Thanksgiving, deconstructed

This Thanksgiving, we decided to do things a little differently.  My wife found a recipe for turkey meatballs that we decided we had to try, since it came from The Meatball Shop in Brooklyn.  The recipe can be found here  We used the thighs and tenderloins for the meatballs, and used the rest of the bird for other meals....

I spent about twenty minutes breaking the Turkey down into the various parts we wanted,  salted and roasted bones and neck for turkey stock,

Here's what we did with them:

Thanksgiving dinner:
We're always hungry while we cook, and we're big on meat, so I grilled the heart, gizzard, liver, oyster, and shoulder and served it with a sage aioli.  Very tasty start to the least traditional Thanksgiving of my life.

Amuse Bouche of grilled giblets and tidbits with Sage Aioli

I'm also a big fan of any kind of cracklin - crispy skin is one of my guiltiest pleasures.  I love the way the skin turns out on the traditional roasted bird, so I decided to crisp all of the skin.  lightly salted, and baked in the oven while the sweet potatoes were roasting.

 Crispy Skin was a fun snack throughout the day.

The meatballs in all their glory.  we ate them with a roasted sweet potato, cranberry/tangerine sauce and potato pancakes with turkey gravy.

Friday: One of the breasts, grilled with Chinese five spice, and served on an onion roll with sriracha/hoisin/lime mayonnaise and a simple cabbage slaw

Saturday: Giant Buffalo Wings!

 Season the wings with salt and pepper, and fry at 350 degrees until skin is golden brown.  dip fried wings in a mixture of 1:1 butter and your favorite hot sauce (I used Louisiana).  Allow to drain and cool, and enjoy.

Sunday: Turkey "po'boys" The other Breast, seasoned with Creole seasoning on an onion bun with Remoulade

Remoulade:
1/2 cup mayo
2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 hungarian pickle, minced
1 scallion, minced
black pepper to taste

5 lbs carrots
3 stalks celery
1 mendium onion
1tsp caraway
1 tsp dill seed
1 tsp dill weed
6 cups chicken broth
3 cups water

1 cup sour cream
2 tsp ground cumin

chopped cilantro

Chop carrots roughly, toss in olive oil, and roast in the oven until lightly caramelized.
chop celery and onions, add to soup pot along with roasted carrots and spices.  Combine sour cream and cumin a few hours before serving.

Brown Sugar Rub (we put it on pork ribs)


1 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TBSP orange zest
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Squashy Munchkins

These little flavor grenades are the love child of pumpkin pie and doughnut holes.

1 lb leftover roasted squash
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup whole milk
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of clove
1 1/2 TBSP cinnamon
2 pinches of salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 - 2 cups flour, depending on moisture content of squash

Mix squash with sugar and spices                                                                
Add egg and beat well
Add milk, mix well
Lastly, add flour and baking powder
Be sure to mix long enough to ensure gluten development
Textural change from slightly dry and clumpy to sticky and gluey is indicative of a ready mix.

Heat oil in cast iron pot to 350F
Drop by tablespoons into hot oil 3 or 4 at a time.
Allow to brown evenly
Remove the munchkins from oil and drain

         

Great food, no recipies, part 3

Sorry, It's been nearly a year for some of these, and I never wrote down the recipies.  They were great, though!

Shirred eggs with avocado and English muffin
ham, cheese and eggs buried in cream and baked until golden brown on top.  Very good!











Jerk pork and plantains
I WISH we had written this recipe down.  Awesome heat and spiciness.  Brought back the Caribbean even though it was about 15 degrees that day.











Welsh laver bread.  Something I'll be repeating for sure.  I soaked some stale nori in water, mixed with oatmeal flour and a little salt, added water to get a nice doughy consistency, coated in more oats, and fried.  Glad the Welsh invented this, even more glad I tried it.

Teriyaki braised spare ribs with kumquat cole slaw.  Fall off the bone tender paired with crunchy/citrusy
















Zucchini "carpaccio"  No real recipe here.  THINLY sliced zucchini, lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper, and drizzled with olive oil.  Easy, and sure to impress friends.

Italian cold cut panini

Funny looking vegetables

These were too cool/strange not to photograph.  More to come as we find them.

