Thanksgiving, Part 1
(Part 2 is delayed, and will come out in due time, possibly tomorrow)
So this year R had to work on Thanksgiving, so out of solidarity, the household will be having our own, smaller Thanksgiving with just the three of us. This also accomplishes the fact that I like to cook big, elaborate meals, and this would enable me to do so, and also it meant qth we could have a much more low-key experience than usual, which was surprisingly relaxing.
The preparation started on Wednesday, with the things that were easy enough to make ahead and would require too much space otherwise. The first of those was to make mushroom bacon, for a planned Vegetables Wellington (see part 2 for the rest of the information on this). This involved slicing portabella mushrooms*, brushing them with olive oil and salt and pepper, and roasting them in a hot oven until they browned and dried up a bit, concentrating the flavor. When that was done, they got tossed in a mixture of maple syrup, salt and paprika, with a drop of liquid smoke, because it’s winter and I didn’t want to rig up the entire smoking rig for a handful of mushrooms.
When that was done I turned my attention to the rolls**. The recipe involved was a bagel-esque situation that used a yukone to keep the density and moisture up. So I mixed 6 ounces of flour and 2.5 ounces of water together in a saucepan, cooking it down to a paste and spreading it out on a plate to cool. I bloomed a tablespoon of yeast in some warm water. I combined 14 ounces of bread flour and an ounce of sugar in the food processor, brought it together, and then added 6 ounces of cold water, followed by the yukone and the bloomed yeast/water. I patted it down and left it to rise. When it had risen, I shaped it into roll-sized balls on a piece of wax paper, covered it over and shoved it in the fridge for the next day.
The pies were next, of which there were going to be two, for three people, because the other people in my household loves them some pie. Nothing earth-shattering here. I melted some butter and softened som cream cheese, then mixed them together in the food processor with a can of Libby’s***, scooped them out into a pie shell****, and set them aside while I made the apple pie.
I cored, peeled and sliced a half dozen apples into relatively-thick (for pie) slices, because I like apples, and I especially like when apples are substantial and taste like apples, rather than dissolving into applesauce when heat is applied to them. I whisked together a cup of sugar, half as much flour*****, some cinnamon, some nutmeg and some salt. Separately I combined a cup of heavy cream with 2 beaten eggs and a healthy splash of vanilla. I poured the dry into the wet, mixed them together, and then let the apples soak in the cream. While the apples and the cream were becoming friendly, I made up a topping of a cup of chopped walnuts, half a cup each of brown and white sugar, half a cup of flour, some cinnamon and some ginger. I poured the topping on the pie and then popped them both into the oven.
While the pies were cooking, it was time to assemble some vegetable stock. I cut up and browned a couple of packages of plain white button mushrooms. I added three carrots, also browned briefly, any celery stalk that didn’t look robust enough to stand up to being cooked on its own, a handful of dried mushrooms, the stems from some parsley, a whole head of garlic, a knob of ginger, and some soy sauce. I let that simmer until it was, y’know, stock. It came out to a couple of quarts, which wasn’t nearly enough for the whole day, but would represent a start******.
I boiled some water and salted it. While I was waiting, I cleaned and halved a bunch of brussel sprouts - I was parcooking them so that they would come together more quickly while the bird rested, since the plan was to eventually fry them in the duck fat. So they ran through the boiling water for a few minutes, and then I cooled them rapidly and set them aside.
I cut a loaf of sandwich bread into cubes. Both A and R have a weird predilection for boxed stuffing. I can’t stand the stuff, but I acknowledge that it’s a family occasion, so I make the compromise of using supermarket bread, but fixing up the rest of it myself. But that means cutting a loaf of bread into tiny cubes myself, and then drying them out. I waited for the pies to be done, and loaded the bread cubes into the oven while it cooled, with the idea that they would be dried out by the next morning (they totally were).
That plus a huge amount of cleaning and dish-preparing******* was it for day 1 of the Thanksgiving business. The actual serious cookery started the next day.
* normally I don’t use full-sized portabella mushrooms for anything at all, but in this case they were prized for their size and their texture, and they were going to taste like smoke and maple syrup anyway, so it wouldn’t be a big deal.
** well, sort of. The timing of this write up is actually not the same as the timing in the kitchen at the time, since all of these things took place more or less simultaneously, so, y’know, realize taht things are roasting while other things are cooling and things are being stirred while other things are being combined.
*** yeah, yeah. But also it tastes fine and I didn’t have a pumpkin. Go to hell.
**** I don’t care about pie, and I will not be bothered with making my own crust. Go to hell.
***** the flour would absorb some of the liquid from the apples as they cooked
****** see part 2 for the rest of the stock situation
******* the most stressful part of any meal for me is the part where I can’t find the _______, where ________ is the tool that I most need, no matter how many times I have already seen it previously. It is a vegetable peeler more often than I’m comfortable admitting, and it’s a cheese grater roughly 80% of the times that it isn’t a vegetable peeler.