Thanksgiving Recipes
Go to Thanksgiving Restaurant list.
Here are the Thanksgiving recipes everybody always asks me for. (And which I cook for my own family every year.) Now get that turkey thawed and get started!
Here’s our favorite Thanksgiving menu. Click on the dish name for the recipe.
Oysters Bienville
Brined and Sugar-Cane Smoked Turkey
Turkey Giblet Gravy
Root Beer-Glazed Ham
Fennel, Italian Sausage, and Cornbread Stuffing
Prickly Pear Cactus and Cranberry Jelly.
Mushroom and Gruyere Bread Pudding.
Lyonnaise Potatoes.
Mirliton and Root Vegetable Gratin.
Sweet Potato Casserole
Turkey-Andouille Gumbo
Popovers.
Orange Cheesecake
Apple Pandowdy, Fancy Style.
Oysters Bienville
When cooking, oysters release a good deal of water, and that can rip the sauce apart. The solution is to use more bread crumbs than looks or feels right. And to have the sauce fully cooked and hot before it goes into the oven, so that the dish can be cooked mostly by heat from above.
1 lb. small shrimp (50 count), peeled, rinsed, and chopped coarsely
1 stick butter
1 rib celery, chopped coarsely
1 large, ripe red bell pepper, seeds and membrane removed, chopped coarsely
8 oz. small white mushrooms, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup dry sherry
4 strips lean bacon, fried crisp, crumbled
2 green onions, sliced finely
1 cup of oyster water (or as much as you can get, plus enough water to make a cup)
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup warm milk
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp. salt-free Creole seasoning
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 dozen large oysters, well drained
1. Heat 1 tsp. of the butter in a skillet until it bubbles. Sauté the chopped shrimp until it turns pink. Remove and set aside.
2. Add 2 Tbs. butter to the pan and heat until it bubbles. Add the celery, bell pepper, and mushrooms. Sauté until they get tender. Add the sherry and bring to a boil for about one minute.
3. Add the shrimp, bacon, and green onions. Cook for another minute, then add the oyster water. Bring it to a boil and cook for about two minutes. The sauce should be wet but not sloshy. Remove from heat.
4. Heat the remaining butter over medium-low heat in a saucepan. Stir in the flour to make a blond roux. When you see the first hints of browning, remove from the heat and whisk in the hot milk to form a béchamel. (It will have the texture of mashed potatoes.)
5. Add the egg yolks to the béchamel, stirring quickly to combine it before the eggs have a chance to set. Whisk the mozzarella slowly into the béchamel.
6. Add the béchamel to the pan with the shrimp mixture. Stir to into combine completely.
7. Combine the Creole seasoning, salt, bread crumbs, and cheeses. Blend two-thirds of this mixture into the sauce.
8. Cover the bottom of a shallow baking dish with oysters, leaving just a little space between them. Top with the Bienville sauce. Sprinkle the top with the remaining bread crumb mixture. Bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for about 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of the baking dish). The dish is done when it’s bubbling and the top is browned.
Serves eight to twelve.
Brined and Sugar-Cane Smoked Turkey
I cook my turkey in a big barbecue pit. It gets hotter than a smoker, but because I keep the turkey away from direct heat, it cooks slowly and absorbs a lot of smoky flavor. It comes out with a crisp skin with a beautiful orange-bronze color. It also smells wonderful, and retains more moisture than it would if it were cooked any other way. I get the sugar cane that I use with the charcoal from a friend’s sugar plantation. It’s worth the trip upriver to St. James Parish for that. During the harvest (which takes place right before Thanksgiving most years), most growers will let you take as much of their scrap as you want. If you can’t get sugar cane, standard smoking woods like pecan, oak, hickory, or mesquite will do the job.
