Post Turkey Day
Here we are, Friday morning in the Possum Kingdom. JM, Maggie and I have celebrated our second French Thanksgiving. This year, it was just the three of us, but we still decided to go with our traditional favorites.
Our menu was turkey breast (no whole turkeys here until Christmas), spinach with créme fraiche, garlic potatoes roasted in goose fat, sausage cornbread dressing, onion-banyuls gravy, cranberry sauce and apple tart. There was supposed to be pumpkin pie, but everyone has a disaster now and again.
I suppose I had never thought about it, but up until now, I've only ever cooked with canned pumpkin (thank you Libby's!). It never occurred to me that it was actually a kind of different thing than fresh. Or, it may be that the pumpkins they use in the canned kind are slightly different than the pumpkin I used. Whatever the reasons, although the pumpkin I cooked and pureed a couple of weeks ago was perfect in my pumpkin quick bread, it did not make an outstanding pumpkin pie. It came out kind of soft and watery and didn't have the intense "pumpkiny" flavor that I associate with a pumpkin pie. After a taste, I realized that it wasn't good enough to share with friends and that I wasn't going to enjoy eating it myself. So, as much as it pained me to do it, I had to toss it out.
I was much luckier with the item I thought was going to be the most difficult: cranberry sauce. Now, cranberries are not all that well-known in France, although they're starting to be. You can't (or at least I couldn't) find fresh ones. I have bought a mixture of dried cranberries and raisins, but even those were unfindable this week. However, I was surprised to find a jar of "airelles" (French for cranberries) in the canned fruit aisle of the supermarket. I figured, "what the heck," and bought them to try. They were unsweetened and packed in water, which turned out to be perfect for making cranberry sauce. I mixed them with a bit of orange juice, sugar, and taking a hint from that raisin/cranberry combo I'd bought a few times, I threw in some golden raisins. Then, I cooked it until it thickened. It made the best cranberry sauce I've ever had! What a pleasant change from the great pumpkin disaster.
For the turkey, I tried something new. I used a dry rub on it for 24 hours before cooking. I'd seen an online article in the L.A. Times about it, and since it's a technique I often use with beef, I thought it was a great idea. Even though this was a skinless, boneless breast, it came out with tender, moist, good textured meat that has an excellent flavor throughout. I think I'll definitely be doing that again in the future.
As usual, by the time I finished cooking the whole meal, I barely felt like eating it, so I will look forward to leftovers today. And, after all, isn't that everybody's favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner?
Ciao for now and the best of all things to you and yours.
Randy
Our menu was turkey breast (no whole turkeys here until Christmas), spinach with créme fraiche, garlic potatoes roasted in goose fat, sausage cornbread dressing, onion-banyuls gravy, cranberry sauce and apple tart. There was supposed to be pumpkin pie, but everyone has a disaster now and again.
I suppose I had never thought about it, but up until now, I've only ever cooked with canned pumpkin (thank you Libby's!). It never occurred to me that it was actually a kind of different thing than fresh. Or, it may be that the pumpkins they use in the canned kind are slightly different than the pumpkin I used. Whatever the reasons, although the pumpkin I cooked and pureed a couple of weeks ago was perfect in my pumpkin quick bread, it did not make an outstanding pumpkin pie. It came out kind of soft and watery and didn't have the intense "pumpkiny" flavor that I associate with a pumpkin pie. After a taste, I realized that it wasn't good enough to share with friends and that I wasn't going to enjoy eating it myself. So, as much as it pained me to do it, I had to toss it out.
I was much luckier with the item I thought was going to be the most difficult: cranberry sauce. Now, cranberries are not all that well-known in France, although they're starting to be. You can't (or at least I couldn't) find fresh ones. I have bought a mixture of dried cranberries and raisins, but even those were unfindable this week. However, I was surprised to find a jar of "airelles" (French for cranberries) in the canned fruit aisle of the supermarket. I figured, "what the heck," and bought them to try. They were unsweetened and packed in water, which turned out to be perfect for making cranberry sauce. I mixed them with a bit of orange juice, sugar, and taking a hint from that raisin/cranberry combo I'd bought a few times, I threw in some golden raisins. Then, I cooked it until it thickened. It made the best cranberry sauce I've ever had! What a pleasant change from the great pumpkin disaster.
For the turkey, I tried something new. I used a dry rub on it for 24 hours before cooking. I'd seen an online article in the L.A. Times about it, and since it's a technique I often use with beef, I thought it was a great idea. Even though this was a skinless, boneless breast, it came out with tender, moist, good textured meat that has an excellent flavor throughout. I think I'll definitely be doing that again in the future.
As usual, by the time I finished cooking the whole meal, I barely felt like eating it, so I will look forward to leftovers today. And, after all, isn't that everybody's favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner?
Ciao for now and the best of all things to you and yours.
Randy
Labels: cooking, cranberries, thanksgiving, turkey
2 Comments:
Sounds like a great meal! New tips for traditional fare cooked in this new land...Adaptation makes great stories.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Blog-hopping, I found your Thanksgiving post. A holiday list of expatriates celebrating Thanksgiving Day is calling...I'm loving this Vicar-ious story pooling!
Gooble! Gooble!
Meilleurs voeux!
By blueVicar, At 2:32 PM
Hello!
I'm a sometime lurker, who originally followed your link from Dkos a year or so ago.
And I'm also an enthusiastic pumpkin grower! I've found that with many pumpkins, if I want to make them into a pie, that I need to drain some of the excess water out of the pumpkin after I've roasted it.
Generally, I will roast the pumpkin, cut off the outer peel, and then put the flesh into a clean kitchen towel. Then I squeeze, squeeze, and squeeze some more, until a lot of fluid drains off.
Then I make it into a pie. (after removing the towel, of course) :)
I hope this is helpful for the future.
Alison from Kentucky
By Anonymous, At 2:39 AM
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