Category — Recipes

Today is my friend Kim’s birthday. Kim is the daytime assistant at Les Gourmettes Cooking School (I assist with nighttime classes).  She is a talented chef,  yoga instructor, wife, mother to four, and a wonderful friend – Happy Birthday, Kim!

Above is a picture of our Thanksgiving dessert table; the apple tart, pumpkin pie, plus pilgrim hat, and turkey sugar cookies. Hope your Thanksgiving was a wonderful mix of family, friends, and good food!  Here is a recipe to use up some of your leftover turkey and mashed potatoes. It is equally good with leftover stuffing as the bottom layer of mashed sweet potatoes.

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A perfect Thanksgiving side dish inspired by a recipe in a 2002 issue of Bon Appetit. Pictured above are the two main parts of the dish, the creamy corn mixture and the topping consisting of breadcrumbs, bacon, green onions, and fried onion rings. They may be made a day ahead, covered, and refrigerated separately.  Also pictured is a package of the instant or “quick-cooking” grits used to thicken the corn mixture.

The fried red onion rings are delicious and well worth the effort, but if you wish to take a shortcut – substitute them with the prepared fried onion rings you find in the grocery store. You know, the ones used in the classic Green Bean Casserole. If used, eliminate the 1/4 cup flour, the red onion, and the 1/2 cup olive oil from the ingredient list and eliminate the 3rd paragraph from the procedure portion of the recipe. Use 1 1/2 cups of purchased onion rings in their place.

Triple Onion Creamy Corn Gratin with Bacon

6 bacon slices, chopped
1/4 cup flour
1 medium red onion, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced (white and light green portions), divided
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large white or yellow onion, peeled and diced
8 cups frozen corn kernels (about 2 1/2 pounds), thawed
2 cups whole milk
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup quick-cooking grits
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 packed cup grated Monterey Jack  or Pepper Jack cheese

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This is a gourmet take on my grandmother’s traditional sage stuffing. She did not add the apples, sausage, pecans, or cranberries. It took her son, my dad, a couple of years to get used to my version, but now I think even he would miss those yummy additions – although he probably won’t admit it! The picture above is all the components, prepared and ready to put together before stuffing the bird (excluding the pumpkins, of course, those are for decoration!). The dominating flavor is still the sage, so be sure not to skimp on that. And remember to tear and dry out the bread at least 24 hours ahead of time.

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Recycling is a wonderful thing… not only with paper and plastic but with food too. Of course, the most basic form of food recycling is reusing leftovers, taking the leftover beef from a roast, and making burritos, for instance.  Or in this case, using the red wine poaching liquid from the poached pear post on 11/18/09 and using it to flavor this wonderful Thanksgiving side dish. Don’t fret if you didn’t make the poached pear recipe but want to make this, just use red wine in place of the poaching liquid.

I’m using frozen “petite whole onions” also known as pearl onions for this recipe.  Until about a month ago, I did not even know that pearl onions were sold peeled and frozen. What a find, all these years I’ve been meticulously boiling and peeling them myself!

The soaking liquid for the dried mushrooms is also reused here.  If you have any left after using the 1/2 cup asked for in this recipe, freeze it and use it to enrich sauces or deglaze pans in the future. And be sure to recycle those Thanksgiving leftovers too! I’ll post plenty of ideas after  Thursday.
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This is our traditional Thanksgiving soup. Back in the day, I went all “Martha” and hollowed out miniature pumpkins and served the soup in those. Hey, it only took about 4 or 5 hours to cut and hollow out 8 of those little guys! I am thankful that I eventually recovered my mind and my sanity and purchased and now use darling orange and green ceramic pumpkin bowls instead!

