November 27, 2009
Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 25, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Read more about these here.
Published with permission from Serious Barbecue by Adam Perry Lang.
Ingredients
8 sweet potatoes or large yams, each about 10 ounces
About 3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 banana, with a 2-inch slit cut into the peel
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter
2 cups heavy cream
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon finely ground fresh black pepper
Procedure
1. Wash each of the potatoes well, poke holes into them with a fork, rub each with about 1 teaspoon of salt, and wrap with heavy-duty aluminum foil.
2. Place directly on hot coals and cook for about 20 minutes, or cook in a 350°F barbecue for about 50 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a paring knife. At the same time, cook the banana in the peel until blackened, about 15 minutes.
3. Carefully take the potatoes out of the foil and scoop the flesh out from the skin into a large bowl. Cover with foil. Scoop the flesh out of the banana into a separate bowl. Increase the temperature to high.
4. Place a small roasting pan or deep baking dish with high sides that can take the direct flame (a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with a 15-cup capacity is ideal) over the heat and let heat up for 5 minutes.
Add the butter and let melt. Add the cream, cinnamon stick, brown sugar, potatoes, banana, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes and banana and stir to combine.
Season to taste with additional salt and pepper as needed.
Posted by Andrea Lynn, November 25, 2009 at 7:52 AM
- makes 4 servings -
Zest Factor: Medium
Published with permission from Lauren Kendzierski of Chile Pepper magazine.
Ingredients
1 (3-inch) chunk of spicy dry salami, sliced into thin rounds
1 tbsp green peppercorns in brine
1 tbsp honey
1/2 stick butter
1 tsp salt
1 (1 pound) bag of baby carrots
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 450°F. In a large oven-safe saute pan over low heat, cook the salami to release the fats, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the peppercorns, honey, butter, and salt. Add the carrots, coating them with the sauce.
3. Move to the oven, and bake 20 minutes, or until the carrots are browned and salami is crisped.
Posted by Andrea Lynn, November 25, 2009 at 7:51 AM
- makes 8 servings -
Zest factor: Medium
Published with permission from Lauren Kendzierski of Chile Pepper magazine.
Ingredients
1/2 cup(1 stick) plus two tablespoons butter, softened, divided
1 tbsp chile powder
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
2 cups corn kernels
4 cups milk
1 and 1/4 cups finely ground cornmeal
2 tsp salt
6 eggs, divided
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs, or crushed crackers
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. In a small bowl, stir together the stick of butter, chile powder, garlic and salt.
3. In a large bowl, combine corn with all but 1 tablespoon of the chile butter. Spread onto a baking sheet, and roast for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring once.
4. In a large pot, heat milk until almost boiling. Reduce heat to low, and whisking constantly, add the cornmeal. Stir until very thick, about 8 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, roasted corn mixture and salt. Add in 4 eggs and two yolks, reserving the 2 egg whites.
6. In a mixer, whip egg whites to soft peaks. Fold into corn mixture. Pour mixture into a buttered 9-by 13-inch pan, and allow to cool.
7. Adjust the oven to 500°F. In a small bowl, mix the cheese and bread crumbs. Spread evenly over the pudding. Dot with the remaining chile butter, and bake for 15 minutes, or until pudding is golden brown
Posted by Caroline Russock, November 24, 2009 at 1:15 PM
A few week's back we shared Mark Peel's recipe for Mashed Potatoes, Finally Revealed, a cream and butter-laden preparation that is the key to the smoothest restaurant caliber mashed potatoes. It turned out to be one of the the most popular Thanksgiving posts of all time here on Serious Eats.
This week we are back to the mash with a homier version from Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown. These Mashers are considerably less rich and much more rustic than Peel's version. In place of a pound and a half of butter and two passes through a strainer, these potatoes gain their texture from the joined forces of two varieties of spuds. Waxy red potatoes are mashed together with starchy russets for a mash that is much more robust. These potatoes are meant to be chunky so there is no need dwell on a few lumps and run the risk of gluey mess. These chunky, lumpy mashed potatoes are a gravy enthusiast's dream come true; they'll hold their own with however much gravy you decide to ladle on.
Win Good Eats: The Early Years
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Good Eats: The Early Years to give away this week. Enter to win here »
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Posted by Kristen Swensson, November 23, 2009 at 9:30 AM
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Who knew stuffing could be healthy? Take it away, Kristen!
[Photograph: Kristen Swensson]
There are certain times in our lives when eating smart, watching our weight, and exercising are the best things we can do for ourselves.
