Tomato Kumato

Hey there. I’m trying to get back into the habit of writing every day… I miss my blog and my readers! Really, you have no idea how much your comments can turn my day around. Any writer out there knows that the best thing a writer can get is feedback and the knowledge that someone out there is actually reading what you’re writing.

That said, I’ve been a bit slow on here, and I didn’t want to talk about it before, because I hate getting my hopes up, but it looks like you might be able to read my stuff somewhere other than this blog pretty soon! Yep, I’ve got myself a bona fide writing job, and not just a writing job, but a food writing job! I’ll be writing restaurant reviews, mainly based in Paris, but from all over. As soon as the deal is finalized, I’ll leave a link on the site so you can check it out. This doesn’t mean I’m abandoning you here, reader! In fact, I’ll probably expand some of my restaurant reviews on the site (and some of the ones featured at my new job will be old hat for veteran readers.)

In the meantime, please bear with me. I know I’m getting off easy posting this picture, but as I was making the vat of chili for the Canadian before I left Paris, I noticed the pretty colors and had to take a shot. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have a recipe up here for you… believe it or not, I actually have some cooking plans up my sleeve today!

Sorry everyone! I’ve been so bad… I’ve been getting back up to speed reading everyone’s updates (sorry for the lack of comments… I had a lot to read) and I feel badly seeing how busy everyone else has been while I’ve been doing a lot of nothing.

Since I’ve been back, the only things I’ve made have been pasta and fried eggs. The Canadian’s birthday was last week, and I bought a cake! Yes, it was an amazing cake, and yes, it was very French of me to pass off the baking to a professional, but still, it was out of character. You see, I’ve had a very busy few weeks back. Upon arriving in Paris, I hardly had a chance to unpack before I whisked myself off to Paris with Britney to see the Spice Girls! I was in the 6th grade the last time they were popular, and so was everyone else there, apparently. Everyone knew all the words, and it was probably the best concert I’ve ever been to.

We stayed in an amazing hostel, St. Christopher’s, which not only was fun and amazingly clean, but also served up a very good (and very reasonable) hummus with pita appetizer in the bar. I got my hands on a Cornish Pasty this time and we got a decent curry at a chain place (I’m sure to Londoners it was awful, but Britney and I loved it), but I still have to go to Goulder’s Green Chinese food. I also introduced Britney to the wonders of Wagamama, and she has come up with a plan that involves a commuting Londoner bringing her Wagamama for dinner every day to be picked up at Paris Gare du Nord.

I got back to Paris with a terrible cold, but I still set off for the other trip I’d planned: Amsterdam. (This was when I thought the Canadian would be in Amsterdam, not sitting on my couch and boiling the plastic cheese grater to get the Comte off it. Mom, please send me a metal one… the Canadian needs special toys for his special needs.) I went with a friend and took advantage of the loose laws there, and therefore ordered the tray of food you see above. (Applesauce not pictured. Mixed with mashed potatoes=heaven.)
Wow… all this is getting very bloggy. The point of the matter is that I’m back now, and I have an antipasto party to tell you about.

This all began, as so many strange ideas do, in my father’s head. He picked me and my sister up from the city and drove us out to Long Island, where we would be met my my mother, brother and sister the following day. He had decided that “we” would be making a typical Italian antipasto. He gave me a sketchy shopping list… things like “eggplant rollatini-eggplant, cheese.” I knew that he couldn’t do this alone, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to take it myself. Grudgingly, I decided to fulfill his wishes, and asked him exactly what he wanted. Long story short, in the end I made everything, and my father ceremoniously plated the braciole, eggplant rollatini, stuffed green peppers, stuffed mushrooms, and stuffed clams. I stood by the side, saying nothing, but as my brother praised the rollatini and my sister gorged herself on mushrooms, my mother leaned over to me and whispered, “Good job.”

