In the before times, Thanksgiving was one of my favorite holidays. In my weird little hometown, it was a time when a lot of people came home to visit, so it meant catching up with old friends, meeting their new families, sitting around talking, doing some eating, perhaps some more sitting around and also, a lot of sitting around.
The sitting around part hasn’t changed in the past couple of years, but the meeting and catching up has. Last year we spent Thanksgiving with our COVID safe bubble of three people. It was … adequate. This year, we’ll have a slightly larger, and 100% vaccinated contingent of family, friends, and almost certainly at least one dog. I’m really excited about the dog.
By the time I actually get around to cooking actual Thanksgiving dinner I’m probably going to have learned to bake dog treats and built a special throne for our friends canine dining companion.
In the spirit of that shift back towards normalcy, I decided that this second Thanksgiving edition was going to be a little more over the top, a little more celebratory. I mean, as hard as the last year has been, as much has been lost, there are things to celebrate: Getting to gather with friends and family once more. Being able to safely live a little more of our lives. Thursday! Having a big fancy dinner with a dog!
I resisted the urge to go completely over the top. The turkey isn’t gilded. No really, it’s not, and really that is a thing. I didn’t layer everything with fancy spendy weird ingredients. Only a few dishes … and only one fancy spendy weird ingredient. Because why not celebrate just a little. One small fancy fun step back toward normalcy.
And then one giant step toward the couch.
Blue Cheese Brussels with Almonds and Caramelized Shallots
There are a lot of brussels sprouts recipe out there. For that matter there are a lot of brussels sprouts recipes in the archive of this newsletter. The social rehabilitation of the tiny green globes is now complete, and they’ve gone from an unwelcome necessity to a seasonal treat – not that you actually have to wait for the season to enjoy them, I’m 99% certain we can find them at our local grocery all year long. None the less, they feel like a seasonal thing, and I’m always happy when that “hey we can have braised and roasted things and brussels sprouts and cabbage that’s not slaw” moment comes along with the first even slightly cool day of not-quite-autumn.
This recipe is pretty simple and utilizes simple flavors and techniques because you don’t need to be spending your Thanksgiving hunched over a pot of boiling/frying/steaming cruciform veggies. I do suggest blanching them, as it speeds up the cooking process overall, can be done in advance, and – since it does help keep things from turning OD green - generally makes the finished produce brighter and more attractive.
Serves 4
1 lb. brussels sprouts
2 medium shallots
¼ cup slivered almonds
2 tbsp “crumbled” soft sweet blue cheese (gorgonzola dolce, cambozola etc.)
1 tbsp bacon fat or neutral oil
Prepare a large pot of heavily salted boiling water and an ice bath.
Trim the stem ends of the brussels sprouts and remove any loose or discolored leaves.
Slice the sprouts in half.
Blanch in boiling salted water for 30 seconds, then shock in the ice water.
Remove the sprouts from the ice water, drain, and dry.
Peel, trim, and thinly slice the shallots.
Add the neutral oil or bacon fat to a frying pan over medium high heat.
Add the sliced shallots, and cook, stirring constantly, until well browned – about 2-3 minutes.
Remove the shallots and set aside.
Sear the sprouts until well browned on the cut side, and tender.
Add the shallots and toss to combine with the sprouts.
Scatter with blue cheese and almonds and serve immediately.
Truffled Pommes Aligot
Pommes Aligot are to mashed potatoes what Mac & Cheese is to plain buttered noodles. It’s gilding the lily, adding cheese and richness and fun to something that’s already a pretty good thing. They’re essentially a cheese laden extra loaded version of already rich mashed potatoes. Unlike regular mashed potatoes, you want to overwork them – a soft tender mash isn’t the goal. You want cheesy potatoes that stretch like cheese from a 1980’s pizza commercial.
Oh, and then I went and added truffles to them. Truffles might not be your thing, but they’re a great way to add luxury and a celebratory once-in-a-whileness to something. I’ll use them more than once in this menu and it makes the items we’re adding them to feel extra-more-special. In the case of these dishes – all of which are cooked, there’s no reason to mess about with expensive fresh truffles. Preserved truffles (available at better groceries, or online via Amazon) are more than sufficient and much less expensive. They’re also easier to work with.
Serves 4
2 lbs large yukon gold potatoes
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup shredded swiss, comte, or gruyere cheese
1 cup shredded low moisture mozzarella
½ cup heavy cream, warmed
2 tsp minced preserved black truffle
Clean, peel, and cut the potatoes into 1-inch pieces.
Cook slowly in generously salted water until fork tender.
Drain the potatoes and transfer the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Add the butter and cream and mix at medium speed until smooth.
Add the cheeses and mix until melted and fully incorporated and the potatoes are elastic and stretchy.
Add the truffles, taste for seasoning, and serve immediately.
