slkinsey
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On Saturday we had a brunch. This is something we started doing several years ago when we found ourselves in the situation where we weren't able to invite everyone to Thanksgiving we would like to have invited. This is a great way to spend time with friends who weren't able to come to Thanksgiving dinner, and also to get rid of leftovers. We used to do the brunch on Friday, but after we figured out that was completely insane, we started having it on Saturday. It's an open house buffet brunch, and people dropped by from 11:00 to around 4:30. Here's what we had...
The desserts were out, of course:
We made three different kinds of potato hash:
A "dry hash" with potato, turkey and onion
On the left: a hash with potato, turkey, onion, smoked paprika, thyme, parsley, chicken stock and sour cream.
On the right: a hash with potato, turkey, onion, chicken stock and leftover spinach purée
Made some cheese grits with cheddar and gruyere:
Had to have plenty of preserved pork, of course. This is breakfast sausage and double smoked Schaller und Weber bacon.
Here are some of the filled crêpes. I love crêpes filled with just about anything (in fact, I have been filling leftover crêpes with Nutella) but these are filled with a sort-of "turkey a la king." To make the filling I softened some onion in butter, added flour, then added some milk to make a white sauce. Into this went the leftover shredded dark meat (the white meat went into the hash), green peas, parsley and some other seasonings.
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So, to continue...
We woke up relatively late on Friday and continued with the cleanup. Then the parents came over and we went out to Grand Sichuan International Midtown for dinner. Had spicy beef tendon, spicy dan dan noodles, green parrot with red mouth, freshly killed kung pao chicken, stir fried pea shoots, au-zhou beef, shredded potato with vinegar and salt & pepper shrimp. We had Sonny, our favorite waiter, and everything couldn't have been better. The kitchen was really on its game. It was a good idea for the day after Thanksgiving because nothing could have been more different than what we had eaten the night before.
When we got home, I had two things I had to take care of before we went to sleep. First was making a batch of ferret food. The ferrets eat, among other things, raw whole chicken (including bones) that has been ground up.
Is that your partner in the wood chipper there?
Looks a bit like ground veal. The pink color comes from the bones.
(From left) Asher, Zebulun and Issachar chow down
I also wanted to make a stack of crêpes to use for the brunch we had planned for Saturday. So I banged out around 50 crêpes before going to bed.
Start with a good French steel crêpe pan. I find that the nonstick ones don't give the color I like.
In goes a ladle of bergerka's crêpe batter.
Flip it over after a few seconds
Before you know it, you have a big stack of crêpes.
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Here's dinner. Later on, when I have a chance, I'll post about the logistics of dinnertime execution.
Here is a shot of the centerpiece ewindels did for the table. I absolutely could not have pulled this dinner off without the assistance of Ed and Kathleen. They poured the wine, cleared dishes and took plated courses out to the table as I finished them. Having reliable and expert assistance like this is really vital.
The first course was:
Marinated Crudités
Cranberry Champagne Cocktail
Here is a shot of the cocktail. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the vegetables. The cocktail I would rate maybe a 50% success. It really didn't work quite right in this style of champagne glass, and the raspberry puree didn't mix quite as much as I would have liked. Maybe it should have been thinner?
Next course was:
Kumamoto Oyster On The Half-Shell With Cucumber Granita
Mantanía Moschofilero, Tselepos, 2003
This worked very well. It's a nice, light ad festive way to start the meal at the table. Everyone thought the cucumber cups were cool, and it looked nice. This picture doesn't really capture, unfortunately, how neat it looked on the slate. On the other hand, I was able to open all the oysters without stabbing myself.
