In honor of Thanksgiving, here's a recipe from Burgers Every Way by Emily Haft Bloom that uses the centerpiece poultry: rosemary turkey burgers from the Mustard Seed Cafe in Los Angeles. Bloom explains that the rosemary sourdough bread is what makes this burger special, but you can also use regular sourdough bread spread with a mixture of rosemary and butter. The patties also contain rosemary and use mayonnaise to keep moist.
This week's Tasty 10 is a little different—all Thanksgiving. And instead of limiting it to posts published in the last seven days, these are the most popular SE Thanksgiving posts of all time, for the week of November 13–20.
1. The Food Lab: Turkey Brining Basics
2. How to Spatchcock a Turkey
3. Taste Test: Store-Bought Stuffing
4. Cakespy: The Pumpkin-Apple-Pecan Pie
5. Cook's Illustrated's Foolproof Pie Dough
6. Funniest Thanksgiving
7. Taste Test: Finding the Best Apples for Baking
8. Pumpkin Pie Alternatives for Thanksgiving
9. Cook the Book: Mashed Potatoes, Finally Revealed
10. Ten Turkey Tips You'll Be Thankful For
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!
Cocktails can be rich and rugged like a Manhattan, or crisp and sharp like a martini, or bright and tangy like a daiquiri (they can also be sweet and murky like a Bahama Mama, but we won't go there right now). But with the holiday season approaching, your taste buds might feel the need for something with a little more elegance—that's where the French come in.
Composed of two great Gallic spirits (cognac and the herbal liqueur Chartreuse) along with some lemon juice and bitters, the Champs Elysees is the ne plus ultra of elegant cocktails. The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930 lists a party-size recipe for this drink, which is good billing for its powers as a social lubricant. Fortunately the recipe is easily scaled-down. This one (from Food & Wine's 2008 cocktail guide) was adapted by bartenders at Zig Zag Café in Seattle, who deploy a Champs Élysées anytime a little elegance is needed.
[Photographs: Nick Kindelsperger]
When I think of kidney beans, my mind usually wanders down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. That's when I start dreaming of perfect red beans and rice. It's one of my favorite meals—I'd make it much more often if it didn't take so long. Other than that, I occasionally find kidney beans in bland soups or bowls of chili (though not Texas chili, of course). So, I was little surprised to see them pop up in this Indian recipe from Lisa's Kitchen. Who knew kidney beans were so popular in Northern India?
Oddly, it's the onions that kind of make this dish. They reduce down to a paste that picks up all the flavors from the spices and chiles. Only the beans can slightly calm the bout of spice.
Starting with dried beans would be the far more traditional route but this quick version is still surprisingly good. It's just another reason why I adore vegetarian Indian cuisine so much.
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.
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.
[Photograph: Kerry Saretsky]
Read more about this recipe here.
- makes about 2/3 cup -
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup toasted blanched and slivered almonds
2 2-ounce cans flat anchovy filets in olive oil, drained
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
Freshly cracked black pepper
Obliterate the garlic in a mini food processor. Then pulse the almonds until they are in a rubble. Add the anchovies, lemon zest and juice, and olive oil and black pepper. Run the machine until it is an anchovy paste.
Note: Want to read about the creation of this recipe? Check it out here.
- serves 8 to 12 -
For much less ambitious cooks: You can simply follow the roasting and searing instructions using a whole turkey breast, omitting the butterflying and stuffing steps. You will still have extremely moist, flavorful turkey breast meat with crisp skin.
For only slightly less ambitious cooks: You can omit the stuffing, instead just butterflying and rolling the turkey breasts in their own skin. The meat will cook more evenly, and can be seasoned before rolling for better flavor penetration.
Finally, for those ambitious cooks who lack a meat grinder: You can stuff your turkey breasts with pre-ground pork sausage. The results won't be quite as turk-ey, but they will certainly be delicious!
For the Turkey/Sausage:
1 whole turkey, about 15 pounds
3/4 pound boneless pork butt or slab bacon, cut into 1-inch chunks.
