We’re off early today for the holiday weekend and look forward to seeing you again here next week. In the meantime, wishing everyone a happy holiday — and if you find yourself in need of a last-minute Thanksgiving recipe, a quick how-to about how to roast a turkey, make a brine or prep green beans, Cookthink.com is on call to help.
Related: Planning Ahead For Leftover Turkey (Cookthink blog)
Related: Root Source: Turkey (Cookthink)
One of our favorite ways to approach holiday cooking is to make traditional dishes that our families look forward to having every year, but with a twist.
Stuffing is one of those dishes whose essential components — leftover bread (cubed white bread, cornbread), sautéed meat (sausage) or seafood (shrimp, oysters), vegetables (carrot, celery, onions) and flavorings (herbs, spices, dried fruits) — can be varied in infinite ways based on different world cuisines.
This year, we came up with a stuffing based on fennel (the star of next week’s root source), cornbread, and a few traditional North African ingredients (merguez sausage, preserved lemons and dates) — with great results.
Here’s how we made it:
The first time I set foot in Di Palo Dairy was in the winter of 1995. I was in college, in New York for my birthday and a job interview. My sister Kate was with me and she was dead set on finding as much of a discontinued purple lipstick (Christian Dior’s Ambiance) as possible. I mostly trailed around behind her, freezing, popping into the most interesting stores I could find near the make-up outposts she had listed out beforehand.
I did have a few places I wanted to visit, most of them food and book stores I’d read about somewhere. So while Kate was making the rounds through SoHo one afternoon, I walked down to Little Italy and found an hour’s worth of warmth at Di Palo. The hanging lines of cured meats, the oils, the vinegars, the rices, the sweets, the rounds and blocks of cheese, the Picolit jelly! The place and its proprietor Lou Di Palo were, by themselves, enough reason to move to New York. But while Kate stockpiled enough lipstick to last her through the end of the Clinton administration, I didn’t get the job and headed out west instead.
Though I try to make it to Di Palo whenever I’m in New York, the long lines and the lack of good storage don’t allow me to do much shopping there. So I was excited to hear about the launch of Di Palo Selects, the shop’s new online outpost where just about everything you can wait in line for at the corner of Grand and Mott is available for shipment anywhere in the U.S. (There’s also a handy Italian food glossary for those of us who forget which is the mucca and which is the capra.)
Visit: Di Palo Selects
Related: Notes on tasting pecorinos (Cookthink blog)
Browse: Italian Recipes at Cookthink.com
Note: This recipe originally appeared here on November 19. My apologies to everyone who gallantly tried the first vinegar pie recipe, which was the unsuccessful result of my having combined two recipes. Here is a newly tested recipe with what I think is an excellent filling. Remember that the meringue is sweet and will balance the filling. Allow the pie to cool completely so that it can be cut. If you have any trouble with lumps, put the filling in a food processor.
Vinegar pie sounds strange; but it is an old-fashioned American treat that tastes like butterscotch with a kick. It is a refreshing change from the usual pumpkin, apple pie or pecan pies at the holiday table. And guests and family will never guess the secret ingredient!
Recipe: Old-Fashioned Vinegar Pie (Barbara Kafka)
Related: More recipes by Barbara Kafka at Cookthink.com
We like to make post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches as much as anyone — especially when they’re made with mayo, good cheddar cheese and lettuce on toasted whole grain bread.
But we also like to mix it up.
Shredded leftover turkey tossed with yogurt, diced cucumber, chopped cilantro, curry powder, lime juice and dried cranberries makes a fresh, light Indian-style twist on a turkey salad — good on its own or stuffed into a pita pocket.
Since we’ll be making our Thanksgiving gravy with smoked turkey wings and thighs, we’ll use that reserved meat on top of red beans and saffron rice. (You can also cook the beans with an extra smoked turkey thigh in lieu of a ham hock.)
Do you have favorite ways to use leftover turkey?
