this is a bare-bones recipe, but it’s so good I want to get at least the basic recipe up.
8 egg yolks
1 cup white sugar (I actually used Mexican sugar for this part, which is an extremely light brown and coarse sugar, but I don’t know that it made any difference; white sugar works just as well)
1 cup dark brown sugar
6 cups heavy cream (you can use up to 1/3 milk, but I like my ice cream on the insanely rich side)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Mexican vanilla
1-2 teaspoons Kahlua (optional)
beat the egg yolks with the white sugar until the mixture is lemon-yellow in color and forms ribbons, then beat in the brown sugar, cream and salt (use the smaller amount of salt to start). cook it in a very heavy pot (I like a Le Creuset dutch oven) over very low heat (or use a bain marie), stirring constantly, ever-vigilant, until the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon nicely. it won’t be super-thick; it should come out more the consistency of a finished veloute (yeah, I'll find those accents aigu one of these days). add the vanilla and optional Kahlua, then taste to see if it wants more salt. pour it out into a suitable container and refrigerate it for at least several hours, preferably overnight. after that, freeze as usual -- I like my little Cuisinart ice cream freezer for this, but this recipe needs to be adjusted, because it makes too much to freeze in one batch. next time, I’ll try to use 3/4 to 2/3 the amount and will update when I get it right.
this comes out just gorgeous, a dense gelato-like texture with a dark cream color, and goes beautifully with fresh fruit, chocolate cake, or all by itself. one scoop will be plenty for most people, since it’s so rich.
recipes from Diane H
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
less cooking, but should it be this way?
broke up with the boyfriend (a good decision; it wasn’t going anywhere), so I haven’t been cooking anywhere near as often lately. I’m just not inspired to cook for myself, but then yongfook and his Open Source Food site make me think twice about my attitude. I think it needs an adjustment, so today I barely cooked -- made good old tomato-basil soup to have around. it made a delicious lunch! I should try adding that dollop of chevre that maidmoron recommended.
it’s getting difficult to type this post with my cat laying on my arm and grousing every time I move, so that’s all for now, folks!
it’s getting difficult to type this post with my cat laying on my arm and grousing every time I move, so that’s all for now, folks!
Monday, February 19, 2007
teriyaki roasted chicken a roaring success; news at 11
the teriyaki chicken we had for dinner last night was hands-down the best roasted chicken I’ve made. since I didn’t write out the actual recipe before; I’ll attempt it now, but this is an approximation. a good approximation.
teriyaki roasted chicken
1 big ol’ chicken (this one was a bit over 6 pounds)
1 batch homemade teriyaki sauce (recipe below), made the night before
3 finely sliced green onions
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon (more?) toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, + 1 teaspoon black sesame seeds set aside for roasting
combine teriyaki sauce with green onions, ginger, sesame oil and 1 T of the sesame seeds. marinate chicken in sauce in refrigerator for 2-6 hours, turning once midway.
preheat oven to 375° F. remove chicken from marinade and place in a lightly oiled roasting pan. pour about 1/2 cup of the teriyaki marinade over, and refrigerate the remainder of the teriyaki to glaze the chicken during roasting. roast for 30 - 40 minutes (depending on size -- 30 minutes is plenty for a 4-5 pounder; 40 minutes for a 6-pounder) then reduce heat to 300 °F and continue to roast for 40 minutes (for smaller chickens) to an hour (for the more zaftig chickens). glaze periodically with some of the reserved teriyaki sauce, and at the end of this hour, sprinkle chicken with remaining 1 teaspoon sesame seeds. increase heat to 425° F and continue roasting until skin is browned & crispy; about 15 minutes.
during the last roasting phase, take remaining teriyaki sauce and simmer for 15 minutes on the stovetop to cook thoroughly and reduce a bit.
when chicken is done and has rested, carve it and serve with the warm sauce. accompany with Japanese-style white rice (I heart good old Nishiki rice, prepared plainly with water and sea salt in the rice cooker) and veggies as desired (in this case, I glazed carrots with plain teriyaki sauce and roasted them during the last 40 minutes or so with the chicken).
teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup shoyu
1/2 cup light soy sauce (NOT low-sodium soy, but light soy sauce that you can find in the Japanese section of a good Asian market)
1 cup nigori sake
1/3 cup sugar
simmer ingredients briefly in saucepan to dissolve sugar. refrigerate to chill before using.
this recipe is deceptively simple -- and shockingly delicious. I added the aromatics (ginger, green onion and sesame) to the teriyaki because I wasn’t able to grill the chicken; if I had been grilling, I would have kept the sauce plain. it’s thinner than teriyaki sauce one buys, and you can thicken it with potato starch or cornstarch if you want, but please keep it on the thin side. you may want it thicker on a piece of fish, or chunks of chicken on skewers, maybe, but for a roasted chicken, un-thickened was the way to go. it somehow tenderized and amplified all of the flavors in a gorgeous yet subtle way, and the finished chicken was beautiful, shiny and reddish-brown. I’ll be making this again soon.
many recipes call for mirin, but I prefer sake, especially a rich, sweet nigori sake. I used the cheap stuff, and it was absolutely great.
and in this post, you get two (two! TWO!) recipes for the price of one, since tonight, I’m cooking rice pudding. I’ve made a slight change in an old recipe of mine -- I always made this with Japanese sweet brown rice before, and this time, I'm using the white variety of the same rice. it smells divine. I always use a neuro-fuzzy-logic rice cooker to make rice and rice pudding, so I’m afraid that my instructions are specific to this piece of kitchen equipment. you could probably cook the rice in water on top of the stove, then bake it in a covered casserole in the oven for about an hour to approximate the same thing, but I wouldn’t know for sure.
sweet rice pudding
1 cup uncooked Japanese sweet rice (sometimes called mochigome or sho-chiku-bai)
water to cook
add the amount of water called for by your rice cooker. cook on the white rice cycle, and when finished, take the cooking bowl out of the cooker and cool it a bit.
2 cups whole milk, + .5 cup set aside for after cooking
cinnamon (1/2-1 teaspoon, depending on strength and how you want it to taste)
1/4 teaspoon or more salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup currants
add the milk, cinnamon, salt, maple syrup and currants to the rice in the bowl, and stir. taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. pop the bowl back into the rice cooker and set for porridge. it’s done when the little song plays! stir in the last .5 cup of milk and serve with a bit of brown sugar or more maple syrup.
teriyaki roasted chicken
1 big ol’ chicken (this one was a bit over 6 pounds)
1 batch homemade teriyaki sauce (recipe below), made the night before
3 finely sliced green onions
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon (more?) toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, + 1 teaspoon black sesame seeds set aside for roasting
combine teriyaki sauce with green onions, ginger, sesame oil and 1 T of the sesame seeds. marinate chicken in sauce in refrigerator for 2-6 hours, turning once midway.
preheat oven to 375° F. remove chicken from marinade and place in a lightly oiled roasting pan. pour about 1/2 cup of the teriyaki marinade over, and refrigerate the remainder of the teriyaki to glaze the chicken during roasting. roast for 30 - 40 minutes (depending on size -- 30 minutes is plenty for a 4-5 pounder; 40 minutes for a 6-pounder) then reduce heat to 300 °F and continue to roast for 40 minutes (for smaller chickens) to an hour (for the more zaftig chickens). glaze periodically with some of the reserved teriyaki sauce, and at the end of this hour, sprinkle chicken with remaining 1 teaspoon sesame seeds. increase heat to 425° F and continue roasting until skin is browned & crispy; about 15 minutes.
during the last roasting phase, take remaining teriyaki sauce and simmer for 15 minutes on the stovetop to cook thoroughly and reduce a bit.
when chicken is done and has rested, carve it and serve with the warm sauce. accompany with Japanese-style white rice (I heart good old Nishiki rice, prepared plainly with water and sea salt in the rice cooker) and veggies as desired (in this case, I glazed carrots with plain teriyaki sauce and roasted them during the last 40 minutes or so with the chicken).
teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup shoyu
1/2 cup light soy sauce (NOT low-sodium soy, but light soy sauce that you can find in the Japanese section of a good Asian market)
1 cup nigori sake
1/3 cup sugar
simmer ingredients briefly in saucepan to dissolve sugar. refrigerate to chill before using.
this recipe is deceptively simple -- and shockingly delicious. I added the aromatics (ginger, green onion and sesame) to the teriyaki because I wasn’t able to grill the chicken; if I had been grilling, I would have kept the sauce plain. it’s thinner than teriyaki sauce one buys, and you can thicken it with potato starch or cornstarch if you want, but please keep it on the thin side. you may want it thicker on a piece of fish, or chunks of chicken on skewers, maybe, but for a roasted chicken, un-thickened was the way to go. it somehow tenderized and amplified all of the flavors in a gorgeous yet subtle way, and the finished chicken was beautiful, shiny and reddish-brown. I’ll be making this again soon.
many recipes call for mirin, but I prefer sake, especially a rich, sweet nigori sake. I used the cheap stuff, and it was absolutely great.
and in this post, you get two (two! TWO!) recipes for the price of one, since tonight, I’m cooking rice pudding. I’ve made a slight change in an old recipe of mine -- I always made this with Japanese sweet brown rice before, and this time, I'm using the white variety of the same rice. it smells divine. I always use a neuro-fuzzy-logic rice cooker to make rice and rice pudding, so I’m afraid that my instructions are specific to this piece of kitchen equipment. you could probably cook the rice in water on top of the stove, then bake it in a covered casserole in the oven for about an hour to approximate the same thing, but I wouldn’t know for sure.
sweet rice pudding
1 cup uncooked Japanese sweet rice (sometimes called mochigome or sho-chiku-bai)
water to cook
add the amount of water called for by your rice cooker. cook on the white rice cycle, and when finished, take the cooking bowl out of the cooker and cool it a bit.
2 cups whole milk, + .5 cup set aside for after cooking
cinnamon (1/2-1 teaspoon, depending on strength and how you want it to taste)
1/4 teaspoon or more salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup currants
add the milk, cinnamon, salt, maple syrup and currants to the rice in the bowl, and stir. taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. pop the bowl back into the rice cooker and set for porridge. it’s done when the little song plays! stir in the last .5 cup of milk and serve with a bit of brown sugar or more maple syrup.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
gong xi fa chai!
happy lunar new year! to celebrate Chinese new year, I’m making Japanese food. sure, that makes sense in my little world. tonight’s menu will feature:
teriyaki roasted chicken (with homemade teriyaki sauce, made from just sake, shoyu and sugar, but with a bit of chopped scallion, grated ginger and toasted sesame added since I’m not grilling and want a little added flavor)
steamed sugar snap peas
roasted carrots
steamed rice
cucumber salad (something simple with a bit of ginger, rice vinegar and sugar)
and for dessert, strawberry ice cream and delicious butter mochi! next time, I’ll try adding matcha to this recipe, which is delicious and crazy rich. I adapted it from several recipes found all over, especially the one on Zojirushi’s site:
butter mochi
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1.5 cups sugar
1 16-ounce box mochiko
2 cups milk
1 can coconut milk
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
in a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, melted butter, milk, coconut milk and eggs, and mix until well combined. add vanilla extract, salt, mochiko flour and baking powder, whisk until batter is fairly smooth.
pour into a prepared 9” x 13” pan and bake for approximately one hour at 350F. remove from oven and cool. serve and swoon!