This picture is awful, but it’s the only one I got of everything. From the top right, it’s stuffed mushrooms, baked clams, stuffed green peppers, braciole, and eggplant rollatini. And my father was right about one thing: the key is mixing all the sauces (tomato, braciole au jus, and clam juice) on the plate and sopping it up with good Italian bread. (We get ours from Sullivan Street in the Bronx.) Here are the recipes… they’re approximate, but they work. I cheated on the clams and braciole and got them from the store, but you could just as easily make them yourself as well.

Stuffed Green Peppers

Halve three green peppers and lie them in a baking dish. Stuff with a mixture of one part hot Italian sausage and one part ground beef, Italian breadcrumbs, grated parmegiano reggiano, and an egg. Cover with tomato sauce and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Eggplant Rollatini (the hit of the night)

Slice three eggplants lengthwise into strips about a quarter inch to a half inch thick. Make sure they’re all the same size. Dredge each slice in flour, then beaten egg, then Italian breadcrumbs. Bake for ten minutes on each side at 375 degrees. In a separate bowl, combine equal parts ricotta cheese and grated mozzarella. Add a few tablespoons of parmegiano reggiano to taste, and season with black pepper and a chiffonade of fresh basil. Place about a tablespoon of the cheese mixture at the end of each of the rollatini, and roll. Place them, seam side down, in a baking sheet. When all of the rollatini have been rolled, cover with tomato sauce and bake at 350 until the cheese is melted.

Baked Stuffed Mushrooms

Remove the stems from about twenty stuffing mushrooms (large white mushrooms) and bake the mushrooms on a baking pan for about ten minutes to dehydrate them. Chop the stems finely and sautee in butter and olive oil with one large onion and a few shallots. Turn off the heat and add enough breadcrumbs to soak up the liquid in the pan, about half a cup to a cup. Add parmeggiano reggiano cheese to taste… a couple of tablespoons. Stuff the mushrooms until heaping with the mixture, and bake for about another fifteen to twenty minutes at 350.

Yes, dear reader, I’m back. It’s been an interesting month. You’ll hear all about it in the next few posts, which consist not only of the recipe for Gratin Dauphinoise (finally, Dylan, like I promised), but with stories from Mexico, Toronto, back home in New York, and Paris.

The Canadian’s back, and I can’t help smiling. I made him a huge batch of chili before I left, because he would be arriving in three days to spend three long weeks here alone. It lasted precisely 14 hours. Needless to say, he learned to survive on his own, and I have the pleasure of being cooked for every once in awhile, which is always nice. His favorite thing to make me is stir fry, but yesterday while I was napping off the jet lag from New York, he went out and got me sushi so I would have something waiting when I got home.

OK, enough of this mushy stuff. Back to the food. Or should I say, the potatoes that cause swooning. I had to make two of these casseroles when my mother’s family came for Christmas, and they were devoured alongside the crown roast of pork that my mother prepared for Christmas Eve dinner (yeah, I know, you’re not supposed to have meat on Christmas Eve. I’ve always loved the idea of doing a traditional Italian fish supper for Christmas, and you can bet that when I’m running the holiday, it will be nothing but Zuppa di Pesce and Bacala, but while my mother runs the show, her word is law.)

All this meandering brings me back to the point: my potatoes. This gratin was the first thing I ever invented successfully, and now it’s a staple around the holidays. That being said, it is a staple only around the holidays precisely because you don’t need “cheese with a couple of potatoes thrown in,” as my uncle calls it, every day of the week. Regardless, it’s delicious, and you’re lucky, because if any of my family was web savvy enough to read a blog, this recipe would not be up here: I can’t have my Christmas cooking participation rendered obsolete!

