Leftovers!
From Recipes
Posted by Chichi Wang, November 20, 2009 at 1:30 PM
[Photographs: Chichi Wang]
This week concludes our three-part installment of Thai curry pastes. Red, green, and yellow curries are common offerings in restaurants, yet these colors are merely part of the Thai curry range. Two of the lesser-known curry pastes—Penang and Mussaman—are variations on the red and yellow pastes, though with distinctive attributes of their own. Penang curry paste, most similar to red, includes a sizable dose of roasted peanuts. Mussaman curry paste is comprised of the same spices as those of yellow, except the spices must be toasted whole, then freshly ground before being added to the paste.
Just about every guest passing through my apartment this month has been subject to my collection of curry pastes.
"Would you like some red curry with shrimp?" I ask. "No? Well, how about some curry fritters? Curry fried rice? Noodles with curry sauce?"
Eventually the target will succumb to my entreaties. Last night I wooed a friend with pork shoulder stewed in Penang curry. Claiming that eating Thai curry usually leaves her with "stuff pouring from every facial orifice," my friend was pleased to discover that Thai curries don't have to be painfully spicy.
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From Recipes
Posted by Caroline Russock, November 20, 2009 at 1:00 PM
I don't know exactly how cranberry sauce came to be such an integral part of the Thanksgiving meal. What I do know is that it acts as a prefect sweet-tart palate cleanser to break up the otherwise savory components of the meal.
Sweet and sour flavors are a great counterpoint to rich and fatty meat—just think about how great duck with sour cherries or pork with tart apples are.
Abiding by this principle, I have decided to include not one but two fruit dishes on my Thanksgiving menu this year. The first is obviously going to be cranberry sauce, and the second is this Easy Ambrosia from Simple Fresh Southern by Matt and Ted Lee.
This salad forgoes the whipped cream and marshmallows.
For those familiar with the cream-pineapple-maraschino-cherry-laden versions of this salad, rest assured that this one contains none of those cloyingly sweet ingredients. This iteration of ambrosia is much more refined.
It's basically a winter citrus salad with bitter endive and fresh parsley dressed simply with olive oil and salt. Since this salad forgoes the whipped cream and marshmallows, both fundamental parts of the traditional ambrosia, the salad is finished with a sprinkle of toasted coconut for sweetness.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 20, 2009 at 12:15 PM
What is rap star (and now cookbook author) Coolio's mantra for perfect turkey? "The mo' injections, the merrier." He recommends botoxing your bird with a syringe filled with tequila, diced garlic, "regular Italian dressing," a dollop-uh (the Coolio pronunciation of dollop) of honey, balsamic vinegar, pepper (measured in dime bags not teaspoons), soy sauce, and few other pantry items.
After plumping up the bird ("It went from a B-cup to a D-cup!") Coolio throws it into the deep-fryer. But he warns, and this video is just full of life wisdom, do not fry the bird indoors. You will burn down your house and have to buy a new one. Watch the video, after the jump.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, November 20, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Note: This month's Secret Ingredient is the anchovy. Take it away, Kerry!
[Photographs: Kerry Saretsky]
There seems to be so much misunderstanding surrounding the anchovy—so much love and so much hate.
I usually buy mine in one of three ways: packed flat in olive oil in a tin, rolled up in salt in a jar, or in a tube of anchovy paste—the last of which, I must admit, I find both more convenient and more subtle than the other packaging. In cooking school, we used to soak anchovy filets in milk—most people need both their coffee and their anchovies with a touch of milk.
And so we've come to think of anchovies as a sort of condiment, either loved or hated. But I had to do actual research to determine what they look like. Other than those inside-of-the-green-olive-colored filets, with bony hairs (or are they hairy bones?) protruding menacingly from the flesh, and that pungent oceanic smell, what really is an anchovy? They are small green fish with a silver stripe that glisten blue in the water. Like so many of us, they prefer a temperate climate and cluster in areas neither too hot nor too cold. Congregating in the Mediterranean waters, they enjoy a sumptuous feast of fry and plankton, munched down by tiny teeth set in too-big-for-their-size jaws.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, November 20, 2009 at 10:45 AM
"Paula's face smiled up at me from the packaging, her familiar gray bob frozen into place, her lips shellacked with frosted pink gloss."
