More Thanksgiving Sides (Baked Sweet Potatoes, Braised Brussel Sprouts)

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Continuing on our theme of not going insane on Thanksgiving, here are two recipes that can be prepared ahead, then heated up just before serving.  Everyone likes sweet potatoes, however far too many recipes hide the flavor of the vegetable, instead coating them with thick syrup and stuff like marshmallows.  You might as well be sprinkling them with jimmies!  My stripped down version adds acidity and really brings out the flavor of a traditional Thanksgiving vegetable.  Vegans take it on the chin with the second side dish, brussel sprouts with bacon.  Now is the time of year that these little guys are showing up in farm markets.  The key here is not overcooking the sprouts before braising. 

Each of these dishes, along with the glazed mushrooms, roasted beets, parsnips, applesauce, cumin pumpkin seeds and pumpkin bisque described in earlier blogs can be made ahead and reheated just before the turkey hits the table.  Do as much as you can before the big meal.  Don’t make yourself crazy like the rest of your family.  Zen your way through Thanksgiving!

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Baked Sweet Potatoes

1.5 # sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

1 cup orange juice

½ cup maple syrup, the real stuff

3 tbs. unsalted butter, softened

1 cup chopped walnuts

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 °.  Heat a stockpot of salted water to boiling.  Blanch the sweet potatoes for 5 minutes, until the just begin to soften.  Drain in a colander while you prepare the sauce.

Whisk the orange juice, maple syrup and butter together in a large mixing bowl.  Add the sweet potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Mix the sweet potatoes and sauce together to coat.  Arrange the sauced sweet potatoes in a baking dish large enough to hold them in one layer.  Top with the walnuts. 

Bake the sweet potatoes for 25 minutes, until they are cooked through and glazed with the orange/maple sauce.  A toothpick inserted into the sweet potatoes will push through evenly, without resistance.  Remove from the oven and cool.  Reheat at 350° for 20 minutes before serving.

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Braised Brussel Sprouts

2 qts. brussel sprouts

3 slices bacon, chopped

2 tbs. diced onion

2 tbs. diced carrot

1 cup chicken stock (or water)

½ tsp. dried thyme

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 °.  Heat a stockpot of salted water to boiling.  Clean the brussel sprouts by removing the large, loose outer leaves with a paring knife.  Cut the stem flush and score it by cutting an X in the bottom, pushing the knife deeply into the core so that boiling water can reach inside and evenly cook the brussel sprouts.  Blanch the brussel sprouts in the salted water for 10 minutes, until they just begin to soften.

While the brussel sprouts are blanching, heat a sauté pan large enough to hold the brussel sprouts.  Slowly cook the bacon, rendering the fat.  When the bacon begins to brown, add the onions, carrot, thyme and bay leaf.  Continue to stir the vegetables, taking care not to burn them.  Remove the brussel sprouts from the water and add them to the pan with the bacon and aromatic vegetables.  Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock and braise the brussel sprouts in the oven for 30 minutes.  The liquid will have cooked down to a glaze.  You can serve them immediately or cool, then reheat them at 350° for 20 minutes before serving.

It Begins! (Fritters)

I like to cook.  Even when I’m at home alone, I’ll whip up something that my wife thinks is extreme, overly complicated and dirties up too many pots and pans.  That said, whatever I’m making up tastes good and reflects my individual flair.  I once read that any of her acolytes could pick out the egg that the great chef and educator Alice Waters had fried, just by looking at the way that the whites had scorched around the outside.  I hope that I have a similar, distinctive style.  Fritters may be an example of that.

For most cooks, the coming Thanksgiving holiday is a hassle.  You’ll be cooking for more people than usual, the kitchen will be cramped with inefficient “helpers” and the food is expected to be perfect, just like Grandma used to make.  The problem is that everyone’s memory of Grandma’s meal is really just a misremembered bit of Norman Rockwell.  At her house, the turkey was dry, the TV was too loud and Uncle John said something inappropriate every year and got slapped by Aunt Sarah.  Psychological balance is a tricky thing.  I repress a lot!