Gratin Dauphinoise

5 large yukon gold potatoes

3 cups of grated cheese (I use a combination of gruyere and emmental)

1 egg

1 cup each whole milk and heavy cream

nutmeg, salt and pepper

Grease a glass baking dish with butter or oil, and then place one layer of thinly sliced potatoes along the bottom. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg over the potato layer, and top with a layer of grated cheese. Follow with another layer of potatoes, this time sprinkling the layer just with black pepper. Continue alternating layers until you reach the last layer of potatoes. Reserve some of the cheese for the top of the gratin. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg over the top layer of potatoes. Set aside. In a saucepan, heat the cream and milk together until hot but not boiling, and add another sprinkle of nutmeg. Temper the liquid with the egg, and pour the entire contents of the pan over the gratin. Top the gratin with the reserved cheese. Cover with aluminum and bake at 350 F until the potatoes are soft, about half an hour. Remove foil and turn up the oven to 425. Bake until topping is golden brown. Cool slightly before serving. Note: recipe can be prepared and baked at 350 and the last step can be reserved until just before serving.

When I lived in France, I kind of expected to be eating gourmet food all the time. This was not the case in this working-class family from the North. Sure, I learned my gratin dauphinoise recipe from them (sorry about all the teasing… Dylan has told me I have to share this recipe, and as soon as I make it and have some pictures, it’ll get up here), and they had one of those fun little individually sized raclette machines that everyone over here seems to have, but really, there was a lot of high-quality soup from a box, a couple of pasta dishes thrown together, an amazing cheese platter, a rotisserie chicken on their son’s birthday, and these potatoes.

Sure, when they had them, it was a white porcelain bowl of new potatoes and a side dish of sauce, along with a plate of high quality ham, but it’s the sauce that matters, not the presentation, so instead of serving myself a dainty portion of potatoes, I make one big potato and add the sauce, mashing it up in a bowl.

The French also like to peel their potatoes (Britney recently shared with me that they also peel their nectarines… bizarre), but I like chunks of peel in my mashed potatoes. The family I stayed with looked at me as though I was crazy when I simply poured the yogurt sauce over my new potatoes and squashed them slightly with the tines of my fork, as they painstakingly peeled each tiny potato, slicing them into small chunks on the plate before pouring the sauce over the white flesh, the peels pushed to the very corner.

I like things the way I like them. My heat is off because I’d rather not pay for it, so I’m in my bed wrapped in two duvets, studying for exams. I don’t want to go grocery shopping, and I have to clean out my fridge. Potatoes are what are available, so potatoes I shall eat.

Pommes de terre au yaourt (serves one)

Boil one potato for about 20 minutes, or until a fork goes through without resistance. (Alternatively, you could steam the potato, but I don’t have a steamer.) Meanwhile, combine half a cup of fromage frais (or plain yogurt, for those of you in the states) with a tablespoon of good dijon mustard and a teaspoon of dried chives. Mix with a fork and add the potato. Use the tines of your fork to mash the potato into the sauce. Consume. Leave the dishes for later.

We didn’t always eat salad in my house. I don’t remember when the bowl of greens dressed in a simple vinaigrette first made an appearance… my mother seems to think she always made it, but I know better. I remember not liking salad at all, but then at some point, hot veggies started being replaced or accompanied by a huge salad in a glass bowl, greens, oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper. My sister and I started eating salad all the time. My brother still doesn’t like it.

***

I went to a boarding high school, where we ate cafeteria food three meals a day. The bread was stale. The soup was salty. I used to eat five or six oranges a day because the fresh fruit was usually good. My friends used to make fun of my tendencies to pick one item of produce and stick to it for every meal for a few weeks, until I couldn’t bear it anymore. Bowls of tiny cherry tomatoes. Plates of apples sliced with peanut butter. Sticky rice with soy sauce. Spinach nuked in the microwave and covered with salt and black pepper. Romaine lettuce with feta and balsamic vinaigrette.

***

When I went to France for the first time, I lived with a host family in the north. On Wednesdays, we ate lunch at home. Usually chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes that came from a box. And salad. Endive and apples with cider vinaigrette. Beets and goats cheese. Carottes rapees. Grated celery root with mayonnaise.

