits (a basic "baking powder" type) pumpkin pie Ham: If I get one that's not otherwise seasoned, I've liked using something from Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child is the most famous co-author). Turkey: I follow a version of a procedure from America's Test Kitchen (details courtesy of NPR), which involves brining and making an herbal paste to rub over the turkey before roasting. In recent years, though, I switched to "dry-brining" with measured kosher salt--I find it much more convenient and as effective and tasty. I also add extra herbs, extra spices, and at least orange zest to the herbal paste. Sometimes I've stuffed the turkey with lightly seasoned apple slices with onion-y accents. I make a separate "stuffing" (see below). Gravy: After adopting the practice, from a separate source, of putting aromatic vegetables (onion, carrot, celery) in the roasting pan, I experimented with using an "expanded" mirepoix with things like salt pork, bacon, or excess ham parts, turnip, a little apple, and herb-infused brandy). Then I add the result to the pan with some added liquid. If they're usable at the end (with care, they are), I blend the pieces with liquid (including deglazing liquid) and use the purée as the liquid component of the gravy. They add flavor, color, and body. Cranberry-orange relish: I've been partial to something from a different old cookbook involving raw cranberries, orange pulp, orange zest, sugar, and orange liqueur that's puréed and chilled for a few days before serving. (I've also added things like a bit of spice and a dash of rose or orange blossom water.) Stuffing: Mastering the Art of French Cooking also has a duck with sausage-apple stuffing. I like to make the general stuffing recipe, add bread cubes or crumbs (I've used crumbled cornbread on other occasions) with some celery and onion, place it in a pan, garnish the pan (dried cherries, golden raisins, pecan pieces, and herbs), and bake it separately. Garlic mashed potatoes: the same French cookbook has a recipe that's delicious and convenient (the potatoes can be mashed and the sauce made in advance, to be reheated, blended, and garnished shortly before serving). The sauce is basically an expanded white or béchamel sauce: twice the normal amount of butter cooks a large amount of garlic slowly in a covered heavy pan--the garlic flavor becomes delicate--and the result is used for the butter a typical béchamel procedure. (The cookbook doesn't say so, but the sauce can obviously be used elsewhere.) Sweet potatoes and fruit: chunks of sweet potato with chunks of fresh fruit (like apple) and dried (like apple, pear, apricot, prune...), cooked in orange juice. This dish is obviously variable. I haven't tried these, but potential additions include pineapple, coconut, mango, cashew, walnut, and marshmallows. "Expanded" succotash: corn (maybe of different colors), lima beans, peas; also some summer squash (zucchini, yellow...), red onion, green onion, pimiento or roasted pepper; maybe spices like paprika and a little cumin (I don't add tomato to this version, but pieces or sauce can also work). Spinach (buttered, creamed, or whatever) with creamed mushrooms and brown-braised onions: this dish combines three French things, also potentially from the same cookbook. For the spinach I actually prefer a separate procedure, called "Brillat-Savarin spinach," that involves 5 days (including the day of serving) of cooking the spinach with added butter each day to absorb a surprising amount of it. I've actually never made it with fresh spinach, only an adapted version with frozen spinach, but it still gets raves, and I've also made it on other occasions. Nutmeg is recommended (I usually use quatre épices, a spice blend that also has pepper, cloves, and ginger). (A 1994 Los Angeles Times piece about "Brillat-Savarin spinach.) "Expanded" green beans and carrots amandine: to the basic idea, I like to add things like sugar snap peas and parsnips. Other potential additions include snow peas. wax beans, and beets. If I were cooking for a group that was as interested in "small plates" and a succession of courses as I am, I could add things such as - to begin, a relish tray or crudités - a hot appetizer (at a Christmas dinner, I've used a French scallop dish) - a thicker soup before the main course (such as oyster stew, a different seafood bisque, or a thick soup with another ingredient not otherwise prominent in the rest of the menu, such as rice, chestnuts, butternut or some other form of winter squash, turnips, leeks, cauliflower, broccoli, a type of greens not already used. a purée of dried beans...) - a salad after the main course (at a Christmas dinner, I've made a French mustard-vinaigrette celeriac salad, which I like to serve atop seasoned greens) - additional pies like apple and mince (but I'm not much fo a baker, and I haven't generally been among "dessert people") - things like cheese, fresh seasonal fruit, dried fruit, and nuts (usually in addition to pies and not as a complete substitute for them unless no one wants pie); maybe also a selection of candies, along with coffee and even liqueurs
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