Pre-Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving is a time of gathering your family close and remembering all that we have and how very blessed we are. And how much we as Americans love to eat.

This year, thanks to my sister running the Philly 1/2 marathon, we decided to gather the family a few days early to gorge ourselves on a non traditional feast of caprese salad, braised beef, carrots, green beans, sweet potato casserole, lush and breads. I figured everyone would be having turkey in a few days time so I didn't want to over do it. Sadly I forgot to take pictures in the rush to get everything to the table.

Normally I tell people to never make something that you've never tried before for a dinner party but I never follow my own rules and this was no exception. Luckily everything turned out well and I know why. Julia Child and Ruth, owner of Ruth's Chris Steak House (actually I'm sure it's not Ruth's recipe but some awesome chef who works or worked there).

Most of what we made was simple. The green beans were steamed and I poured butter over them. The carrots were braised in beef broth.I left the breads and lush to my mother-in-law and my sister.

The major challenge, as is with every meal, was the main course of braised beef.The only reason I didn't miss something was by reading the recipe 4 times. The meat marinated over night in red wine, onion, and spices. The major dilemma was the size. I had 10 lbs of meat to cook. 2 stock pots worked nicely, however my refrigerator was a tad over stuffed the evening before. Julia Child wrote her recipes without much regard for how long things take. Good food takes time, how much times appears to be a mystery. Had I not read the recipe almost obsessively I would have missed how long it takes to brown the meat, and not had the beef on the table in time. Or I might have missed the carrots and onions, which are actually not necessary, and she calls for WAY too much carrot. 2 lbs of carrots is a lot. Even for 20 people. Everything turned out great, the gravy made from the marinade was amazing.

Disclaimer: If you're not confident with your recipe reading and following abilities don't try this at home! Make the recipe once first to make sure you don't miss something. I like to live on the edge a little. And I know I can make Julia's recipes, I understand them; but they're not for the feint of heart.

The real winner of the day had to be the Sweet Potato Casserole. It was like eating dessert made with a vegetable. Really it could be passed off as a dessert.
I can't take any responsibility for this recipe. It was pulled from the internet.

Ruth's Chris Sweet Potato Casserole:

Sweet Potato Mix:
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs (well beaten)
1/4 cup butter melted

Crust ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans preferred)
1/2 cup butter (melted)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs, and butter.
3. Pour misture into a buttered baking dish (I used a 10 inch cast iron skillet)
4. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. While that bakes mix brown sugar, flour, chopped nuts and 1/2 cup butter together.
6. After 30 minutes sprinkle the surface of the sweet potato mixture with the crust mixture
7. Bake for 10 minutes.
8. Allow casserole to set for 30 minutes before serving.

If you want the casserole to be hot you can put it back in the oven right before you put it on the table for a minute or 2, but the cast iron should hold the heat pretty well.

Sweet Potato Gnocci Part II The tasting...

I made the sweet potato gnocchi. It’s pretty good for a first effort but I think I can do better. I found that because sweet potatoes are much more moist than potatoes I used a lot more flour, which in turn made the gnocchi more dense. Instead of light pillows of potato goodness I had the equivalent of a latex pillow, very dense, but good. I bet I can improve with a little tweaking. I need to figure out how to dry out the sweet potatoes a bit. I think if I slice them and bake them on a low heat for a longer they should end up dryer, then I can send them through the food mill or the food processor and see what happens!

The sauce was also a good first effort but by no means the end of the line. I used ½ bottle of pinot noir, ½ box of beef stock, 2 pats of butter, poultry gravy mix (I haven’t been about to pick up the beef gravy mix yet), ginger, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, basil, salt, and pepper. I definitely used way too much ginger. I had to work to counteract the gingery kick by adding the thyme and tarragon. I think there were a few too many flavors going on all at once. Next time I’m going to cut back a bit. I’ll take out the ginger and basil and see where that takes me.

I used a neat little trick with the pepper. I wanted a nice strong peppery flavor so I took some whole peppercorns and put them in a plastic bag and crushed them with a meat tenderizer. I suppose if I had a mortar and pestle I wouldn’t need to do that, but why waste the money on a mortar and pestle when I can smash things with a hammer?

After we ate dinner I realized how much stuff was floating in my sauce and decided that I needed to do something about that. Before I packed up the leftovers for lunch I strained the gravy through a mesh strainer to remove all the bits and pieces of spices. Now I have a velvety smooth sauce! The only thing I need to do now is figure out how to thicken it up a bit without adding cream or too much flour. Time for more brainstorming.

I've figured it out!! I think...

I haven't tried it yet so bear with me...

I was challenged to make sweet potato gnocchi a few months ago. This should be pretty straight forward, same a regular potato gnocchi (I hope). Bake the sweet potatoes. Take off the skins and run the potatoes through a ricers or food mill. Add flour until the dough is not sticky. I also usually add nutmeg and probably still will for the sweet potatoes.

My biggest worry thus far has been what to serve it with. Normal red gravy or pesto wasn’t going to work, a cheese sauce would overpower the taste of the sweet potato but the normal topping for sweet potatoes might be a bit much (brown sugar and butter). I wanted to make a sauce that would complement and enhance the flavors of the sweet potato. I was inspired by the flavors of Outback Steakhouse. Normally when I go there I get a petit filet or the sirloin, green beans, and a baked sweet potato with all the fixings. So with that in mind I came up with an idea. Borrowing the steak flavor and the sweetness of the brown sugar I think I’ve nailed the sauce. I’ll need to tweak it when I actually put it together but here it is:

Red wine
Beef stock
McCormick’s brown gravy mix
Molasses (for the sweetness) with a tang
A little bit of worstershire sauce
Salt
Pepper

Mix the red wine, beef stock and molasses in a heavy sauce pan on medium/high head and cook until boiling. Whisk in the brown gravy mix. Add a little bit of worstershire sauce to taste. Continue to cook until the sauce thickens up a bit.

The plan is to make this on Monday or Tuesday. So I’ll report back on Wednesday and let you know how it goes!