***

In college, I got my first kitchen. In the beginning, I reveled in being able to cook for myself. After awhile though, I hated trudging down to the 24-hour Dominion to buy food. I would buy huge heads of lettuce and a few wedges of cheese and assemble 4, 5, 6 salads a day. I accumulated a stack of bowls at my desk, still slick with oil from the homemade vinaigrette my grandmother taught me to make. I would work all night and go to bed at sunrise, having eaten salad while the sky was still dark.

***

The Canadian is gone. He’s gone to Spain, then to Argentina. I’ll see him again in a few months, but I don’t have the heart to cook anything anymore. When he was here, I never had to think about being hungry–he was always hungry first. He had a “hungry noise,” a low-pitched whine like a puppy, and then he would make a sad face. What do you want? The answers varied, but there were only a few options. Chili. Eggs and potatoes. Tuna casserole-ish. Pasta with pesto. Pasta with sausage. Pâté and cheese. I rolled my eyes when I went into the kitchen, but the truth was, I loved when he asked me to make him things. Especially when he stared at me after cleaning his bowl, hoping there were seconds. There always were. I know how to feed the Canadian.

I’m back on salads now. I didn’t eat too many when the Canadian was here… Whenever I tried to make some to get some vitamins, he looked at me like I was a little crazy, and besides, why make salad when I’m already making something else for him? But now I don’t have the will to cook for one, so I assemble. Endive and beets. Romaine and parmesan. Frisée and brie. I’ll be home in a few days, where I’m expected to contribute gratin dauphinoise and sambusik cookies to the Christmas meal. Until then, I’m slicing apples on top of lettuce and calling it dinner.

I was not raised in a typical American household. My mother is a trained cook, and while she never went professional, her ability to replicate restaurant dishes from one taste is frankly uncanny. As such, I was raised with a revolving door of meal options for dinner. An invitation to my table was always coveted by my friends, where they could come and watch my Jackie O. mother: jet black bouffant, huge dark sunglasses, brick red lipstick, black ballet flats before they were cool, French scarves arranged just so. She looked about twenty-five. She still claims to be, which will be awkward when I become older than her in less than five years.

When I watch those cooking shows like Sandra Lee or that woman who makes five meals out of three ingredients, I’m frankly confused. My mother ran schedules for four children (five, if you, like my mother, count my father as one) and still managed to get a gourmet dinner on the table every evening. I don’t quite get those microwavable meals: we used to get Birds Eye green beans and spaetzle in pesto, but only because my father and I whined and complained until she bought it. She makes her own creamed onions. A woman who makes her own creamed onions is not ever going to make you eat Manwich, Hamburger Helper, Rice-a-Roni, or tuna casserole.

The only casserole I’ve ever had is lasagna, which I don’t really count as a casserole anyway, because it’s lasagna. So you can imagine my surprise when the Canadian, hungry one afternoon when I had already put away a delicious panini, asked for tuna casserole.

OK, to be fair, he didn’t actually pronounce those words. What he asked for was pasta with “maybe some tuna, mayo and cheese.” I looked at him like he was insane until he validated his request by saying that it was “tuna-casserole-ish,” which didn’t really validate it at all in my mind. I was still standing there asking myself how the boy who wanted his last meal on earth to be a seared ahi-tuna steak could possibly be sitting on my couch in shorts and a bucket hat from Mallorca asking me to make him tuna casserole.

But I was up for the challenge. Into the kitchen I went, trying to think how in the world I was going to pull off something that actually tasted good.

First of all, I didn’t have any mayonnaise. At home, we always have Hellman’s, but I only eat it on turkey sandwiches, and the French aren’t too keen on turkey sandwiches (they eat a lot of ham), so I have mustard as a standard, and no mayo. No problem, I’ll just borrow from carbonara and mix some egg yolk with olive oil to make a barely cooked sauce at the end. Now the problem was cheese: he didn’t want a cheese sauce, he wanted the cheese melted in. But cheese melted in always gets all globby and nasty and I wouldn’t stand for that. So I grated the parmesan into the egg and oil mixture and mixed it around. When the pasta came out, I started adding the egg mixture, stirring and watching as it became a thick, creamy sauce (I always think that’s like magic, no matter how many times I do it). Newly confident, I added the tuna and some black pepper and gave it a taste.