Next was:
Cauliflower Soup With Puréed Spinach and Curry Oil
Montlouis Sur Loire "Dionys," Domaine Alex-Mathur, 2002
This was a huge hit. No one stirred up their soup, the curry oil worked its magic, and the spinach purée was a very cool transition. A few people were even surprised to find spinach a the bottom of the bowl. The wine match was brilliant, as several people remarked. Here's a few looks:
Soup bowls filled with spinach purée waiting to be topped with cauliflower soup
Finished portion at the table
Getting to the bottom of the bowl
Next was:
Tuna Carpaccio With Mixed Herb Salad
Rheingau Riesling Trocken, Weingut Robert Weil, 2003
As I said upthread, I wish I could have used prettier tuna. Nevertheless, the tuna was delicious. The salad was dressed with integrated lemon/olive oil and a touch of vermouth vinegar. There were a few (desalinated) salt-preserved capers strewn about. The salad was tarragon, basil, oregano, mint and parsley. It worked very well, and the riesling was just the thing to go with it. Slightly moving in a fuller direction, but with killer acidity to refresh.
Next was:
"Brussels Sprouts Four Ways"
crème brûlée - gratin - sautéed with guanciale - shredded "slaw"
Vin de Table Gamay "Le P'tit Tannique Coule Bien," Domaine Thierry Puzelat, 2003
The lighter red wine worked wonders against the richness of the crème brûlée, the savoriness of the gruyere in the gratin and the porky fattiness of the guanciale. Around the plate is a marjoram vinaigrette. This is the course that really had me smiling. It was a bit of a risk to design a whole course around Brussels sprouts, and I wasn't sure how it would work. Well, it worked extremely well. Each "way" showed a completely different side of the Brussels sprout. The crème brûlée in particular was a revelation. Most everyone was a little bit suspicious at the prospect of a Brussels sprout crème brûlée, but everyone smiled, laughed and loved it once they tried it. The lightly vinegared "slaw" was a nice crunchy contrast to the other preparations, while the gratin played on the whole "cheese sauce" thing on top of the slightly funky flavor of fully cooked Brussels sprouts. The sautéed Brussels sprouts with guanciale brought out the nutty quality of browned brussels sprouts, and of course guanciale is a killer match with just about anything.
Here is a shot of the last few bites of crème brûlée:
After that it was time to rest the palate with a refresher course:
Lemon-Thyme Sorbet
Moscato d'Asti "Bricco Quaglia," Azienda Agricola La Spinetta di Giorgio Rivetti, Piemonte, 2003
This is fairly straight forward. Passing the thyme through a fine sieve this year really solved the problems I have had in the past with the thyme being slightly gritty in this dish. I drizzled a tiny bit of Farigoule thyme liqueur over every portion as well. The Rivetti moscato is a very good one, slightly frizzante. A tiny glass went well with the sorbet. The gold gelato spoons my mother's family bought in Italy some 50 years ago when they were living there.
Finally came the turkey:
"Turkey Two Ways"
Cornbread Dressing, Foie Gras, Black Truffle Carpaccio
Vino De La Tierra El Terrerazo "Mestizaje," Bodega Mustiguillo, 2003
Syrah, H. Coturri & Sons, Crane Vinyards, Sonoma Valley, 2001
This was by far the best this dish has ever been for me. The sauce was so intensely flavored, it was like a turkey demi-glace. The wines are fairly big wines, and matched well with the big flavors here. I loved the Coturri Syrah, although perhaps not quite as much as their Albarello. Here's a few pictures putting together a plate.
First goes a base of sautéed portobello mushrooms
Then in goes some of the shredded dark meat.
On top of that goes a few slices of white meat, the foie gras and black truffle. Then the ring mold is taken away, the stuffing role placed up at the top and sauce poured around.
A little parsley dusting and here is the finished dish
Next it was time for dessert!
Bourbon Bread Pudding
Cranberry Cheese Cake
Pecan Tart
Sugarless Apple Pie
Coffee
Here are some pictures:
The bourbon bread pudding. Really did well with the bourbon caramel this time. Nice and dark
ewindels' cheesecake. Always a big hit
The pecan tart. Steen's cane syrup made all the difference
bergerka's sugarless apple pie. Don't miss the sugar one bit. Very nice.
Of course, if one is doing imitation haute cuisine, there has to be a second course of dessert. No lollipops, but instead we had ewindels' chocolate truffles and palmiers.
I opened up the liquor cabinet as well. My father brought a very nice bottle of Poire William, and Eric_Malson brought a bottle of Glenmorangie "Port Wood Finish" and a few bottles of Orujo (Spanish grappa, but with a funky, musty quality).
