Asymmetrical Information

At last, a topic I can be topical about without trying hard! Anyone try roasted garlic as an alternative to butter on rolls or bread? (Obviously I'm not talking about the cranberry bread.) It's good for yer heart. And it's scrumptious. And if everybody has some, no one will offend.

The only proper cranberry sauce is can-shaped.

-WGS

Garlic, properly roasted, becomes softer and sweeter than butter.

I am of the opinion that there isn't enough garlic in Jane's GMP recipe, but I'm a bit of a garlic fiend. I'd also recommend smashing and peeling the garlic (in that order -- it's surprisingly easy to peel a clove after you've flattened it), then steeping in the cream until it's all soft and garlic infused (yes, cream. It's Thanksgiving. Live a little!).

Mmm. Think it's time for lunch.

If you're more in the mood for a fresh cranberry relish, try this incredibly easy (but delicious) recipe.

Wash one 12-oz bag of fresh cranberries. Discard any stems or mushy berries & put them in a full size food processor with the chopping blade installed. Chop them up for a few seconds.

Now take out the chopping blade & install the grater. (Leave the cranberries in.) Cut one navel orange into quarters and grate them (peel and all) in with the chopped cranberries.

Pour everything into a large bowl, add ~ 3/4 - 1 cup sugar and mix. It should taste a bit too sweet at first. Let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours, and the tartness of the cranberries will come out more. If too tart by then, add more sugar to taste.

I much prefer this over jellied or cooked sauces. It also tastes fabulous when you put it on your turkey sandwiches later! (I learned the recipe from my mom when I was a kid. But my wife gets credit for thinking to put it on sandwiches. Unbelievably good.)

more sugar.......

I too am a fan of the above mentioned orange cranberry relish. Here's the recipe I like to use:

1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
2 small navel oranges
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (8 oz; thawed if frozen)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons minced drained stem ginger in syrup (not pickled) or crystallized ginger

Bring sugar and water to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer syrup, without stirring, washing down any sugar crystals on side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water, 5 minutes.

While syrup simmers, cut oranges, including peel and pith, into 1-inch pieces, discarding any seeds, and combine with cranberries, cinnamon, and cloves in a food processor.

Add sugar syrup and pulse until fruit is finely chopped. Transfer relish to a bowl and stir in ginger. Chill, covered, 1 day for flavors to develop.

I've also forgone the pumpkin pie the last two years in favor of a pumpkin cheesecake, and a sweet potato cheeesecake.

-kyle

No! Don't peel the potatoes. The skins are what make mashed potatoes good.

And if you want asingle serving of that squash recipe this winer, try cutting an acorn (or any little green football shaped squash) in half. Remove the seeds. Then bake, face up at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes (on a cookie sheet) (that's just a flat pan) with a nice tablespoon of bitter and two tablespoons of maple syrup in the hole where the seeds were.

Bingo. No work to speak of and a single serving desert to delight you and a date (or just you if your're hungry--let your sweetie suffer with mere ice cream).

{slobber, slobber} Brian, when you speak of "bitter," do you mean beer, or angostura? Or butter, as I suddenly realize you probably meant? But I may try it with beer - that sounds intriguing! Should carmelize up nicely. A nice round porter, I think...

Three more items:

1. If you're scared of garlic, and have access to elephant garlic, try roasting it instead. It starts out mellower than "regular" garlic so it's even milder when roasted. Also for neophytes: to get roasted garlic out of cloves, just squeeze the clove; no need to dissect it. If your garlic is all-the-way roasted, it'll squish out like a spread. You can squish the whole head at once if you're using it in a recipe. If you're using it as a bread-spread, you can give each person his/her own head on a plate. (Sounds ominous.)

2. Try roasting your turkey breast-side down. Juices (and fat) from the dark meat infuse the breast meat, keeping it moist and giving it more flavor. Just flip the bird, so to speak, for the last 45 minutes of cooking time or so, to brown the breast. Note that flipping the bird is a 4- or more-handed procedure. My husband came across this technique in Quebec, many a year ago.