Apple Cranberry Mostarda
Cranberry sauce, no matter how you make it, still ends up being cranberry sauce. This isn’t’ cranberry sauce. It’s cranberry mostarda.
Sure, that’s a pretentious difference, but it’s also a real difference. Mostarda is a traditional Italian condiment made by simmering fruit in a mustard scented or flavored syrup. It adds bitterness and a savory note that cuts through the sweetness. Because cranberries are already tart, a mostarda made with cranberries is sweet, tart, bitter, fruity, mustardy … you get the point. It’s a fun and complex alternative to the old fashioned or new-fashioned cranberry condiments of yore – and it’s really pretty easy to make. I’ve added apples to give it a little more body, and because … well, I like apples. A little warm baking spice makes it feel holiday-y and there ya go. The mustard flavored cranberry condiment of your this-never-occurred-to-me dreams.
Makes approx. 2 Pints
8 oz fresh cranberries
8 oz dried cranberries
2 medium granny smith apples
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tsp ground yellow mustard
1 ½ tbsp yellow mustard seed
pinch cinnamon
pinch cloves
pinch fresh grated allspice
Trim, peel, and cut the apples into a ¼ inch dice.
Combine all ingredients in a thick bottomed pot.
Bring to low simmer and cook until the fresh cranberries have all burst, the dried cranberries are plump, and the mixture has thickened to a jam like consistency.
Bacon, Mushroom and Hazelnut Stuffing
There’s nothing particularly fancy about this stuffing. The process is the same, most of the flavors are the same, it just uses a couple of fancy ingredients … and not even all that fancy. I like hazelnuts both because of their earthy flavor (which really compliments the mushrooms, sage, and bacon in this preparation) but also because they hold up a crunch even in dishes where they encounter a fair bit of moisture. This recipe cooked in the bird won’t have a lot of crunch, but cooked as a side, the hazelnuts will add a nice textural element as well as great flavor. This recipe doesn’t include oysters, but if that’s part of your holiday tradition, the flavors here should work really well with that addition – though I strongly recommend freshly shucked oysters as opposed to tinned or canned.
1 large loaf challah or brioche
4 cups turkey stock
1 cup chopped blanched roasted hazelnuts
1 large white onion
2 large stalks celery
2 slices thick cut smoked bacon
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp minced fresh sage
4 cups turkey stock (below)
2 tsp kosher salt
Preheat your oven to 250° F.
Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes.
Scatter the bread cubes on a sheet pan.
Bake at 250° until firm and dry – about 30 minutes.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Peel, trim, and finely dice the onion.
Clean, and finely chop the celery.
Slice the bacon into ¼ inch pieces.
Add the bacon to a frying pan over medium heat.
Cook until the pieces are brown and beginning to crisp.
Add the celery, mushrooms, onions, and salt and cook until the onion is translucent, and the mushrooms have softened.
Add the sage and cook for 1 minute,
Add the turkey stock and bring to a simmer.
In a large bowl, pour the mixture over the bread cubes, add the nuts, and mix well.
Taste for seasoning and add additional salt if needed.
Allow to cool, then stuff into bird or spread in a buttered disk and bake to crisp.
Sweet Potato Gratin
It is an unstated - wait, it may not actually be unstated - rule that all Thanksgiving meals must contain a portion of something orange. Whether that’s sweet potatoes or squash or both is probably as much a product of tradition as it is taste. In the past I’ve made one or the other or both as a side dish, even going so far as to make homemade marshmallows to top a sweet potato casserole.
But since I’m making everything else in this menu more complex than necessary, I wanted to simplify things – though only a little. This is a very simple sweet potato dish presented in a way that doesn’t look simple at all. It’s really just two kinds of sweet potatoes layered into a dish, doused with cream and butter and baked with a little sugar – but the layering gives you a lot of space for creativity. Because I was using a round gratin pan, I alternated orange and white slices in a continuous spiral. If you’re using a rectangular pan, a herringbone patter would look great. Honestly, you could just dump the slices in a pan and bake them and they’d still taste great. But where’s the fun in that?
Serves 4
2 large jewel or garnet “yams”
2 large white sweet potatoes
1 cup heavy cream
4 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1 oz dark rum (or 1 oz water plus ½ tsp vanilla flavoring)
2 tsp kosher salt
Clean and peel the yams and sweet potatoes.
Remove the thin ends from the potatoes/yams.
Cut the potatoes/yams in half lengthwise.
Using a mandoline or sharp knife, cut the potatoes/yams into very thin slices.
Alternating jewel yams and white sweet potatoes, set the slices flat (cut) side down into a gratin pan or casserole.
Once the pan is full, sprinkle generously with salt, drizzle with cream, and top with melted butter.
Bake at 350°F until bubbling and the potatoes have begun to soften 30-45 minutes.
