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 7:51 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 Carolyn Cope, November 24, 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.
[Photographs: Carolyn Cope]
Cranberry sauce will never be my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. As a Jersey girl, though, I have a certain innate respect for cranberries. As with Bon Jovi, pharmaceuticals, and big hair, a Jersey girl's appreciation for cranberries is not so much about tradition as it is about a vague, ever-present fear of extradition should it come to light that you had ever spoken ill of them in your travels.
Because I regard cranberries with at least as much respect as love, the ruby-colored condiment at our Thanksgiving table this year will be a fairly regal version. For starters, it's a chutney rather than a mere sauce. It's studded with raisins and perfumed with ginger, cinnamon and cloves. It comes from the Williams-Sonoma Complete Entertaining Cookbook, which is classy as hell, though don't take it from a Jersey girl. Because of its relatively high concentration of oranges and sugar, it shows off cranberries' good side while protecting you from knocking yourself over the head with them (just like big hair would do, but I bet you already saw where I was going with that). And best of all, it will keep for at least a week in the fridge. So make it today, put it aside and spend the next three days getting geared up for stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy.
Happy Thanksgiving, Serious Eaters. Hope it's a great one.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
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?
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robin Bellinger, November 17, 2009 at 7:15 PM
[Photograph: Robin Bellinger]
Shopping List
14 ounces boxed chopped tomatoes: $2.00
1 cup dried chickpeas: $0.75
2 cups squash (pro-rated): $1.50
1 medium zucchini: $0.60
2 cups whole wheat couscous: $2.00
Pantry items: Ginger, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cayenne, olive oil, cinnamon stick, onion, raisins, vegetable or chicken stock, salt, cilantro, parsley, harissa or other hot sauce.
Total cost (for 4 portions): $6.85
As I dished up this couscous, my heart sank: it looked like many other vegetable stews that had disappointed me in the past with their tasteless chunks of watery squash and air of grimly determined healthiness. I had recently been thinking of how Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian never lets me down, and I figured I was paying some kind of karmic price for being foolishly faithful.
Well, the faith lives! I don't know if it was the spice blend or the cooking method, but this dish was fragrant, deliciously various, and satisfying in every way. Although I had been too lazy to chop cilantro and parsley and did not have any harissa, in my opinion it shone even without garnishes. I didn't have it in me to make a salad, either, but some simply dressed romaine or a grated carrot salad would be nice here.
Continue reading »
Posted by Caroline Russock, November 17, 2009 at 12:55 PM
[Photograph: Caroline Russock]
Summer might be the height of pickling and preserving season, but a recent trip to the market left me with plenty of fruits and vegetables that were just waiting to be put up. The inspiration for my fall pickling adventure came from Matt Lee and Ted Lee's Simple Fresh Southern, which includes a wealth of atypical pickling recipes that are ripe for the Thanksgiving table.
The first recipe that caught my eye was Pickled Grapes with Rosemary and Chiles. Pickled grapes might not be something that you'd normally associate with Thanksgiving, but here's some insight into my thought process: Green and grapes have always had a place in a cornucopia, the cornucopia is one of the most recognizable symbols of Thanksgiving, and I really like anything pickled. Pickled grapes seemed like a perfect predinner snack for my guests while they sipped their Celery Juleps.
Continue reading »
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!
Continue reading »
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 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.
Continue reading »
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.
Continue reading »
Posted by Blake Royer, November 10, 2009 at 5:00 PM
[Photograph: Blake Royer]
If cream of broccoli soup has a bad reputation for you—as it does for me, conjuring up a picture of thick sludge—then this might be the soup for you. I pulled it from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, entranced by the use of onions sauteed in butter, a splash of white wine, and sour cream. I imagined a rich yet balanced broth, neither gluey or floury, made to complement, not hide, the broccoli.
