Everyone has their favorite way of doing their bird for the Big Day (and, really, it’s kind of too close to the holiday to think about changing turkey recipes at this point. . . but if you ask very, very nicely I’ll let you in on the secret of how the world’s Best Damn Turkey gets fixed at Chez Michigoose most years) but side dishes are something that we can play around with–or, to be grammatically correct, something with which we can play around.
Have I mentioned that my mother was an English teacher?
At any rate, here is my twist on one of the classics:
Better Than Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
3 cups Fried onions (about a 6 oz can)
2 lb Green beans, trimmed and halved
3 T Unsalted butter
1 lb Button mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and broken into pieces
3 cloves Garlic, minced
3 T All-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Chicken stock
1 1/2 cups Heavy cream
Toss the bread crumbs and fried onions together in a bowl, set aside.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Fill a large bowl with ice water. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the beans. Cook beans about 6 minutes until just barely tender; plunge beans into the ice water for a minute or two, then spread them on some paper towels to drain.
Place butter in a saute pan and melt over medium heat; add muchrooms, garlic, and some salt and pepper and cook for 6 minutes (mushrooms should release their moisture and the liquid should evaporate). Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Add the cream, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer until sauce is thickened and reduced to about 3 1/2 cups (about 12 minutes). Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Add the green beans to the sauce and stir to coat; arrange in a baking dish and sprinkle with the bread crumb/onion topping. Bake for 15 minutes and serve.
And I really, really don’t like sweet Sweet Potatoes–those things with little marshmallows in them were the bane of my existence as a kid at Thanksgiving. So I was very happy to find this recipe in Gourmet magazine’s cook book one year:
Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Peppers
4 – 5 Sweet potatoes
1 T Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (processed)
3 T Unsalted butter
Process the chipotle peppers in their sauce in a food processor to make a paste. The leftover processed peppers last several months in the refrigerator (mine don’t last that long, but only because I love cooking with them and use them in just about everything except ice cream)
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Wash the sweet potatoes and prick the skins with a fork. Roast for 1 – 2 hours until very soft and set aside to cool. Lower oven to 350 degrees.
Scrape the meat out of the potatoes and add the chipotles and butter; beat with a mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place the potatoes in a baking dish and dot with more butter if desired; bake until warmed through.
Another take on green beans from okie:
Green Bean Bacon Wraps
Ingredients
2-3 lbs whole green beans (fresh or frozen)
1 lb or less bacon
1 C brown sugar
1 C butter
½ t garlic salt
2 T soy sauce
Preparation
If using fresh green beans, blanch in boiling water for 1minute and drain. Thaw if using frozengreen beans. Cut bacon into short enoughpieces to wrap bundles of 5-7 green beans each (about ¾ slice each). Secure with toothpicks and place in a glassbaking dish. Mix brown sugar, meltedbutter, garlic salt and soy sauce in a bowl. Pour the mixture over the green bean wraps and refrigerate overnight. Cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Apple, Cranberry, Currant Pie from MarkInAustin
Mike, Brian, BB, and Dave! I know y’all have seen this from me twice, so I apologize to you in advance.
PREP AND COOK TIME: About 1 1/2 hours, plus at least 1 hour to cool
MAKES: 8 [adult male or teenager] servings
1/4 cup Gran Marnier [or brandy, if you are short on the good stuff]
1/4 cup currants [look like tiny raisins – you could use raisins in a pinch but they are not the same]
1 cup fresh [or thawed frozen] cranberries [I find fresh make a tarter pie – I am OK with tart]
About 3/4 cup granulated FRUCTOSE [a lot of apple pie recipes call for a cup or more of sugar – fructose is sweeter and way lower on the glycemic index]
1/2 cup tapioca flour [I never use cornstarch in a fruit pie]
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 oz 1/2+1/2
6 cups sliced/chopped Granny Smith apples [about 2 1/4 lb]. I like the skin on for this pie – it’s more “rustic”. Think of Pilgrims and Indians.
2×9-inch pie pastry shells – I either make my own or buy really great shells at Central Market. When I make my own they are in no way unusual.