All in all a wonderful evening and a big success. I'm exhausted, but couldn't be more pleased. Cocktails started at 6:00, we sat down to the oyster course at 8:00, and we started dessert at midnight. Guests left around 1:30, I collapsed at 2:30 and bergerka was doing kitchen cleanup triage until 4:00.
More later...
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A few more prep pictures from yesterday, then I'll get to the main event...
Here I am browning off the turkey dark meat for braising.
Vegetables for the braise into the same pan.
Then in goes the marinading liquid and the reduced turkey stock for a braise of several hours. Think there's a little gelatin in this stock?
Here is the spinach purée for the soup. Includes cream and nutmeg. Those crispy shallots went in there too.
Sautéed Brussels sprouts. These went cut side down into a massively heated copper frypan. Then I tossed in a few tablespoons of butter, and got this browning within around 40 seconds. The Brussels sprouts were still crunchy, so when I reheated them for service in guanciale fat they still had some nice bite. On the right is rendered julienned guanciale. That was also reheated for service to crisp it up.
This is the shredded Brussels sprouts for the "slaw." I did decide to blanch them for around 5 seconds and shock in ice water.
Here is some of the tuna prior to being portioned and pounded out. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get really super-primo tuna with a darker color, but strangely everyone seemed to be out of it.
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Tonight before the old folks showed up, I finished the dressing. Here I sweated the vegetables in turkey fat. Below are the three stages: raw, sweating covered with parchment, cooked.
That went into the oven with the cornbread, some cubed stale white "peasant" bread, sage, parsley, thyme, eggs and some stock. Tomorrow I'll use this dressing to fill the cabbage rolls.
I also made the curry oil and put that into a squeeze bottle.
Before dinner we had a "Blinker Cocktail" from Dr. Cocktail's book. It's rye whiskey, grapefruit juice and a touch of raspberry syrup. Very good. Dinner was a simple affair of littleneck clams with yard-long spaghetti, onion, chili and parsley.
I don't have any pictures of the completed dish, but when the clams are this good you know I had to open a few and eat them raw.
Off to bed now. More tomorrow.
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Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts. I have a moment to rest before the 'rents show up, so I thought I'd answer a few stray posts.
Today I got my knives sharpened in preparation for the cooking to come. I went to Henry Westpfal.How much do they charge for their service and do you have to leave them or acn you just wait?
There's a thread on knife sharpening in Manhattan here, complete with prices, etc. In general Westpfal is considered one of the very few really top-rate places in the City. I had to leave my knives there for around 2 days.
1) shrimp ceviche with pomegranate and fennel. Total make ahead and the pomegranate seeds looks like rubies among the ceviche. We served this in martini glasses. Looked and tasted really nice.2) I have wedding china and of course that comes with the tea cups that no one ever uses. I served my soup in the tea cups, perfect size for tasting menu. I had gruyere croutons in the soup and cut the bread down to fit.
These are both really good ideas. I may try the ceviche sometime soon, and may end up deploying a tea cup or two tomorrow.
Mooooooooooooom... you're embarrassing me in front of my friends.
Oh this is nothing. Wait 'til she starts posting the diaper down around the ankles baby pictures!
My avatar is me circa 1970-something.
Any chance of a picture of this kitchen Sam? If it is anywhere as amazing as your knives I may just break down and cry like a 5 year old who's brother got a better trike than his.
No worries there! I'll take some pictures, but rest assured that, although it is quite nice compared to Manhattan rental apartment kitchens, it is a thoroughly unexceptional kitchen by the standards of those who own their own homes. I'll post some pictures when I have a chance.
Have the ferrets been bathed yet?
Not yes, unfortunately. Not that they really need a bath, but they are extra cute when they get all fluffed up after a bath.
WHAT'S COOKING NOW, SAM? GET ON IT!
Yard-long spahgetti (Setaro) with littleneck clams for dinner.
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Are you cooking the thigh meat today, or waiting until tomorrow? I'm in the midst of braising and enjoying the delicious smell wafting through the house.
I'm doing the braising first thing tomorrow. So glad, not to mention flattered, to hear that you enjoy the recipe so much. We love it.