1 turkey, about 12-15 pounds
Salt and pepper
2 ribs celery, cut up
1 onion, cut up
1 orange, cut into eighths
1 lemon, cut into quarters
A shake of tarragon
A stem of fresh rosemary
1. Thaw the turkey if frozen. This takes at least four days, and should be done in the refrigerator. Put it into the pan you’ll roast it in to catch any leaks. After it thaws, remove that metal or plastic thing holding the legs together (a pair of pliers is essential, I find). Remove the giblets and neck from the cavity, and clip off the wing tips. (You can use these parts for making stock for the gravy.)
2. The day before, marinate the turkey in a brine. The standard proportion is one cup of salt to one gallon of water. Make enough of this to completely cover the turkey in an ice chest with an unopened (so as not to dilute the brine) bag of ice to keep everything cold. The brining process takes twelve to eighteen hours for a fifteen-pound turkey. Another method is to put the turkey and the brine solution inside a leakproof plastic bag, and put it into the refrigerator.
3. The morning of the day you want to serve the turkey, dump the brine and rinse the bird very well inside and out with cold water. Season it with salt (yes!) and pepper. Stuff the cavity with all the other ingredients, and tie the legs just tightly enough to keep everything inside.
4. Fire up the grill with charcoal and sugar cane or smoking wood, soaked in water and then shaken dry. Put the turkey into an aluminum pan with a loose tent of foil over the top. Place the turkeys as far as possible away from the fire, and hang a curtain of foil down to ward off direct heat. Any heat that gets to the turkey should arrive in smoke.
5. Close the cover. Add coals and cane at intervals to maintain a temperature of 200 to 250 degrees inside the pit. It takes six to seven hours for the internal temperature of the turkey to reach about 180 degrees. Use a meat thermometer for this; the useless pop-up plastic indicator will pop only when the turkey is overcooked.
6. Take the turkey out and put it on the table to rest and cool before carving. Although it may be tempting, don’t use the drippings for the gravy. They reduce so much during the long cooking time that they become impossibly salty.
Turkey Giblet Gravy
Turkey neck and wing tips
Giblets other than liver
1 onion, cut up
1 rib celery, cut up
Stems from a bunch of parsley
1 small carrot, cut up
1/4 tsp. leaf thyme
1/4 tsp. marjoram
1/2 tsp. black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Pan juices and drippings from turkey
1/4 cup flour
1. Bring two quarts of water to a boil and add the turkey necks, the giblets, onion, celery, parsley, and carrot. Put the thyme, marjoram, peppercorns, and bay leaf into an herb infuser or cheesecloth pouch and add to the pot. Keep at a low boil for two hours, or long enough to reduce the liquid by about half.
2. Strain the stock and chill until the turkey’s ready.
3. After removing the turkey from the roasting pan, pour the drippings into a gravy separator or small bowl and let stand to allow the fat to rise to the top. Meanwhile, add a little water to the pan and scrape up the browned bits on the inside bottom. Add this to the drippings.
4. Remove all the fat you can from the drippings, but save about one-fourth of a cup of the fat. Use this with the flour to make a light roux in a separate pan.
5. Combine the stock, the defatted drippings and the roux in a saucepan over low heat. Whisk as it comes to a boil to get a smooth texture. Add salt and pepper, if needed, to taste.
Root Beer-Glazed Ham
In New Orleans, we use the superb, locally-produced Chisesi ham for this. Otherwise, a top-quality, lean, naturally-smoked boneless ham is what you want.
The drippings get so crusty that you’ll want to use a disposable pan to bake the ham. The stuff is impossible to dislodge.
Glaze:
24 oz. (two cans) Barq’s root beer
1 1/2 Tbs. pepper jelly
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 Tbs. Tabasco Caribbean style steak sauce (or Pickapeppa)
6 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
Peel and juice of one-half an orange
Peel of half a lemon
1 cured, smoked ham, about 10-14 pounds
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1. I usually make the glaze the night before, so I can get the ham right into the oven in the morning. Combine all the glaze ingredients in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower to a simmer, and cook for about a half-hour. Strain the pan contents and discard the solids. Reduce the liquid to about a half-cup. Refrigerate if you do this in advance.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the ham on a rack in a disposable aluminum pan. Cut shallow gashes in a criss-cross pattern across the top half. Spoon the glaze over the ham to completely wet the surface.
