Thanksgiving 2015

As usual, we hosted Thanksgiving this year, with 10 adults, our one-year old great nephew and our three-year old great niece. The two kids more than made up for the smaller adult group in terms of energy and excitement (and noise).

Dinner was largely a repeat of 2014's, with substitutions for things that did not work or had becoming boring after too many years (like Ottolenghi's excellent sweet potato gratin).

Here's what I cooked:

Thanksgiving Dinner
 November 26, 2015

Salmon rillettes (from a class at Atelier des Chefs in Paris)

Slow poached garlic shrimp (from Tyler Florence's Ultimate TV show)

Mustard and tapenade batons
(from Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table)

Smoked ricotta and sun-dried tomato spread with lemon zest (Bobby Jay)

Bar nuts (from The Union Square Cafe Cookbook)

Turkey with sage and dried apricot and cranberry stuffing (from American's Test Kitchen)

Cranberry mostarda (from Food and Wine)

Roasted acorn squash with maple butter (from American's Test Kitchen)

Hashed Brussels sprouts (from Union Square Cafe Cookbook)

Bourbon caramel pumpkin tart (from Fine Cooking)

Fresh Ginger Cake (from Sylvie Thompson, via Food 52 Genius Recipes)

Marie-Hélène’s apple tart
(from Dorie Greenspan, Around My French Table)

Here are the hors d'oeuvres:

 Mustard and tapenade batons

Garlic shrimp tapas style while cooking and as served

Salmon and smoked salmon rillettes with pumpernickel rounds

And here are the turkey with stuffing and the roasted and broiled acorn squash (the cranberry mostarda and brussels sprouts were camera shy):

Turkey and stuffing à la Julia Child

Roasted and broiled acorn squash with maple sugar butter

Finally, two of the desserts:

Pumpkin tart with bourbon caramel glaze and candied pumpkin seeds

Marie-Hélène's apple cake

I had considered retiring Marie-Hélène's apple cake this year because I have made it so often, but we recently lost a great friend named Marie-Hélène so I could not bring myself to make the change just yet. I think of her every time I make this cake even though it is named for a different Marie-Hélène.

This meal obviously involved a lot of work, but I knocked off three items on each of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving only the shrimp, turkey, stuffing and sides (already much prepped) for Thanksgiving day, leaving me plenty of time to watch the spectacular Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with very dear friends and our niece.

Bobby Jay

En passant (6) . . . Peanut Butter and Chorizo; Salvatore Smoked Ricotta; Vitamix

. . . wherein I write about things that deserve to be mentioned but are not worthy of a full post.

1. PB&C?!

Peanut butter (preferably hot) on toasted Turkish bread with chorizo. Nothing I can say can make this sound better (or worse) than the enumeration of the agreement, together with the thousand words' worth of photo below. Search "peanut butter" above to find several posts on combining this great ingredient with unexpected ingredients.

Peanut butter & chorizo on toasted Turkish bread

2. Salvatore Smoked Ricotta

Salvatore Smoked Ricotta

This spectacularly smooth ricotta with a wisp of smoke is guaranteed to make you smile. I had it recently on a piece of toasted baguette topped with kernels from an ear of grilled corn that I bought at the Columbus Avenue fair: smoke with smoke. But it's great by itself. I bought it at Saxelby's, in the Essex Market, but have also seen it at Eataly. Here's a link to Salvatore's web site.

 3. Vitamix

Vitamix 7500

I finally splurged and got one, Model 7500 -- new, lower profile; 64-oz container; not programmable like the 750, but that did not seem to be worth the extra money. So far it's pretty spectacular. I made my famous corn soup today and, for the first time, I was able to get it all into the blender in one load

Bobby Jay

Jerked Pork Chops and Smoked Potatoes

J has been after me to make smoked potatoes, which we discovered recently at a restaurant that I can't remember. Last night I made them, using the tried and true recipe that I got from Laura Calder and eight minutes in my Cameron stove-top smoker.

The potatoes spurred me to fill out the menu with Caribbean Jerk Pork Chops, rubbed with a jerk paste and, again, smoked in my stove-top stuffer. The sauce is from Big Bob Gibson, the procedure is the product of experimentation by yours truly.