The verdict? Tuna casserole is weird. The Canadian is weird. But he liked it: he even asked me to make it again a few days ago, which is good, because the first time I was so bewildered that I forgot to take a picture, and I wasn’t able to share this very interesting bit of Americana with you. So there you have it: a recipe for Tuna Casserole-ish. If you grew up with tuna casserole, like the Canadian, you might like it. As for me, I’m going to stick with the ahi… the whole cheese and tuna thing just isn’t doing it for me.

Tuna Casserole-ish

Cook enough pasta for two people (or one Canadian) in a large pot of salted water. I like rigatoni or even penne. While the pasta is cooking, combine one egg yolk with about a tablespoon (maybe two) of good olive oil, pepper, and a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese (to taste). When the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving a little bit of the pasta water. Turn off the heat and return the pasta to the pot. Using your wooden spoon, add a little bit of the egg, oil, cheese mixture at a time, stirring to combine and making sure that the egg doesn’t curdle. The sauce should thicken to a creamy consistency. When all of the sauce is added, break in one small can of tuna with a fork. Mix to combine. If the sauce seems too thick, you can thin it out with some of the pasta water. Serve with extra cheese on the side. Serves two normal people or one very hungry Canadian.

More than any other time of year, I feel like winter screams for a certain kind of food, and that food is made in a deep stock pot. Winter is soup time. The Canadian noticed about as soon as I did. As I was boiling the leftover turkey bones in a pot for stock, he looked over, lifted his eyebrows in his Canadian way, and asked,

“Soup?”

“No… stock.”

“What?”

“Stock. I boil the bones to make stock. It’s a soup base.”

“Does this mean I will eventually be able to eat soup?”

“Yes.”

And he was. A few days later, I took out my stock and decided to make a pot of minestrone, one of my favorite soups. I would have gone with the typical chicken noodle, but the Canadian likes tomato, mushroom and vegetable soups, so I figured minestrone was a good compromise.

A few days later, Britney and I decided we weren’t quite done with the soup thing (plus we’ve both become obsessed with gridskipper.com, and an article a couple of weeks ago touted the local soup bars). We decided to go to Bar à Soupes in the 11th, near Bastille. We showed up at nine, so a few of the soups had run out, but we had the choice of a soup de marché (a vegetable soup), tomato-ginger, carrot-coriander, celery-bleu d’Auvergne, and split pea. As we were trying to decide, the lady behind the bar (literally, Soup Bar is just a bar with soups, salads and desserts and a few tables), let us know that there was a 6.50 option where you could sample three small soups with a roll… perfect for me and Britney who can’t make decisions.

Britney decided on vegetable, split pea and tomato-ginger. I went for tomato-ginger, carrot-coriander and celery-bleu d’Auvergne, which is strange, because I don’t like celery in general, but I couldn’t look away from the pale green, velvety soup. In the end, this one ended up being my favorite: it tasted less like celery than like an amalgamation of fresh vegetables with the definite tang and creaminess of blue cheese. Britney liked the split pea, so I guess the creamy soups were the winners. The other soups were good as well, tasting fresh and of their essential ingredients. We finished by splitting a piece of warm and melty chocolate cake. It seems that others have come to appreciate it as well: as we left around ten, two more groups had come in to sit and eat.

Minestrone (adapted from Gourmet, March 1993)

rind of parmesan cheese

1 28-oz. can of white beans
1/4 pound pancetta
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, cut into half-moons
1 rib of celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 garlic cloves, chopped fine
2 zucchini, scrubbed and cut into half-moons
4 cups shredded green cabbage (preferably Savoy)
a 28-ounce can tomatoes, chopped coarse, with juice
4 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup small pasta
salt, pepper, dried basil

In a heavy kettle cook the pancetta in the oil over moderate heat, stirring, until it is crisp and pale golden. Remove and add the onion, and cook until the onion is softened. Add the carrots, the celery, and the garlic and cook the mixture, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook the mixture, stirring, for 4 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook until the cabbage is wilted. Add the tomatoes, parmesan rind and the broth and simmer the soup, covered, for 1 hour. Stir the white beans into the soup. Simmer the soup, uncovered, for 15 minutes, and season it with salt, pepper and basil. Add the pasta and simmer until cooked. Add the pancetta and serve. The soup may be made 3 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Reheat the soup, thinning it with water as desired.

