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For the past two weeks or so, I’ve been having exactly this for breakfast – a bowl of plain yogurt with blood orange segments on top. I’ve been using homemade yogurt, which is super thick like I like it. After I segment the oranges, I like to squeeze the leftover membranes over top of the bowl, to get all the extra juice into my yogurt. It’s like a customized blood-orange-flavored yogurt, minus the horrible sugary taste you get with commercial yogurts. So, so tasty.
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And then there was the day that I ran out of blood oranges… so I used some frozen berries left over from last summer. I microwaved them for 30 seconds on half-power, and let all the juices mix in with the yogurt. Definitely the best way to start the day.
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The Love Language / Brittany’s Back
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You want to know what is REALLY hard to make look delicious?
That would be, a bowl of this here soup.
I mean, it’s freaking tasty stuff, this soup, but it will definitely be filed under the category of what I like to call, ugly food. Don’t get me wrong, ugly food is almost always tasty – we’ve been over this before – it’s just that you’re going to have to convince your guests/spouse/disbelieving children of that fact before they’ll even sit down to the table. I tried to be all Ina-like and add “a garnish that reflects the flavors present in the dish” – that’s why the rosemary spring is just hanging out over there on the left – because honestly, brown soup is just a wee bit unappetizing.
Okay, so we’ve been over the basics of why you probably WON’T want to try this soup. But this is a food blog, so its not like I’m going to post horrible recipes. So let’s go over the reasons why you should try this, non?
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1. It’s a recipe from Ina Garten, whose every recipe is a foodgasm in the making, and who is only second to God in our foodie world next to Martha Stewart. (But is actually first in God’s eyes because Ina hasn’t been to jail. Go Ina.)
2. It’s made with all natural ingredients like chicken stock and white beans, so you know it’s good for you without tasting like cardboard.
3. This is a perfect dish for winter, since it uses just about the only thing “in season” in Colorado – dried beans.
4. The end product is creamy without being heavy, flavorful without being full of fat. The best of both worlds.
5. The ugly factor of food is inversely related to how delicious the food is. So this dish is obviously off the charts. (Obviously.)
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So, now that I’ve thoroughly convinced you, Law & Order-style, get thee to your grocery store/farmers market/pantry some cannellini beans.
And make sure to distract your children/spouse/guests with cartoons/sports/booze before you serve this.
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Rosemary White Bean Soup
Adapted from Ina Garten
Serves 6
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The only “adaptations” included reducing the amount of olive oil (because she alway uses a ton, bless her heart) and removing all references to “good” ingredients that will make you feel inferior.
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Gather:
1 pound dried white cannellini beans
4 cups sliced sweet yellow onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large branch fresh rosemary
6 cups chicken stock
1 bay leaf
kosher salt, to taste
fresh cracked pepper, to taste
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Prepare:
Pick through the beans to remove any pebbles or other debris. In a large bowl, cover beans with at least 2 inches of cold water. Let soak overnight or at least 8 hours. Drain.
In a large stockpot, saute the onions with the olive oil until translucent, 10 to 15 minutes. (Note: Instead of adding more olive oil, just add a bit of water if the onions start to burn. And if you do burn the onions, just tell your guests it’s “Caramelized Onion White Bean Soup.”) Add the garlic and cook for 3 minutes until fragrant. Add the drained white beans, rosemary, chicken stock, and bay leaf. Cover; bring to a boil, and simmer 30 to 40 minutes, until the beans are soft. Remove rosemary and bay leaf. Pass the soup through the coarsest blade of a food mill, or puree half of the soup in a blender/food processor. Continue pureeing and mixing until you reach a consistency you like. (I prefer a course puree.) Return the soup to the pot, and reheat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
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Best Coast / The End
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I made these for the first time a few weeks ago, when I just had some white and orange sweet potatoes hanging out in my house, leftover from the fall produce sales. They were starting their own mini sweet-potato-reproducing-factory in my cabinet, and I needed to get rid of them. Naturally, I decided to make some fries. It’s the default thing to do with leftover sweet potatoes, right?
