Cooking Thanksgiving

I had a hankering for turkey and dressing and the local free-range turkey grower was offering birds through my CSA, so I decided to do Thanksgiving. (I do that every year so not such a big surprise.) With time on my hands at work last week, I added a few side dishes that had accumulated in my to-try folder and created a Thanksgiving "menu."

Deviled eggs
Asian shrimp cocktail
Turkey with herb rub
dressing
gravy
mashed potatoes
roasted Cipollini onions
Mexican street corn salad from Serious Eats
Golden Crusted Brussels Sprouts
cranberry sauce
Rolls and butter
pumpkin pie

The Asian Shrimp Cocktail was soon slashed from the menu--too much work and too much food already. Also the rolls and butter. But all the rest were faithfully executed. Some notes for future planning (and current amusement) follow.

Deviled eggs: this is one of those to-taste recipes I learned from my mother. No measurements, just taste and add until it's just right. The only problem is that every time you taste, there's a little less filling in the bowl. Note to me: watch the salt! Stop before you think it's enough. And  try adding a little real horseradish--mysupermarket horseradish mustard doesn't have enough Devil in it.

Roasted Cipollini Onions: well, that was pretty much a fail--no Cipollini Onions. Best I could find were small-ish sweet onions and they weren't very small and they weren't very sweet. I ended up cutting them in fourths. Plus the recipe was silly--it said they'd caramelize in 30 minutes in a 325 degree oven. Impossible! They weren't even soft at that point and the four tablespoons of butter wasn't even brown.

All that said, I'll save the recipe. Adding mushrooms, it would make a no-fuss addition to grilled steak. With a lot less butter.

The Mexican Street Corn Salad was a maybe--I need to try again using fresh corn, and I need to throw the chopped cilantro, onions and garlic in the pan right before turning off the heat. You heat up a big pan and char the corn kernels over high heat. Then, to all the ones that don't pop right out of the pan, you add the chopped herbs, mayonnaise, and a little cotija cheese. Lacking better instructions, and not wishing to goo up my frying pan with melted cheese, I cooled the corn down, transferred to a bowl, then added the herbs and stuff. But I think it would have been better if the herbs had gotten a minute of cooking in the hot pan.

Golden Crusted Brussels Sprouts was very simple. Instead of roasting them in an oven, you cook them in a pan until tender, then turn up the heat and brown the outsides. Sprinkle a little salt and grated cheese (I used gruyere). Serve warm.

I say, blah! Roasted vegetables is all the trendy thing, and in general it works, but I'm getting tired of it. What the recipes don't mention, although this one hinted at it, is that if you over-roast the vegetables, they turn from delicious to dull. This recipe said to start at a low temperature and to check them for doneness at ten minutes.

All I can say is, whoever wrote it needs to have his clocks checked. Mine weren't at all tender at ten minutes. So, needless to say, I burned 'em.

Never again. Brussels Sprouts are so sweet and yummy when cooked in a pan with a little water, I'm not wasting them on any more of these fancy cooking techniques.

I didn't taste the pie yet. I was so tired I went to bed early. The crust may be hideous--I started a bad recipe and realized my mistake, then tried to correct it rather than throw it all away and start over.





I did get an opportunity to try out the "How to Carve a Thanksgiving Turkey" instructions on Serious Eats.

What do you think?




Theirs:








Mine:






Close, huh?