It's easy to dry out pork chops, especially when smoking them, so it's important to find moist ones with some fat. The other approach - brining them - helps but does not produce the rich flavor that rendering fat produces. I made the trek to the Essex Market to find chops at Heritage Meat Shop (the retail space of Heritage Farms), and was rewarded with these gorgeous Tamworth chops.

Tamworth pork chops from Heritage Meat Market

Now it was just a matter of rubbing them with the jerk sauce, smoking them and finishing first in the oven and then under a broiler. Here's the result, with the potatoes and some sauteed zucchini; not a great picture, I'm afraid, but the tastes were there. The accompanying jerk-spiced barbecue sauce tied the plate together a bit and brought the chops to life.

Smoked potatoes, Tamworth pork chop and grated zucchini

The recipes for the pork chops and the smoke potatoes follow:

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Caribbean Jerk Pork Chops

(Big Bob Gibson)

Ingredients

·       1 habañero chile, seeded and chopped

·       1 small onion, coarsely chopped

·       1 scallion, thinly sliced

·       1 garlic clove, thinly sliced

·       1 teaspoon ground allspice

·       3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

·       1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

·       1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

·       1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

·       Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

·       1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus more for brushing

·       1 cup store-bought Kansas City–style barbecue sauce

·       4 pork rib chops (12 ounces each)

·       2 ½ TBS hickory, pecan or oak chips

Directions

1.     In a mini food processor, combine the habañero, onion, scallion, garlic, allspice, thyme, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Process until finely chopped. Add the 1 tablespoon of oil and process to a smooth paste.

2.     In a small bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of the paste with the barbecue sauce. Spread the remaining paste all over the chops and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

3.     Put wood chips into Cameron smoker. Cover and let the chips begin to smoke, about 5 minutes.

4.     Cook the chops in smoker over moderately high heat for 30 minutes.  Check temperature with a meat thermometer close to the bone. If necessary, put into 400 oven and roast for a few minutes, until they are lightly charred the temperature is about 140°. Transfer the chops to a platter and let rest a few minutes.  Then broil on one side until they get a nice color, about 3 minutes, and serve with the spiced barbecue sauce on the side.

NOTE 1: This is a very hot sauce.  Best to put less jerk mix into the BBQ sauce.

NOTE 2: Big Bob uses the jerk rub for slow-cooked pork.

Smoked Squished Baby Potatoes

(Laura Calder, Bobby Jay)

Ingredients

·       2 lbs baby Yukon Gold potatoes

·       Kosher salt and pepper

·       olive oil

·       2 TBS hickory, pecan or oak chips

Directions

1.     Scrub the potatoes and place them in salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, but not totally soft.

2.     Flatten the potatoes a little with a mallet, a ramekin or your hand.

3.     Put wood chips into Cameron smoker. Cover and let the chips begin to smoke, about 5 minutes.

4.     Cook the potatoes in smoker over moderately high heat for 7-8 minutes.

5.     Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in 400° oven for about 35 minutes, until they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Enjoy!

Bobby Jay

Wrapping a Turkey in Caul Fat

At the urging of my friend John, I wrapped this year's turkey in caul fat (crépine in French), which Harold McGee defines as "a thin membrane of connective tissue with a lacework of small fat deposits embedded in it." Used in France primarily to wrap sausages and terrines, caul fat covers the intestinal organs in a pig or sheep (the one used in cooking is almost always pork). I have used crépine - most recently to cover a classic terrine de campagne - at cooking lessons in France.

Despite its unprepossessing provenance and appearance (like a stretchy hair-net from the fities), caul fat provides a continuous baste for the turkey. By the time the bird is fully cooked, the caul fat has mostly dissolved; any flaky remnants (see picture below) are easily brushed away.

Turkey wrapped in caul fat

Turkey roasted with caul fat wrapping

The main drawback is that caul fat is hard to find. The fine butcher shop Citarella could not get it for me but my friend Piglet got some for me at the quirky but excellent, all-organic new butcher, Harlem Shambles, at Frederick Douglass Boulevard and 116th Street. If you can find it, caul fat is worth the trouble. I can't prove that it made the turkey taste better, but I did have fun using this ancient artisanal product.

Bobby Jay

Santa Fe - Pepper Guy at the Side of the Road

Hot peppers are among the highlights of New Mexican cooking, so when in Santa Fe, I buy them in various forms. Last year I found a guy selling his own peppers by the side of the road near Chimayo and bought some items. I wasn't sure I could find him again, but there he was, on Rte 76 West of Chimayo. This year I chatted with him at some length, and found out that he is Earl Sherwood. Earl is pretty excited about his peppers, and offered me tastes that enabled me to make intelligent choices.

