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Thanksgiving Vegetable Sides
I think Thanksgiving dinner needs some sharp, definite flavors and some contrasting textures, as there are so many rich, smooth, unctuous dishes. Instead of creamed onions, we do small red onions roasted in balsamic and herbs. Not that green bean thing out of a stack of cans but fresh green beans with some hazelnuts for crunch. No rich soup to start, but plated composed salads: fennel, pear, jicama, bit of bleu cheese, pomegranate seeds, walnut oil and a divine German apple vinegar I can't get any more, sadly. Before dinner we have a few nibbles of smoked salmon with dill. I like the contrast with all the traditional things like mashed potatoes and gravy, then sweet potato spears in chili-maple glaze. We never stuff the turkey - it just gets soggy in there and has to be hauled out as soon as dinner is over, a breeding ground for bad bacteria. We do two dressings baked in dishes, laced with the homemade turkey stock I've been making for a week, and crisp on top: cornbread-apple-fresh sage and my mother's oyster dressing. (Yeah I make the Pullman bread for the dressings from James Beard's recipe). The turkey has inside it only a halved lemon, an onion and some fresh sage. It also cooks faster without all the sludge inside.
I do two cranberry things: the fresh raw one with orange and Cointreau, and a cooked molded one which is SO much better than the canned cylinder with a seam! It's Ann Hodgin's recipe. We haven't missed rolls and eliminated them a couple of years ago, there is so much bread in the two stuffings. My friend and I have been doing this dinner for 23 years; our guest list has been 4 and it's been 15 depending on family plans and how many strays we can corral.. We eat an early dinner, about 6, so we can light the candles, and we have so much fun cooking, the dinner is almost an afterthought. It's the Foody High Holy Day.
What do you use maple syrup for?
I hope it's the "B" grade, which is dark, complex, much more interesting, and generally spurned by tourists who go for the golden "A" stuff. I drizzle it on Greek yogurt in the morning. Thin it with Balsamic or wine vinegar to deglaze the pan after porkchops or chicken thighs. Mix with mustard for a glaze on a pork roast. Bake sweet potatoes or squash laced with it, not too much. Living in New England I always find a place for maple somewhere in our Thanksgiving menu.
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I never put anything inside any bird except some aromatics, herbs, half a lemon, etc, whether chicken, turkey or duck. For the person who said the dressing otherwise doesn't get all the fat and flavor, that's easy: Put turkey stock in and on the dressing. Every year I make quarts of turkey stock in the weeks before Thanksgiving, from turkey backs, wings, necks, and other bony bits that start showing up in the market about now. Roast them first of course, with some aromatics, and then simmer. Chill, remove fat, strain, reduce by half, and freeze the resulting luscious dark demi-glace, so it's all on tap for Turkey Day. How on earth do you get enough gravy otherwise?
I like the crunch of baked dressings; in the bird they just get gooey. We do two dressings; cornbread-pecan-sausage-lovage and oyster. I would hate to see either one of them buried in a turkey.