teriyaki roasted chicken (with homemade teriyaki sauce, made from just sake, shoyu and sugar, but with a bit of chopped scallion, grated ginger and toasted sesame added since I’m not grilling and want a little added flavor)
steamed sugar snap peas
roasted carrots
steamed rice
cucumber salad (something simple with a bit of ginger, rice vinegar and sugar)
and for dessert, strawberry ice cream and delicious butter mochi! next time, I’ll try adding matcha to this recipe, which is delicious and crazy rich. I adapted it from several recipes found all over, especially the one on Zojirushi’s site:
butter mochi
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1.5 cups sugar
1 16-ounce box mochiko
2 cups milk
1 can coconut milk
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
in a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, melted butter, milk, coconut milk and eggs, and mix until well combined. add vanilla extract, salt, mochiko flour and baking powder, whisk until batter is fairly smooth.
pour into a prepared 9” x 13” pan and bake for approximately one hour at 350F. remove from oven and cool. serve and swoon!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
a quick note about the versatility of roast chicken and the concept of leftovers
I put it to you that there is no such thing as “leftover” roast chicken, primarily because it’s a core ingredient of my cooking these days. case in point: the two chicken dishes I made today that will feed me this week: the roast chicken variation of chirashi sushi (which needs a clever name): sushi rice, seasonings, veggies (I forgot to add the avocado earlier! oh well, next serving), pickled ginger, etc., and a quick chicken curry: sautéed scallion, carrot, ginger, deglazed with rice wine, chicken broth and coconut milk added, then some green peas and curry powder (I used S&B brand, which is a favorite of mine), plus the chicken, heated through. wonderful! and so simple. I could have easily made it more complex and perhaps next time I will, but this is truly tasty and is now cooling in the freezer, to be heated and eaten over freshly steamed rice with raita whenever I’m in the mood.
I’ve made such yummy food to eat for the next five or six days: tomato/basil soup (this is insanely easy; we used to make it at the restaurant where I cooked when I was in high school: canned crushed Italian tomatoes, half and half or heavy cream, chiffonade of fresh basil, pressed or minced garlic, a tiny bit of fennel seed to taste, heated gently -- talk about comfort food! VERY good with grilled cheese, whether you choose the American cheese variety or fontina/roasted red pepper/ciabatta grilled in olive oil), tuna salad with finely diced Braeburn apple, the aforementioned chicken dishes -- good stuff! hard to complain with this around.
I just polished off the best beef stew I’ve ever made, and it was so simple: onions, celery and carrots sautéed in butter until browned, with garlic, crushed tomatoes, chopped parsley, chuck roast, chicken stock and red wine added to cover, brought to a simmer on top of the stove then put in a 325 F over to bake for almost four hours (with a fresh infusion of parsley and garlic added midway; the beef taken out, shredded, and added back in at the end). insanely tender and nourishing, and I served it with mashed potatoes (made with my trusty potato ricer, a tool every mashed-potato-lover should have) with cream cheese and chives, sugar snap peas, pan roasted cherry tomatoes and steamed fresh spinach. that’s probably the last beef stew of this season, since I really only like it when it’s cold outside (and that will end all too soon).
so what should I cook next?
I’ve made such yummy food to eat for the next five or six days: tomato/basil soup (this is insanely easy; we used to make it at the restaurant where I cooked when I was in high school: canned crushed Italian tomatoes, half and half or heavy cream, chiffonade of fresh basil, pressed or minced garlic, a tiny bit of fennel seed to taste, heated gently -- talk about comfort food! VERY good with grilled cheese, whether you choose the American cheese variety or fontina/roasted red pepper/ciabatta grilled in olive oil), tuna salad with finely diced Braeburn apple, the aforementioned chicken dishes -- good stuff! hard to complain with this around.
I just polished off the best beef stew I’ve ever made, and it was so simple: onions, celery and carrots sautéed in butter until browned, with garlic, crushed tomatoes, chopped parsley, chuck roast, chicken stock and red wine added to cover, brought to a simmer on top of the stove then put in a 325 F over to bake for almost four hours (with a fresh infusion of parsley and garlic added midway; the beef taken out, shredded, and added back in at the end). insanely tender and nourishing, and I served it with mashed potatoes (made with my trusty potato ricer, a tool every mashed-potato-lover should have) with cream cheese and chives, sugar snap peas, pan roasted cherry tomatoes and steamed fresh spinach. that’s probably the last beef stew of this season, since I really only like it when it’s cold outside (and that will end all too soon).