3. For the love of Pete, anyone who's never made mashed potatoes before, don't use a blender, food processor, or anything with a blade! Blades cut open the potato's cell walls, releasing gluey goo and turning your mashed potatoes into library paste. A potato masher is the way to go, as Jane said. If you happen to be Norwegian and a lefse-maker, use your potato ricer (lefse and mashed potatoes are the only dishes I've come across that seem to benefit from a ricer). Otherwise, a mixer with a paddle - I'd even avoid a whisk, just in case - will work, too.

And if you like your garlic flavor a little stronger, just add a couple of cloves to the potatoes when you boil them.

While taking the flat of a blade to a garlic clove and mushing it to break the skin off workd well if you are going to mince or otherwise cut the garlic, a trick for getting whole cloves easily peeled is to pop them in the microwave for 10-15 seconds on HIGH. The skins almost fall off.

I'll also mention that the cranberry relish is easy to make and looks really neat. I put both the cranberries and the orange through the grating blade so I have one less thing to clean up. The quantity that one pack of cranberries makes will serve a group of 20 and there will probably still be some left over (not everyone can try every condiment that is put out on a T-day table), so if you are tasked to bring something, the cranberry relish is a very easy way to fulfill your obligation.

I'd also like to comment on the baking the turkey upside down trick--it really works, but it's usefull primarily if you don't have a covered turkey roasting pan or don't have a roasting bag. Smaller turkeys can be turned easily with two hands, and even the larger ones can be turned with two hands IF (and it's a crucial "if") you have hot-pad gloves that you don't mind getting dirty from that one evolution. I've dropped more than one in my time (fortunately into the pan).

Oh my, one last note. Megan's method for cooking the squash also works for pumpkin that can then be used for pie or soup. But drain before you mash, because there's a lot of water in pumpkin.

Your recipes are perfect. The sauce is exactly right, and the breads and potatoes are exactly how I would do it. NO electric mixer shall touch my potatoes. No jellied cranberry sauce shall grace my table.

Amen, my sister.

My recipe for a perfect holiday meal:
1)Go to Honey Baked Ham store
2)Bring home big ham, 2 or 3 sides and pie
3)Open package and eat.

For the REAL neophytes: the breast of the turkey is, counter-intuitively, the part that looks kind of like a rear end. Please remove all things from inside the turkey. Some of them may be plastic bags of guts and stuff, depending on what kind of turkey you have. Access the inside of the turkey via openings at each end, a big 'un and a little 'un, and don't think too much about those openings.

And finally, a frozen turkey takes approximately a month and a half to defrost in the fridge, so get started now. Not that I'd ever have a frozen turkey, you understand. Ahem.

I hate to sound like a neophyte, but I didn't see where the garlic was introduced into the potatoes. Where does that stuff come into the picture?

Just to be contrarian: my wife makes much fluffier and tastier mashed potatoes with a blender than I can with a masher. Whether you mash with a blender or a masher there is an art to it.

When I peel the potatoe I peel them and put them in plain water immediately (no salt). Then I slice the potatoes into smaller slices and put them in new water. Then I put them in new water for boiling. This gets rid of a lot of starch, which might explain my wife being able to use a blender and getting really fluffy potatoes.

Neophyte: she didn't say, you can add it to the potatoes toward the end of the mashing or serve it as an aside. I saute the garlic(15 minutes on low heat) and make it a butter as an aside. A local 4 star blanches the garlic before sauteing, but I have never tried it so I am not quite sure how it works. The upside is whole cloves, which in nice in presentation.

If you are going to use the skins Yukon Gold is a much better choice than red potatoes. If you are going just for taste and don't care about texture, white bakers are very good, but a bit grainy.

Jamie is absolutely right about using a ricer to mash potatoes. Here's another trick I just discovered for mincing garlic superfine in seconds: peel the cloves and then cover them with plastic film. Use a steak hammer or mallet to pound them on a wooden board. You'll get garlic puree instantly. I prefer raw garlic (and about 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan per person) in mashed spuds.