Mix the sugar and rum, and drizzle over the gratin.
Return to the oven and bake an additional 10 minutes.
Serve warm.
Extra Good Gravy
Good gravy isn’t just good, it’s great. It’s the backbone of the meal and the salve that cures all culinary ills. Just drown it in good gravy and you’re on your way. In my family, Thanksgiving gravy was almost always pan gravy – and while it was great, it’s unpredictable. If you’re brining a bird, the pan drippings can be unpalatably salty. If you’re using an unusual recipe like the easy carve style bird included in this week’s menu, you may have few to no drippings to work with.
This gravy utilizes roasted turkey stock (made either from the carcass of the partially deboned bird from this week’s turkey recipe (or baring that you can use turkey necks and wing tips etc) and a medium dark roux to build up an oven roasted flavor.
Oh, and truffles. There are truffles in this as well. Because why not go completely over the top? The unusual deep umami of preserved black truffle adds a tremendous punch of flavor to this gravy – and really is what makes it stand out.
Makes 2 cups of rich gravy
4 cups turkey stock (above)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp AP flour
1 tsp corn starch
1 tsp kosher salt (more to taste)
1 tsp minced preserved black truffle
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
Add 2 tbsp of butter to a thick bottomed pan over medium heat.
When the butter has stopped foaming, add the flour and cook, stirring constantly until the flour takes on the color of peanut butter.
Add the turkey stock and bring to a simmer.
Cook until the mixture has reduced to ~2 cups.
Mix the corn starch with a bit of water and add the slurry to the mixture – adding additional cornstarch in this manner until your desired thickness is reached.
Strain through a fine strainer to remove any lumps, and return to the heat
Add the salt, ground pepper and minced truffle, taste for seasoning, and serve hot.
Slightly Absurd “Easy Carve” Turkey
Recipes and advice for “the perfect” thanksgiving turkey abound. In fact there are pages and pages and more pages dedicated to it – which is evident if you’ve stood in a grocery line any time in the last two months. The checkout counter magazines are all a splendor with artfully set tables in autumn leaf tones, glimmering glassware and at the center of it all mahogany-colored plastic looking perfect turkeys.
This turkey recipe isn’t perfect looking, even if you get the technique perfect and are better with the butchers twine than I am. It’s a fussy and sort of weird. It yields a somewhat unusual looking bird – sort of a poultry torpedo threatening a post prandial nap. It does, however, solve a generous handful of Thanksgiving turkey pitfalls all at once.
First of all, because it includes a layer of herbed truffled butter, the white meat stays moist and flavorful.
Secondly, the whole “stuffed or unstuffed” question is moot – without stuffing it this dish wouldn’t work at all.
Finally, the who and how of carving isn’t a question. Ok, the who is still a question, but the old “Well, Step-Great-Uncle Dickie says you should carve it starting at the upside tail but Grandpa joe always told me that the gizzardside approach was the correct one” won’t matter because you can simply slice straight through it.
Yup. Partially deboned. Stuffed with savory stuffing and that herbed truffle butter, and all rolled back up. It’s a little like a turducken, minus the ducken. Or a Porchetta without the porch … um, I mean pork. You can simply slice an inch or so thick piece straight out of the middle – and for those that prefer leg or thigh? Those are still there in all their tendon-ey glory.
1 11-14 lb turkey
½ recipe Bacon Mushroom, and Hazelnut Stuffing
8 tbsp unsalted softened butter, divided
2 tbsp minced fresh sage
1 tsp minced thyme leaves
2 tsp minced preserved black truffles
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
Kosher Salt
Combine the minced sage, thyme, black pepper, and truffles with 6 tbsp softened butter. Use a spatula to combine.
Using a very sharp knife, debone the turkey:
Start from the backbone, not the breastbone.
Make a long cut along the center of the backbone.
Pull back the skin and work the knife in long strokes along the ribs and breastbone separating the breast meat from the bones.
Use the tip of the knife to separate the wing and thick joints, leaving the wings and legs intact.
Remove the ribs and backbone, and reserve to make stock.
Lay 4-6 pieces of kitchen twine, approximately 4 inches longer than the deboned turkey is wide, on a flat surface.
Lay the partially deboned turkey flat over the top of the twine.
Season the meat with kosher salt.
Spread the herb/truffle butter across the meat.
Mound ½ recipe of Bacon, mushroom, and hazelnut stuffing on the center of the deboned turkey.
Pull the skin of the turkey together, overlapping slightly at the edges, tuck the excess neck and tail sin in around the stuffing, and use the prepared pieces of twine to tie the turkey into a roll.
Trim off excess twine.
Season the skin generously with salt.
Arrange the turkey on a sheet pan lined with a rack and bake at 325°F - basting after 2hours with the remaining butter - until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the stuffed turkey reads 170°F.