so what should I cook next?
mochi, mochi, mochi!
it’s all about mochi today. for the past few weeks, I’ve been craving mochi, even since I had my favorite mochi ice cream and realized I really just wanted the mochi and could have easily left the ice cream behind. I’ve bought freshly-made mochi at some of the local Asian markets, but it’s never quite to my taste -- I prefer smooth, super-chewy Japanese-style mochi, and no one seems to make that here.
so today I made my own! I stopped by the wonderful Asahi imports and bought some mochi rice, which I promptly put away to deal with another day. too much work! I also bought some mochiko, a.k.a. glutinous rice flour, and used that to make a very simple recipe of microwave mochi. I then split the incredibly sticky dough in half and flavored the second half with green tea powder (matcha). both the plain and the green tea mochi are absolutely delicious; very chewy and smooth and yummy.
I adapted the basic microwaved mochi recipe to reduce the sugar slightly (and my finished product was still PLENTY sweet):
microwaved mochi
2 cups mochiko
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
mix together in bowl: 2 cups mochiko, 1 cup sugar. add 2 cups water and mix with a whisk until perectly smooth. cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 4 minutes. take out and mix thoroughly. microwave again for 3-4 minutes more. knead for a bit on a cutting board dusted with katakuriko (potato flour) and cut into pieces. dust pieces with more katakuriko and store.
after dusting my mochi pieces, I set some of them out to gobble up today and froze the rest. why do I love this stuff so? who knows? who cares? I want to try a butter mochi recipe next, all of which look crazy decadent.
I also made a very yummy lunch salad with sushi rice (not the mochi rice!), roast chicken, scallions, cucumber and carrots, seasoned with a typical rice vinegar-sugar-salt mixture. wonderful; could have been even better with some toasted sesame seeds. next time!
so today I made my own! I stopped by the wonderful Asahi imports and bought some mochi rice, which I promptly put away to deal with another day. too much work! I also bought some mochiko, a.k.a. glutinous rice flour, and used that to make a very simple recipe of microwave mochi. I then split the incredibly sticky dough in half and flavored the second half with green tea powder (matcha). both the plain and the green tea mochi are absolutely delicious; very chewy and smooth and yummy.
I adapted the basic microwaved mochi recipe to reduce the sugar slightly (and my finished product was still PLENTY sweet):
microwaved mochi
2 cups mochiko
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
mix together in bowl: 2 cups mochiko, 1 cup sugar. add 2 cups water and mix with a whisk until perectly smooth. cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 4 minutes. take out and mix thoroughly. microwave again for 3-4 minutes more. knead for a bit on a cutting board dusted with katakuriko (potato flour) and cut into pieces. dust pieces with more katakuriko and store.
after dusting my mochi pieces, I set some of them out to gobble up today and froze the rest. why do I love this stuff so? who knows? who cares? I want to try a butter mochi recipe next, all of which look crazy decadent.
I also made a very yummy lunch salad with sushi rice (not the mochi rice!), roast chicken, scallions, cucumber and carrots, seasoned with a typical rice vinegar-sugar-salt mixture. wonderful; could have been even better with some toasted sesame seeds. next time!
Monday, January 15, 2007
slow-posting
yeah, I’ve been cooking, but I’ve also been slow to post about it, for some silly reason. I’ve honed roasted chicken to near perfection (roast at 375 F for 30-40 minutes, then at 225 F for an hour, then at 400 F until done, about 20-30 minutes). mmmmmmmmmm. my asopao de pollo was not so great, so the recipe needs work before posting about it.
more to come when I have time. tonight, I'm taking leftover perfectly slow-roasted chicken (with sides of roasted veggies and rice) and making wild rice soup. yum!
more to come when I have time. tonight, I'm taking leftover perfectly slow-roasted chicken (with sides of roasted veggies and rice) and making wild rice soup. yum!
