November 27, 2009
From Recipes
Posted by Paul Clarke, November 27, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Let's start the weekend right--with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
Ooh, really shouldn't have had that second slice of pie. And that last scoop of stuffing? What was I thinking?
Fortunately, as I blogged about earlier, I had the foresight to pack some Fernet Branca to the in-laws on Thanksgiving. While this mint and eucalyptus-laced Italian digestivo can knock an overstuffed stomach back down to size all on its own, it also packs a powerful flavor punch in a handful of cocktails.
Here's one that was put together by my friend Rick at Kaiser Penguin: the Fernet Old Fashioned. By simply substituting the amaro for the more familiar bourbon or rye, this drink bolsters Fernet's already mighty powers as a digestive aid with a touch of aromatic bitters (also good for an upset stomach) and a dab of sugar to make it all a bit more soothing.
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From Recipes
Posted by Blake Royer, November 27, 2009 at 4:00 PM
[Photograph: Nick Kindelsperger]
You've got a lot of turkey and you don't quite know what to do with it. We've all been there. Lunch today was a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce smeared on bread with gooey stuffing in between. As good as that tasted, you're ready for something new.
Pot pie is my solution. Chances are you already have some leftover turkey stock, which makes this a very easy-to-put-together meal. With your roux-making skills in top shape from making the gravy, now's the time to act.
I used store-bought pie crust for this, but if you've got the time and energy, homemade is even better (Ina Garten's recipe is rather foolproof). The flavors in this are traditional: celery, onion, and carrots with a little parsley thrown in. Feel free to take it in a new direction with, say, a tablespoon of curry powder. I baked the pies in ramekins to decrease the cooking time (plus they also look cuter that way).
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From Recipes
Posted by Joshua Bousel, November 27, 2009 at 3:00 PM
About the author: Joshua Bousel blogs about grilling on his blog, The Meatwave, and appears weekly here on Serious Eats during grilling season.
[Photographs: Josh Bousel]
Alton Brown may be against stuffing a turkey, but stuffing a pork chop, now that's another story. If you haven't tired of that Thanksgiving dressing and are dearly missing the act of stuffing a bread mixture into a piece of meat, then this is the recipe for you.
I would think that any leftover stuffing should work with this technique, you may just want to add some extra liquid to it so it doesn't dry out when re-cooked. I followed Alton Brown's recipe for a cornbread stuffing with fall flavors (running the gamut from walnuts to dried fruit), piped into brined, double-thick loin chops, then grilled over medium-high heat.
The texture and flavor of the stuffing injected a new and exciting life into these chops, which now has me eying other meats at the butcher that may be ripe for a similar treatment.
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From Photograzing
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Posted by Hawk Krall, November 27, 2009 at 2:00 PM
"Thanksgiving dinner on a hot dog bun."
[Original artwork: Hawk Krall]
I've been racking my brain, trying to come up with a Thanksgiving-related Hot Dog of the Week, hoping that someone somewhere had concocted a seasonal haute dog. Maybe venison sausage with pumpkin aioli or Kobe beef corn dogs with cranberry dipping sauce?
Then a vision of a dog piled high with classic Thanksgiving sides materialized in my mind. "Wow, that would be amazing if somebody did that, ha," I thought to myself. Turns out Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace in Columbus, Ohio, did.
I wrote about Dirty Frank's earlier this year soon after they opened. Owner Liz Lessner has four restaurants in the Columbus area, all proudly serving Ohio comfort food (and all open for Thanksgiving). For Dirty Frank's first Turkey Day, they whipped up a wild Thanksgiving Dog. I was expecting maybe turkey chili and cranberry relish, but this is the real deal: a turkey frank piled high with stuffing and a big scoop of fluffy mashed potatoes, dripping with gravy and cranberry sauce on the side. Thanksgiving dinner on a hot dog bun.
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From Recipes
Posted by Caroline Russock, November 27, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Two solid days of cooking have gone by and I'm happy, though a little exhausted. My Thanksgiving was a resounding success and everyone left full, happy, and armed with a bag of leftovers to last them well into mid-December.
The curse of being the Thanksgiving meal host is that it doesn't matter how many dishes you make, you never get to eat to the point of Thanksgiving gratification. This recipe for Turkey Salad from Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown is one of the best and easiest ways to use up your Thanksgiving leftovers.
Just take the great turkey that you made last night, mix it with the rest of the stuff you have leftover in the fridge, and put it in a sandwich. No extended family plus mayo and bread—this turkey salad is the perfect Thanksgiving decompression meal.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 27, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Did you store your Thanksgiving leftovers correctly? Shoving a giant pile of turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce into your fridge isn't correct. Chow has some tips on how to make sure it doesn't look like Thanksgiving exploded in your fridge: put different dishes in different containers. Hopefully you knew that already. Watch the video after the jump.
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From A Hamburger Today
Posted by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, November 27, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Note: The Burger Lab writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt weighs in this week with his 5 favorite burgers in Boston.
"Anyone who doesn't think that their home town has the best hamburger place in the world is a sissy."—Calvin Trillin
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Disclaimer: Amongst the Boston burger joints that will be dissed in this round-up are R.F. O'Sullivan's and Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage. All opinions expressed are the author's alone, and all flames from die-hard fans should be aimed directly at him, not the website, its editors, or administrators.