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh sage leaves, or 1 teaspoon powdered dried sage
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 small yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
For the Gravy:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 large stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
2 bay leaves
12 black peppercorns
Parsley stems, thyme sprigs, mushroom trimmings (anything you have on hand that would add flavor)
1/4 teaspoon marmite
1 teaspoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
1. For the sausage: With a sharp boning knife, remove legs and drumsticks from turkey. Peel skin off of legs, the remove meat from bone with boning knife. Trim away any silverskin or connective tissue, then cut meat into one-inch chunks. Toss meat with pork, sage, garlic, celery, onion, paprika, salt, and pepper, and allow to rest in refrigerator, covered, at least one hour, or up to overnight. Pass mixture twice through well-chilled meat grinder fitted with 1/4-inch plate. Place1 teaspoon of sausage on microwave-safe plate and microwave for 15 seconds until cooked through. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper to sausage as necessary, then refrigerate until ready for use.
2. For the turkey: Remove wings from turkey using sharp boning knife and set aside. Carefully separate skin from turkey, working very slowly, and using a knife as necessary to help separation. Cut skin into two large sheets (one from the breasts, and the other form the back). Using back of knife, scrape off any excess fat from inner surface of skin.
3. Preheat oven to 275°F and set oven rack to lower-middle position. Remove turkey breasts from carcass using sharp boning knife. Following the photographs in the article, butterfly one turkey breast into even an even rectangle. Season on both sides with salt and ground black pepper. Spread stuffing mixture in even 1/4-inch layer on top of breasts. Roll breast up, wrap with one piece of skin, and secure with 7 to 10 pieces of butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals, working from the outside in. Repeat with second breast. Season breasts on all sides with salt and ground black pepper.
4. Place turkey ballotines on rack set in rimmed baking sheet and place in oven. Cook until internal temperature reaches 145°F as measured on a thermometer, about 3 to 5 hours, depending on thickness of rolls. Remove from oven and allow to rest in warm place, covered with foil, for at least half an hour, and up to 1 1/2 hours. Remove strings.
5. Heat butter and vegetable oil in heavy-bottomed 12-inch skillet or heavy-bottomed roasting pan until foaming subsides. Add turkey rolls and cook until well browned on all surface, about 8 minutes total. Slice, and serve with gravy.
6. For the gravy: While turkey is roasting, roughly chop carcass and wings into 1-inch chunks. Heat vegetable oil in large saucepan or Dutch oven over high-heat until just beginning to smoke. Add turkey carcass and cook, stirring frequently, until well browned on all surfaces, about 10 minutes. Add onions, carrots, and celery, and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. bay leaves, peppercorns, and optional aromatics, then fill with room temperature water until just covered. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 2 hours, skimming frequently (reserve fat to add to dressing, if desired).
7.Strain through chinois or fine mesh-strainer lined with cheesecloth. Measure out three cups of stock and and reserve remainder for another use (such as the dressing). Add butter and flour to medium saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until light blond in color, about 2 minutes.. Slowly whisk in three cups of reserved stock. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened. Whisk in marmite and soy sauce. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and pepper, and serve with sliced turkey.
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All French in a Flash recipes »
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.
Last week, someone sent me a shiitake mushroom farm, which recently started spouting out of all sides in my living room. It's disconcerting and kind of awesome. I was getting ready to prepare a meal when I noticed about 10 of them had reached full size; I already had a turkey breast set aside for dinner, so I started flipping through my cookbooks.
My answer came from The Silver Spoon, which called for stewing the mushrooms with the turkey in a rich liquid of wine and stock (fricassée essentially means poultry in a stewed preparation with creamy sauce). It's a deep-flavored preparation perfect for fall. Though the original recipe calls for porcini, I don't think substituting another was a problem. I was especially intrigued by the way the dish was finished, not with cream, but a couple egg yolks whisked with lemon juice and water. Stirred in off the heat, they thicken the broth so that it coats the dish. Boil some rice and you'll be warmed through.
The first homemade salsa I ever made was my uncle’s—a simple tomato-based affair, made with tomatoes, jalapeños, onions, and cilantro. He also throws in a generous dose of chili powder, his secret ingredient that gives it a Tex-Mex kick.
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