Monday, December 25, 2006
it’s all about Christmas dinner
hi folks. I’m thrilled to say that I got to cook Christmas dinner for the first time in years! my soon-to-be-ex-husband (I can’t BELIEVE we’re not yet divorced!) always insisted we have Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with his mother, who in turn insisted we go to her friends’ houses for dinner, and who never let me cook more than breakfast in her kitchen). this year, I’m taking back Christmas dinner.
my cooking = a decent amount of skill
the best ingredients I can find. I like to work methodically, taking time for and paying close attention to each step, operating with the greatest care AND using the choicest ingredients possible -- from the primary components (turkey, for example) all the way down to the salt (kosher or French sea salt) and peppper (Tellicherry) -- cooking with that level of care makes a world of difference in the finished product. here’s the menu, complete with comments -- it's fairly standard, with a few flourishes from me:
*roasted turkey with herbs (first brined in kosher salt and demerara sugar, then drained, with herb/shallot butter rubbed underneath the skin, roasted on a bed of carmelized onions, celery and carrots): this was great. I brined the turkey for two days ahead of time, which worked out beautifully. the butter mixture was compounded of finely chopped shallots, parsley, chives, salt, pepper and a pinch of poultry seasoning. I roasted it at 350 degrees F for about three hours (an eight-pound bird, I believe), which was not perfect, IMO. next time, I’ll try 375 degrees F for less time. the bed of caramelized veggies, however, was a complete success, adding flavor and aroma. yum!
*homemade gravy: made with roux, pan drippings and turkey stock. my twist was to add the caramelized veggies from the turkey roasting process to simmer in the gravy. I then used my food mill to puree a bit of the veggies into the gravy. GOOD STUFF.
*sourdough and cornbread sage stuffing with dried cherries: I ended up using a rustic country loaf, rather than sourdough (which was a good move), but the stuffing was still a bit too complex: onions, shallots and celery sauteed in butter with fresh parsley and sage, deglazed with sherry, with toasted cornbread and rustic bread shreds. I added a handful of delicious dried cherries, turkey stock, poultry seasoning and some of the turkey gravy to taste. it was very tasty, but next time I’ll use a white bread with less character and a softer crust, as well as a slightly higher ratio of white bread to cornbread. perhaps a bit less fresh sage, as well. still, it was very tasty.
*cranberry orange marmalade (made less sweet/somewhat tart to serve with dinner; I added more sugar to the leftover amount and finished it into a marmalade for toast, etc. afterwards): nice and fresh-tasting; a great accompaniment to the meal. a simple sauce of cranberries, frozen apple juice concentrate, sugar and lots of thinly sliced orange. I also used some plain (unsweetened) cranberry juice I had on hand. can’t wait to taste it on toast for breakfast, now that it’s real marmalade.
*roasted acorn squash (served with chive butter): just fantastic, but I should have started roasting it a bit earlier. it seems to take a little over an hour (to be on the safe side) to cook properly.
*scalloped potatoes (Julia Child’s old recipe with nothing but potatoes, cream, garlic, salt, pepper and a fine dusting of Reggiano on top): rich. too rich? possibly. good, but I wish I’d spread the potato mixture out a bit thinner in a bigger pan to broil the top. the more delicious browned area, the better.
*green beans: blanched in salted water. perfect and plain.
*cornbread muffins (per request): I made the cornbread from a mix! really!!! I used one envelope of Pioneer sweet corn muffin mix and one envelope of Pioneer cornbread mix. delicious!