3. Combine the brown sugar and the dry mustard and pat it all over the ham. Pour a half-cup of water into the pan. Put the ham in the oven at 350 degrees.
4. Spoon some of the glaze over the top of the ham at 15-minute intervals until it’s all used up. Try to get some glaze on all parts of the ham. Add more water to the pan when it dries up.
5. Continue baking until the ham reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees on a meat thermometer. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a half-hour before carving.
Serves twenty to thirty.
Fennel, Italian Sausage,
and Cornbread Stuffing
When we started smoking our Thanksgiving turkey, the cornbread-andouille stuffing we used to do became one smoky thing too many. So, inspired by a recipe I saw in Gourmet, I changed my recipe to use Italian sausage. Since that already had an anise flavor, I thought I’d take it one step further with fennel. This is also pretty good baked over oysters.
If you have fresh herbs available for the thyme, tarragon, or chervil, use twice the amounts shown here.
3 cups chicken or turkey stock
1 1/2 pounds spicy Italian sausage
1 stick butter
2 medium onions, chopped
2 bunches fennel (all parts, not just the bulbs), chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 bunch green onions, tender parts only, chopped
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, bottom stems removed, chopped
1 10-oz. bag fresh spinach, well washed and picked of big stems
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. tarragon
1 tsp. chervil
2 oz. Herbsaint or Pernod
Stuffing Cornbread (see recipe below)
2 eggs
1 pint half-and-half
1. In a large saucepan, bring one cup of the stock to a boil. Break the sausage into the pan and cook, stirring with a fork to break it up, until it no longer looks raw–about six minutes. Transfer the sausage to a bowl.
2. Heat the butter in the saucepan until it bubbles. Add the chopped onion, fennel, celery, and green onions. Sauté until tender. (Note: It might be easier to do this in two batches, starting with half the butter for each batch.) When finished, transfer the chopped vegetables to the bowl with the sausage.
3. Add a half-cup of stock to the pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the spinach, parsley, salt, pepper, thyme, tarragon, and sage. Cook until the spinach and parsley wilt, then add the Herbsaint. Cook another minute, then turn off the heat.
4. Remove the spinach mixture and chop. Add the chopped spinach mixture to the sausage bowl. Toss all the contents of the bowl to mix well.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
5. In another bowl, beat the eggs, then whisk in the half-and-half and the remaining chicken stock.
6. Break up the cornbread into morsels (not quite crumbs). Put the cornbread into a large bowl and add the milk-egg mixture. Stir lightly to combine.
7. Add the sausage mixture to the cornbread, and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.
8. Load into a baking dish or two. Press down the top of the stuffing to flatten it out. Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes (longer for larger baking dishes), until the top has browned nicely.
Serves about fifteen.
Stuffing Cornbread
This is the very dry cornbread needed to make the stuffing above, and makes the right amount for that recipe.
3 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 cups self-rising cornmeal
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. granulated onion
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
1. In a large plastic or glass bowl, beat the eggs and add the buttermilk. Then add the melted butter while briskly whisking.
2. Combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, and granulated onion in a second bowl. Add the mixture to the bowl with the liquid ingredients and whisk to blend. Use a rubber spatula to get rid of any pockets of dry flour. Add a little water if necessary.
3. Grease a shallow baking pan or two (or use non-stick pans). Fill the pans about two-thirds full with the mixture, and bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.
4. Remove the pans and let them cool completely. This recipe works best if you make it a day or two ahead, and let it dry out even more.
Prickly Pear Cactus and Cranberry Jelly
I have a large pricklypear cactus growing outside my back door. Most years (but not this one, for some reason) it produces large numbers of dark pruple-red fruits. I make these into either jelly or syrup, depending on whether it sets or not. This year, I turned my less bountiful harvest into a variation on cranberry sauce–the jellied kind. You need a juice extractor to do this. In my experience, it pulls all the spines out of the cactus–even the tiniest ones. But check to make sure.
