Turkey dinner

[magid]

Due to a combination of circumstances, I'm not going to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. It's one of my favorite meals of the year, however, so I've decided that Shabbat dinner will be a reprise of the theme. Added constraints: a number of food allergies to work around, including eggs, all nuts, squashes except pumpkin, most grains, and other, less relevant, things.

• grape juice/wine
  
• oat challah (brought by guests, thankfully)
  
• turkey with potato-rutabaga stuffing
  My mom used to make potato stuffing once in a blue moon, when she had leftover boiled potatoes. We never could get enough. Since a bread-based stuffing won't work for this meal, potato it is. The rutabaga is because I'm currently obsessed with rutabagas, and they act similarly enough that I can boil cubes of them all together and call it a night. If I feel like it, I might add some cubed turnips or celeriac as well. Other than that, it's a regular onion-mushroom-sage situation, possibly with some flax seed meal in lieu of eggs (if it doesn't seem to be holding together enough).
  
• cranberry relish
  I adore cranberries, and the classic is always good. If I make enough extra, I might turn leftovers into a pie, possibly with added apples/walnuts/raisins.
  
• baked sweet potatoes
  Just mashed, perhaps with a hint of cayenne and nutmeg.
  
• jicama slaw
  I need to have something crunchy (texture balance is important), and something green, so a slaw of jicama, apple, and scallion with a lime-mustard dressing hits the spot. (Which is another way of saying, I saw jicama at Russo's and had to get one.)
  
• sauerkraut
  This would theoretically fill the crunchy slot, but somehow pickled things are different, lacking the same crispness. OK, and since it's already made (the current batch with added carrot and daikon), this is a no-work side dish, so I might as well serve it :-).
  
• apple crisp
  Likely not a true crisp, since I'm planning to bake it in a covered casserole, which will leave it many good things, but not actually crisp. The fruit will be local apples and honey, perhaps with some applesauce I canned last year, and the topping will be a mixture of oats and chickpea flour, with extra cinnamon and nutmeg.
  
• for the grownups: apricot liqueur

Also possible: olives; roasted garlic; lavender roasted carrots; baby artichokes (would require figuring out some kind of dip); cranberry chutney. Of these, the only one with major work involved is the chutney; the others are pretty much toss in pot/oven and boil/roast. If I time it right, the other oven dishes could cook at the same time as the sweet potatoes, even.

Still to buy: grape juice, turkey, rutabagas, potatoes, organic oranges, scallions, oats (reminder to self: find out which kind has no cross-contamination issues), foil turkey roasting pan. If including chutney, limes and pears. (Veggies to be acquired at the last farmer's market of the year, Wednesday in Davis Sq.)

General plan: make the stuffing, cranberry relish, and pareve baked things Thursday (or Wednesday, even), the bird and the slaw on Friday.

Considering the locavore-ishness of the meal: the things I know are local include the potatoes, rutabaga, onions, cranberries, sweet potatoes, apples, honey, and sauerkraut. Also carrots and garlic, if I use them.

My usual day-after-Thanksgiving Shabbat dinner starts with turkey soup, simmered as we eat (having a pot with all the relevant vegetables already prepped so the carcass goes directly into the pot helps enormously), but that doesn't work this year. I suspect I'll be making turkey soup motzai Shabbat (with the celeriac, if it isn't used in the stuffing).

Comments

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

-- And then we'll come over for breakfast of turkey soup on Sunday morning.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think that would have to be brunch, not breakfast... (and it might even work, y'know.).

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

I've never had jicama. What's it like? How do you prepare it?

[gingicat]

In taste and texture it's kinda like a vegetal apple (no relation to the rose fruit family, though). Good raw; I have no idea if anyone ever cooks it.

[magid.livejournal.com]

It looks rather like a large tuber, and I think of it as somewhere between a turnip and a fresh water chestnut in texture. High on crunch, not a lot of flavor, excellent in salads. I've pretty much only used it in salad, in fact.

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

my favorite use of it is with mango and cilantro in a corn tortilla - makes a delightfully fresh, crisp veggie taco.

[magid.livejournal.com]

That sounds good. Well, except for the cilantro, since I unfortunately can't eat fresh cilantro. I can imagine it in a fresh spring roll, too.

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. Anywhere you'd use bean sprouts, you can use jicama.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I almost never think to use bean sprouts (or other kinds of sprouts). I think it's a failing that should change at some point.

[(Anonymous)]

Impressive!

In recent weeks I've been making a simple dish that includes both cranberries and sweet potatoes.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Cranberries and sweet potatoes together sounds good. For this meal, though, I want them separate.

[megmuck.livejournal.com]

Binding potato stuffing with flax seeds seems like a risky endeavor - and who cares if stuffing stays together anyway?

Glad you could work with oats for the not-crisp. Why are you baking it in a covered casserole?

m.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the last time I made a non-bread-based stuffing; knowing I can make the flax-gels gives me a backup in case I think it's really not staying together at all. I likely won't use them.

I've been cooking a bunch of things in covered casseroles recently is the best answer to your question. I've gotten into the groove, and I don't have to worry about the topping drying out. And I don't have any baking pans; I could use a foil one, but I've been trying to move away from that as much as possible.