I'll admit it up front: Boston's got a lot of great things going for it, but burgers is not one of them. Maybe having recently moved to New York—a good 211 miles closer to the Shake Shack—has colored my perspective a bit, but on average, Boston's burger scene is sub-par. R.F.O's? Lean baseballs, right down to the leather skin around them. Mr. Bartley's? Burgers as bland as the tourists that eat there are colorful. Eagle's? Worth going to if you are the kind of guy who likes to discover how many frozen beef patties you can eat in a single sitting without puking (I'm not).
Fortunately, there are a dozen or so places that bring Boston up from the black hole of burger banality—and that's really all any city needs. I'll bet most of you can count on one hand without using your thumb the number of home-town burger joints you're a regular at. Here are my five favorite burgers in Boston, in alphabetical order.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Am I brave or just stupid?
At the Serious Eats staff meeting this week, I announced that I was going to post about my diet on Thanksgiving Day instead of today, Friday, the day after, for obvious reasons. My pronouncement was met by derisive snorts and laughter. Everyone here at HQ knew I didn't want to face Thinner and all of you the day after Turkey Day, also known as Serious Dieter Armageddon.
But I am going to show all the HQ dwellers that when it comes to facing down what can only be described as public humiliation of the worst sort, I am not afraid. Serious eaters, I come before you and Thinner and my maker the day after Thanksgiving hoping upon hope that all will not be lost when I get on Thinner.
I was in decent shape leading up to Turkey Day. On Thursday morning I was at 219.
My plan: have a light breakfast and no pre-Thanksgiving-meal-snacking-while-standing-up. It's the pre-meal snacks, as well as the cook's tastes, that kill me in the aggregate. Spoonful of buttery, creamy, mashed potatoes, anyone?
I successfully executed my plan but with five pies staring me in the face (I would have gotten more, but my wife put the kibosh on further pie profligacy), my diet was set to be in a world of hurt come this morning.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM
[Flickr: brooklyn]
If so, check out our guide for eating out on Black Friday (without all the crowds) over at Serious Eats: New York.
Posted by Robyn Lee, November 26, 2009 at 4:00 PM
[Photographs: Leftover Art]
Play with the dregs of turkey and mashed potato on your plate and submit a photo of the results to Leftover Art, a website dedicated to artfully arranged leftovers. Users can vote on where they think the art belongs: in the trash or the fridge. I'm rooting for "Root McGoot."
Related
What to Make with Leftover Bread
What Are World-Famous Chefs Doing with Your Leftovers?
A Guide to Leftover Thanksgiving Recipes
Posted by Leslie Kelly, November 26, 2009 at 12:00 PM
[Illustration: Robyn Lee]
[Photograph: Leslie Kelly]
Today, I am so grateful for the legions of men and women who are working in professional kitchens. While the rest of us are at home with friends and family, sipping on an adult beverage (make mine a Sea Breeze, please) and waiting on that turkey, millions of professional cooks will be working their tails off. That's life on the line, right? So many things "civilians" take for granted are part of the routine in the restaurant business. Like working nights and weekends and having split days off.
Adam Stevenson, the chef at Earth & Ocean at the W Hotel in Seattle, can't remember the last holiday he had off. Scheduling can be a nightmare. "I ask everyone to let me know which two of the three big holidays they want to work," he said.
I'm doing a cool charcuterie project with Adam. We're making lomo and coppa from pork pieces he broke down from a whole beast (like the one pictured—more about that in a future post.) When I was in Earth & Ocean's kitchen earlier this week, the staff was already working on putting together the pieces of the traditional meal. Adam said it's not a big deal to work Thanksgiving: "My wife and I don't really celebrate the holidays." He does take off the first week of each year, though.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 26, 2009 at 9:00 AM
©iStockPhoto.com/JerryPDX
While the Serious Eats crew has been tirelessly toiling to bring you all the delicious, entertaining, and newsworthy Thanksgiving morsels (it's actually been way more fun than toil) we could come up with, we wanted to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a happy Thanksgiving.
May your Turkey Day be filled with lots of seriously delicious food, good wine, and the sounds of friends and family enjoying each others' company.
Here at Serious Eats HQ we have lots to give thanks for: a fantastic, supportive community; the opportunity to share our discoveries with all of you; and the chance to eavesdrop and participate in the most passionate, discerning, and inclusive food conversations on the web.
And as Serious Eats Overlord I am seriously thankful for the tireless efforts of everyone here at World HQ; Adam, Alaina, Carey, Erin, and Robyn are the best crew I could hope to have. I also give thanks every day for our amazing contributors from around the country and the world.
Happy Thanksgiving, serious eaters, wherever you are.
From Serious Eats: New York
Posted by Carey Jones, November 26, 2009 at 8:00 AM
[Click me!]
OK, this is awesome. The New York Times (whose infographics really are second to none) put together an index of searches from Allrecipes.com that maps out where queries for different Thanksgiving foods come from. Look at "green bean casserole" or "pumpkin cheesecake" and see exactly which states are searching for that dish.
Things to learn?
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 25, 2009 at 6:00 PM
[Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters at Christian Science Monitor]
Today, President Obama and his family pardoned a turkey named Courage to live the rest of its life in Disneyland, reports The Washington Post. Presidential turkey pardonings were first made official 20 years ago with President George H.W. Bush, although turkeys and U.S. presidents have shared the spotlight before then. The Christian Science Monitor has more about the history of the turkey-pardoning tradition.
