Turkey weekend food

[magid]

As always, Thanksgiving requires particular foods. This year's menu (currently) includes:

• onion-sage biscuits (read: not-really-bread, but almost)
  
• roasted garlic
  
• turkey
  
• stuffing (six grain and pumpkin seed bread, some harvest bread, onions, mushrooms, celery, walnuts, sage)
  
• sliced butternut squash roasted with black pepper and za'atar
  
• cranberry relish
  
• orange-garlic carrots
  
• green salad with cucumber and grapefruit
  
• sweet potato pie (made with ginger syrup)
  
• apple crisp

For comparison, previous Thanksgiving dinners, in 2005, 2004, and 2003.

For Shabbat, I like to leverage the leftovers, but I also want to have something new, special for Shabbat. The current menu (it might change a bit) for Shabbat dinner includes:

• wine, challah
  
• roasted garlic, hummus, olives
  
• turkey soup with sage dumplings (The soup cooks during Thanksgiving dinner, with the turkey frame, onions, celery, and sweet potatoes, so I never have to figure out how to store the carcass. This year I think I'll be adding the lacinato kale that's been hanging around.)
  
• chicken something (pomegranate walnut?), or fish something
  
• mashed celeriac and carrots
  
• red sauerkraut
  
• cranberry relish
  
• green salad, likely similar to the one above
  
• possibly some other vegetable (zucchini?)
  
• leftover pie and/or apple crisp (assuming leftovers; if not, there's time to figure something else out; perhaps gingerbread)

I have parsnips and carrots I could roast, but that would be two white-and-orange dishes (with carrots, even), which is one too many.

Comments

[rethought.livejournal.com]

Mmmm...celeriac.

[magid.livejournal.com]

What do you use it for?

[rethought.livejournal.com]

Roasted chunks with parmesan cheese sprinkled over top. Under the broiler for about 10-30 minutes, depending on the size of the chunks.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that sounds lovely!

I'm still not likely to get a huge bulk box of them, but perhaps next winter share delivery will net me one to try that way.

[(Anonymous)]

Lovely! So colorful and flavorful. Nice and hearty, but with refreshing items as well. I hope you enjoy.

Roasted garlic is great. How do you serve it at the table?

Mashed celeriac and carrots is creative, very appealing.

And I like all the sage. How do you make the biscuits and the dumplings?

Perhaps add a parsnip to the soup?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I really liked having a couple of more tart items on the menu; it felt lighter.

I served the roasted garlic in the foil I'd roasted it in, so it wasn't very pretty, but people liked it: we got through about two heads of it (though I know that if I'd taken it all out and mashed it, we'd've eaten much more).

I'm thinking about pairing some herb with the celeriac-carrots, but haven't figured out what yet.

The biscuits I did a basic drop biscuit recipe, substituting oil instead of cutting in margarine (not that I had any, and obviously butter was inappropriate), soy milk for the milk. They turned out a bit flatter than I wanted, but good enough that they vanished (the only thing that was completely gone). Dumplings will be similar dough, just dropped in soup to cook rather than in a hot oven.

I might add a parsnip, but that will have to be tomorrow; the pot is too full for anything else. Once I take the bones out, I can see how much room I have for other stuff.

Thanksgiving notes

[magid.livejournal.com]

The onion-sage biscuits were a hit, completely vanished. Caramelized onions are always a good thing :-)

People will eat more garlic once it's taken out of the heads. It's a messy job, but might be worth doing before Shabbat.

The turkey came out fine, 10.5 pounds for about 5.5 hours at 300 in foil. The stuffing fell apart, since there were no eggs, but everyone liked how it tasted, and there's more than enough for breakfast tomorrow.

The butternut squash tasted fine, but the cooked-to-hardness edges weren't appreciated. I liked having it not mashed, though, so it's worth thinking more about, maybe doing chunks instead of slices.

I didn't make the cranberry relish early enough (6 hours in advance). Or I should've left it out of the fridge. Either way, the berries still were cold enough to feel too close to frozen. Phooey.

Orange-garlic carrots are fine, but have lost my interest. I think the leftovers may have to go.

I really liked the salad; I think I'm going to do the same one tomorrow night.

The ginger syrup didn't come through in the sweet potato pie, unfortunately, though the pie itself was fine.

I didn't make the apple crisp, instead tossing chunks of apple with cinnamon and sugar and baking them in a casserole once the turkey came out of the oven. I checked on them once, and saw that they were very dark and drying out, so I mostly covered the casserole with foil and left it longer. The result was fantastic, not-quite-applesauce that went really well with the pie. Worth doing again intentionally. Oh, and starting with the green fleishig casserole mostly filled with apples resulted in just a bit more than six people wanted as part of dessert, but likely wouldn't've been enough for six as a standalone dessert.

warming tray

[whassupdoc.livejournal.com]

There's a small housewares shop in Brookline on Harvard St., right near the Butcherie, that had a "shabbat warming tray" prominently on display this week. I don't know anything about price or specific details, though.

Good luck!

Re: warming tray

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I know that store; it has a lovely mural on the side.

Yesterday someone suggested the Israel Book Store, and they had one that I liked, so I got it this morning :-)

Shabbat notes

[magid.livejournal.com]

It was bought challah, because the oven was fleishig, and it was nice having the sesame seeds, though I felt vaguely guilty about not having made it myself.

The turkey soup did have kale, and no celery. The dumplings were very much last minute, and yet the soup came out fine.

The main dish turned out to be chicken with gloopy rice, also peach chutney I made this summer. I made too much, by far, but it was also liked.

The mashed celeriac and carrots needs something. Not sure what. I might recycle it into a midweek casserole with rice and beans and cheese.

I think people either love or hate sauerkraut. It's interesting.

The green salad was the same recipe, and the cranberry relish the same batch.

I didn't make a new vegetable dish, but did serve the last of the za'atar-roasted butternut squash, so there's none left now.

I made new pie for dessert, two pumpkin ones. Mmmm... pie.