The time will vary greatly depending on the size of the turkey, your oven, and whatever strange atmospheric conditions govern turkeys. Probably about 3 ½ hours for the turkey size specified in this recipe.
Turkey Stock
1 turkey carcass
4 quarts cold water
1 turkey neck
2 medium carrots
1 medium onion
2 large stalks celery
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs thyme
1 small sprig rosemary
1 tsp whole black peppercorn
Preheat your oven to 450°F.
Clean the carrots and celery.
Trim the onion, and slice into ½ inch slices.
Arrange the turkey carcass, carrots, onion, and celery on a sheet pan.
Roast the turkey carcass and vegetables until well browned.
Placed the browned turkey and vegetables in a large stock pot and fill to cover with at least 4 quarts cool water.
Add a small amount of water to the sheet pan and use a metal spatula or pancake turner to scrape up any browned bits. Add this to the pot with the other solid.
Add the thyme, the bay leaf, rosemary, and peppercorns to the pot.
Bring to a low simmer and cook at least two, and up to 4 hours, skimming foam from the top occasionally and adding extra water if necessary.
Strain out the solids and discard.
If the stock is particularly cloudy, you may wish to filter the stock through a clean flour sack towel.
Pumpkin Pecan Paris-Brest
I suppose not including a pumpkin, apple, or pecan pie recipe in a Thanksgiving menu is a sort of heresy. This recipe includes pumpkin and pecan, but it’s not a pie. Paris Brest is a sort of fanicified partially deconstructed cream puff – originally named after a bicycle race (because it’s round, like a wheel)
The desert is made up of a number of components, but they’re all fairly easy to prepare – then it’s just a matter of sticking it all together.
The recipe below makes individual portions, but you can make a single big wheel and cut portions if that feels more pie-like. You should all know that I tried, and failed, to make an 80’s kid Big Wheel joke here. No sick ramps, or cool skid break. Sorry. You’ll have to ride on alone.
Serves 4 as individual portions or makes one large 4 person pastry
1 recipe choux pastry dough (below)
1 recipe pecan praline filling (below)
1 recipe pumpkin pastry cream (below)
Confectioners’ sugar, slivered almonds, caramel sauce (for garnish)
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Prepare a large sheet pan lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
Using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, pipe four 6-inch-wide rings of choux pastry dough onto the pan.
Bake at 400° until the rings are browned. Do not open the oven.
Turn off the oven, prop the door open with a spoon, and allow the rings to cool completely.
Slice the rings in half
Pipe or spread a thin ring of praline filling on to the lower half of each ring.
Use a piping bag fitted with a star tip or other decorative tip to pipe a generous layer of pumpkin pastry cream over the praline.
Carefully set the top of the ring over the pastry cream, dust with confectioners’ sugar, drizzle with caramel, and top with slivered almonds.
Refrigerate in a covered container until ready to serve.
Pecan Praline Filling
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup cool water
1 tbsp unsalted butter
¼ cup heavy cream
Add the water butter, and sugar to a thick bottomed pan over medium heat.
Cook undisturbed until the sugar has fully dissolved, the water evaporated, and the caramel takes on a light brown color.
Add the pecans, and cook, stirring vigorously, for 2 minutes.
Turn out the caramel coated pecans onto a silicone mat and allow to cool completely.
Transfer the cooled praline and cream to the container of a high-speed blender and process until a smooth paste has formed. If the pecan mixture is too dry to form a paste, add small amounts of additional cream until a paste forms.
Pumpkin Pastry Cream
½ cup canned pumpkin puree
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
½ cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
Whisk together 4 egg yolks, ½ cup pumpkin puree, 3 tbsp corn starch, and the cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.
Add 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, and ½ cup sugar to a thick bottomed pan over medium low heat.
Once the cream/milk mixture is steaming hot, slowly pour ½ the mixture into the egg mixture while whisking.
Reverse the process and whisk the tempered egg mixture back into the milk/cream mixture.
Cook over low heat while stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.
Press through a sieve or strainer to remove any lumps, allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 2 hours or until ready to use.
Choux Pastry
1 cup water
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup flour
4 large eggs
2 tsp granulated sugar
Place the water sugar, and butter in a thick bottomed pan over medium heat.
As soon as the water boils and the butter is completely melted, add the flour to the pan and stir vigorously.
Keep stirring - with the heat on - until a smooth, glossy ball forms and pulls away from the pan.
Remove from the heat, transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and allow to cool to about the temperature of tap water. You can speed this process up by mixing on low.
Once the dough is cooled enough not to cook the eggs, bring the mixer to medium speed, and add the eggs one at a time, letting each egg fully incorporate before adding the next.
Beat until the eggs are fully incorporated and a smooth pastry is formed.
Store covered and use within 2 hours.