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But you can’t just serve fries on their own… and for me, ketchup/catsup/catchup isn’t what you serve with a big platter of sweet potato fries. Sweet potato fries are the sophisticated older sister of regular fries. You need something to woo her with…
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Like intense garlic breath, of course.
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Thus, roasted garlic aioli. An aioli is much like mayonnaise… except hopefully homemade, and with a fancier name.
Honestly, you probably just want to invite all your friends over for these fries. You want to make sure all the people you know are eating this, lest you see a friend or five out and about later… because they won’t want to be within 10 feet of you. (Unless that’s what you’re going for… in which case, I applaud you for your creative strategy.)
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Sweet Potato Fries
From the Kitchenette
Serves 8 as an appetizer or side
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Gather:
4 sweet potatoes, orange or white or both, scrubbed clean
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more if needed
coarse salt
fresh cracked pepper
Prepare:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch sticks. (Note: I’m not too concerned about getting each fry the perfect length or width. Perfection is BORING. Plus, having some fries be more crispy than others is quite tasty, honestly.) Toss sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper, adding more oil until fries are just barely coated. Roast at 425 degrees for approximately 40-50 minutes, tossing each 15 minutes or so.
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Roasted Garlic Aioli
From the Kitchenette
Yields about 3/4 cup
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Gather:
1 head garlic
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 egg
salt
fresh cracked pepper
Prepare:
To roast the garlic, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the top off the head of garlic, and place on a square of aluminum foil. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over top the head. Wrap the aluminum foil around the garlic, and roast at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until garlic is translucent and soft inside.
To make aioli, put 3 cloves of roasted garlic (you can squeeze them out of the head with your thumb) in a food processor or blender. Add in the egg, a pinch each of salt and pepper, and turn on the food processor/blender to high. Add in the olive oil in a VERY slow stream, as slowly as possible. Check the texture of the aioli intermittently while adding the olive oil; you are looking for a texture akin to a thin mayonnaise, and you may not need all the oil, or you may need a bit more. Once the appropriate texture is reached, transfer to a serving dish.
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Warpaint / Undertow
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So I actually meant to post these in time for Christmas, but as you probably remember, I went home to Virginia…
and accidentally disappeared off the face of the earth for approximately 30 days.
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As you can probably tell, the red ball is covered in chopped dried cranberries. It’s filled with delicious mango chutney and shredded cheddar, along with some other delicious things. The green one is covered in chopped parsley, and is filled with heavenly, creamy goat cheese and scallions. (If you start drooling, I won’t say anything. I’m totally drooling just writing this.)
These cheese balls are a staple at any of our family gatherings. My cousin Grayson, and my brother Jeff, have been known to request them at Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I see no reason you can’t serve them for Superbowl Sunday… or even just a Tuesday afternoon. I mean, honestly… who can resist a cheese ball???
In fact, if you are able to resist a cheese ball, then I’m unsure you have a soul.
And I’m positive we can’t be friends. It’s just a requirement to friendship.
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This is another Martha Stewart recipe, because I swear, that bitch can do no wrong. (I tried a banana bread recipe from her the other day, and I swear I saw angels with the first bite. Damn her and her perfect, perfect recipes.)
Martha suggests serving the parsley-goat cheese ball with slices of cucumber, but clearly that’s for people who are trying to ignore the fact that they are eating a large ball made entirely of dairy fat. Own it, and serve it with water crackers.
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Base for Cheese Balls
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes one 4-inch ball
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Gather:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons lemon juice
scant 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes hot sauce
pinch salt
pinch white pepper
Prepare:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl until smooth and combined. Proceed with variation chosen below. (Base may be multiplied if making more than 1 variation; just divide evenly between separate bowls before proceeding.)
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Cranberry-Cheddar Cheese Ball
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes one 4-inch ball
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Gather:
1 recipe Cheese Ball base, above
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 tablespoons mango chutney (or other complimentary flavor)
3/4 cup finely chopped cranberries
Prepare:
Combine the cheese ball base, cheddar, and mango chutney, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pull out a sheet of cling wrap and lay on flat surface. Shape cheese into a ball, and wrap in cling wrap. Chill in fridge 1 hour.
