Thanksgiving

Recipes 9, 10, 11 – Vegetarian Entrées and Side Dishes – Apple Yam Holiday Casserole, Raspberry Snap Peas, and Thanksgiving Stuffing

Three recipes from the book made it onto the Thanksgiving menu. In addition to the usual suspects of turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, I made Apple Yam Holiday Casserole, Raspberry Snap Peas, and Thanksgiving Stuffing. All in all, this thanksgiving feast was fruitier than most years.

Apple Yam Holiday Casserole

I’ve never had yams or sweet potatoes partnered with apples in a lasagna-like layered casserole. I’ve also never used mini-marshmallows in any of my holiday cooking, so that was a first for me as well. It was hard to keep those little suckers from burning when I put it under the boiler for a light melting. The combination of yams and apples with an appropriate amount of brown sugar was pleasing.

Raspberry Snap Peas

These were not my favorite. The raspberry vinegar – while fruity – is just too tart and didn’t balance well with anything else on the plate (or in the glass for that matter).

Thanksgiving Stuffing

Finally, the Thanksgiving Stuffing, like all stuffing (and carbs generally), was the star of the plate (after the turkey, of course!). It also had fruity flair. In the mix are granny smith apples, dried apricots, and currants. All the fruit was a nice change to the usual menu and gave a primal, hunter gatherer edge, to the traditional fair.

Recipe 8 – Desserts – Sour Cream Cranberry Pie

Nuts or no nuts? That is the question. The sour cream cranberry pie recipe calls for one cup chopped walnuts. Being the good student of the cookbook project, I dutifully added them, even though in general, I’m not a big nuts-in-things kind of person. I found the crunch of the walnuts to be a distraction in the otherwise light and slightly sweet tart pie. My counterpart, however, respectfully disagreed and couldn’t imagine the pie without the walnuts. So, it comes down to whether one feels like a nut. Or not.

The rest of the recipe is as easy as pie. It calls for a ready-made crust, so it’s basically the time it takes to beat up the eggs and add the other ingredients. Because I couldn’t find fresh cranberries at the time, I made this recipe with canned cranberries. [This dates how far behind I am in blog entries – now, of course, cranberries are widely available due to the holidays.] I have to say that it still turned out tasty. An important modification to accommodate the substitution is to reduce the amount of honey to compensate for the sugar in the can. It would likely be better with fresh cranberries, but the substitution works in a pinch!

Little fruit balloons.

Also known as plumcots, pluots are a cross between a plum and an apricot. J and I purchased a pound or so from Tiny's Organics, because we wanted to see what all the hype was about. They are clearly the starfruit of 2009. I have to admit that they deserve the hype. More plum than apricot, these are juicy, sweet, and delicious. They reminded me of concord grapes in a way, just how the skin is slightly tough and then the fleshy part bursts out with juice and sweetness. I would advise eating pluots over the sink or with a fistfull of paper towels nearby. They may look small and harmless, but they are little fruit balloons, waiting to pop.

Recipe 7 – Vegetarian Entrée and Side Dish - Cheese-Macaroni Asparagus Bake

The special ingredient in this vegetarian entrée or side dish is cheese! The recipe calls for 2.5 cups Swedish fontina or Red Leicester cheese.

J and I ventured into Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, in our opinion the mecca for cheese in Pike Place Market, and asked if they make either a fontina or Red Leicester. They do not but recommended a substitute: Beecher’s Flagship cheddar. We accepted the substitute and used it to make this fancy mac & cheese, which is basically what this casserole dish is all about. Here are some views inside the shop:

You can see that Beecher's also makes their own fancy Mac & Cheese using the Flagship and Just Jack cheese.

Honestly, there isn’t too much to say about this one. If you like mac & cheese and don’t mind grating up a mound of speciality cheese and then watching it melt, this recipe is for you.

Recipe 6 - Seafood Entrees - Halibut Cheeks en Papillote

This is a recipe that I would have never tackled had it not been for this project. First of all, what the heck does en papillote mean? And second of all, are halibut cheeks really fish cheeks?

To answer the first, en papillote means in French “in parchment.” Instead of parchment paper, other materials such as aluminum foil or cooking plastic bags may also be used. Foil or plastic do not have the fanfare that the parchment paper does, but can be easier, quicker, and just as effective. Because I’ve been trying to stick to the directions as closely as possible and it didn’t seem right to cheat on my very first encounter with en papillote, I purchased the parchment paper and tried my best to seal the pouches. After I had already made my pouches, I then did some online research to see just how badly I had implemented this French cooking technique. My pouches looked more like parchment paper burritos rather than the elegant, delicately folded pouches that I found online. If you are a newbie to this technique and ever decide to give it a try, I’d recommend watching this instructional video where the chef shows how he folds the pouch and also the cheat about using egg white to act as a glue or seal at the edges.