Thanksgiving is not one of those times.
That said, it doesn't hurt to include Turkey Day dishes that are both delicious and incidentally, healthy. Homemade cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and Brussels sprouts are all pretty solid choices, and a little bit of dark meat never hurt anybody. With some careful planning, you can add stuffing to that list, as well.
This Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing is an adaptation of Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh's popular Food Network recipe. The original version was fairly lean to start out, and with a few tweaks, it came to a highly respectable 209 calories per serving, with around 6 grams of fat and 5.5 grams of fiber. Plus, it's delicious. Curse me for trotting out light cooking clichés, but no one will know it's a lean stuffing.
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Posted by Joshua Bousel, November 20, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Note: Each week Joshua Bousel of The Meatwave drops by with a recipe for you to grill over the weekend. Fire it up, Joshua!
[Photographs: Joshua Bousel]
If there's any tension during my family's Thanksgiving, it's usually over who and what gets control of the oven. Too many dishes have been scraped because of limited cooking space, so recipes that don't require oven use are golden.
Even though I hesitate to call this recipe for cider-glazed sweet potatoes real grilling, it does bring the cooking outdoors, which gets bonus points for getting me out of the kitchen completely.
The sweet potatoes are roasted in a liquid mixture of apple cider, brown sugar, olive oil, and cider vinegar until the liquid cooks down and glazes the spuds, which just happens to be about the same time the potatoes become velvety smooth inside. It's a simple recipe that requires little attention, but produces a luscious, sticky-sweet side, making it an excellent choice for any Thanksgiving menu.
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Posted by MichaelNatkin, November 18, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Note: Michael Natkin of the vegetarian blog Herbivoracious drops by every Wednesday to share a delicious recipe and expand our vegetarian repertoire.
[Photograph: Michael Natkin]
With all of the concerns about food safety, most people (Alton Brown included) don't actually stuff their bird anymore. So since you are going to make the stuffing separately anyhow, make this delicious version with wild mushrooms to satisfy both vegetarians and omnivores.
The mushrooms throw off a lot of water while they are sauteeing. We drain that liquid right onto the bread to amp up the flavor. For the vegetable broth, you want a clear variety, not a thick soup. Seitenbacher makes an excellent broth powder that I always keep on hand. Another option, if you are a true fungi-lover, is to make your own broth by boiling a big handful of dried shiitake mushrooms.
I suggest a mix of half chanterelles, with their magical scent of apricots, and half crimini or white mushrooms. You could certainly use other wild mushrooms instead. Oyster mushrooms or morels would be especially good. Another nice addition would be a cup of toasted pecans.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, November 18, 2009 at 5:00 PM
The following recipe is from the November 18 edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
Green beans always find their way to the holiday table. Unfortunately, sometimes they can be more of an afterthought than something to get excited over. I'm sure you are familiar with the usual suspects: the green bean casserole made with canned cream of mushroom soup and fried onions, or the defrosted beans that are more gray than green, gussied up with some slivered almonds.
This green bean neglect might have something to do with the fact that November is not exactly the height of bean season, and the specimens in the market might not look or taste quite up to par. Nonetheless, green beans have a place on the Thanksgiving table, so why not give them a chance to taste like something that you want to eat rather than something that you should eat?
This recipe for Skillet Green Beans with Orange from Simple Fresh Southern by Matt and Ted Lee is a great was to deal with not so great green beans. The beans are cooked in cast-iron at high heat, "pan-charred", according to the Lee brothers, which renders them crunchy, toasty, and a little smoky. Orange segments and a little bit of vinegar are added for sweet and sour notes. No more gloopy casseroles or gray beans, okay?
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Posted by Caroline Russock, November 18, 2009 at 1:15 PM
[Photograph: Caroline Russock]
This Thanksgiving I wanted a squash recipe that was completely new, different, and exciting. In past years I've pureed butternuts for soup, roasted all manners of acorns and kabochas, and meticulously filled squash ravioli. And while all of these dishes were good and sometimes even great, I can't help but think they are, well, kind of dull. There just had to be something else out there.
Matt and Ted Lee have a way with vegetables, a knack for combining ordinary flavors in simple ways that work in extraordinary ways. Take this recipe for Squash Half-Moons with Butter, Sesame, and Salt from Simple Fresh Southern for example—sweet kabocha squash basted with butter that's been spiced with garam masala, all finished with toasted sesame seeds.