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Continuing with the cauliflower soup, once the cauliflower is tender it goes into a foodmill. This step can be skipped, but it does hold back a lot of the fiberous junk that will make the end product not quite as silky.
After that, it's into the blender. I use approximately 2:1 cauliflower puree and the milk I cooked it in.
Here is the finished product. I'll reheat this tomorrow and hit it with a bit of cream right before service.
It's incredible how sweet cauliflower can be -- something that is often obscured when it is overcooked. Now for a little rest before tackling the next task.
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Continuing on with things for today, I made the lemon-thyme sorbet. This is easy and really good. Simmer a bunch of fresh thyme in a little water until tender. Drain and press thyme through a fine mesh sieve. Mix with two pints Fairway's (excellent) lemon sorbet. Here is the pureed thyme and sorbet prior to mixing:
Here it is after spending 60 seconds on high speed in my KitchenAid, and then packed back into the containers:
From yesterday, here is the cucumber granita, and here is one filled cucumber cup. I'll want to be careful about handling them tomorrow so they don't have fingerprints in the frost like this one does:
Bought lots of herbs today at the Greenmarket. Here is parsley, oregano, tarragon, sage, chive, thyme, basil and mint.
Right now I am starting to simmer the cauliflower in milk for the soup:
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Sam,
Where did you get orange bitters? I see that I can order online, but then obvioulsy I won't have them for tomorrow. I happened to be in Fairway uptown yesterday but they didn't have any.....
Liz, I'm afraid I won't be of much help to you. I get my orange bitters at Spec's Warehouse in Houston. The cranberry champagne cocktail would probably be just as good with Angostura bitters, though.
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Yesterday was a busy day. I ran to Zabar's during my lunch hour to pick up two loaves of brioche for the bread pudding. Later in the day, I dropped in on JosephB to pick up some books and borrow his bus bins. These are a huge advantage when doing a multiple course dinner party, because you can stack up plates, etc. in the bins as you are finished with them. This way you don't end up crowding the sink. Very important when you don't have a dishwasher.
I also picked up the turkey at Citarella. It was just over sixteen pounds.
I went at the turkey with that sharp knife, and separated it into dark meat (left) breasts (center) and bones/skin/etc. for the stock. Not nearly as much meat as you think it's going to be, is it?
After that, the dark meat went into double trash bags with red wine, port and vegetables to marinate. The breast meat went into brine in a double ziplock bag.
The bones and scraps went into the stock pot overnight. I saved a nice bit of turkey fat I can use to sauté vegetables for the dressing, etc.
This morning, I strained off the turkey stock. What you see in this picture is my Falk Culinair curved sauteuse evasée on the bottom, then a pasta strainer stock pot insert to provide some height, then a colander sitting in the pasta strainer lined with the back panel from an old linen shirt.
Right now, I am reducing down the turkey stock.
More shopping and cooking details to come later in the day.
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Mooooooooooooom... you're embarrassing me in front of my friends.
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Kurt, the "d'Auge" part means "from Auge." It's part of the regulation for calvados d'appellation contrôlée. A Calvados so named must be distilled form apples grown in the orchards of the Pays d'Auge.
While you guys are on the subject could you diagram drink proportions for a sidecar "liker" but novice drinksmith who wants to become a sidecar "lover"?Classic sidecar:
1.5 oz : cognac or cognac-like brandy
1.0 oz : Cointreau
0.5 oz : fresh lemon juice
lemon twist for garnish
Take a lemon wedge, notch a slice into the middle and use it to moisten the rim of a chilled cocktail glass. Frost the moistened outer rim of the glass with superfine sugar.
Shake ingredients together with cracked ice and strain into prepared cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.
Some recipes might call for only a half-ounce of Cointreau, and I've even seen one that called for equal parts of all three ingredients. I think the one I posted above is a good one to start with. Here is Julie Reiner's sidecar recipe. It calls for 3/4 ounce lemon juice and GranGala instead of Cointreau.
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Bitters may be one of those things that is exempt from most liquor distribution laws. This is because, although it does contain alcohol, it must (by law, I think) be so bitter that it is not potable on its own. AFAIK, underage kids can buy Angostura bitters in a grocery store because it is not considered an "alcoholic beverage."