In my attempt, I cut the paper properly – a big heart shape. It was the folding the tripped me up. When I folded the paper over and started to fold the edges, it wasn’t forming a tight seal. From watching the video, I figured out that the folds at the edge need to be smaller and more frequent and then the egg white provides some assurance that the packet will seal once it gets heated up. I started off well with the heart shaped parchment paper:

But didn't do so well with the sealing. I ended up with parchment burritos instead of pouches:

Now as to the contents of the pouch, I needed to find halibut cheeks. Halibut cheeks are just that – the cheeks of a halibut. I guess they have a fleshy face that allows a cut of an elliptical sized piece of fish that is about 1.5 inches in diameter. Here is a diagram showing that halibut cheeks are indeed fish cheeks:

Image Credit

And what they look like at the point of sale:

Image Credit

J and I picked up 1.5 pounds from Jack’s Fish Spot. They are spendy but not a bank breaking splurge at $12.00 per pound.

As an afternote, the house still smells fishy about five days after making this recipe. Even though the cheeks were incredibly fresh, there is something about baking this dish that infuses the home with fishy smells. I thought it was a tasty dish and less time consuming to prepare than I initially thought, but I would have to think twice about preparing it a second time, mostly due to its lasting presence!

The best sandwich ever.

Recipe 5 - Vegetarian Entrée and Side Dish – Panini Brutti

This recipe is the contribution of The Pink Door, which is a Seattle favorite, primarily because of its secret, unmarked location. It’s not that secret, though. There is a pink door almost directly across from the entry to Kell’s in Post Alley and behind the pink door in the alley is, well, The Pink Door, a lovely Italian restaurant with a bar and patio area. The bar area has a lot of charisma and frequently on the weekends live music. The patio area is another popular spot, almost always jammed in the summertime. I think in my almost decade of living in Seattle, I’ve only made it to the patio once or twice.

The matter at hand, though, is the panini brutti and how J and I faired preparing the ugly sandwich, the translation of its name. I have to say that so far this is my favorite recipe, which is an oddity because it’s just a sandwich. It has everything to do with the ingredients:

Fresh Mozzarella from DeLaurenti Specialty Food & Wine
The cheese counter was hopping on the Saturday we decided to stop in. Once we finally had our chance in the spotlight, we lucked out and got the last of their in-store made fresh mozzarella cheese. What makes it special is that it has never been refrigerated, which makes it as fresh as fresh can be. We were directed to not refrigerate it and use it within 24 hours, if possible. The reason being – once the fresh mozzarella is refrigerated, the texture changes and not for the better. They only had a half pound of their in-store made mozzarella so we made up the rest that we needed with the Wisconsin dairy version. We had a little taste test on our hand, and the difference in texture could definitely be tasted in a side-by-side comparison. What a difference refrigeration makes! While the choice may be obvious, I will confirm that if you have the choice between freshly made, never refrigerated mozzarella and something else, go with the former. It will knock your socks off.

Crusty Country Style Bread from Three Girls Bakery
It’s a sandwich so you’re going to need some high quality bread and this can be easily found at Three Girls Bakery. I picked up a loaf of the country white and asked them to slice it. The baker gave me the lesson on how to store the bread – get it out of the plastic bag and into paper as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to comply with his request. I frequently experience a paper bag shortage since I use almost entire reusable bags at the grocery store these days. And when I forget – which also happens – the only choice is usually plastic. I didn’t store it in paper but rather plastic in the refrigerator. I have to say that it fared okay. It never got too hard and was the perfect choice for the panini brutti.

In addition to the white bread and fresh mozzarella, there is garlic, zucchini, eggplant, and red bell pepper along with herbs and seasonings on a panini brutti. All the veggies are grilled and then the sandwich assembled. In my mind, it seemed like a lot of work for a sandwich, but it was among the best sandwiches I’ve had so well worth it.

Recipe 4 - Entrees - Pork Chops with Cabbage Potatoes

M made this one but I ate it so I feel that I can at least comment on how it tasted. It was very good! It cooked up like a casserole with the chops nestled down in the pan underneath the cabbage leaves and potatoes. This method kept the chops moist even though we picked up thinly cut pork. These are the kind of chops I have a hard time doing on the grill since they dry up so easily.

The cabbage and potatoes were very mild and made a nice side to the meat. Most of the flavors in this dish come right from the main ingredients as onion, pepper, and caraway seeds are the only spices. M went off the script a little and made a risotto and lentils side not found in the Market Coookbook. I really, really liked this side and hope that it makes its way into future meals.