The recipe is so basic: only five ingredients (and two of them are butter and salt), but the half-moons of squash that come out of the oven are as beautiful as the flavors are complex. The garam masala butter caramelizes the squash slices, giving them a slightly chewy skin and a creamy interior. The sesame seeds add a crunch and burst of their own toasty flavor. This dish is pretty much the polar opposite of all sleepy, safe, and boring squash dishes out there.
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Posted by Carolyn Cope, November 17, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Note: You may know Carolyn Cope as Umami Girl. She stops by on Tuesdays with ideas on preparing fruits and vegetables.
[Photograph: Carolyn Cope]
Hi, Mom, it's me. Pretty good, thanks, but ay yi yi, I can't believe you still call me Sweet Potato. I mean, I'm 19. I'm choosing a major in, like, a month. (Just so you know, I'm leaning toward environmental philosophy right now.) I kissed another—oh, never mind. I just don't think any of that screams Sweet Potato, if you know what I mean. I guess it's kind of endearing, though.
Now a sophomore in college, Sweet Potato calls home and shows she's not all marshmallows and syrup anymore.
Anyway, I'm just calling to find out about plans for Thanksgiving? Are you guys picking me up or should I use your credit card to buy a train ticket or what? Oh, and is it OK if I invite Jewel and Garnet again? I think Jewel might have stopped talking about your cornbread stuffing for like a minute and a half last April, but I wouldn't sign my name to that. Oh, whew, thanks. I kind of already told them they could come. You're the best!
Oh, there is one thing. Garnet isn't eating any meat or dairy right now. That should be fine, right? She can eat, like, the green beans with mushrooms and a popover, I guess. Or wait, isn't there butter in those? Oh well, I'm sure you'll come up with something brilliant, right? You always do. I mean, you made me, didn't you? OK, Mom, love you, gotta run. Jonathan Safran Foer is speaking, and it starts in, like, two minutes. I'm so excited!
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Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 16, 2009 at 8:26 AM
[Photograph: Sarah Shatz]
- serves 4 -
Published with permission from Food52.
Ingredients
1 pound brussels sprouts
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
4 ounces butter
2 ounces heavy cream
2 pieces bacon, cut into lardons
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
4 teaspoons apple cider
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg; more to sprinkle at the end
Ingredients
1. Wash, cut off the stems, and halve the brussels sprouts. Discard any discolored leaves. Steam brussels sprouts over salted water until tender. Drain and lightly sprinkle and toss with celery salt. Set aside.
2. Fry the bacon lardons until crispy. Drain and set aside.
3. Over low heat, melt butter in a heavy pot. Once the butter is completely melted, turn heat to medium high. It will quickly begin to foam. Keep the butter and foam moving around. As it browns, the foam will subside. I browned my butter until it was a dark nutty-brown. Once it hits the color and flavor you want, immediate reduce the heat to low and add the cream. Stir to completely incorporate the cream. Immediately add the apple pieces, lardons and brussels sprouts.
4. With a large metal spoon, keep turning the brussels sprouts mixture in the cream/noisette sauce while the sauce thickens and the brussels sprouts mixture becomes glazed with the sauce (5 to 10 minutes). The apple pieces should be just cooked, not mushy. Add the apple cider and nutmeg. Continue to carefully turn the mixture in the glaze for another 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Turn out in a serving dish or the individual plates and rub a pinch of nutmeg with your palms over the dish.
Check out Food52's photo slideshow of this recipe.
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 16, 2009 at 8:24 AM
[Photograph: Sarah Shatz]
- serves 4 to 6 -
Published with permission from Food52.
Ingredients
2 leeks (medium size)
1 garlic clove
1 splash Vermouth (or dry white wine)
2 to 2 1/2 pounds boiling potatoes (approximately 6 to 7medium size potatoes such as Yukon Gold)
1 to 1 1/4 cup grated gruyere
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kosher or sea salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
1 small saute pan
4 to 5 shavings of gruyere
Ingredients
1. Preheat oven to 300 °F.
2. Remove roots and green leaves from leeks. Wash and dry the white part of the leek.
3. Split leeks in half lengthwise. Then chop crosswise into thin to medium size half moon crescents. Dice garlic.
4. Sauté leeks slowly in approximately one tablespoon of the butter on medium low heat in a nonstick pan until soft but not brown (about 6-8 minutes). Add garlic and sauté for a minute more. Add a dash of vermouth (or white wine) and sauté a minute more until most of the vermouth (white wine) has evaporated. The leeks should be damp, but not swimming in vermouth (white wine). Remove leeks from heat, cover and let sit.