Earl E. Sherwood and his peppers

Earl's extra hot crushed red peppers are, of course, hot, but they also have a sweet, paprika-like taste that really got my attention. Earl says to add them to slow cooked pork during the last hours of cooking, and that is what I plan to do.

I also bought some hot green pepper powder. Exciting on the tip of the finger - think about the essence of a poblano pepper, but hotter - but what to do with it? This will require some research into Mexican and Southwestern dishes; I'll let you know what I find out.

I bought some hot green chile peanut brittle bars, which Earl sells but does not make himself. Still awfully good: the salty peanut and spicy pepper tastes complement each other perfectly.

In order to save some buying (storage) capacity for the Santa Fe farmers market, I left it at that with Earl, but am already looking forward to seeing him again.

Bobby Jay

Santa Fe - Farmers Market

We spent a few days in Santa Fe the first week of August. In addition to viewing some magnificent scenery - Bandelier and Tent Rocks National Monuments, among other things - I enjoyed returning to the great farmers market at the depot. The produce is beautifully and appealingly presented by the proud farmers who grow it.

Santa Fe Farmers Market - El Bosquet Garlic Farm

My favorite stand is that of El Bosque Garlic Farm, where many varieties of onions, garlic and shallots are sold. Among these are long-life shallots, which are supposed to last for six months or so in a basket on the counter. Despite being skeptical of this claim, I bought some last year, and indeed they were still excellent at Christmas time. So this year I bought more and shared them with my friend Piglet.

Marinated Feta with Peppers, Roasted Garlic, etc.

I also bought some feta marinated in roasted garlic and oil. (To my surprise, I preferred this to the one marinated in peppers and oil.) A transformative addition to a simple green salad. When I finish the jar, I may try to make this myself to keep on hand.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Thanksgiving?

Wandering in the Marais, on rue St-Paul, I happened upon Thanksgiving, a combination Louisiana style restaurant and American grocery. The idea of Cajun food in Paris was not too upsetting, but when I saw the grocery window, all I could think was "Why?". I guess I'm a bit of a snob, but American mustard and mayonnaise and Smucker's Grape Jelly? In France?

Bobby Jay

Thanksgiving Turkey

Whew! I finally got Japan out of my system and can focus on things Western.

Thanksgiving passed uneventfully at our place, with a meal quite similar to last year's. But with one difference that I must comment on: the turkey.

At the recommendation of my friend John, I ordered this year's turkey from Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, proprietor Frank Reece. Reece is believed by many to produce the best heritage turkeys available on the market.

Here is Reece's mission statement:

Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch strives to produce historically authentic Heritage Poultry, grown free range, vegetarian fed without antibiotics for your quality dining. Our objective is to protect APA approved Standard-Bred Poultry. We believe that the best way to do this is by returning them to your dining table.

The turkey we had was a great reflection of this mission. It was shaped like a bird that could fly (and indeed it could), long and lean without the huge breasts for which most American turkeys are bred. The white meat was flavorful and moist, the dark dense and deliciously pungent.

Here is how I cooked it:

The 15-lb turkey arrived on Wednesday at 3:00 PM (late enough to scare me), cold but not quite frozen. I generously salted it under the skin and in the cavity. On Thanksgiving day, I rinsed it a bit, then put it breast side down over ice packs. Just before cooking, I dried it and rubbed it with olive oil and Michael Chiarello's fennel spice rub. Cooked on a V-rack 45 minutes breast side down at 450, then turned and cooked at 325-350 for 1 hour 45 minutes. The breast was perfectly cooked and the bird a magnificent even mahogany color. The joints were tight and it was hard to separate the thigh/leg quarters, which usually fall away of their own weight; I had to really push hard to snap the joints. But the meat was done, and ready for a 45-minute rest.

The cost of this turkey, including shipping, was $160. Really expensive compared to a local supermarket or even a good butcher, but it was definitely worth the price.