When I first learned how to cook (that is, cook things besides Kraft Dinner, omelettes and grilled cheese) more than three years ago, one of the first things I learned how to make was tomato sauce. The second was lasagna. What are you going to do with a vat of tomato sauce when you’re just one person?

My mother taught me, as she teaches everything, by speaking, not by showing or writing down, and so I would repeat the instructions to myself nervously as I made my lasagna.

It worked out well. It definitely wasn’t my mother’s, but I was able to feed my friends, and when I finally moved from Toronto to Paris, it was one of the two recipes (along with my guacamole) that my friend Mel asked me for. Well, I have yet to give her the recipe, because I teach by showing, but when I do, it’s not going to be the one I made three years ago.

I’m sorry, Mommy. But to be fair, it was never the same when I made it, and this one comes so much closer to the saucy, crispy around the edges, cheesy, flavorful lasagna that I remember you serving us when we were kids. And I did get it from an Italian… that has to count for something, right?

This lasagna comes from the one and only Little Big Head (Giada de Laurentiis), whom I have hardly ever trusted with anything culinary. I guess she couldn’t have been all wrong… it does take some talent to make your hair stand up that high and to say decadent at a rate of about once every hundred words, but Giada, I’ve made fun of you for too long, and I’m sorry. You’ve proven me wrong with this lasagna, so now I’m sharing it with the world in hopes of redeeming myself.

Classic Italian Lasagna (courtesy of foodnetwork.com)

Bechamel Sauce:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 2 tablespoons for the lasagna
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk at room temperature
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
Salt and white pepper1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground chuck beef
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 pounds ricotta cheese
3 large eggs
1 pound lasagna sheets, cooked al dente
2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
3 cups shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.Bechamel sauce:
In a 2-quart pot, melt 5 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. When butter has completely melted, add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly to prevent any lumps from forming. Continue to simmer and whisk over medium heat until the sauce is thick, smooth and creamy, about 10 minutes. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of wooden spoon. Remove from heat and add the nutmeg and tomato sauce. Stir until well combined and check for seasoning. Set aside and allow to cool completely.

In a saute pan, heat extra-virgin olive oil. When almost smoking, add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Brown meat, breaking any large lumps, until it is no longer pink. Remove from heat and drain any excess fat. Set aside and allow to cool completely.

In a medium sized bowl, thoroughly mix the ricotta and eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Into the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch baking dish, spread 1/3 of the bechamel sauce. Arrange the pasta sheets side by side, covering the bottom of the baking dish. Evenly spread a layer of all the ricotta mixture and then a layer of all the spinach. Arrange another layer of pasta sheets and spread all the ground beef on top. Sprinkle 1/2 the mozzarella cheese on top of the beef. Spread another 1/3 of the bechamel sauce. Arrange the final layer of pasta sheets and top with remaining bechamel, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into 1/4-inch cubes and top lasagna.

Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place lasagna dish on top, cover and put on the middle rack of the oven and bake until top is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Remove cover and continue to bake for about 15 minutes.

This keeps well, just reheat it in the oven (or microwave for just one serving). It tastes even better the next day. Serve with extra tomato sauce and parmesan on the side.

I’ve been being a student recently, and thus have had very little time to post. But I haven’t forgotten about you, dear reader! Here’s a recipe for a pasta dish I made last week. I just took some merguez sausages out of their casings and cooked them until brown, cooked a diced onion in the fat from the pork, added some tomato paste and some homemade marinara sauce, the pork, and a little touch of crème fraiche. It was a quick and easy dinner for two, and we both loved it, especially with a little extra cheese sprinkled on top (him) and some cayenne pepper (me).

