Everything We Ate: Savory
Friendsgiving was seriously epic, if I do say so myself. When the people you gravitate towards love food as much as you do, and you ask them to bring a dish to share with a bunch of other people who love food, you end up with an incredible spread. We had brussels sprouts shredded with cumin as well as cooked with a spicy almond butter dressing, and cardamom sweet potato with miso tomato sauce, pretzel stuffing and polenta stuffing, and even homemade cheese. All these dishes and recipes would be at home on a holiday spread or any winter weekend, so perhaps they can inspire a meal for you too.
I was planning to write up all of the dishes in brief today, but in asking my friends about what they did, many of them created such great content that I realized I was maybe accidentally compiling a zine. Someday I might reprint everything nicely in that format, but for now I’m splitting the recipes into savory this week and sweet next week so that it’s not impractically long.
Seaweed and butternut squash pastries
Great finger food appetizer, just small enough to fit in the mouth of a very quiet cat who runs away to the living room and devours half of it before you can take it away from her. I made a variation of an NGI recipe, basically soaking/draining a combination of arame and hijiki and then simmering it with water and eventually tamari, mirin, maple syrup, and fresh ginger juice. I mixed it with some slightly caramelized onions and roasted butternut squash, and then rolled this filling into a puff pastry log, which I brushed with sesame oil and scored diagonally so that I could cut it into pieces. I baked it at 400°F for a little over 30 minutes and then served at room temperature.
Baked brie
I can’t think of a reason not to make a baked brie, since it’ll take you barely five minutes of preparation and always gets devoured instantly, no matter what other painstakingly-assembled dishes are on the table. I sliced off the top rind of a wheel of Camembert, drizzled it with honey and then covered with dried cherries. I wrapped it in a piece of puff pastry, gave an egg wash, and baked at 400°F for 25 minutes. I managed to keep people out of it for about 10 minutes, but it still oozed when I cut it open, and there was nothing wrong with that.
Pepper-filled mushrooms
Sam said he found a recipe for mushroom-stuffed peppers but wanted pepper-stuffed mushrooms, so he just turned it inside out. These little bites were so satisfying, they’d be a great appetizer for a fancy-feeling party.
Ingredients
20 medium cremini mushrooms, stems removed
1 large sweet potato
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
12 shiitake mushrooms, chopped
½ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp dried parsley
¼ tsp herbes de Provence
Salt and black pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
Half of a lime
Method
Steam or roast the sweet potato until done. Let cool slightly and remove peel. Set aside
Heat oven to 400 F
In a pan over medium heat, sauté garlic in olive oil until fragrant, about one minute
Add shiitake and bell pepper and sauté until mushrooms soften, about eight minutes
Turn off heat and add red pepper flakes, oregano, parsley, and herbes de Provence
Add sweet potato to pan and mash it in to the other ingredients until consistent
Taste filling and season with salt and pepper. Set aside
Brush outside of creminis with olive oil
Using a small silicone spatula (or spoon), scoop a tablespoon-ish of filling into the underside of each cremini.
Arrange the mushrooms on a sheet pan (or two), filling-side up, and bake until mushrooms brown, around 20 minutes. Drizzle lime juice over mushrooms before serving hot.
Sicilian cauliflower
I had this dish at restaurants twice recently, and it was so simple and I loved it so much I wanted to recreate it at home. I’d say it’s slightly better hot out of the oven, but still very good at room temperature, which makes it work for a party like this. I added roasted brussels to the dish to make it “seasonal” but in retrospect I think it’s better with just cauliflower.
Roast some cauliflower in olive oil, salt and pepper, at 420°F until it’s cooked but still a little firm inside. Meanwhile, fry some sliced garlic in olive oil, toast a handful of pine nuts, and soak some golden raisins in white wine vinegar. You can also zest a full lemon and pick some parsley leaves and then chop them. In a bowl, combine the roasted cauliflower, soaked golden raisins with all the vinegar, fried garlic, toasted pine nuts, lemon zest, parsley, and some capers (you can include some of their brine). Add some of your nicest olive oil and toss together. Taste and add some fresh black pepper and maybe salt, although it might be salty enough from the capers. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Cardamom sweet potato with spicy miso tomato sauce
I don't like sweet vegetables usually, but contrasting the sweetness with spicy acidity the way Annie did with this dish took it from stodgy to bright and added a much-needed sharpness to the plate. She adapted this from the @ixta.belfrage and @ottolenghi recipe in their Flavor book, but used cherry tomatoes and spicy miso tomato paste that she stewed until the tomatoes popped. She cut the sweet potatoes super thin to pan fry on a cast iron pan, cooking until the color changed on one side and then flipping at the very end and adding Maldon salt and more cardamom. She sprinkled pomegranate seeds all over the dish which made it look even cuter and added another bright pop of acidity.
Kung Pao brussels sprouts
Amy’s mom made a delightful savory, spicy brussels sprouts dish. Based on this recipe, but with the important addition of a tablespoon of almond butter and teaspoon of gochugaru. The nut butter creaminess is what will bring me back to this recipe, when I get tired of my usual method of roasting hell out of brussels with olive oil and salt.
Hashed brussels sprouts with cumin
Our upstairs neighbors showed up with these brussels and the stuffing below. The sprouts are sliced and then lightly cooked, making this feel more like a salad. The cumin is what I noticed immediately, so I’d definitely include that instead of or in addition to the black mustard seeds.
Mushroom-cornbread stuffing
I loved how thick and moist this stuffing was, almost like bread pudding. It would be a great one-pot meal for any time of the day. I also had no idea it was gluten-free until just now when I looked at the recipe. Polenta pulls all the weight here, giving it that cornbread-like texture without requiring you to make cornbread and dry it out.