Siamese mushrooms

Siamese mushrooms, part deux

Over excited, or does it have a nose?

we nicknamed this carrot Satan's paw, and then roasted it

Moroccan shrimp and couscous salad

 Ever get some fresh stuff at the grocery store and wonder, "what'll I do with that"?  We did. Fresh cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and arugula.  Hmm...saladish...and I've been wanting something Middle-eastern... How about a play on tabouleh and some spicy shrimp to go with it?

For the shrimp:
2 lbs shrimp, peeled
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp Ras el Hanout
1/4 cup olive oil









For the salad:
1 lb(2 2/3 cup) couscous
2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup olive oil
5 oz. arugula
1 large sweet onion
6 dates
2 large cucumbers
2 cups cherry tomato(these were yellow)
1 Tbsp Zaatar
1 tsp minced garlic
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp salt

The key here is that the salty shrimp are balanced by the salad.

harissa chicken with fruity salad dressing

I'd like to claim credit for this, but it's all Ruth!

For the salad dressing:
2 apricots, diced
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup mango nectar*
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp sugar
dash cinnamon
dash nutmeg
2 tsp whole grain mustard
2 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
2Tbsp sweet harissa
1/3 cup minced onion
Hazelnut oil

Allow to marinate in fridge over night.

Chicken:
6 drumsticks
1/4 cup sweet harissa
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp honey

Served with mixed greens and goat cheese

Home made Pizza

We love making pizza at home, so tasy and easy!

For the crust:
3 cups bread flour
1 cup warm water
1Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 envelope(tsp) yeast
Add 2 cups flour to other dry ingredients.  Add warm water, and begin to knead.  Add remaining flour as needed, until the dough is no longer sticky and has formed an elastic mass.  Allow to proof for at least 12 hours before rolling into pizza crusts.

For the sauce:
1 large can(28 oz.) tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes.
1 small can (6 oz.)tomato paste
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup marsala wine

 

building a pizza while one cools in the background

3 pizzas in 3 stages of prep

 pear butter with sliced apples and Boursin cheese

Toppings are completely open, obviously, but be sure not to overdo it.  Let the crust bake.  Too much on top=soggy crust underneath.

Chinese roasted duck with "boracho" mung beans and fries

We actually cooked this a while back, but I never got around to publishing it.  The duck was great, and If you've not had french fries in duck fat, you need to.  Prep was really straight forward, just wash the duck and rub with chinese barbeque spices, allow to sit overnight, and roast.  I went with the quicker roasting method of 425 degrees for 45 minutes breast up, then rotate to breast down for another 45 minutes.  You'll need to prick the skin with a sharp knife to allow the duck fat to drain off as the duck roasts.  Failure to do so will result in a greasy bird, and there's a lot you can do with the duck fat.

Another attempt at fusion cooking,  "boracho" mung beans.  I love a good bowl of boracho beans.  Instead of pintos, though, I thought mung beans would be a better match to the chinese flavors of the roasted duck.

I was surprised how much water these little guys soak up.

Some of the duck fat made these potatoes amazing

I lightly salted the gizzard, liver, and heart of the duck, and they went great with the ribeyes we had while the duck marinated. DO NOT OVERCOOK! cooked just done, they're amazing.  Cooked too far, the gizzard is un-chewable, the liver is powdery, and the heart is stringy.

 

Waste not, and you get some tasty treats!  

 The remainder of the duck fat was used to re-fry the leftover mung beans.  Some of the best I've ever had.  Made AWESOME bean and cheese tacos, and I thought the refried beans tasted better with the duck than the boracho beans did.

Chef's Salad with Trout Skin "Bacon"

Okay, I know this goes way into some peoples' weird zone, but I think you should try it anyway.
We got a donation of lake trout from a friend, and quick cured it with salt and sugar.  Fried skin side down first, the skin became crispy, and actually pulled right off the fillets like a shingle after they were flipped.  I love the skin, Ruth hates it, so instead of wasting it, I cut it into slices, and topped a salad with it.  Dare you to try it next time you've got some fresh fish.