Scatter chopped cranberries on a cutting board or other flat surface. Unwrap cheese ball from cling wrap and lightly press into cranberries, until dried fruit clings to surface. (Cheese ball can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Refrigerate, and let sit at room temperature approximately 1 hour before serving.)
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Scallion-Chevre Cheese Ball
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes one 4-inch ball
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Gather:
1 recipe Cheese Ball base, above
8 ounces goat cheese, softened
2 tablespoons scallions, finely chopped
1/3 cup curly parsley, finely chopped
Prepare:
Combine the cheese ball base, goat cheese, and scallions, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pull out a sheet of cling wrap and lay on flat surface. Shape cheese into a ball, and wrap in cling wrap. Chill in fridge 1 hour.
Scatter chopped parsley on a cutting board or other flat surface. Unwrap cheese ball from cling wrap and lightly press into parsley, until herb clings to surface. (Cheese ball base can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Do not roll in parsley more than an hour or two before serving; the parsley will wilt in the fridge. Let cheese ball sit at room temperature about 1 hour prior to serving.)
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Remember how I confessed to never having tried apple butter yesterday?
Remember how I said I remedied that immediately?
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Yeah. This is how I remedied that.
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It would be waaaaay too easy for me to take the easy way out and just do one batch of classic apple butter. I mean, you know me by now. You knew that when faced with 14 cups of apple butter, I would make 4 different kinds. Right?
Right.
Of course, I hit the classic apple butter – just some cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove thrown in. Very delicate, not too sweet. I like it. I kind of wanted to eat it straight out of the jar.
Then I figured, a ginger apple butter. Extra-light coloring, a hint of ginger to spice things up a bit. Ginger is like cowbell – you always need more.
And let’s do bourbon! I mean, I have plenty laying around, for pete’s sake.
Finally, I had to play the savory note. Flavor Bible says: rosemary. Thankfully, when I burnt this batch a bit, I just called it “caramelized.”
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Mostly all I want to do right now is eat it straight. But as an apple butter virgin, I ask you, dear readers: how do you eat your apple butter?
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Classic Apple Butter
Adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Makes 8 8-oz jars
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Gather:
6 pounds apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
water as needed
2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Prepare:
Cook apples over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add water to just cover the bottom of the pan. Stir the apples occasionally and add more water if the apples begin to stick. Cook apples until softened, about 15 minutes. Put through a food mill. Measure puree, and divide into smaller batches if you will make adaptations as directed below. Prepare canner, jars, and lids. Return puree to pot, add in sugar and spices as directed; add in ginger, reduced bourbon, or rosemary as needed. Stir until sugar dissolves and butter becomes thick and begins to sputter. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude as necessary. Leave in canner for 5 more additional minutes; let stand for 24 hours before checking seals. Store for up to 12 months.
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Adaptations:
Ginger – Skip cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Add freshly grated ginger to taste before canning and processing. I used about 1/2 teaspoon for each 8-oz jar.
Bourbon – Reduce cinnamon by half; skip nutmeg and clove. Reduce 1/2 cup bourbon over medium heat. Add to apple butter before canning and processing. (I used about 1/2 cup straight bourbon for 4 jars of bourbon apple butter.)
(Caramelized) Rosemary – Reduce cinnamon by half; skip nutmeg and clove. Add finely minced rosemary to taste before canning and preserving. I used about 1/2 teaspoon per jar. Burn apples unintentionally for about 3 minutes before freaking out, complete with wild hand gestures and increased heart rate.
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The Decemberists / Down By the Water
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I really felt like naming this post THE ALMIGHTY HIGH-ALTITUDE DOMINATION OF CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE. It sounds a lot more exciting, right? Like Jean-Claude Van Damme might show up in a frilly apron any second, whisking egg whites at high speeds unknown to man until now.