A great cook at Thanksgiving works hardest at making their life easy.  Over the next few days, I’m going to help you survive and thrive during what can be an extremely stressful day.  One of the best ways to do that is to plan ahead what you’ll be serving and make most of your offerings dishes that can be reheated at the last minute and put on the table.  You’ll want to keep the final work to a minimum, just in case the unexpected, which will happen, happens.  This way, you’ll be able to deal with the craziness that comes with family dinners with panache.   So, our focus over the next few days will be on dishes that can be prepped ahead of time.  You’ll look good and be able to enjoy that Beaujolais Nouveau, rather than needing that water glass of Scotch RIGHT NOW, DAMNIT!

Fritters are a good hors d'oeuvre.  They can be prepped two days ahead and are easily varied.  Without too much of a problem, you can make a few types, say maybe ham, shrimp or cheese.  Just split the batter in half and stir in the savory ingredients.  Toss a plate of fritters out into the family room and the kids will leave you alone for a while so you can get down to business.  What follows is just a basic recipe.  There are plenty of substitutions that you can make.  For example, switch buttermilk for the milk or if you care about taste not longevity, bacon fat for butter.  I sort of feel that if you are making fritters, you probably aren’t counting calories.  Don’t eat them every day, but when you do, do it right. 

Fritters

2 cups flour

½ cup milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon melted butter

a pinch each of sugar and salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, egg, butter, salt and sugar.  Mix with a wooden spoon to combine.  Add the baking powder and flour.  Mix the fritter batter until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  You’ve done nothing wrong.  It should be a sticky mess.  Add any extra flavorings at the end.

Heat a three inch deep pot of oil to 375°.  Use a thermometer.  The oil must not be too hot or the center of the fritters will not cook.  With a small spoon, drop one teaspoon of batter into the oil.  Turn the fritter when one side is cooked.  Fry for about three minutes until brown and crispy on the outside.  Remove from the oil with a strainer and drain on some newspaper.  Fry the fritters in small batches.  You can also fry them on an electric griddle like lumpy pancakes.  Hold the cooked fritter in a 165° oven.  Season with salt.  Serve hot.

For savory fitters, I usually add 1 sliced scallion and 2 slices of bacon that have been cooked and crumbled.  You can mix it up by adding whatever you have in the fridge.  Avoid any dried herbs.  They tend to burn.  Here are some variations:

1 cup chopped ham

1 cup cooked, chopped shrimp or scallops

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, chevre or crumbled bleu cheese

1 15 ounce can of corn, drained well

½ cup cooked oyster mushrooms

1 cup stewed onions (cook slowly in butter until like jam, cool)

1 cup cooked, chopped swiss chard

1 cup peeled, blanched and chopped asparagus, broccoli or salsify

Some folks want to serve fritters with a sweet dipping sauce.  I wonder why you would want to coat a well-made fritter with sugary goo.  Stick with a mayo or cream based sauce with fresh herbs.

Put this away for later.  On Thanksgiving, you’ll want to stick with pumpkin pie and the like for dessert, but you should keep in the back of your mind that sweet fritters make a good dessert or side for brunch.  My favorites are with diced lemon, peels and all, which have been stewed in syrup.  Cook a chopped lemon in 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup water until it crystallizes, then finely chop.  Whatever you put in the fritter batter should be cooked and cooled.  Try peaches, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, pears, brandied cherries, apples, cranberries... 

Fry ‘em up and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Stock Rant v. 1.0 (Vegetable Stock, Glazed Mushrooms)

This will be a bit of a rant, but aren’t you getting used to that?