Bobby Jay

Santa Fe - Bobcat Bite

Bobcat Bite is a famous little hamburger place just outside of Santa Fe that our friend Ed recommended. I had the signature green chile cheeseburger with perfect home fries. The place has just four tables and a nine-seat counter, so the wait was long, but the burger, made from home- (and slightly coarsely-) ground choice boneless chuck, was worth the wait.

Waiting my turn at Bobcat Bite

The menu at Bobcat Bite

A must if you're in Santa Fe.

Bobcat Jay

Santa Fe - Dining

My wife and I were in Santa Fe last week and, among other things, got to sample some of the local fare. Our best meals were at friends' homes, but we did eat out and had good, better and truly excellent meals.

We dined at the renowned Cafe Pasqual's, which serves good Southwestern style cuisine in convivial surroundings. There is a communal table where people seem to meet and talk to strangers and generally have a good time. This place is mobbed at breakfast, but I can't say anything from personal experience.

Another good place was Ristra, also for Southwestern food, where we discovered elk, which is a tasty, healthy alternative to beef, which my wife can't eat.

For Southwestern food, a better bet is Coyote Cafe, where it was more or less invented 30 years ago. Here the food was interesting and very well executed.

Shrimp tower and roast and confited chicken at the Coyote Cafe

One night we had a late meal at Shibumi, a new Japanese noodle place, where the ramen and izakaya (pub-style) dishes were quite authentic. This is a new venture of the chef owner of Nostrani, a highly rated Italian restaurant that we didn't get to. He trained for a couple of years at the New York branch of Omen, the famous Kyoto noodle restaurant, so the authenticity is well-earned.

But my personal favorite was Bobcat Bite, which is worth its own post.

Bobby Jay

New York: Barbecue Capital for the Weekend

How have we missed the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party for the first eight years of its existence? Running both days this weekend, it is a great event for barbecue lovers, and I am nothing if not that.

Run as always by the Union Square Hospitality Group (Union Square Cafe, Eleven Madison, Gramercy Tavern, Shake Shack, etc.), the 2011 edition boasts barbecue from 16 of the nation's finest pitmasters, hailing from 12 states, arrayed around the outside of Madison Square Park. Related activities, including live music, take place inside the park.

My wife and I sampled the pulled pork from Big Bob Gibson Barbecue, Decatur, Alabama (said, by an authority, to be the best in the world, and we believe it); ribs from Memphis Championship Barbecue, Las Vegas, Nevada; beef brisket and sausage from The Salt Lick BBQ, Driftwood, Texas and (yes, another) pulled pork from Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint, Nashville, Tennessee, and their various accompanying sides - beans and cole slaw, mainly. A big lunch, I admit, but worth every calorie.

Some pictures below:

Pit Master from Ed Mitchell's straight out of central casting

Brisket and sausage at Salt Lick BBQ and lady with big hair at Big Bob's

And of course I just had to get a shirt from my namesake, Big Bob(by).

Big Bobby Jay

Hot Sauce Tasting

I love hot sauces and use them frequently, on scrambled eggs, in tuna salad, on burgers and leftover meat sandwiches and in a millon other ways. So when I heard about Austin, Texas-based Tears of Joy Sauces, which sells hundreds of hot sauces from around the world, more than a year ago, I decided to order a bunch of them. This month, I finally took the plunge.

Hot Sauces from Tears of Joy Sauces

But what do you do with 14 bottles of hot sauce of varying strengths and tastes? Have a hot sauce tasting party, of course. So today, four friends and I tasted the 14 new sauces, and some of us also tried my old standards - Tabasco hot, chipotle and jalapeno and Rooster Brand Sriracha - by way of comparison.

The Old Standards

We had great fun. Our methodology was to try the sauces in ascending order of hotness (based on Tears of Joy’s excellent product descriptions) with tortilla chips, matzohs, flatbread, corn crackers and, best of all, thin slices of brioche bread brought by one of the participants, accompanied by lots of beer. After we had been through all 14, with some of us tasting the supermarket standards for comparison, we had some relatively mild turkey chili with additions of selected sauces. Our conclusions, developed as we cooled down and chatted over spicy, but not crazy, Chile Bear Jams Spiced Chipotle jam on brioche bread:

• There was no single winning hot sauce, although certain sauces garnered quite a bit of support and a couple were generally disliked.
• Almost everyone loved Liziano Salsa, a Colombian all-purpose sauce that is spicy but not particularly hot. I definitely recommend that you get this one, which is probably not that hard to find.
• The sauces varied more than you might think and they all have more character (not necessarily better) and brighter flavors than supermarket hot sauces like Tabasco and Frank’s. Nevertheless, I still like Tabasco's Chipotle Sauce and consider Sriracha to be an essential and versatile condiment.
• The hot sauces that most of us liked were Marie Sharpe’s Green Habanero Sauce, Trinidad Habanero Hot and Lottie’s Yellow Hot Pepper Sauce (see pictures above). I will probably buy a few bottles of these and give them as gifts.