Obviously, I’m dealing with high altitude here in Denver. We live at almost 5300 feet above sea level, which means there’s a lot that can happen to baked goods up here. (Add to that, I don’t bake a lot in general – Brad won’t eat lots of baked goods, and so I try not to churn out multiple dozens of cookies every week, lest every cookie make it’s way to my ass.)
There’s a rumor that baked goods fall at high altitudes, including but not limited to, cakes and soufflés. For a long time (read: before I moved here) I thought it was because there was more pressure in the air up here. It’s actually the reverse – there’s much less oxygen at high altitudes, which means there is much LESS air pressure than at sea level. When there is less air pressure, air bubbles in the batter of baked goods expands much more quickly (because hot air expands, remember?) If the air bubbles expand too much before the cake’s structure (in the flour, usually) has had time to bake and therefore set up properly, then the cake/soufflé will fall once it’s removed from the hot air of the oven.
This is doubly so for soufflés, since there is little to no flour in most soufflé recipes to provide a good structure to hold up. Also, soufflés are underbaked usually, so that the center is creamy. Any souffle, at any altitude, will fall when it’s removed from the oven; it’s just a matter of how much time.
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After google-searching “high altitude soufflé,” I came across this Mark Bittman recipe from the New York Times. I made only one adjustment – instead of whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks, I only whipped them to soft peaks. The purpose of holding back on whipping the egg whites, was to prevent the cake from rising too quickly. If I didn’t whip the egg whites as much as called for, then I hoped that the soufflé wouldn’t rise too quickly before it was baked
Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge! Dave and Linda provided many of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.
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Chocolate Souffle (High Altitude Domination)
Adapted from Mark Bittman
Makes one 4-cup soufflé or two 2-cup soufflés
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Gather:
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup sugar, divided, plus extra for dish
3 eggs, room temperature, separated into yolks and whites
pinch salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
powdered sugar for serving (optional)
Prepare:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the inside(s) of two 2-cup or one 4-cup soufflé or other deep baking dish(es). Dust the inside with granulated sugar and tap out any excess.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (i.e. a glass bowl over a small pot of simmering water).
Whisk the egg yolks with all but 1 tablespoon of the sugar, until the mixture is very light yellow, and falls in a ribbon from the beater blade. Meanwhile, whisk egg whites in a medium bowl with cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually add remaining tablespoon sugar, until the egg whites have soft peaks (i.e., when you pull out the beaters, small little peaks appear in the egg whites, and they flop over at the top rather than standing straight on their own.) Temper the egg yolk mixture by adding in about a tablespoon of melted chocolate; stir to combine. Add the rest of the melted chocolate, and stir until combined. Then add a large spoonful of egg whites to the chocolate mixture, and gently fold in the egg whites with a plastic spatula. Fold in the remaining egg whites gently. Transfer batter to prepared soufflé dish(es). (Make ahead: cover and store in the fridge until ready to bake.)
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes for individual soufflés or 25 to 35 minutes for a single large soufflé. Do not open the oven whatsoever while baking. When the outside looks done but the center still looks creamy, remove from oven and serve immediately. Sprinkle powdered sugar over top, if desired.
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Air Waves / Shine On
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Whenever Brad works too many long hours at work, he ends up eating too much take out and then complains that he is [any combination of the following:] fat, lazy, a whale, a “lard bucket,” or one of many other creative terms he comes up with when he’s sleep-deprived. This week he wasn’t feeling too healthy, so he requested homemade meals to take for lunch.
One thing I will not understand about B is that he always requests lots of meat for lunch, or dinner, or even breakfast. Comparatively, when I really buckle down and want to eat uber-healthy, I tend to focus on eating LESS meat, and I eat more whole grains and beans. Brad, on the other hand, really just wants to eat lots of meat, whether it be multiple pounds of beef, pork, or chicken. Someone (preferably someone packin’ heat ifyouknowwhatimsaying) PLEASE explain the logic behind that. It’s that kind of dude-thinking that will confuse me until I die.