24 or so ripe pricklypear cactus fruits
1 bag fresh cranberries.
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 box pectin
3 cups sugar
1. Wash the pricklypears and the cranberries. Run them through a juice extractor, and save the juice. Run the pulp back through a second time, with the lemon juice. Blend the two batches of juice. You should have about two and a half to three cups of juice.
2. In a saucepan, dissolve the pectin into the juice and bring to a boil. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Return to a boil and cook for two more minutes. Remove from heat. Skim the foam.
3. After boiling new canning jars and lids in the usual way (see instructions that come with the jars), fill the jars with the juice mixture and screw the lids on tightly. Process the filled jars in boiling water for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the jars from the boiler and turn them upside-down for about five minutes. Turn them upright again and allow to cool for an hour. Check to make sure all the seals are good and the lids have curved inward.
Makes about six eight-ounce jars.
Savory Bread Pudding with Mushrooms
This is at its best with meaty, wild-tasting mushrooms: portobellos, criminis, shiitakes, chanterelles, porcinis, etc. The best cheeses are the ones that melt well and have an interesting tang: Gruyere, Fontina, Swiss, Provolone, mozzarella. (If you use the latter two, use a little Parmesan, too.)
3 cups half-and-half
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. butter
18 inches of a loaf of stale French bread
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 1/2 cup shredded Gruyere, Fontina, or other easy-melting white cheese
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
1. Combine the half-and-half, eggs, Worcestershire, Tabasco, and salt in a bowl and blend well.
2. Slice the bread into thin (about 1/4 inch) slices. Butter the inside of a 9″x5″x4″ baking dish or casserole. Place a layer of bread along the bottom. Sprinkle one-third each of the cheese, mushrooms, and green onions over the bread. Pour one-fourth of the milk-egg mixture over this, enough to soak it well. Push down gently until the bread is soaked.
3. Repeat the layers in the same order as above, following with a dousing of liquid. Finish with a layer of bread and the last of the liquid.
4. Place the baking dish in a pan of warm water and put the entire assembly into the preheated oven. Bake for an hour and 15 minutes at 300 degrees. Let it cool for at least a half-hour before serving. It can be sliced, but it’s perfectly fine to spoon it right out of the dish at the table.
Serves eight.
Lyonnaise Potatoes
The classic potato side dish in New Orleans steakhouses, this is a simple combination of potatoes and onions. It’s also a great way to serve potatoes for a big dinner (Thanksgiving, for example), because they remain delicious even when lukewarm.
3 lbs. white potatoes
1 stick butter
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 green onion, finely sliced
1 Tbs. Creole seasoning
1. Boil the potatoes for about ten minutes, or until a kitchen fork jabbed into the biggest potato slips out when you lift the potato out of the water. Rinse the potatoes in cool water to stop further cooking.
2. Slice the potatoes first from end to end, then into half-discs about a half-inch thick.
3. Heat half the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until it bubbles, and sauté the onions until they just begin to brown at the edges.
4. Add the potatoes, green onions, and the remaining butter to the pan and cook, without stirring, until the potatoes have browned on the bottom. Turn the potatoes over and brown the other side. Add Creole seasoning to taste.
Serves six to eight.
Mirliton and Root Vegetable Gratin
I originally served this dish at one of my Christmas dinners, and it was so well received that I’ve made it often since. It’s a variation on the French classic gratin Savoyard, with other root vegetables instead of the usual potatoes. It uses mirlitons, a favorite vegetable around New Orleans. It’s called chayote elsewhere.
2 slices lemon
2 whole cloves
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1 rutabagas, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch-thick slices
2 lbs. carrots, peeled and cut on the bias into 1/4-inch-thick coins
2 lbs. parsnips, prepared the same way as the carrots (substitute: turnips)
4 mirlitons, halved, seed removed, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese
1 1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 pint whipping cream
2 egg yolks, beaten
Pinch nutmeg
1 tsp, white pepper
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup bread crumbs
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a rolling boil with the lemon, cloves, and peppercorns. Add the rutabagas (it helps to do this in a large sieve or a chinoise), boil for about two minutes, remove and drain. Repeat with the carrots, parsnips, and mirlitons. (The mirlitons will only require about one minute.
