It’s just Victor and me for Thanksgiving this year (unless anyone wants to come out and join us) and I’m thinking of making a Thanksgiving-themed small-plate extravaganza. I haven’t run this by Victor yet so we’ll see if he embraces the idea or clings stubbornly to the old ways. Here’s what I’m thinking of so far, in approximate order of serving:
Stilton Tart Bites w/ Cranberry Dipping Sauce
Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Swiss Chard
Sweet Potato Chips with Turkey Leg Confit and Cranberry-Black Pepper Chutney
Champagne-Rosemary Sorbet
Mini-Mashed Potato Pancake Sandwiches with Sour Cream and Bacon
Individual Turkey + Mushroom Stuffing Bread Puddings
Haricot Vert and Red Onion Salad with Pistou
Small Pear and Almond Cakes with Muscat Syrup and Mascarpone Cream
I think most of your standard Thanksgiving elements are present in some form, except for pumpkin, of which I’ve never been a huge fan (and I’ve got butternut in there, so the squash family is represented). Some of the recipes are either straight from epicurious.com or slightly adapted versions of recipes found there; others are from my brain.
I was also thinking of tinkering with this menu and including a soup amuse bouche: maybe take away the gnocchi and have some sort of squash puree with star anise or cardamom or something, served in a shot glass or a little tea cup.
Anyhoo. What do y’all think?
That sounds awsome…I should pay to fly YOU out here, so that we could all have some of that! :-)
[…] While I’ve been cooking a lot more in the new kitchen, I’m certainly no Kelly. […]
If I weren’t in school, I’d take you up on that. But you’d have to fly Victor, too… :-)
Sounds delicious, and very ambitious, are you really going to boil a turkey leg in oil for 8 hours? Let me know how that works out! and what the heck is pistou? The butternut squash gnocchi/swiss chard course sounded wonderful. Your father said he read the menu and didn’t understand any of it! Does that surprise you?
You should record this momentous feast and submit it to Gourmet Magazine or some such Pub as a “Thanksgiving a deux” feature for next year.
My recipe for the turkey leg confit calls for 3 hours of boiling in oil… hopefully that will be sufficient.
Pistou is a French version of pesto… the only difference I could discern was a lack of cheese.
As for my father- not at all surprised! I ran it by Victor and he was excited about it: fortunately, he’s a bit more open to experimentation. :-)
Wow, this sounds great. How are you going to do the individual turkey/bread puddings? Buy whole turkey breasts and cook them? I’ve always been a huge traditionalist about t-giving, and we’ve always (? I think) done a whole roast turkey… but roasting a whole turkey is so problematic.
Regarding the Pistou/Pesto thing — everyone knows the French learned how to cook from the Italians.
[…] should check out Kelly’s proposed Thanksgiving day menu. This was written by ngvrnd. Posted on Tuesday, November 13, 2007, […]
The turkey bread puddings are one of the ones that I’m making up from my head, so as of yet I haven’t completely hashed the thing out, but yeah, my vision was to cook a turkey breast and shred the meat. I’m thinking the puddings will involve sage, and perhaps some mushrooms. I’m still pondering options for the bready substrate. Cornbread? Brioche? Plain ol’ French bread? The first would be kind of stuffing-y, but would it in fact be good? I’m not sure.
Looks yummy. What’s a mashed potato pancake? It sounds like it might miss out on the perpendicularly good qualities of both mashed potatoes (creamy, soft) and potato pancakes (crispy, intense potato flavor). But no matter. My real concern: either I’m reading too hastily or you are eliding the *entire* gravy food group!
Never fear, my good man. There will be a gravy-like sauce accompanying the bread puddings.
As for the mashed potato pancake, I shall have to experiment with it. It’s another one that I made up- I don’t have a recipe. You are right, it probably won’t be very mashed-potato-like at all, cause I’ll have to include egg or other binders to hold the pancake together. If I can’t come up with something good I will probably just make regular potato pancakes on the day itself.
My mom always used leftover mashed potatoes to make a thing she called “potato pancakes” — fashion the mashed into a pattie, and place in a pan with liberal quantities of melted butter and sizzle until a crispy layer formed on the outside. These were sometimes quite good, especially if the butter had turkey or chicken fat in it, and if fresh sage leaves were fried along with the pancakes.
Is this the sort of thing you are thinking about?
Yes, but,having never done it before, I was thinking that I would need something in the mashed potato to make it hold together… did your mom put egg in or anything? And, did the patties have integrity or did they disintegrate easily?
It depends. If you have the courage of your convictions and allow a good solid browned crust to develop, then it’s kind of like a crispy sandwich, and it holds together.
I think (*think*) that the way to do this is to cook the pancakes in butter (cooked until the water is gone b4 you start cooking the pancakes — i.e. you could use ghee) at a medium-low temperature until the crust forms. It should be golden-brown, not burned.
I’m pretty sure she never added eggs. I think that’s good for potato pancakes made in the more traditional, shredded raw potato way.
This year my wife decided to have a dry run thanksgiving day to test out her recipes. We soaked the bird in a brine solution she got at William Sonoma it really kept it moist. OMG, the turkey was so good and I get to do it again in a few days!