Don’t hate me… I’ll be back tomorrow with the lasagna recipe that *gasp* blew my tried and true family recipe out of the water!

I know… I know. I’ve been bad. It isn’t even that I haven’t been cooking! I have tons of recipes to share, plus I just got back from England, where I ate at some awesome places. Nope… I just sometimes forget that I’m a student until I suddenly have to be one nonstop for several days. But my paper on Atlas Shrugged has been turned in, so I’m back and ready to tell you about Thanksgiving, yesterday.

Yes… I said yesterday. And yes, I’m well aware that Thanksgiving is actually today. But you see, back to the student thing, my partner in crime, Britney Spears (see Halloween post), was leaving for Madrid on a school trip early this morning, so we decided to have it one day early. I sent out invitations, but because of the strike, we were only able to attract three of the six who RSVPed… and they were all boys. Hmm…

I woke up at 9:00 yesterday to start work. The Canadian slept and shouted what he thought were helpful comments from the living room. He also watched in awe as Britney rolled out a pie crust. “I’ve never been behind the scenes before…”

The menu was as follows…

Roast Turkey Legs
Stuffing
Pumpkin Tarte Tatin
Whole Cranberry Sauce with Orange
Green beans with scallions
Sweet Potato Hash
Mashed Potatoes
Gratin Dauphinoise
Buttermilk Corn Bread
Tarte Tatin
Spiced Pumpkin Pie with Tender Pie Crust

Get ready… this is going to be a long post.

Ok, first of all, the turkey. I couldn’t roast a whole turkey in my dinky little oven, and even though some of the local shops were offering to sell whole roast turkeys, I wanted to do everything myself (not even a frozen pie crust around here). I went with turkey thighs, and I bought four of them. In the end, this was too much: as the Canadian said and Emese agreed, no one really cares about the turkey. It has to be there, in case you want to take a little slice and place it decoratively on your plate, but really, it doesn’t matter.

Well, good. Because I followed my mother’s advice and cooked them for an hour, (rubbed them first with some butter, sage, salt and pepper) but they were still pink inside, so I threw them back in after I had reheated everything else, and the turkey made an appearance on the table during second helpings of everything else. As Emese said, the potatoes are what are important.

Or, if you’re the Canadian, the stuffing. And no, stuffing does not come out of a box here. I called my mother and asked for a recipe, but she infuriatingly gave her “until it’s wet enough… enough to cover the bottom of the pan” directions, so I turned to Ree. To be fair, Mommy, her recipe was pretty much the same as yours… it was just easier to follow. And the stuffing was really, really good. I was going to only make one pan when there were going to be nine of us, but the Canadian thought that was ludicrous, so I made two. We finished one, but there were only six of us, so I suppose he was right.

I tried another new thing, the Pumpkin Tarte Tatin from the Wednesday Chef. I didn’t invert it, because I’m lazy, but it was delicious. I told Britney that I was going to attempt it, but that I wasn’t sure it would work out. She said, “Pumpkin and cheese? How can you go wrong?” Then I told her there was pastry and cream involved. Nuff said.
Cranberry sauce used to be the one thing on the table I sort of ignored. (Actually, make that one of two things. And I still ignore creamed pearl onions, so they didn’t make it onto my table. Sorry, Mommy). But I grew to love it, and now I can’t live without the tangy sweetness. I got my recipe from Finding La Dolce Vita, and it was perfect. As I watched the cranberries floating in the orange juice, I was a little bit skeptical, but then all of a sudden, without warning, it was cranberry sauce. I couldn’t tell you how it happened, but it was gorgeous on the table, and it’s almost gone! (I saved a little to have with my leftovers… Shh…)