5. Peel and slice potatoes evenly into approximately 1/8th-inch slices. Dump slices in cold water as you slice so that the potatoes don't turn brown. (note: I peel and slice each potato individually rather than peeling them all first so that the peeled potatoes spend less time sitting around possibly turning brown.)
6. Grate a block of gruyere so that you have 1 cup of grated gruyere.
7. Lightly butter the baking dish. Drain potatoes taking care not to break them.
8. Lay down one layer of potato in the dish. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle with sautéed leek mixture. Then sprinkle with some of the gruyere. Finally dot with one or two bits of butter (optional). Repeat sequence until all potatoes are used. The last layer should be just a layer of potatoes.
9. Slowly pour cream all over potatoes in dish. Finish with a few shavings of gruyere which will give a nice color and a little bit of crust. Bake for approximately 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Cream should simmer and may even gently bubble, but it should never boil (boiling will cause the cream to separate and curdle). It's done when it has a nice golden brown to orange color; the potatoes are tender but still hold their shape; and the cream has thickened and reduced slightly. Let cool for 15 to 20 min before serving.
Check out Food52's photo slideshow of this recipe.
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 16, 2009 at 8:22 AM
[Photograph: Sarah Shatz]
- serves 4 -
Published with permission from Food52.
Ingredients
1 medium celeriac (about 1.25 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 small Idaho potato (about 6 ounces), cut into 1-inch pieces
Kosher salt
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 bay leaf
Freshly ground black pepper
Procedure
1. Place the celeriac and potatoes in a large pot of salted, cold water. Bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes then add the apple. Continue to cook until all are tender, another 10 to 12 minutes.
2. While vegetables are cooking, heat the cream, butter, and bay leaf in a small saucepan over medium heat.
3. Drain the cooked vegetables and apple and return them to the hot, dry pot. Stir them over low heat for 2 minutes until they are dry. Pass ingredients through a food mill into a large bowl. Gently stir in the hot cream and butter mixture until smooth (remove the bay leaf). Alternatively, you can puree the vegetables and apple together with the cream and butter mixture in a food processor. Season puree with salt and black pepper to taste. Serve warm.
Check out Food52's photo slideshow of this recipe.
Posted by The Serious Eats Team, November 16, 2009 at 8:20 AM
[Photograph: Sarah Shatz]
- serves 2 -
Published with permission from Food52.
Ingredients
1 bunch beet greens
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon course ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
Procedure
1. Wash and trim your beet greens. If the stems are very thick it is worth trimming them back a bit.
2. On medium heat, saute the garlic, shallot and red pepper flake in the olive oil until slightly browned. Add black pepper, sugar and salt.
3. Place the beet greens into the pan, pour the water on and immediately cover. Do not remove the lid for a few minutes to allow the greens to wilt. Once they have cooked down, remove the lid and stir all of the ingredients together. Cook for a few more minutes allowing the water to evaporate.
4. Just before removing pour the vinegar over the greens. Remove, serve and enjoy!
Check out Food52's photo slideshow of this recipe.
Posted by Erin Zimmer, November 13, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Unfortunately stuffing isn't that photogenic. [Photographs: Erin Zimmer]
- serves 6 -
Published with permission from Frédéric Morin, chef at Joe Beef restaurant in Montreal.
Ingredients
For the turkey:
1 fresh turkey (about 14 pounds, halved, bone-in)
1 can of cola
1/4 cup Montreal steak spice (here is CHOW's recipe)
For the stuffing:
1.5 pounds pork sausage, removed from casings
2 eggs
1 bagel, medium dice and soaked for 5 minutes in one cup of milk
3 small dill pickles, finely chopped
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
0.5 pound smoked meat, chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and pepper
For the glaze:
1/4 cup maple syrup
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 325° F
2. In a roasting pan, place the halved turkey in the center, and pour over with enough cola to moisten the entire bird. Generously season on all sides with the Montreal steak spice. Place the turkey in the oven, uncovered, and roast for one hour.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing. In a large bowl, combine all stuffing ingredients by hand. Divide the meat mixture into 4 equal portions and loosely shape into loaves. Place the loaves on a baking tray and set aside in the fridge.
4. After turkey has cooked for an hour, arrange the loaves around the turkey and continue to cook until the thermometer indicates 180° F in the thickest part of the leg (about one hour). Add water to the bottom of the roasting pan as needed to keep from drying out and burning.