Pretzel stuffing with onions, sausage, mustard, and fried celery
My idea for pretzel stuffing worked okay, in that it tasted great and I’m happy with the leftovers, but the pretzel didn’t come through as strongly as I wanted. I used some packaged pretzel buns I found, but I’d like to try again with fresh soft pretzels even if I have to travel to the Upper East Side to hunt them down.
To make it yourself, you could follow this recipe as a template. Instead of sautéing the celery, I deep-fried it until it just started to brown (this takes around 10 minutes and can initially cause your pot to boil over if you’re not careful) and sprinkled the crunchy celery on top of the dish. I also added some slices of Field Roast Apple Sage Sausage, cooking them in a skillet with oil on one side until they browned, and then flipping each one over to brown on the other side. Finally, I mixed a couple spoonfuls of brown mustard into the stock before pouring it over the casserole, and added a good sprinkling of caraway seeds throughout. I topped the whole thing with butter, as Deb recommends, but you could easily make it vegan by using olive oil instead.
Tangzhong milk bread rolls
I got my recipe from King Arthur, the only place I ever get baking recipes, and my idea was to keep bringing out hot trays of fresh rolls as the night went on. That plan slightly underestimated the oven capacity and overestimated the appetites of everyone with so many things to eat, but I got about two trays baked and pounced on just as they came out of the oven.
I followed the recipe pretty closely, but mixed the dough the night before and did the bulk rise overnight in the fridge. I also went with 1/3 the amount of yeast (so 1 teaspoon instead of 1 tablespoon) but an additional teaspoon of my sourdough starter. The dough was very wet so I needed to add a little flour when kneading, but I also found that giving it at least five minutes of rest time during kneading helped shape it into a ball. I divided the dough into 16 pieces rather than the recommended 8 or 10, which was a good party size, and I coated the rolls with an egg wash and a mix of sesame seeds and fried garlic before baking.
Thanksgiving sausage
Jenn came through with the meat, but made it original, and classy af, and thankfully didn’t leave us a huge amount of leftovers that Anthony and the cat would have to work through for the next month. She smoked some turkey legs with Sichuan peppercorns, and also made this sausage. It had a Meat Hook casing that enclosed a mix of ground turkey, pork fat, Smallhold shiitake mushrooms, chardonnay cooked cranberries, golden syrup, garlic confit, roasted butternut squash, fresh thyme, scallion, and instant potato to bind it all. The idea was thanksgiving in a bite, and Anthony says the combination was complex and fun, and had enough going on that it didn’t need condiments.
Pecan-crusted tofu
These tofu triangles provided a nice satisfying and seasonal-feeling protein, which could make them work well as an entrée for a sit-down dinner. Adapted from Street Vegan, the Cinnamon Snail cookbook.
Ingredients
2 cups coarsely ground pecans
¼ cup chopped fresh rosemary leaves
½ cup wheat germ
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup Corn Flake crumbs or panko bread crumbs
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp sea salt
1 ½ cups unsweetened soy milk
2 tbsp stone-ground mustard
16 oz tofu or seitan, sliced into 2-3 inch long, ½ inch cutlets
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
Method
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly oil the paper
In a medium bowl, combine pecans, rosemary, wheat germ, ¼ cup flour, corn flake crumbs, coriander, salt.
In a separate wide, shallow bowl, beat the soy milk and mustard together with a fork; the milk will curdle.
In a third bowl, place the remaining 2 cups flour.
Working with 1 tofu cutlet at a time, toss in flour, shake off excess. Submerge in curdled soy milk and lift out, let excess drip back into bowl. Toss cutlet in pecan mixture the place on prepared baking sheet.
Drizzle prepped cutlets with olive oil. Bake 14-17 minutes to get crispy golden status.
Creamy mashed potatoes with ghee and rosemary
I never make creamy mashed potatoes, only craggy roasted ones, but this was the best of its kind. Sonali got this recipe from Kenji López-Alt’s The Food Lab, though the ghee and rosemary addition was her own invention. She learned that the type of potatoes matter in the recipe, since russets would be cooked differently from Yukon Gold. She also learned that ricing, milling or box grating the cooked potatoes are far superior to mashing, since it ensures the potatoes don’t become a starchy sticky mess. If you notice the box grater getting gummy, rinse it and continue. This cuts the cells with minimal action to break up the starch.
Ingredients
5lbs. russet baking potatoes
2 sticks of unsalted butter
2.5 cups of whole milk
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Optional: ghee and chopped rosemary to top
Method
Peel and halve the potatoes.
Add them to boiling water (I use an electric kettle to get the water to boil and pour it into the heating dutch oven).
Boil for 15 min till tender and you can pierce it with a knife. I let it go for 18 min.
Heat the milk and butter on medium low to let them melt together in a saucepan.
Remove potatoes when ready and rinse with *hot water* to wash off excess starch
Use wide tooth squares of a box grater to grate the potato back into the Dutch oven.
Fold in the milk and butter with the grated potatoes while on low heat. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir carefully with a folding motion.
Just before serving, melt some ghee in a small pot or tadka and add a handful of chopped rosemary. Pour it over the potatoes. Serve hot.
Mout d’Ark cheese
My friend Arkadiy made his own damn cheese for this party. If you want to try this, you’re going to need more direction than I’m providing here (plus a culturing fridge), but I asked him about his method anyway. He started with an earlier cheese he’d made plus a Spanish sheep cheese with unusual yellow mold. After the initial culturing phase, he used a “morge” process for the wash, which is a mixture of ingredients for the cheese rind, like whey and mead, blended together and smeared regularly on the outside for a couple weeks. The whole thing took about two months. I’ve sampled Ark’s cheeses since he started this and they really are getting more and more flavorful as he goes.