In the end, I have to temper a bunch of meat with carbs, whether it be pasta, rice, or a whole grain. Otherwise, if I just fed Brad straight-up seasoned beef for lunch, we’d be spending $40 on beef for him to eat everyday (that’s assuming beef is $10 a pound, and yes, he could eat 4 pounds of beef in one sitting if I let him. I still haven’t figured out where it goes and we’ve been together 8 years.)
This recipe is from “Salt to Taste,” by Marco Canora. Brad actually says the author is on the current season of “The Next Iron Chef,” but I don’t keep track of that crap. I can’t remember the last time I watched the Food Network, during prime time anyways. I did, however, catch Aunt Sandy making a “cowboy potato salad” from frozen diced potatoes today. In true form, I really did want to jump into the television and whack her upside the head with the giant bottle of vodka she was holding. But that’s pretty normal for me.
Anyways, since the recipe is straight from a cookbook, I won’t be including it here. (My motto is, unless it’s published by the author on the internet already, I won’t type it up for all to see here. If I wrote a cookbook, I wouldn’t want people to freely share my hard work on the interwebz, either, unless they were sending me a $20 check in the mail each time someone read it.) Marco has a great breakdown of how to make the perfect risotto in his book, so it’s definitely worth perusing the next time you hit up your local (independent!) bookstore. I highly recommend you pick up his cookbook, Salt to Taste. I flipped through it upon purchase, and I think I might have to jump on the bandwagon and become one of those bloggers who cooks through the entire cookbook because EVERYTHING in that book looks downright amazing. The next recipe I want to make is actually featured on his website right now. Head on over and check it out. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
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Pelle Carlberg / I Love You, You Imbecile
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“All most people really want [for Thanksgiving] is turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, [and] and cranberries.”
xxxx - Andrew Knowlton, Bon Appetit November 2010
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Ah, just another indication that me and mine are huge freaks. Our Thanksgiving table at home in Virginia changes year over year… the only staples are corn pudding, and the chocolate fudge pie from Ukrop’s. (Which was our neighborhood grocery store, now bought by the evil Martin’s. *moment of silence*)
Four years of Young Married Couple Thanksgivings has really torn up the idea of the traditional Thanksgiving menu, at least for me. I can pretty much guarantee that Brad won’t care one way or another what I make, as long as one dish has bacon, ham, or pork in it. (Done.) And not having to cook for a crowd of 12 has thoroughly released me from having to cook the standard mashed-potatoes-green-beans-stuffing line up; now I just cook whatever seasonal dishes I want for the big day. Usually I try to stick to one “starch” dish, whether it be mashed potatoes or bread, one dessert, one salad, and an entree. Then I do one or two vegetable dishes as well.
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I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for 3 years now, just waiting for the right time to break it out. The original recipe from Her Holiness of All Things Domestic calls for sweet potatoes, hubbard squash, and delicata squash. I’m not a huge fan of delicata, so I just cut that out and went with the hubbard only. When I was at the market, they were out of sweet potatoes, but they did have some gorgeous garnet yams. Just use whichever – yams or sweet potatoes – that you can find.
I think this recipe will definitely make a reappearance at my table soon, just because it was so freaking delicious. I like winter meals that take the normal pantry ingredients and twist them in new tastes and textures. Most squash recipes tend towards roasting, with or without the peel. Then you can puree the flesh or turn it into soup, or stir it into risotto, etc etc etc. But I liked the way that the squash ended up juicy and tender in this recipe; I imagine this would be a great use for squash that has been in storage for a long winter, because you infuse it with bacon and butter and chicken stock. The resulting dish is bursting with flavors just layered on top of one another… you can taste the chicken stock, the brown sugar, the wine, the butter. It’s so rich and delicious, I can’t get over it.
What side dishes are you contemplating for your Thanksgiving table?
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Glazed Squash and Sweet Potatoes
Inspired by Martha Stewart Living, November 2007
Serves 8
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For the record… I didn’t eat the squash peel. It helps to keep the squash from falling apart while cooking, though. The bacon will be easier chopped if chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes before cutting. Reserve the seeds of the squash to toast later, if you’re so inclined. And if you’re going to double this recipe, either use an additional (large) saute pan, or cook in batches.