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OK ... after that photo, I have to steal your cranberry bellini idea. About how much simple syrup?
One thing this Diary will reveal is that I almost never measure anything. I just added 1:1 simple syrup until I thought it was thin enough and until it toned down the acidity to "somewhat less than mouth-puckeringly tart." The "bellini" will really be more like a "cranberry champagne cocktail" since I will be using a squirt of the cranberry puree, then dropping in a sugar cube soaked with orange bitters, then topping it off with the cold cava.
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Steven, unfortunately there is no substitute for Peychaud's. That said, I bet the drink would work with Angostura. It won't taste exactly the same, but will probably still be very good.
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Sounds very interesting, Mary. Good idea to keep in mind for next year. Where does one normally find these, and is there anything one should look out for?
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I think Lillet Rouge is great just on the rocks with a twist.
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It would be interesting to break down this list by price. I note that one of your favorites at #5, Luksusowa, costs around half as much as all the others.
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But we digress.
Indeed, yew halve a pointe they're. Lettuce knot continue.
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This morning I had my usual wqeekday breakfast (when I have anything at all): A double cappuccino from the Rancilio.
Here is the machine in action:
And here it the finished product:
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(1) What exactly does QA stand for?
(2) Are you always this organized?!
[awe emoticon, if there were one](1) QA is short for "Quality Assurance." Used as a verb it means, "go through everything and make sure it works the way it's supposed to work."
(2) No way, man! It's just that this particular dinner party demands this kind of organization. Otherwise, you're getting up at 5 AM on Thursday and trying to make everything in one day. My usual dinner parties are more on the Italian model: go to the market, see what looks good, to a starter, a starch course and a meat or fish course with some vegetables.
Sam, can't you get the brioche at Silver Moon? It's a lot closer to you.I love the Silver Moon, but you can't get an enormous brioche there the size of two loaves of Wonder Bread like they have at Zabar's. I could probably get them to make me something like that specially, but it would cost an arm and a leg.
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That looks beautiful, Sam! But couldn't the onion be used for something, rather than just being tossed?
It's given all its flavor to the sauce and it's quite mushy by this time, so I'm not sure what it could be used for why I'd want to use it (to make an ecological point?). Money wise, we're talking about a 15 cent onion.
It is a fairly standard technique in Italian cookery to use garlic or onion or celery as a flavoring agent for the sauce, removing the garlic or onion or celery once the sauce is finished and the flavoring agent has contributed its flavor.
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Back to Thanksgiving planning. Today I was met with the first substantial setback in the schedule. Went to Zabar's to buy a brioche loaf for the bread pudding, and they were sold out. I'll have to run over there tomorrow at lunch to make sure they don't sell out again. If they're sold out at lunch tomorrow, I'll either have to go at the crack of dawn on Wednesday, or use regular bread.
Anyway, tonight I made the pecan tart. The crust is baked blind, and the filling is Steen's cane syrup, dark muscovado sugar, eggs, bourbon and arrowroot. Oh, and pecans, of course. Extra pecans glazed with Steen's and butter go on top.
After the pecan tart, I made the cranberry puree for the cranberry bellini. Threw a bag of cranberries into a pot of boiling water. Waited until they all cracked (making cool popping sounds, by the way). Then ran them through the foodmill on the fine disk and pressed it all through a fine sieve. In the end, I had a tart catsup-looking puree that I thinned with simple syrup and funneled into a squeeze bottle.
I also took a look at the cucumber cup I put in the freezer last night to see how it would work for the oyster course. Looks good, and I'm satisfied. No weeping after 30 minutes.
Alas, there was no time to bathe the ferrets. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday.
Cooking Thanksgiving in France
in France: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Sounds very fun, Lucy, and delicious! So glad you liked the pecan tart recipe. Not surprised to find that there are some inconsistencies, though, as I don't really use recipes for anything -- any time I write one down it's more or less the result of trying to remember what I eyeballed the last time.
Everything looks great. It's clear that everyone had a great time and a wonderful meal. The soup sounds great. I may copy something like that next year.