Green Bean Casserole

Did you think I was done blogging?

Ingredients

• 1 generous lb of green beans, cut to 1" sticks (ends trimmed off)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 8oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
• garlic
• 1 tsp thyme
• splash of wine (vermouth in our case) for deglazing
• 2tbsp butter
• 2tbsp flour
• 1c milk
• somewhere between 1/2c and 1c blue cheese, crumbled
• panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400. In a big (preferably oven safe) saute pan, cook the onion until it's beginning to caramelize - 10 minutes or so - with some olive oil. Then add the mushrooms and cook a couple more minutes until those begin to soften. Then add garlic and thyme and deglaze with the wine. Then add the green beans and simmer until they're still crisp but JUST starting to get tender - about 5 minutes. This is called "tender-crisp" I think so as to be as pretentious and confusing as possible. I hate that phrase.

In a separate pan, melt the butter, add the flour and cook. Add the milk and bring to a simmer, at which time it will thicken. Then add the blue cheese and stir until melted. Pour this over the green beans you just cooked in the other pan and stir to coat. Top the whole thing with panko bread crumbs. Now pop the whole thing in the oven for 10 minutes. The top is supposed to brown in this time, but ours didn't for whatever reason so I turned on the broiler and let it go another minute(ish). Done!

Thoughts: We were looking for a good alternative to green bean casserole that didn't include french's onions or campbell's cream of mushroom soup, and I think this was a good one! I would definitely do this again. On the other hand, I think just about anything will taste good if you pour blue cheese mornay sauce on it.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Persimmon Pudding

We had three Hachiya persimmons that we got for cheap, but it was Thanksgiving and we couldn't really find time or space to eat these things before they got too over-ripe. So when they started spontaneously splitting open, we made something out of them. The recipe was called "Persimmon Pudding" but it would have been accurate to call it "Crustless Persimmon Pie" (to give an idea of the texture). It's really good, but I would actually put this in a pie crust in the future.

Ingredients

• 1c VERY ripe Hachiya persimmon pulp
• 1c sugar
• 1c flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1c milk
• 3 eggs
• 4oz butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Whisk everything together. Pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish. Bake at 325 for like 45 minutes, until it's mostly set but still has a little jiggle.

Thoughts: This is really delicious. In the past when we've made things with persimmons, the flavor is kind of muted for some reason - like baking it removes the flavor. This didn't have that problem - it still tastes like persimmon. As I said, though, it has all the texture of a pie - it might be better in a pie crust next time. Also, it didn't quite set in the middle for a long time - I suspect that covering with tin foil for the first 30 minutes of baking would help.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Oyster Stuffing

I'm getting tired of blogging these, but this is important.

Ingredients

• Cubed loaf of french bread, left out for a couple days so it's really stale.
• 6 slices of bacon
• 6 shallots, chopped fine
• 4 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1 lb of oysters, shucked (liquor reserved)
• 1c chicken stock
• 1/4c port
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh sage
• 1/2 tsp tobasco
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper

In a dutch oven, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from the pan and chop into little bits. Add the shallots and celery to the pan and stir, adding the bacon when that's ready. When the veg are cooked through (about 10 minutes), add the oyster liquor, stock, port, thyme, sage, tobasco, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, then add the oysters and bread cubes. Take off the heat and cover the pot. Leave for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 400.

After the 10 minutes are up, put the stuffing in the oven covered for 20 minutes, then remove the lid and cook another 20 minutes. Serve!

Thoughts: We shortened the cook time because of the altitude, so this could go up to 30 minutes then another 30. This was our first time making oyster stuffing, but it was AWESOME. Would make again.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Pumpkin Pie

Took a lot longer to bake than I thought.

Ingredients

• 1 small pie pumpkin, halved, seeds scooped out
• 2 eggs
• 3/4c brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1c 2% (or higher) milk

For each cut half of the pumpkin, place it cut side down in a pie dish and add about an inch of water. Microwave on high for 15 minutes. When it's cooled, peel the skin off and mash.