*fresh lemon/toasted almond sponge cake with chocolate/orange ganache: this was the sleeper. I had wanted to make a buche de noel, but had no room in the fridge. the sponge cake recipe had 6 eggs (yolks and whites beaten separately), 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from an actual lemon, of course!), the zest of the aforementioned lemon, 1 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup of toasted almonds that had been mostly pulverized in a blender. I baked it at 325 degrees F for about 50 minutes, and it was delicious. rolled it around the ganache, I then covered that with Valrhona chocolate shavings and toasted cake crumbs.
all in all, a bit rich but good! I’d like to make simpler potatoes (mashed, probably) next time, and the aforementioned stuffing changes. this was a fabulous holiday meal; with the aforementioned adjustments, it may well come close to perfect.
my cooking = a decent amount of skill
the best ingredients I can find. I like to work methodically, taking time for and paying close attention to each step, operating with the greatest care AND using the choicest ingredients possible -- from the primary components (turkey, for example) all the way down to the salt (kosher or French sea salt) and peppper (Tellicherry) -- cooking with that level of care makes a world of difference in the finished product. here’s the menu, complete with comments -- it's fairly standard, with a few flourishes from me:*roasted turkey with herbs (first brined in kosher salt and demerara sugar, then drained, with herb/shallot butter rubbed underneath the skin, roasted on a bed of carmelized onions, celery and carrots): this was great. I brined the turkey for two days ahead of time, which worked out beautifully. the butter mixture was compounded of finely chopped shallots, parsley, chives, salt, pepper and a pinch of poultry seasoning. I roasted it at 350 degrees F for about three hours (an eight-pound bird, I believe), which was not perfect, IMO. next time, I’ll try 375 degrees F for less time. the bed of caramelized veggies, however, was a complete success, adding flavor and aroma. yum!
*homemade gravy: made with roux, pan drippings and turkey stock. my twist was to add the caramelized veggies from the turkey roasting process to simmer in the gravy. I then used my food mill to puree a bit of the veggies into the gravy. GOOD STUFF.
*sourdough and cornbread sage stuffing with dried cherries: I ended up using a rustic country loaf, rather than sourdough (which was a good move), but the stuffing was still a bit too complex: onions, shallots and celery sauteed in butter with fresh parsley and sage, deglazed with sherry, with toasted cornbread and rustic bread shreds. I added a handful of delicious dried cherries, turkey stock, poultry seasoning and some of the turkey gravy to taste. it was very tasty, but next time I’ll use a white bread with less character and a softer crust, as well as a slightly higher ratio of white bread to cornbread. perhaps a bit less fresh sage, as well. still, it was very tasty.
*cranberry orange marmalade (made less sweet/somewhat tart to serve with dinner; I added more sugar to the leftover amount and finished it into a marmalade for toast, etc. afterwards): nice and fresh-tasting; a great accompaniment to the meal. a simple sauce of cranberries, frozen apple juice concentrate, sugar and lots of thinly sliced orange. I also used some plain (unsweetened) cranberry juice I had on hand. can’t wait to taste it on toast for breakfast, now that it’s real marmalade.
*roasted acorn squash (served with chive butter): just fantastic, but I should have started roasting it a bit earlier. it seems to take a little over an hour (to be on the safe side) to cook properly.
*scalloped potatoes (Julia Child’s old recipe with nothing but potatoes, cream, garlic, salt, pepper and a fine dusting of Reggiano on top): rich. too rich? possibly. good, but I wish I’d spread the potato mixture out a bit thinner in a bigger pan to broil the top. the more delicious browned area, the better.
*green beans: blanched in salted water. perfect and plain.
*cornbread muffins (per request): I made the cornbread from a mix! really!!! I used one envelope of Pioneer sweet corn muffin mix and one envelope of Pioneer cornbread mix. delicious!
*fresh lemon/toasted almond sponge cake with chocolate/orange ganache: this was the sleeper. I had wanted to make a buche de noel, but had no room in the fridge. the sponge cake recipe had 6 eggs (yolks and whites beaten separately), 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from an actual lemon, of course!), the zest of the aforementioned lemon, 1 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup of toasted almonds that had been mostly pulverized in a blender. I baked it at 325 degrees F for about 50 minutes, and it was delicious. rolled it around the ganache, I then covered that with Valrhona chocolate shavings and toasted cake crumbs.
all in all, a bit rich but good! I’d like to make simpler potatoes (mashed, probably) next time, and the aforementioned stuffing changes. this was a fabulous holiday meal; with the aforementioned adjustments, it may well come close to perfect.
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