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Gather:
6 ounces smoked bacon, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
a pinch of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 large sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds total), sliced into 3/4 inch thick coins
1/2 Hubbard squash (about 2 pounds), de-seeded and sliced into 1 inch thick wedges
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
salt and pepper to taste
Prepare:
Cook the squash. Cook bacon over medium heat in a large saucepan. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the bacon is just crispy. Do not let bacon burn. Use a slotted spoon to remove bacon from pan and deposit on a paper-towel-lined plate; reserve for later. Drain all but 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings from the pan. Add butter to pan and melt over medium-low heat. Add sugar, cloves, and red pepper flakes to pan, and cook until sugar is somewhat dissolved, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Layer squash in pan, then layer potatoes on top of squash. Slowly pour chicken stock and wine over squash and potatoes. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, until squash is tender. Remove squash from pan. Layer potatoes in the bottom of pan and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are tender. (Make ahead: can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance; store squash and potatoes, covered with saran wrap, in the fridge until ready to use; reheat in a 350 degree oven until hot. Store bacon separately from squash and potatoes, in a small tupperware container or plastic bag; reheat the next day with vegetables. Remove glaze from pan and store in a jar until ready to finish cooking the next day.)
Reduce the glaze. (Reheat squash and sweet potatoes if necessary in a 350 degree oven.) Add glaze back to a large saute pan, and whisk vigorously to re-combine any separation that occurred overnight. Reduce over medium-low heat, about 7 minutes, until the glaze is thickened and syrupy. Add (reheated) vegetables and half of crispy bacon to the pan and toss to coat with glaze. Transfer to a serving dish, top with remaining bacon, and serve. (Make ahead: Can be kept warm in a warming drawer or warm oven for up to an hour; reserve second half of crispy bacon to sprinkle on right before serving.)
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Thanksgiving Menu 2010:
Autumn Salad with Apples and Spiced Pecans
Steak over Butternut Squash with Caramelized Onions
Glazed Squash and Sweet Potatoes
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Thanksgiving Background Music Recommendation of the Day – in our house, we like a constant stream of mellow background music to enjoy along with our holiday festivities. Here is a week of safe-for-childrens’-ears, no-curse-words-to-creep-out-Grandma, soft tunes to accompany your turkey and mashed potatoes. (And not one of my recommendations will be a washed-up-musician’s rendering of Christmas hits, I promise.)
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Fleet Foxes / White Winter Hymnal
This is about as close to holiday music as you can expect me to get. Look, it’s themed! It talks about winter! It’s easy to imagine snow drifts outside your window when you play this! Think of it as the updated, indie version of Mannheim Steamroller (but with more facial hair).
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I swear, November 1st could not come soon enough this year. I decided (waaaaaay back in early October) that I would post my Thanksgiving menu ideas the first week of November. I figured, that’s when people (who aren’t crazy overbearing foodbloggers, that is) would start thinking about what to serve at their Thanksgiving table.
But as it got to be the third week in October, by which I had already done run-throughs of half my dishes, complete with 7 am photoshoot for each, I was just ITCHING to share all of the recipes with you. Because, somehow, I figured you guys would get just as excited about holiday menu planning as I do… although I’m going to assume you’re way less nerdy about it than I am.
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I always try to serve a salad with a big meal, only because 1) it’s healthy and 2) there’s usually someone who wants salad at their meal, whether it’s because they’re on a diet or just because they like salad. It’s also a great meal enhancer because salads are usually pretty low-key, mostly just tossing together a few ingredients. Most times I just round out the meal with a bowl of mixed greens, a few chunks of goat cheese or shavings of parm, and maybe a handful of dried fruit. But this time I thought I would make a salad that really whispered “fall is here.”
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I love a good fall salad, and this is one of the tasty ones. Both radicchio and endive are cold-weather greens, so unless you’re in Hawaii, these should be easy to find at the grocery. The radicchio can be bitter depending on how long it’s in storage; icing it the day before will cut down on the bitterness. Taste your radicchio; if it’s fresh, you might not even need to ice it down at all.