Mix 1.75c of the pumpkin with all the rest of the ingredients. Throw in a pie shell. Bake at 425 for about an hour, until a knife inserted into the center comes out mostly (?) clean. The pie will jiggle but only a LITTLE bit.

Thoughts: This was easy. But it didn't completely set, either. I think that now that it's cooled it may be better. Probably best to serve after it has cooled. Now we have so much spare pumpkin, too.

Disaster Index: 2/10 - it wasn't the flavor, it was the texture. I would look at some other variations in the future.

Turkey Confit

I consulted about four recipes for this. New York Times, Salon, Serious Eats, and Mastering the Art (in which I actually looked up Confit de Oie).

The basic ingredients are: Turkey, fat. You can use olive oil or any animal fats you want (traditional is duck fat, but who can afford it?) Then there are some herbs and garlic. The recipe below is what we did, but variation from the recipe is acceptable.

Although traditional is duck fat, you can really substitute any kind of fat or oil. Julia herself recommended lard or vegetable shortening if you can't get duck fat. We used some high quality olive oil to fill out the fat content, with some salt pork for extra flavor.

This recipe is absurdly simple. Really low pressure for Thanksgiving, though it might be tough if you had much more than about 5 lbs of turkey. We might have been able to do it in our dutch oven? I don't know. You quickly run out of space.

Ingredients

• 5.5 lbs turkey (2 thighs and 2 legs)
• 2tsp of salt per pound of turkey
• an onion, chopped finely
• 2tbsp sage, chopped fine
• 2tbsp fresh thyme, chopped fine
• About a quart of oil
• 2 lbs of salt pork
• A clove of garlic, top lopped off
• A couple sprigs of thyme and sage (whole)

A day ahead of time, combine the onion, sage, thyme, and salt. Cover the turkey in the salt mixture, then set in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight.

When you're ready, wash off the turkey and pat dry. Pack it tightly in a pot along with salt pork, garlic, and herbs. Then pour in the olive oil (or whatever fat), just enough to cover the turkey.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Set the pot over a burner on medium-high heat until you get some bubbles coming up from the oil - the oil will be at about 200 at the bottom of the pot, though I found that the oil doesn't circulate well. Then throw the pot, covered, in the oven and leave it for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, it's done. If you want (and if the turkey will stay together), you can sear the turkey to crisp the skin before you serve it, but it's not required. Just set the turkey in a bowl to let some of the oil to drain out, then serve on a separate plate.

Thoughts: Super easy. The salt pork was unexpectedly salty (duh, I guess), but the turkey was just really well seasoned. The flavor was great. I would do this again in the future, though I don't know that the animal fat was strictly necessary. Just a nice addition. I would also try this with other birds. Goose? You're next.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Maple Bacon Marshmallows

Ingredients

• 1/2c candied bacon bits (just coat bacon in brown sugar and bake in the oven on a wire rack at 350 for 25-30 min, cool, then chop.)
• 2/3c sugar
• 1/2c maple syrup
• 1/4c corn syrup
• 1/4c water
• 1/4tsp salt
• 4.5tsp gelatin
• another 1/2c cold water
• 1/8tsp cinnamon
• powdered sugar

In a microwave safe bowl, add the 1/2c cold water and the gelatin. Let that sit at least 5 minutes. While that happens, in a saucepan, add the sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, 1/4c water, and salt. Bring to a boil and cook until it reaches 240 degrees. When it's close, microwave the gelatin/water mixture for 30 seconds. Pour into a stand mixer bowl and set to low. When the sugar mixture is cooked, pour it into the stand mixer. Turn the speed up to medium-low and beat for 5 minutes. Then turn up to medium-high and go another 3 minutes. Then add the cinnamon and turn to high for 1 more minute. Then pour in the bacon bits and let mix thoroughly. Pour the whole thing into a 9x9 baking dish that you've covered in parchment and PAM. Smooth the top as best you can (it's sticky and very lightweight) and dust the top with powdered sugar. Let sit for 6 hours (or overnight), remove from pan and cut into about 36 pieces (halves then thirds in each direction). Don't worry, just crush through them with your biggest knife and they'll spring back. Toss the marshmallows in powdered sugar. Done!