[Photographs: Lucy Baker]
Last week, in Ed's Brooklyn Star review, Ed deemed chef Joaquin Baca's biscuits "probably the best in newly biscuit-crazed New York." This so-called biscuit craze isn't limited to the Big Apple: all over the country people are harkening back to a time when food was simple, unfussy, and honest. Out with the fusion and small plates, in with the fried chicken and family-style menus. It's no wonder then that the humble biscuit is having a renaissance. Is there a more modest, straightforward food out there? I don't think so.
Of course, biscuits are a snap to whip up from scratch—but there are also a wealth of prepared and refrigerated biscuit doughs and biscuit mixes on the market. There are the obvious (Pillsbury), the organic (Arrowhead Mills), the Southern belles (Callie's), and then there are Paula Deen's.
That's right, y'all. The infamous Food Network star has launched her very own line of boxed mixes for Southern-inspired specialties including scones, grits, and hoecakes. Just in time for Thanksgiving, I tested out "The Lady's" Sweet Potato Biscuit Mix ($9.99).
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 20, 2009 at 10:00 AM
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
Serious eaters, I'm about to stand before you (and on Thinner) a beaten man.
Why? It's been a bad serious diet week. I can cite the usual culprits: stress, bad eating habits, and too much access to seriously delicious food. And oh yeah, too many chocolate chip cookie taste tests. In fact, there's another one coming up this afternoon.
But too many chocolate chip cookie taste tests are not an acceptable excuse. I should try CCCTT abstinence this afternoon: Just say no!
But just saying no to the CCCTT won't rescue my weigh-in this morning.
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Posted by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, November 20, 2009 at 8:30 AM
It's time for another round of The Food Lab. Got a suggestion for an upcoming topic? Email Kenji here, and he'll do his best to answer your queries in a future post.
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Like many things in life, the problem with turkey can be boiled down to two things: the government and breasts.
For some reason, years ago, turkey breeders got it in their heads that people like white meat. As a result, turkeys have been getting larger and larger breasts (that stick out further and further from their bodies). At the same time, the government got it in their heads that people don't want to kill themselves while cooking and subsequently started to recommend cooking turkey to that state beyond death known as "165°F."
And while it's true that the dark meat of a turkey needs to be taken to 165°F if you don't like having bloody streaks in your meat—particularly the meat right around the joints in the thighs and drumsticks—the breast meat shouldn't go much beyond 145°F if you don't want the life to be squeezed out of it.
Couple this with the fact that breasts—which project far above the body of the turkey—cook much faster than the legs, and you find that by the time the legs are the requisite 165°F, sections of the breast are well above 180°F. The consequences are familiar to all of us: dry, withered white meat that only a boatload of gravy can rescue.
I was forced to search for an all-poultry solution.
For the past several years, I've made it my mission each Thanksgiving to discover a way to improve this sorry state of affairs. The most successful method so far was to replace the turkey with a suckling pig and feign ignorance when it arrived at the table all golden-brown and crackly. But my family caught on when my kid sister pointed out that turkeys don't have curly-cue tails, and I was forced to search for an all-poultry solution.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 20, 2009 at 7:30 AM
"But it's a harmless tub of peanut butter!" TSA says no. [Photograph: Robyn Lee]
Just because it's the holiday season doesn't mean TSA will go easy on the liquid rule. Keep in mind that the following items will not survive the checkpoint for carry-on luggage:
- Cranberry sauce
- Cologne
- Creamy dips and spreads (cheeses, peanut butter, etc.)
- Gift baskets with food items (like salsa, jams and salad dressings)
- Gravy
- Jams
- Jellies
- Lotions
- Maple syrup
- Oils and vinegars
- Salad dressing
- Salsa
- Sauces
- Snowglobes (not edible but important to note)
- Soups
- Wine, liquor and beer
Note: You can bring pies and cakes through the security checkpoint, but please be advised that they are subject to additional screening.