The wine and sour cream are indeed essentials here, the wine bringing a gentle acidity and the sour cream a key tartness. Heavy cream is often used in soups like this, which is undoubtedly luxurious, but I preferred the roundness and balance of the sour cream. I also took Bittman's suggestion in the recipe description to have the soup next to a grilled cheese sandwich, a natural pairing.
Apparently, I'm in the mood for creamy soups—last week's corn soup with roasted poblano, now this. It must be the time of year.
Continue reading »
Posted by glutenfreegirl, November 10, 2009 at 2:30 PM
"Millet was first grown in China, where it was revered for thousands of years as one of their five most sacred grains."
[Photograph: Shauna James Ahern]
Millet is the tofu of the grain world.
OK, I know that might not make some of you hungry. Tofu has a bad reputation, just like millet. Some of us associate tofu with that watery block of white goo, sealed in plastic. Unappetizing. Truly good tofu, however, is made fresh that day, still warm, silky on the spoon, and something else entirely than what you have in your head.
The same is true for millet. Where have you seen millet before? For most of you, that's probably in a bag of birdseed. Yep, millet is the small round grain fed to the birds in the park by crazy old ladies. Does that make you want to eat it? Probably not.
How about this? That salad you see up there? That's a chilled millet salad with red peppers and golden raisins, honeycomb tangerines, goat cheese, red leaf lettuce, and prosciutto. Plus, a little apple gastrique.
Millet does not have to be boring.
Continue reading »
Posted by Caroline Russock, November 10, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Middle Eastern flavors have been bouncing around the Mediterranean for centuries and worked their way into Greek cuisine long ago. Cinnamon found its way into Greek cooking through the Turks, who brought it with them during their occupancy. Greece declared independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, but the country held onto its fondness for cinnamon.
Cinnamon shows up in some pretty unlikely places in Greek cooking, and this recipe for Sweet and Sour Eggplant and Onion Stew from Michael Psilakis's How to Roast a Lamb is a prime example.
Eggplant and cinnamon might seem like an improbable pair, but, as it turns out, the Greeks (and the Turks, for that matter) were really onto something.
Continue reading »
Posted by Carolyn Cope, November 10, 2009 at 8:00 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]
Although Asian pears (also called Chinese pears, apple pears or sand pears) are now fairly widely available, they were new to me a few years ago when they showed up in our CSA haul. People, this is one delightful fruit. (Well, okay, it's more like many, many varieties of delightful fruit that all share a name and a few key qualities.) I hardly know how I lived so long without them.
Asian pears have a lemony, floral flavor and a light, juicy crispness that puts them somewhere between pears and apples, but on a higher plane. They work so well on their own that they hardly require any adornment to make a special dessert. Still, a quick bath in a light brown sugar syrup perfumed with lemon, ginger and vanilla never hurt anyone, and very few foods are made worse by a dollop of freshly whipped cream. Are you with me here?
This elegant dessert takes mere minutes to prepare. It does most of the work itself while you eat dinner. If you can get your hands on a few Asian pears, I hope you'll give it a try.
Continue reading »
Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, November 9, 2009 at 4:05 PM
"Somehow, the eggplant comes off with a distinct smoky aroma that you'll swear must have been cooked over charcoal."
[Photograph: Nick Kindelsperger]
Eggplants always amaze me. They're my favorite vegetable to cook with since they can be manipulated in such exciting ways. This recipe from Chow grills them until they're tender and soft, then mixes them with an astonishing number of herbs including basil, mint, scallion, and parsley. Thinly sliced red onions, which quickly marinate in some red wine vinegar, provide a nice balance. The resulting salad is acidic, fresh-tasting, but still full of depth.
Chow has its own method for grilling eggplants, but I'm quite fond of a technique I learned a few years ago from KCRW's Good Food podcast. All you'll need is a heavy iron skillet. Lay the eggplant on a hot iron skillet and turn them every five minutes or so until they're blackened and very soft.
Continue reading »