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Autumn Salad with Apples and Spiced Pecans
Inspired by Bon Appetit, January 2007
Serves 6
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Make sure to pick up the “natural” seasoned rice vinegar, not the “regular style” seasoned rice vinegar (which is filled with mostly high-fructose corn syrup, among other grody preservatives.)
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Gather:
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 cup pecan halves
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
scant 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Braeburn or red-skinned apples, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pound radicchio (about 2 heads)
1 pound endive
Prepare:
Prepare the spiced pecans. Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add pecans and stir 1 minute. Add sugar, Worcestershire, and cayenne; stir until coated. Remove from heat and let cool. Store in a plastic container until ready for salad assembly. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.)
Prepare the salad dressing. Add vinegars, dijon mustard, and olive oil to an empty mason jar. Shake vigorously to combine. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.)
Prepare the radicchio. Fill a deep bowl with ice and cold water. Submerge the radicchio in the ice water, and weigh down with a plate if necessary. Let sit in ice water for an hour. Then remove and let drain on a kitchen towel for 30 minutes. Cut in half and peel leaves off radicchio, leaving each leaf as whole as possible. Add leaves to a Ziploc bag, insert a paper/kitchen towel in the plastic bag (in this manner), and store until you’re ready to assemble the salad. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance.)
Prepare apples and endive. Toss apples in lemon juice and store in plastic bag. Cut root end from endive leaves, and tear leaves apart. Store in plastic bag with a paper towel inserted into the bag. (Make ahead: Can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance.)
Assemble. Add radicchio leaves, endive leaves, and apple slices to the serving bowl. Drizzle with dressing and toss lightly to coat. Sprinkle pecans on top of salad and serve.
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Thanksgiving Menu 2010:
Autumn Salad with Apples and Spiced Pecans
Steak over Butternut Squash with Caramelized Onions
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Thanksgiving Background Music Recommendation of the Day – in our house, we like a constant stream of mellow background music to enjoy along with our holiday festivities. Here is a week of safe-for-childrens’-ears, no-curse-words-to-creep-out-Grandma, soft tunes to accompany your turkey and mashed potatoes. (And not one of my recommendations will be a washed-up-musician’s rendering of Christmas hits, I promise.)
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Neko Case / Middle Cyclone
My love for Neko knows no bounds… she is fierce, as Tyra would say. This is upbeat and soulful folk rock for you to sing along to while you toast pecans.
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Guys, I know you’re disappointed, because as you can see, there is no mention of turkey in the title of this post. I know, I know, it’s a crime against the American dream, how could I be so unpatriotic, blah blah blah. We just don’t DO turkey at my house.
Don’t get me wrong, my parents make turkey every year for Thanksgiving, and B’s parents do turkey at theirs. So it’s not as if we’ve never seen a overgrown winged creature on our Thanksgiving table. But when we moved to Denver (and consequently gave up going home for the holiday thanks to exponentially higher airplane tickets) we started our own Thanksgiving tradition. Namely, why on earth would we make an entire 12-pound turkey when there’s only 2 of us to feed? I mean, Brad can put away a surprising amount of food for a lanky white boy (I blame it on growing up fighting over food with 3 older brothers). But given the choice, I’d rather not spend my Thursday night in the hospital after Brad “accidentally” eats 14 pounds of poultry “because it’s just so tasty.”
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So in the interest of both our wallet and Brad’s gastro-intestinal health, we forgo the traditional $70-turkey-to-feed-12, and instead choose to spend these few years of YMC (Young Married Couple) Thanksgivings trying out fancy-pants new holiday dishes. Last year, we had salmon poached in red wine, and the year before that, it was cornish game hens. Back in 2006, our first year here in Denver, we had a totally ghetto Thanskgiving, but that’s another story for another post…
This year it’s steak. This is based on a on a dish that B and I had at a local Denver restaurant called 1515. The original dish was steak over butternut squash puree with a roasted cherry tomato confit. While it was undeniably delicious… it was also late spring here in Denver when we had this dish. When fresh cherry tomatoes are definitely NOT in season. I racked my brain trying to come up with a locally-available substitute if I were to serve this for the Thanksgiving meal. I wanted something that would still have the sweetness to play off the gamey steak, and that would have a soft, but still chewy texture, but it had to be an ingredient available in late fall. I think I found the perfect (locally-grown) complement in caramelized onions.