Posted by Blake Royer, November 19, 2009 at 7:30 PM
[Photographs: Blake Royer]
It's astounding these days the number of apples you can find at a market. No longer does the Red Delicious—which I remember as the quintessential lunchroom apple—hold the only place in the supermarket aisle. Pippin, Jonagold, Golden Noble, Winesap, Pink Lady, Schmidtberger Reinette—every name makes my mouth water with anticipation.
It used to be you bought a bag of Granny Smith apples when you wanted to bake, and you added enough sugar to counteract their tartness. But now which apples are the best for baking pie?
Certainly, not all of them are good for that purpose. There are many great eating apples, whether tart, sweet, mild, or fragrant. But would the same apples I love to eat as I'm walking home from the market perform well under a pastry shell? Check out the results of my taste test after the jump.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, November 19, 2009 at 7:15 PM
No more fighting at the Thanksgiving table over who gets to break the wishbone; this year, just buy plastic wishbones from Lucky Break Wishbone. In the grand world of plastic wishbone technology, their wishbone-shaped plastic bits are a probably the best. Or the only ones. They come in packs of 4 (the "Fun" pack) to 400 (the "Galaxy" pack because, indeed, you are supplying every plastic wishbone-desiring person in the galaxy).
Related
Inflatable Gag Gobbler
Inflatable Fruit Cake
- Tokyo Is Tops: Michelin is awarding more three-star ratings to Tokyo than Paris for the 2010 guides. [Seattle Times]
- Curry in Tokyo: Recs on where to get it. [Bloomberg]
- Extreme Beers: Extreme beers aren't necessarily strong; they bring something new to the brewing process [WashPost]
- Dry-Brined Turkey: Make your turkey moist and flavorful. [LA Times]
- Obama's Food Trail: Where Obama has eaten in DC. [BA High Life]
- No Tip, Go to Jail: Even if the service is poor. [Express-Times]
- Xantham Gum: How it's used in cooking. [More Intelligent Life]
- Guy Fieri Roadshow Report: A pork encore can't save this show. [EMD]
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 19, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Still don't have a turkey plan this year? Then we've got a contest for you. The good folks at D'Artagnan are providing us with a turkey a day to give away to one lucky Serious Eats reader from today until Sunday, November 22.*
D'Artagnan is a purveyor of many things delicious—from pâtés to sausages, foie gras to wild mushrooms, game meat to truffles. But right now we're especially interested in their turkeys.
D'Artagnan's certified organic birds are fed organic grains and pure spring water—no protein supplements, no added poultry or fish byproducts, no pesticides or herbicides, and no antibiotics or growth hormones. The result is a bird with great flavor, tenderness, and a 25 percent lower fat content than standard commercially raised turkeys.
We will be giving away 12- to 14-pound organic free-range birds for the duration of the contest. Contest is open only to participants in the continental U.S. Details after the jump.
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From Recipes
Posted by Kerry Saretsky, November 19, 2009 at 5:15 PM
[Photographs: Kerry Saretsky]
My love of turkey is only a recent development. And even at that, I only consent to eat it when it's freshly roasted, usually on Thanksgiving. Anything else—turkey sandwiches, turkey soups, turkey whatevers—just aren't going to happen. So I have a high sensitivity to those who want to try something other than turkey for Thanksgiving.
To me, these Quatre Épices Poussins are the perfect holiday bird. Something about Thanksgiving requires a bird, and I feel compelled to uphold that. But sometimes you want something smaller to alleviate leftover overflow in your apartment fridge, or something quick-cooking to disguise the fact that you were actually at work until two hours before your mother-in-law arrived, or something different from what you had last year. Tradition, after all, isn't for everyone. These young chickens are holiday poultry that cook quickly, are perfect for one (you can portion it for an army or a sweet dinner for two), are entirely unique, and have tremendous stage presence.
The stage presence comes from a traditional French spice blend called quatre épices, or four spices. Consisting of cracked black pepper, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg, the blend is reminiscent of rich medieval dinners, centered around a great long table on which a roasted pig reclines, clenching an apple in its mouth. Highly spiced, and lightly spicy, it is a seasonal je ne sais quoi that makes these little crispy-skinned, succulent game birds special enough, and festive enough, for the holidays.
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