Thanksgiving, Part 1

This year I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time, and I'm happy to say that everybody seemed to have been ok with the menu. For the record, this was the menu:
Roast Turkey
Cider Gravy
Cranberry Apple Relish
Sausage Apple Cornbread Stuffing
Braised Leeks
Roasted White Asparagus
Sweet Potato Biscuits
Mashed Potatoes
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Onion Tart
Pecan Pie
Cherry Pie
Mini Pastries (thank you, trader joes...)
Butter Cookies

I've been asked to provide recipes for all of it, so I'll try, though this will probably take a bit. First up is the most-requested one--the stuffing. (By requested I mean begged and demanded, repeatedly.) It was a bit labor-intensive, but more than made up for it in both quantity and result. Here goes:

Sausage Apple Cornbread Stuffing

Ingredients:
-1 pound bulk sausage (pork, turkey, doesn't matter, as long as it's not in casings)
-1 large or two small onions, chopped
-1 large or two smal bulbs fennel, chopped
-4-6 ribs celery, chopped
-2 handfuls shredded carrots or 2 medium carrots, chopped fine
-4 granny smith apples, peeled and cubed
-5 cups chicken broth
-1 bag Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Stuffing mix (or some other similar one)

Directions:
Brown the sausage in a large saucepan over medium heat, breaking it into marble-sized bits and cooking until there is no pink left. Drain sausage of as much grease as you can and remove from the pan and place in a bowl. Pour off remaining grease from the pan and toss in onion, fennel, celery and carrots, if using chopped and not shredded. Cook the vegetables over medium-high heat until browned and nearly cooked through. Remove vegetables from the pan and toss in the apples. Sautee the apples until the edges are browned but the apples aren't cooked through. Pour the chicken broth into the pan and allow it to come to a boil with the apples. In a large (VERY LARGE) bowl combine the stuffing mix, sausage and vegetables and toss to combine. When the broth has come to temperature pour it and the apples over the stuffing mixture and stir to incorporate the broth and apples into the stuffing. Add more broth if the mixture is too dry. As there is nothing left that isn't cooked, the stuffing could easily be eaten at this point, but to finish it off in true thanksgiving fashion, load the whole lot of it into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. This will brown the top a bit and get the edges a little crusty, as baked stuffings should be.

Notes:
-The whole thing can be made up to the point where you'd bake it and then thrown in the fridge. Just keep in mind that it will take longer to all come to temperature in the oven that way and it will need some extra time. No worries if it doesn't all heat up though--there is nothing in it that hasn't already been cooked and no eggs to worry about not setting up.
-This stuffing will probably have a texture different to what you're used to if you generally make bread stuffings. It comes out chock full of veggies bound together by the cornbread.
-This may well taste fine if you use regular bread crumb stuffing mixes and not cornbread. I just prefer cornbread myself and I think it goes well with the apple.


And second up, the gravy:

Cider Gravy

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2007/11/14/cider-herb-gravy/
(I'm being lazy about typing for this one)

The gravy was based on the above recipe from the Washington Post, with the following changes:
1. I didn't have parsley or brandy, so I left them out.
2. I didn't see the point of putting in butter, so I didn't.
3. I made the base pretty much as instructed, minus the butter and thickened it with a few tablespoons of cornstarch mixed in with the cream to form a slurry. As I didn't feel like taking the time to chop herbs, I put a whole sprig of rosemary, two or three of thyme and two stems of sage into the simmering broth and pulled it out with the tongs right before I thickened it. The cider/broth mixture was infused, but there weren't any hard bits of rosemary leaves or thyme stems left floating in it.
4. I didn't measure my drippings, but I did skim the fat off of them as best I could, which left me with about two cups or so (it was a big turkey). I combined that with another two cups or so of chicken broth and the gravy base and heated the whole thing through. It was a touch runny for my taste, so I added some more cornstarch slurry and that thickened it up nicely. A little sherry or brandy may have been a nice addition at that point, but it certainly wasn't missed.
5. This whole thing resulted in about 4 or 5 cups of gravy, which in our family was just about perfect for the amount of leftovers we had.


Coming soon: Turkey, Cranberry Relish and Braised Leeks

Everything, Up To and Including the Kitchen Sink...

So, this week hasn't quite gone as I'd like it to. Some of you watching this know why, some don't. I'll spare the details, but the short version involves shit hitting the fan in several aspects of my existence and my resulting displeasure with a lot of things in my life. The result? A continued lack of motivation when it comes to cooking anything more than twice a week, at least when I'm at home. While I'm at work I find lovely recipes for things like pasta carbonara, almond cakes with grapes, panko-crusted baked salmon and all sorts of things that take actual work were I to make them when I come home. Right now, that's just not going to work. My solution this week is to make a huge batch of mujadara and a veritable bucket of kitchen sink curry. This is a japanese style curry that is about as short-cut as you can get. I use an instant curry sauce and throw in whatever looks good or almost dead in my pantry and crisper. This week's version combined chickpeas, potatoes, onion and cauliflower. Ladled over a bowl of basmati rice at the end of a long, cold day it's just about as close to perfect as I'm likely to get this week.

Kitchen Sink Curry

Ingredients:
-olive or canola oil, for sauteing
-1 onion, roughly chopped
-4-6 medium (tennis ball sized) yukon gold potatoes, cut into bite sized chunks
-1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
-1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
-1/2 pack vermont curry, or any similar curry sauce in whatever heat you prefer
-3 1/2 cups water (or whatever amount your sauce pack calls for)
-basmati rice

Directions:
In a very large saucepan (15 inch, at least) or dutch oven heat just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan on high. When hot, add onion and potatoes and saute for 3-5 minutes, just until the edges start to brown. Add the curry sauce cubes and water and stir until the cubes are dissolved and the sauce starts to thicken. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chickpeas and cauliflower and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes until potatoes are soft and cauliflower is cooked. Give it a last stir and ladle over basmati rice.

Notes:
-Use whatever you want to make this. In my experience, rather little that lives in your pantry goes badly with yellow curry sauce. I recommend lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, peas, really most beans and legumes and leftover carrots. Cashews can be thrown in when you first start cooking it, as can drained tofu. Just brown the tofu and then throw in the rest so the tofu doesn't break down too much. Not that that would hurt it anyway.
-I've used up frozen bagged mixed veggies this way, but it's just not as good, in my opinion. This is a good recipe to use up nearly dead cruciferous and root veggies, but watery ones don't seem to like it as much. They still taste fine, I just don't like the textures. Carrot/Lima/Corn/Pea mixes work ok, frozen cauliflower/broccoli/carrot mixes not so much.
-I've made curry noodles by mixing cooked lo mein noodles into the pot at the end of this and letting them soak up some sauce. My ratios were 1 bag frozen mixed veggies/1/2 pack curry sauce/1 pound pack noodles. It made a lot.
-Bonus--The curry sauce can be made one 12th of a packet at a time, which is just a perfect amount for either dipping french fries or dressing a few baked/boiled potatoes. Yellow curry sauce and potatoes go together really, really well.
-Vermont curry--This is a product that I buy from my international market, but isn't too hard to find in the international aisle of some supermarkets (it's just a lot more expensive). I've started keeping a pack in my pantry for whenever I get hungry and don't really feel like making something terribly involved but still want something that tastes good. This particular brand claims to have an apple flavor--hence the designation as "vermont curry." I don't taste it, but I like it anyway.