Butternut squash can be difficult to cut, but luckily many stores (including Costco and Trader Joe’s) sell packages of already peeled and cubed squash. If you can’t find them, look at the “Tip Index” on this site and learn how to correctly (and safely) cut butternut squash.  Save the oil the sage leaves are fried in to use in place of olive oil for just about any Thanksgiving recipe, especially those that have herbs included in them or to saute vegetables.
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Just about all the dishes I make for Thanksgiving are “must-haves” from my family. There can be no variations in our traditional stuffing, we must have butternut squash soup served in our individual pumpkin bowls.  There has to be pumpkin pie – plain old pumpkin pie – nothing fancy and if we do not have the jellied cranberry sauce from the can, it is not Thanksgiving!  I can make another gourmet cranberry sauce if I wish, but I’ll be the only one eating it!  And we must have this outstanding apple tart!  I’ve been making it annually for at least 12 years since it was introduced to me by Barbara Pool Fenzl of Les Gourmettes Cooking School, where I have worked for the past 21 years. It makes me feel old to say that aloud!  Old, but very proud to work with and have such an amazing, giving, and loving person, like Barb, to call my dear friend and mentor.

In addition to the fact that it comes from Barb, there are several things that make this particular apple tart so special. There is a thin layer of raspberry jam topping the bottom crust, and the gorgeous lattice top, but mostly it’s the irresistible cookie dough-like macadamia nut crust.

Because of that cookie dough texture, it may seem difficult to roll out, but don’t fret – if it rips, just piece it together or press it into the tart pan, it all melts back together and will turn out perfectly – perfectly beautiful and delicious!

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There are so many Thanksgiving recipes to get posted before the big day!  I figured, I better get the star of the show up soon, as in today!

The turkey here is trussed, which means the wings and legs are bound closed. When you truss a bird, the wings and legs stay close to the body; the ends of the drumsticks cover the top of the breast and keep it from drying out. Trussing helps cook evenly, reduces shrinkage by about 15%, and also makes for a more beautiful roasted bird.

The pictures here are lifted from the internet and will be replaced with my pictures when I actually make my turkey next week. Until then…
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The second appetizer of the day for Thanksgiving is just as easy and quick as the first.

Hot Feta and Tomato Spread

16 ounces crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons, drained and chopped sun-dried tomatoes
5 plum (Roma) tomatoes, cut crosswise into thin slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh oregano leaves
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pita chips
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With all the dishes you’ll be making for the big Thanksgiving feast, you need a couple of easy, quick, and tasty appetizers to go with the crudites. One of the quickest and easiest products to use is puff pastry.

Puff pastry can be purchased in the freezer section of the grocery store, usually near the pie crusts. Most grocery stores carry the Pepperidge Farms brand. Trader Joe’s also carries their own signature brand of puff pastry (you can pick up the tapenades there too). Both brands have two sheets of pastry per package, only one is needed for this recipe. Wrap well and refreeze the second sheet for future use.
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Before we get to the second poached pear recipe – a momentous occasion – for me, at least.  This is my 100th post, never imagined I’d get here when I began my blog back in August! Oh, Happy Day!  OK, enough self-congratulatory for now and on to the work at hand… savory poached pears…

Pears were poached in a sweet liquid and used for dessert in yesterday’s post. Today, these wine-poached pears are used in a savory salad. The flesh takes on a gorgeous deep red color.

Walnut oil is used for the vinaigrette, but olive oil can be substituted. Nut oils should always be stored in the refrigerator. Just like the nuts they come from, the oils go rancid quickly at room temperature.

The “seeds” of a fresh pomegranate are called arils and they should be showing up in markets since it is pomegranate season, take advantage and purchase them now, the season is short. The good news – arils can be frozen. To freeze, spread arils in a single layer on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Place in the freezer for about two hours. Transfer frozen arils to a labeled and dated zip-lock bag. You can easily remove the amount you need when desired and return the rest quickly to the freezer.  They will keep for about 6 months.

This salad is beautiful for any of the upcoming holidays and the poaching liquid can be saved for an upcoming Thanksgiving recipe for Pearl Onions and Wild Mushrooms in Red Wine Sauce, which will be posted later this week.*
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