For the moment, I’m not naming names.  Last weekend, on one of those NPR Saturday lunchtime food shows, I heard a cook book author talking about being thrifty in the kitchen.  My ears tuned in.  This is an uncommon topic on food shows.  The usual talk is about new, expensive/flashy ingredients that you can cook up at home just like they do at Le Bec Fin.  Most authors go on at length about sturgeon stewed in Châteaux d'Yquem  (a beautiful Sauternes by the way) with morilles and crème fraiche topped with beluga caviar.  I’m an OK cook and I’m unlikely to be doing that.  Last night we had pork neck stewed with cabbage, carrots, turnips and potatoes.  It was great and 1/20 the the cost.

So I hear her say that when preparing food, she always has an eye to making stocks.  Good!  She continued, saying that she has a Tupperware in the fridge where she throws peels to make a stock when there has been a good amount collected.  Also good!  The host asked her what she made the stock from and she said, “ends of celery, onion peels, carrot parings” Unbelievably good!  And then she said, “…and if I peel asparagus or tomatoes or artichokes I throw them into the pot to boil.” 

No, no, or cribbing Darth Vader, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF_lJTGKFP0

Here’s the thing.  If you put a bunch of what is really garbage in a pot and boil it, you really shouldn’t be surprised if what you get as the end product is, well…garbage.  Saving peels is a fine idea.  It is done in every great restaurant and by every Grandma looking to feed the family on a budget.  It just makes sense, there’s flavor in those peels.  What you don’t want to do is toss a bunch of random vegetable scraps in a pot, especially strong tasting stuff like asparagus, tomatoes or artichokes.

At some point, we’ll talk about the dark sin that is boxed chicken stock and the value of shrimp shells, but for now, let’s leave it at that stocks are under rated as flavor enhancers in this country.  They are a cheap and easy way to make dishes that have a special, layered, taste profile that you get if you think about what you are doing at the stove.  A well-made vegetable stock, in comparison to last Saturday’s boiled mess, is light, brightly flavored, versatile and truly a thing of beauty.  And it is not difficult or time-consuming.  It even freezes well, make a big batch.

A vegetable stock recipe follows, along with one for mushrooms sautéed with shallots and herbs, then glazed with the vegetable stock.  The mushroom dish is a variation on butter-braised mushrooms.  God help me, it is actually good for you.  It is the sort of preparation that shows solid technique always wins out over boiling scraps into a murky stew.

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Vegetable Stock

2 large carrots, roughly chopped

1 large Spanish onion, roughly chopped with the skin

the bottom three inches of a head of celery, cut in half

6 white mushrooms, sliced

sprig of parsley

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 bay leaves

4 black peppercorns

1 gallon cold water

Add one cup of cold water, the carrots, onion, celery and mushrooms to a large, heavy bottomed stock pot on high heat.  When the water boils, lower the heat and simmer these aromatic vegetables until the onions are translucent.

Add the remainder of the water to the pot.  Add the parsley, garlic, bay leaves and peppercorns.  Turn the heat to high and bring the stock to a low simmer.  

Reduce the heat to low and simmer the stock uncovered for 30 minutes.  Remove the stock from the heat.  Strain the liquid through a fine strainer, reserve the liquid and throw away the cooked vegetables.

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Vegetable Stock Glazed Mushrooms

1# small button mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed

1 cup vegetable stock

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 small shallot, chopped

2 tbs. parsley, chopped

2 tbs. olive oil

salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan large enough to hold the mushroom in one layer.  When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms and lightly season with salt and pepper. 

Keep the pan on a high heat and continue stirring the mushrooms until they begin to brown.  Add the garlic, shallots and parsley.  Sauté for one minute, then add the vegetable stock.

Continuing on high heat, cook the stock down until it has almost evaporated, glazing the mushrooms.  Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately.

Com' on, You Can Make a Casserole! (Penne Casserole, Potato Soup)

­­If there was anyone out there doing the work of God, it is Tommie Wilkins, Christina Siglin and the people of Laurel House in Norristown, PA. http://laurel-house.org/  Go to their site.  Usually, it is annoying to see all those “donate” buttons all over the interwebs, but in this case, you should click on every single one and empty your paypal.   