5. Remove from the oven, and drizzle the maple syrup over the stuffing. Serve with cranberry sauce. Chef Frédéric Morin also suggests serving it with a nice gravy or sauce with yellow mustard, a cherry cola, and with some mashed potatoes.
Posted by Blake Royer, November 12, 2009 at 4:30 PM
[Photograph: Blake Royer]
When cauliflower hits a hot, oil-slicked skillet and is allowed to caramelize, it develops a wonderful savory, nutty flavor that puts it among my favorite vegetables. Since the first time I realized this, I've never been tempted to steam or boil it again.
What I love about this particular recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is the toasted and chopped almonds that are thrown in toward the end of cooking and further emphasize these nutty flavors. A hit of smoked paprika—a wonderful spice to have in the cabinet—give it depth and color.
Granted, this recipe isn't one of those that make you exclaim with pleasure, amazed at the flavor: It's a straightforward, simple dinner, and a bit monochrome. But it's charming in that way. If I weren't cooking from a cookbook with the word "vegetarian" in the title, I might have been tempted to begin this with bacon or use chicken stock. Still, the shaved manchego cheese is a luxurious touch, and it gives everything a needed salty tang.
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Posted by MichaelNatkin, November 11, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Note: Michael Natkin of the vegetarian blog Herbivoracious drops by every Wednesday to share a delicious recipe to expand our vegetarian repertoire.
[Photograph: Michael Natkin]
Every family has a collection of Thanksgiving side dishes that absolutely have to be there or it Just Wouldn't Be Thanksgiving. That's fine—let them have their sweet potatoes glazed in Tang with Lucky Charms marshmallows. You can slip in these pan-roasted Brussels sprouts too, and if you're lucky they might even become a new tradition.
Those classic Thanksgiving dishes often incorporate nuts and something sweet. By lightly candying the pumpkin seeds (pepitas), much like you would walnuts for a salad, we incorporate the caramelized sweetness and crunch to balance the slightly tart hit of cider vinegar in the sauce. Be sure and add the pumpkin seeds at the very last minute, otherwise they will get soggy.
Don't forget to taste and adjust the salt in each step of this recipe. The right amount of salt will really make the flavors sing.
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Posted by Caroline Russock, November 4, 2009 at 12:25 PM
"I have never seen smoother potatoes."
©iStockphoto.com/cveltri
Homemade mashed potatoes can be great, but oftentimes lumpy, dry, and underseasoned—or even worse, mealy. Then there are restaurant mashed potatoes. Those ethereal white mounds of creamy potatoey deliciousness are perfectly salted, without a lump in sight.
So, what are the secrets to amazing restaurant quality mashed potatoes? Mark Peel, author of New Classic Family Dinners has graciously shared the secrets of these lumpless wonders in his new book.
They involve, as you might have suspected, a very healthy amount of butter and cream, which helps the texture and flavor, but the real creaminess comes from the technique.
Until I tried this recipe, I always peeled and boiled my potatoes—my first mistake. Peel steams his, which prevents the potatoes from becoming water-logged and in turn, slimy and sticky.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, October 30, 2009 at 4:00 PM
[Photograph: Nick Kindelsperger]
I initially picked out this recipe because it looked awfully similar to Korean scallion pancakes, a dish I've made a few times before. This recipe from Gourmet added some sweet potato and a little kimchi, which I figured would perk up the dish a bit—but I wasn't expecting this.
They taste less like traditional Korean scallion pancakes and more like hash browns with serious attitude. The flour in the mix helps protect the sweet potatoes from the intense heat so they come out golden brown and crisp, instead of burned and black.
That intense flavor comes from the overload of kimchi, scallion, and serrano. (I'm surprised it all fit.) They make sure each bite is packed full of flavor and layered with spice. The dipping sauce, which is acidic and slightly sweet, provides a slight relief. I'm not sure if the pancakes are meant as a side dish or what, but they're addictive either way.
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Posted by Kerry Saretsky, October 28, 2009 at 10:30 AM
[Photograph: Kerry Saretsky]
For a Halloween main course, I love this spicy black steak with sweet orange mash. The steak is done simply—just crusted in black pepper, and seared to medium-rare, then sliced. The mash, mixed from russet potatoes and sweet potatoes, is sweet but tangy from the crème fraîche. The sweet-spicy contrast is as perfect as the colors.
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