1. In a small bowl, combine Gran Marnier and currants. Cover and let stand until currants are plump, at least 1 hour. [Sometimes I cheat and do not soak this long. No biggie. The plumpness of currants is mainly a texture deal]
2. Chop/slice apples, skin on, using a mix of techniques for slices and chunks. If there will be a delay between prep and oven, put the 6 cups of apples in a big bowl and add a little OJ to keep them from browning. LATER YOU MUST THOROUGHLY DRAIN AND PAT DRY THE APPLES! My grandmother taught me the OJ instead of lemon juice trick about 55 years ago.
3. Sort cranberries and discard any that are bruised or decayed. Rinse and drain berries.
4. In a large bowl, mix fructose, tapioca flour, nutmeg, and salt. With a slotted spoon, lift currants from Gran Marnier; reserve Gran Marnier. Add currants, cranberries, and chopped apples to fructose mixture and mix well. Taste and add more fructose if desired. Pour filling into unbaked pie pastry in pan. Cut hole pattern in top crust. Mix 1/2+1/2 with reserved Gran Marnier and cinnamon and brush liberally on pie crust. Carefully braid foil around pie’s edge to keep pie from from crisping-burning on crust edge that overlaps the pan during baking. [Later, pass off the tiny pieces of foil that some guest finds in the crust edge as “healthy mineral”. 🙂]
5. Bake on the bottom rack of a 375° oven until juices bubble around edges and through top holes, 55 to 65 minutes. If pie browns too quickly – check after 30 minutes – cover loosely with foil.
6. Set pie, uncovered, on a rack until cool to touch, at least 1 hour.
Personal note: I think most apple based recipes use way too much cinnamon, to the point that some people confuse the cinnamon with the apples. Using the cinnamon on the crust, only, permits the fruit flavors to dominate, but the smell of the pie out of the oven has the familiar cinnamon scent.
Lulu’s mashed potatoes au gratin
8 – 10 potatoes peeled and cut in half, then boiled until tender
Mash potatoes with butter, milk, 2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper
While potatoes are boiling saute 2-3 onions (sliced) until really really carmelized, I do this over medium heat so they don’t burn
Put potatoes into baking dish, dot with butter and bake until heated through
Add onion to top and cover with either Gruyere or Havarti cheese and broil until cheese is nice and bubbly and golden
FABULOUS PUMPKIN BREAD
from MsJS
Makes three loaves.
Ingredients:
15 oz. pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil, preferably canola
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar
3.5 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground gloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8x3x2 loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together the first five ingredients until blended. In a separate bowl, sift together everything else. Mix the dry ingredients into the first bowl until just blended. Don’t overmix.
Pour into the prepared loaf pans and bake 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from the pans and slicing.
Turkey Enchiladas
by Victoria Topham, owner and chef, Piñon Market and Cafe (and friend of Michigoose’s)
1 ea onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can roasted green chilis, peeled
2 cups chicken stock
Sauté the onion and garlic. Add the chilis and stock, cook down and puree. Add salt if needed.
2 lb Turkey, cooked and shredded
2 cups Sour cream
1+ cup Pepper jack cheese, shredded (or salsa jack, if you can find it)
1+ cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp Red pepper flakes
1 T Cilantro, chopped
1 T Scallion, chopped
Flour tortillas
Tomatillo salsa, for serving
Combine the enchilada filling ingredients together in a mixing bowl; mix well. Place about 1/2 cup of filling into a tortilla and roll up. Place the enchilada in a baking dish and repeat until dish is full.
Pour the green chili sauce over the top, cover with more cheese and chopped tomatoes.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Serve with tomatillo salsa on the side.
NOTE: this is a very free-form recipe, as Vic adapted it for me from the amounts that she uses in her restaurant. The most important thing is to use plenty of green chili sauce, so that the enchiladas don’t dry out while cooking. . . so supplement if needed–either with more sauce or more tomatillo salsa–and have fun! I usually use more green onion than Vic does, and half the red pepper flakes since I use Penzey’s “very hot” ones.
Who’s next??
Filed under: food, recipes, Thanksgiving | 29 Comments »
Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt
All Things in Moderation 