Afterwards, each participant got a bottle of his or her favorite sauce to take home and, surprisingly, there were no conflicts that had to be resolved. So go to Tears of Joy's website and go a little crazy. Bobby Jay

Boiled Peanuts

Boiled peanuts are a traditional southern snack that I had not experienced until recently. I found raw peanuts in the shell at the supermarket and determined to make them. I checked the internet and the back of the bag for recipes and ended by doing something that borrowed from several of them.

Basically, you just boil them in heavily salted water for a couple of hours, and they turn into something a lot like edamame, another legume. Like edamame, boiled peanuts are an excellent accompaniment to cocktails or, better still, beer. What I did was to add 1 pound of raw peanuts to 6 cups of water containing 4 tablespoons of Kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of Old Bay seasoning. The 2 tablespoons of Old Bay is optional, but I think it's nice to add something besides pure salt. Next time I plan to use a Cajun seasoning blend that I like.

Easy, cheap, fun.

Bobby Jay

Best Roast Chicken Recipe

I have made many roast chickens from many different recipes, but I found the best one a few years ago: Gordon Hamersley's "Walk-Away" Roast Chicken. I have given the recipe to many friends, and it always becomes their go-to roast chicken because it is exactly what you want in roast chicken -- crispy skin, flavorful succulent meat -- and unbelievably simple; no trussing, no stuffing under the skin, no basting. It is virtually infallible. My wife absolutely loves roast chicken and this is her favorite version.

I have mentioned it before on this blog, and given it to friends, but never felt comfortable putting the recipe on my blog, but now it is on the Internet, notably at Fine Cooking's recipe site, so I have no hesitation in sharing it.

So here it is. Simply click on "More" below for the recipe with my commentaries, based on about 50 tries, interspersed in brackets.
More...
Gordon Hamersley’s Walk-Away Roast Chicken

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 Tbs. Dijon-style mustard
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 whole roasting chicken (about 3-1/2 lb.) [I like to use a 2 3/4 lb. bird if I can find one, preferably d'Artagnan, but always organic], rinsed under cold water and dried
• 1 onion, cut into thick slices [I like to use 2 good-sized but not giant red onions, cut in half lengthwise.]
• 4 medium red potatoes, washed (but not peeled) and sliced in half. [I prefer to use medium Yukon Golds, cut in half lengthwise.]
• [1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock or broth (optional)]

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. [I use my convection setting.] In a small bowl, combine 1 Tbs. of the olive oil, the mustard, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Squeeze the juice from one lemon half into the herb mixture; squeeze the juice from the other half into a small bowl and reserve. Reserve the squeezed lemon halves. Spoon the herb mixture over the chicken and inside its cavity, rubbing to coat the bird thoroughly. Put the reserved lemon halves inside the chicken's cavity.

2. Put the onion and potatoes in a roasting pan. Season them with salt and pepper and toss them with the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil. Scatter the ingredients around the pan to make room in the center for the chicken. [I put the onions and potatoes, cut side down, in the middle to make a rack for the chicken.]

3. Put the chicken in the pan, breast side up. Cook until the meat is tender and the juices run clear at the thigh, about 1–1/4 hours. [I find this time correct for a less-than 3 lb. chicken on convection setting; otherwise, allow 1 1/2 hours for an organic chicken.] By this time, the potatoes and onions should be tender.

4. Transfer the vegetables to a serving platter. Pour the juices from inside the chicken's cavity into the roasting pan and transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest.

5. Spoon off and discard as much fat as possible from the juices in the roasting pan. Set the pan with the juices over medium-low heat and pour in the reserved lemon juice along with 1/2 cup water [chicken stock is better if you have it]. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

6. Cut the chicken into pieces (or serve it whole, if you like). Pour the pan juices over the chicken and serve.

7. Enjoy!

Bobby Jay