Ultimate veggie stir fry

Fresh Veggies are finally available again!  Being so remote, we've gained an appreciation for how much we take fresh fruits and vegetables for granted.  This was a reactionary recipe that we came up with after a long, hard winter with basically not much but meat and potatoes to eat.

2 medium onions
1 cup baby carrots
1 stalk celery
1 small head red cabbage
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
2 dried wood ear mushrooms
4 yuba sticks, re-hydrated
2 bunches broccoli
garlic salt, to taste
soy sauce, to taste
oyster sauce, to taste

 Add the veggies in order from hard to soft, reserving the cabbage for last.  Stir fry over high heat, and season with garlic salt, soy sauce and oyster sauce to taste.  It was loaded with flavor, and a welcome change from the colon clogging past 5 months.

Bacon Burgers

All the ground beef in our new home town is VERY lean.  This leads to some very dry burgers.  Here's the solution we came up with: put the bacon IN the patty.

3 lbs ground beef
12 oz bacon, very thinly sliced
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Mix thoroughly and form into patties.  I crusted mine with crushed black pepper.  We put them on onion rolls with havarti and tomato.  AMAZING.

Why did they make a cheap version??

Okay folks, here's another rant that's been building for some time.  It bothers me that certain products have been allowed to garner bad reputations because of lack of quality standards.  These products, when experienced as they are intended, are wonderful.  Their less expensive doppelgangers are an unconscionable attempt to cash in on the good name some of these products used to have, and bilk the consumer out of their hard earned money.  I'll start with the ones fresh in my mind, and add as I think of them.

• Balsamic vinegar - The real stuff is amazing.  Sweet, acidic, and indescribably complex in flavor.  It tastes great on almost everything.  On an episode of "Good Eats", Alton Brown said he puts it on vanilla ice cream.  How to tell if you've got the real stuff:  viscosity.  If it looks like brown water, that's about what it's going to taste like. Balsamic vinegar should have a slightly syrupy consistency, about like the syrup that canned peaches come in.  Lots of pretenders on supermarket shelves, so be careful.  The real stuff is going to be a little expensive, but is well worth it.  The cheap stuff is not very different from red wine vinegar, but usually costs more.
• Soy Sauce - Good Soy sauce tastes like what it is: a complex solution of salt and the byproducts of fermented soybeans.  Before you let that gross you out, do you drink beer or wine? Byproducts.  Cheap soy sauce also tastes like what it is: a simple solution of salt and caramel coloring.  No complex flavor whatsoever.  You might as well just sprinkle some salt on your food, and be done with it.  Taste enough real soy sauces, and you can start to taste differences in flavor, just as you can in wines or beers.  Add to that the fact that you can get a good soy sauce at an Asian market for about the same price as the salty brown water at your local grocery store, and it just makes sense to try it.
• Mustard - That yellow stuff in the squeeze bottle just doesn't compare to its more expensive brethren.  It took me years to quit being such a tightwad, and spend the money on good mustard.  I had been curious for years, and then my wife brought up a very good point.  The extra $2 isn't going to mean much stretched over the months it's going to take us to finish that jar.
• Coffee - pre-ground, bulk coffee makes for an awful cup of brown, bitter water.  Whole beans, ground right before you brew is the only way to go.  With some experimentation, you'll find that coffee grown in different places actually tastes different.  If all you're after is a morning lift, try some caffeine pills.  You get all the stimulant with none of the unpleasant flavor.

Chicken Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce and Marinated Asparagus Salad

For the Enchiladas:

Onion Jam

I stole this idea from Bon Apetit magazine.  I had to modify it due to lack of ingredients, so this is not really what the authors intended.  It is, however, delicious next to grilled steaks or chops, or on top of a burger.

3 lbs onions, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic

Saute the onion and garlic until onions are translucent and beginning to soften.




Add:
1/2 cup port
1 cup red wine
1/4 cup creme de cassis
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar(spend the money, buy the good stuff! How often are you planning to use it anyway?  Should resemble a thin syrup, and the flavor is amazing.  The cheap stuff WON'T do.)





Cook until liquid evaporates and the whole mixture takes on a jammy consistency.  Add water if needed to prevent sticking