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