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This is the most amazing dish. The butternut squash puree is delicious on it’s own (perhaps a side dish if you’re making turkey for the big day?) The steak is tender, chewy, and the perfect savory complement to the butternut squash puree. The caramelized onions are sweet but not overly so, and they burst with flavor when you bite into them, just like the tomato confit did in the original dish. If you’re hosting a YMC Thanksgiving this year, consider this for your entree… or consider this for a secondary entree if you’re cooking for a huge crowd on the Big Day.
And eventually, when we make it home again for Turkey Day, we will go back to turkey… but for now, we enjoy our non-turkey holiday dishes!
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Steak over Butternut Squash Puree with Caramelized Onions
Inspired by 1515 Restaurant
Serves 6
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This recipe is easily adaptable to more or less servings – I would budget about 1/2 to 3/4 pound of beef per person (depending on if this is the main dish or a second dish to the turkey) and 1/2 an onion per person. Make the full serving of butternut squash puree because you’ll pretty much want to bathe in it, it’s so delicious.
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Gather:
1 large butternut squash, halved and seeded
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
10 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 sweet yellow onions, sliced into strips
4 pounds top sirloin steak
salt and pepper
baking sheet, cooling rack, cast iron (or oven-safe) frying pan
Prepare:
Prepare the squash. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Place the two halves of squash on the baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with brown sugar, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, and crumble the butter over the squash halves. Bake at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the flesh soft, i.e. easily pierced with a knife. Scrape the inside of the squash into the bowl of a food processor/blender, and pulse until the squash is a smooth consistency. (Make ahead: can be prepared up to 2 days in advance; store in the fridge until ready to use, and reheat slowly over medium heat until hot.)
Prepare the caramelized onions. Add 4 of the remaining 8 tablespoons olive oil and the onions to a large saute pan. Toss the onions to coat with oil. Cook the onions over medium-low heat for about 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or more frequently, to prevent the onions from burning to the bottom of the pan. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar if after an hour of cooking, the onions still retain some of their bite. Remove onions from heat when they are dark brown and sweet, approximately 60-90 minutes. (Make ahead: can be prepared up to 2 days in advance; store in the fridge until ready to use, and reheat slowly over medium heat until hot.)
Prepare steak and assemble. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and let the oven sit at 325 for at least 20 minutes before starting the beef (to let the oven get good and hot). Season both sides of the steak with salt and pepper. Place a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet, and place the seasoned steak on top of the cooking rack. Bake the steak for 10 minutes, or until the steak starts to feel rare, using the finger test.
Meanwhile, while the steak is baking, add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the frying pan, and heat over medium-high heat. As soon as the steak is done in the oven, use tongs to transfer the steak to the hot frying pan. Cook about 2 minute on one side of the steak, then flip and cook another 1 minute on the reverse side. Refrain from moving the steak in the pan; you want to get a good sear on the steak. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes, before slicing into 1/4 inch strips against the grain.
Spread the butternut squash puree down the middle of a serving dish, and place slices of beef over the top. Top with a line of hot caramelized onions down the middle of the steak. Serve.
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Thanksgiving Background Music Recommendation of the Day – in our house, we like a constant stream of mellow background music to enjoy along with our holiday festivities. Here is a week of safe-for-childrens’-ears, no-curse-words-to-creep-out-Grandma, soft tunes to accompany your turkey and mashed potatoes. (And not one of my recommendations will be a washed-up-musician’s rendering of Christmas hits, I promise.)
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James Vincent Mcmorrow / Early in the Morning
I’ve mentioned JVM before on the blog, but I really can’t get enough of his folk-ish pop rock. It won’t upset Grandma, I promise… she might even have a crush on him by the end of the night.
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