The cranberry sauce wants walnuts.

"The cranberry sauce wants walnuts."

Or Pecans. Mmmmmmmm....Pecans.....

Other good variants for mashed potatoes include:
- adding horseradish, well drained. (getting fresh and grating, etc. is only marginally worth it)
- adding cooked parsnips
- although not good with turkey, use sour cream in place of some of the liquid

A little googling or searching at Food Network should find recipes for all of these.

BTW, I strongly endorse using Yukon Gold potatoes instead of Russets. (Although the current Gourmet recommends making your mashers with baked russets.)

Squash soup:
http://www.hfienberg.com/kesher/2003/11/bit-late-but-bookmark-it-for-next-year.html

Don't forget to enter these in Carnival of the Recipes. E-mail recipe.carnival at gmail.com

when I make garlic mashed potatoes I usually fry a chopped-up onion very slowly until the pieces are golden brown and put that in too. and, yes, I leave the skins on.

Mash potatoes with lashings of cream and butter.

lashings? Methinks the British brainwashers have completed their assignment!

Roasted Winter Vegetables are even easier to make:

Butternut squash
Carrots
Yams
Parsnips (if you like them, otherwise leave 'em out)
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Peel and cut above-mentioned into 1/4 inch cubes or slices - whatever you deem easiest. Put them into a bowl, pour just enough olive oil over them to give them all a nice little coating. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir.

Arrange veggies on a baking pan. Put in oven at 350 for about 20 min. or until all vegetables are tender (see definition of tender in original post). Serve. SO EASY. SO GOOD! NO MARSHMALLOWS REQUIRED!

With leftovers, or if you make a double-recipe, you can then.....mash up in a food processor with roasted garlic, add heated chicken broth (use low-fat all-natural from the carton if you are like me and cannot be bothered making your own) and Voila, roasted winter vegetable soup. Serve that with a baguette and goat cheese. Nice easy dinner after having gorged on all that turkey.

Also, cranberry-orange relish is delicious on vanilla ice cream...

No comment on the foodies. just wanted to say, I love the name. It was quite possibly one of the most influential books I have ever read.

I'm looking for a great cornbread dressing. I've been making one that incorporates both dried cranberries and pecans for a while, but it's time to shake things up a bit. Esp. if there's a really Pilgrim-y one out there, as I hope to be spending T-Day near the Rock (though I'm told it's kind of a letdown).

"Please remove all things from inside the turkey."

Then take the things (i.e. giblets) and put them in a saucepan with about a quart of water and simmer.

Use that broth along with the broth off the baked turkey for gravy. It gives a lot of flavor, without being actual giblet gravy.

I don't believe in chopping up giblets and putting them in the gravy; that's disgusting (although not as bad as putting eggs in gravy, like I'm told the Southerners do).

Jane -- last post on Nov. 19th??? It it now the 23rd. WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED US IN THESE DARK TIMES?!?

Jane

Thought real bloggers didn't have homes. And in any event, certainly did not go there for the holidays.

Happy TGiving in any case. Say hi to the folks.

I don't cook, but I do taste - if any of you want to send me some of your homemade goodies, I'll be happy to eat 'em.

I'm going to try making your cranberry bread this year. :)

Another 'root veggie' side dish that's a Thanksgiving tradition here at the Rancho.

Peel & slice a couple of small parsnips and carrots into matchsticks (julienne). Steam in a covered skillet with ~ 1/4 cup water for 5 minutes or so, 'til just tender, then remove the lid. Raise the heat & add butter, saute' over low heat for until they start to carmelize. Stir in some honey, nutmeg and a couple of tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan. Turn off the heat and cover for a few minutes, serve warm.

"Please remove all things from inside the turkey"

Which makes room for the 32-oz. Foster's.

Beer Can Turkey, anyone?

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