Britney told me I didn’t need to have vegetables at Thanksgiving, but I ignored her. Yes, I didn’t make roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta and pistachios… possibly my favorite veggie on the Thanksgiving table, because I know that people are prejudiced against them and will never love them the way I do (*cough*theCanadian*cough*), but my Mommy promised to make them for me at Christmas, even though they’re usually a Thanksgiving fare, so I moved on and went with green beans. Guess what? They’re almost gone. For this, I can only thank Mommy… I used her recipe. You slow cook finely sliced shallots in some olive oil and butter, blanch the green beans (I boil water in my electric kettle, pour it over the beans, and dump it out almost immediately, right after they turn green. Then run them under ice water. You want them to still have some snap.), and then dump them into the pan with the shallots until ready to serve. Just turn the heat up, add a little more oil if you need it, and toss until heated through. So easy… and everyone ate their greens. My god, I am my mother.

We needed sweet potatoes, but I was running out of space in my oven. I made everything ahead of time, but it was all going to have to be reheated, and I’ve never much liked that marshmallow yam thing anyway, so I decided to try an epicurious recipe for Sweet Potato Hash. Because I was making it last minute, it turned into more of a Sweet Potato Mash (haha… rhyming. I’m so clever.), but it was delicious anyway. I also was having a slight problem with my brown sugar… I paid an exorbitant amount for it at the American store, only to learn that it was stale and hard as a rock. I sprinkled it with water and microwaved it, so some of it melted, leaving massive craters, and I was able to make small brown sugar pebbles when I attacked it with a fork. I used the smaller pebbles for pumpkin pie (which turned out creamy and delicious, than you), so I was left with larger pebbles for my potatoes. Thus, I had some trouble getting it to caramelize the potatoes and was happy enough to get it to melt. They were delicious and creamy and there’s very little left, but I’m thinking about saving them and eating them cold tonight.

Kudos to those who are still here. Mashed potatoes are mashed potatoes. I made a huge pot and threw some crème fraiche, heavy cream, butter and milk. They were a little wanting for salt, but there’s not much left, so I guess people were happy with them.

Gratin Dauphinoise is always the most popular dish for Thanksgiving at home. It’s my recipe, and I won’t give it to my mom, because I don’t want her making them without me. I usually make them at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and my aunt refuses to come to our house unless I promise they’ll be on the table. You slice potatoes reeeaaaalllly thin, put a layer in a greased baking pan, top with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and then a layer of grated gruyère cheese. You keep going with these layers, but only peppering the potatoes, no salt or nutmeg, until the last layer. Before putting the last bit of spice and cheese, you mix a cup of cream and a cup of milk and scald it, temper one egg and add it, and pour the mixture all over the gratin. Then add the spice (salt, pepper and nutmeg this time) and a layer of cheese. It’s amazing. I’m currently eating it for breakfast.

Emese made the cornbread from a recipe we got off epicurious. I don’t recommend it, so I won’t post it. It was fine and all, but not nearly moist enough. Emese and I ate quite a bit of it when we were in the picking stages after thirds or fourths, when you don’t want to refill your plate again. I suppose it helped that we were the two who were eating on the floor, right next to the table.

The tarte tatin was the same one I’ve posted about before. Same deliciousness. I won’t go on, as my fingers are starting to hurt and my gratin is getting cold. The pumpkin pie was delicious. It’s almost gone, and everyone was complaining that they didn’t have room for pie. That’s ridiculous. Who doesn’t have room for pie. Now if you’ll excuse me, there are some potatoes calling me. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Canadian just woke up from his nap and told me he could smell pie.

Me: A whole pie, or a slice of pie on a plate?

The Canadian: A whole pie.

He just at the rest of the pie in bed. I have photo evidence.

Place baking sheet in oven and preheat to 450°F. Whisk 2/3 cup golden brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon quatre épices, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg in large bowl to blend. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin and 4 eggs, then 1 cup of heavy cream. Pour mixture into crust. (I used a homemade butter crust.)
Place pie on preheated baking sheet in oven. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325°F and bake until sides puff and center is just set, about 40 minutes. Cool. Serve at room temperature.