Here’s Laurel House’s mission. “…to provide safe haven for abused women and their children, to raise public awareness about domestic violence and to advocate for social change against domestic violence.” Sounds like something we can all get behind? 

Tommie laid out a table in the sanctuary of our church with “empty place” settings for six local women who had died from domestic abuse.  From the stories that she told, Tommie could have set up a banquet table stretching to the street. In every community, rich or poor, black, white, brown or purple there is domestic abuse.  People are suffering.  This is unacceptable.   

How can we help?  Well, there are always the previously mentioned donations.  That’ll go a long way to providing for the 28 women and their children that they house each day.  You can shop at their thrift stores, Laurel’s Loft in Lansdale and Marian's Attic in King of Prussia.  Good stuff for cheap!  You can volunteer at these shops.  Even a few hours a month is a help.  You can attend their events listed on the calendar.  How about donating your old cell phone or picking up some new clothing or hygiene­­­­ items on their wish list, something that is needed, but for which there is no budget.  Or, here’s a crazy idea, keep them in mind when you are doing your estate planning. 

Also, we have to stand up. 

If you aren’t in Montgomery County, PA, search out a local shelter and give them food.  It is necessary and appreciated.  Talk with the people running the shelter and help them get the kind of food that they need.  Secondly, deliver the food frozen and labeled with the contents and date it was made.  That helps the provider with planning for when donations are slack, normally the times after the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays and at the end of the summer. Lastly, talk to your neighbors and kids.  Listen to learn of need in your community.  Act to change the culture of violence that is America today.

…and you thought that this was a food blog?

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This dish freezes well and provides a nutritious meal for about 8 people.  Later we’ll have a discussion about making your own tomato sauce, I mean gravy, no sauce, gravy, sauce…

Penne Casserole

2# penne pasta, cooked al dente

6 cups tomato sauce

24 oz. grated mozzarella cheese

1# sliced provolone cheese

8 oz. grated parmesan cheese

5 cloves chopped garlic

1 aluminum hotel pan with lid

Preheat your oven to 375°.  Ladle enough sauce into the bottom of the hotel pan to cover it one inch deep.  Add ½ of the penne and mozzarella.  Sprinkle the garlic over the pasta, then add the remainder of the sauce.  Layer the remainder of the pasta on top of the sauce.  Spread the rest of the mozzarella evenly over the pasta, cover the mozzarella evenly with the sliced provolone then sprinkle the grated parm over the casserole.  Bake for one hour or until browned.

Allow to cool for 20 minutes, cover, label with the contents and date and freeze solidly before delivering the casserole to Laurel House.

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This is a master recipe which can be changed by using different herbs or vegetables.  You’ll get a different soup if you add a cup of celery, carrots, mushrooms or cooked Italian sausage.  Either way, it is filling, making a complete meal if it is served with crusty bread and a big salad.

Potato Soup

3 large chef’s potatoes, peeled and diced

1 spanish onion, diced

3 tbs. chopped fresh herbs, parsley, thyme, chives, tarragon

1 tbs. butter

½ gallon milk

½ galloon water

In a heavy stockpot, melt the butter over low heat, add the onions.  Sauteé the onions for 5 minutes, until transparent.  Add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper, cover the pot and sweat the potatoes until they have begun to cook through, but have not browned.

Remove the lid and add the water and milk.  Increase the heat and bring the soup to a boil.  Skim any scum that rises to the top, lower the heat and simmer uncovered for one hour. 

At the end of the hour cooking time, the potatoes will have broken down and the soup will have thickened.  At this point, you can simply mix the soup with a whisk to further break up the potatoes or pass it through a food mill to give it a finer texture.  Stir in the herbs and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Package the soup in plastic one quart containers and freeze.  Those leftover soup containers that you get take-out wonton soup in are perfect.  It is easier to deliver frozen food to a shelter, less mess, and they will be able to thaw and reheat your soup whenever they need it.