Recipe: Curried Cranberry Turkey Salad (Cookthink)
Recipe: Heirloom Beans And Rice With Smoked Turkey (Cookthink)
Recipe: Turkey Spring Rolls (Hogwash)
Recipe: Turkey Mole Poblano With Corn (Andrew Schloss)
Recipe: Turkey Tetrazzini (Karina’s Kitchen)
Recipe: Turkey Enchiladas (Coconut And Lime)
Minced Words is Emily Brewster’s bi-weekly rumination on the language that we use to talk about food. Emily is a lexicographer for Merriam-Webster.
This week’s Root Source made me curious: why do we call the traditional centerpiece of our Thanksgiving table a “turkey”? Is there any relationship between the bird and the country?
The common turkey was most likely domesticated by the Indians of Pre-Columbian Mexico. Spanish colonists encountered turkeys there and took them home to Spain in the early 1500s. It didn’t take long for the birds to make their way back to England with a little help from their friends.
The English confused these new birds with a bird of African origin, one known as both guinea fowl (or guinea cock, named because it was often imported from the west African country of Guinea) and turkey-cock.
That same bird was also imported from a huge territory that the 16th century English called Turkey but that actually encompassed all of the Ottoman Empire — everything between parts of current-day Austria in the west, Iran in the east, southern Poland in the north, and northern Africa in the south.
The New World bird looked similar to its African cousin, and the English called it by the same name. By 1555, turkey-cock was being shortened to turkey, and we’ve been calling this New World bird by that name ever since.
In the 17th century, the turkey (as bred by the English) was brought to northern North America by English colonists. It seems unlikely that the first Thanksgiving dinner shared between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians in 1621 included turkey, but at some point along the way, turkeys became an indispensable part of the celebration.
Although more often employed by farmers and hunters, there are synonyms for turkey. Lost in lexicographical history are the particular Thomas and Jake who may have given us the name tom for an adult male turkey in the late 18th century and jake for a young wild turkey in the surprisingly recent late 1970s. And there’s gobbler, a word used for male turkeys since around 1737. Female turkeys, like chickens, are called hens. Young turkeys of both genders can be called poults.
Related: Root Source: Turkey (Cookthink)
Related: Are Brussels sprouts from Brussels? (Cookthink)
Related: More turkey facts than you would ever want to know (University of Illinois)
Carole Walter is the author of Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More. Find some of Carole’s recipes here or read more about her at www.carolewalter.com.
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Hair of the Dog is Cookthink’s Monday morning cocktail column by Rob Chirico, the author of the Field Guide to Cocktails. Read more about Rob here.
When actor Robert Armstrong was told by a policeman in the original King Kong that “the airplanes got him,” he replied, “It wasn’t the airplanes, it was beauty killed the beast.”
And it was vodka that killed — or severely maimed — the Sidecar, a classic cocktail that is a variation on a Daiquiri, using brandy in place of rum. (more…)
Don’t save all your cooking for turkey day — pour yourself a drink and start things off slowly this weekend with some easy side dishes that can be made ahead and kept or frozen until Thanksgiving.
1 Candied whole cranberries can hold in the refrigerator for two weeks. Or make some of Mama Stamberg’s famous cranberry freezer relish.
2 Pumpkin cheesecake freezes well or can be made four days ahead and stored in the fridge.
3 A toasted pecan vinaigrette makes a lovely dressing for Thanksgiving green beans — prepare them separately a day ahead and assemble when you’re ready to eat.
4 Mashed potatoes should be made on the day itself, but not necessarily at the last minute. Keep them warm by putting them in a heat-proof bowl, covering them tightly with plastic wrap or foil and setting them over a bain marie.
5 And if you really can’t stand the heat, this make-ahead gravy (secret: turkey wings) will get you out of the kitchen and to the Thanksgiving table in no time.
Are you spending this Thanksgiving with just one or two other people, or just don’t feel like a big traditional production, whole bird, side dishes and all?
These days you can buy the bird in so many forms — turkey pieces, turkey cutlets (or tenders), turkey sausages, smoked wings and legs, rolled or bone-in breast roasts — that there are endless options for cooking turkey.
With that in mind, we put together a simple, elegant saltimbocca that’s a take on the classic Italian veal saltimbocca. We substituted turkey cutlets, rolled up with prosciutto and sage, lightly fried, finished with a white wine pan sauce and served over a bed of pasta.