Thoughts: Claire felt the bacon was a little off-putting? I think these would make AWESOME smores. No argument from Claire on that. We made these KIND OF thinking of matching them with the sweet potatoes for thanksgiving. So that will probably happen. Anyway, our first foray into making marshmallows (and cooking with gelatin) and it was incredibly easy. Homemade marshmallows are much more... airy and springy than the store-bought type. I guess that make sense. But maybe I will investigate recipes that use a little less gelatin? I'm not sure.

Not quite sure how to store marshmallows. My current vote is "cheek pouches."

Disaster Index: 1/10

Shepherd's Pie

This is really easy if you have an oven-safe saute pan.

Ingredients

• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 lb ground lamb (or whatever)
• 1 tsp fresh or dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1c chicken stock
• 1c peas
• 2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks of roughly the same size
• 1/2c or so milk
• 2 tbsp butter

Set the potatoes boiling in a pot. In a separate saute pan, add the carrot, celery, onion, and meat. Cook over medium heat until the vegetables are tender and the meat browned. Then add the herbs, tomato paste, and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add the peas. Toward the end of the cooking, preheat the oven to 375. When the potatoes are done, drain the water and add the milk and butter and mash. Salt to taste. Spread the mashed potatoes over the meat and vegetables in the saute pan and spread to create a layer of mashed potatoes. Use the tines of a fork to texture the surface (optional, as far as I can tell). Throw the whole thing in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until lightly golden or you can't stand it anymore (what happened for us). Serve.

Thoughts: This was really easy, if a little time consuming. I think the lamb was really good. If I weren't using lamb, I would go with a mixture of pork and beef, probably. I can't think of much I would change about this, although I might consider upping the rosemary or adding some thyme or something.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Parsnip and Leek Soup with Crab

Seems like it's been too long since we posted something here. This was too interesting to pass up, though.

Ingredients

• scant 1 lb of parsnips, peeled and chopped into rough 1-2" pieces
• 2 small leeks or, I don't know, one large one? Chopped and rinsed thoroughly to remove the sand. (We like to float the cut leeks in a bowl of water, and the sand sinks to the bottom)
• about 1 or 1.5tsp dried thyme
• splash of white wine (or vermouth)
• olive oil
• 3c chicken stock
• 1/4c whipping cream
• lump crab meat (we got a 6oz package of "blue star" crab meat, and it wasn't too expensive - like $6).
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2tbsp butter

So toss the parsnips in some olive oil and put in a glass baking dish. Cover with foil and pop in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the leeks, thyme, and wine and stir to coat. Cover back up with the foil and put back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

When that's done, put everything in a soup pot with 3c of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 10 minutes. When the veg are soft, blend until relatively smooth (we used an immersion blender, which worked great, but you can use a stand blender if you want a really silky texture). Return to the pot (if you took it out?) and add the whipping cream. Adjust salt and the texture - if you use low-sodium broth, I can see you needing some more salt. And if you weren't generous with the stock or if you had a few more parsnips than I did, you MAY need a little more water.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter with the lemon juice. When it's melted, add the crab to the bowl and stir. Probably won't actually cook the crab, but I don't think you really need to, either (our crab meat was pasteurized and, therefore, ready to eat). Anyway, serve the soup in a bowl (or shooter, or whatever) and top with a little bit of crab.... or a lot of crab.

Thoughts: Pretty great. The flavors complemented each other really nicely. I would say my only gripe is that I felt like there is a better way to do this. Roasting the parsnips should bring out the natural sweetness, but when you leave them covered, it kind of defeats the purpose. And why roast the leeks? Maybe next time, we throw the parsnips in the oven (covered for 15, uncovered for 25?) and while they're roasting, we could saute the leeks with the thyme and olive oil in the stock pot. That makes more sense to me. EVEN SO, this was really good. Also quite easy.

Disaster Index: 1/10