2. Crush the garlic cloves, and use them to wipe the inside of a two-inch-deep, 12-by-9-inch glass baking dish. Discard what’s left of the garlic.
3. Layer the vegetables in the baking dish, in the order listed. Sprinkle a mixture of the cheeses between the layers. Season with white pepper and (sparingly) nutmeg. The cheeses will provide all the salt this needs.
4. Combine the whipping cream and the egg yolks thoroughly. Pour the mixture over the vegetables. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake in the preheated 400-degree oven for one hour.
5. Remove the foil, sprinkle bread crumbs in a thin layer over the top, and return to the oven. Continue baking until the crust browns.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to rest and cool for at least ten minutes before serving. This is better warm than hot.
Makes about 12 side portions.
Dirty Rice
Dirty rice is the brother of jambalaya. It’s much less complex, yet in its way is every bit as delicious. Unlike jambalaya, which can be served as a main course, dirty rice is a side dish. It’s also a way to use all that stuff you pull out of the inside of a whole chicken. While you can use the heart, it’s better to leave that out, and use about 50 percent chicken liver.
1/2 pound turkey giblets (heart removed)
1 large onion
1 green bell pepper with seeds, stem and membrane removed
1 rib celery
1/2 pound ground pork (desirable: substitute up to a third of this with pork liver)
2 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. salt-free Creole seasoning
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1 1/2 cups Uncle Ben’s or other par-boiled rice
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1. In two or three batches, chop the giblets, onion, bell pepper, and celery in a food processor until finely chopped.
2. Sauté the ground pork in a skillet until all the pink is gone. Drain the excess fat.
3. Heat the butter in a large, heavy saucepan and sauté the chicken-vegetable mixture until the onions are clear. Add the Worcestershire, crushed red pepper, Creole seasoning, salt, and marjoram. Stir, cover the pot, lower the heat, and simmer.
4. While that’s cooking, prepare cook the rice. Put it, the chicken stock, and the salt into another saucepan. Bring the stock to a boil, lower to a simmer, cover, and cook 25 minutes, until all the liquid has been absorbed.
5. When the rice is cooked, fluff it with a kitchen fork and add it to the pan with the chicken-vegetable mixture. Add the ground pork. Stir to distribute all the ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Dump the mixture loosely into a pan and bake in a 300-degree oven for about five minutes, longer if the rice is very damp. It should be a little dry but not hard.
Serves eight side dishes.
Sweet Potato Casserole
This holiday side dish came to me from a radio listener who said she got it from Ruth’s Chris Steak House. I question that–Ruth’s has been reluctant to let its recipes out of its vaults. Regardless of that, this is a very good recipe for Thanksgiving (or any other time, really), with just the right touch of sweetness and spice and a fine contrast in texture from the pecan crust that covers the top, almost like a gratin.
Crust:
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups whole pecans
1/3 stick butter, melted
Filling:
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 eggs, well beaten
1 stick butter, softened but not melted
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the inside of a two-inch-deep casserole dish with butter and set aside.
2. Combine all the crust ingredients in a food processor until the pecans are ground to pieces about the size of small peas. Set aside.
3. Put the sweet potatoes into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until they get fluffy. Add the sugar, salt, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. Beat until no gritty sugar remains undissolved.
4. Add the eggs and beat for several minutes, until it is visibly much fluffier. Add the butter two tablespoons at a time until it’s completely blended in.
5. With a rubber spatula, move the filling into the baking dish and spread the top evenly. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
6. Pour the crust mixture over the top of the casserole, and return the casserole to the oven. Raise the temperature to 375 degrees and bake 10 minutes, or until the topping is bubbling a little. Remove from the oven and let the casserole cool and rest for at least 30 minutes, uncovered.
Serves 10-12.
Turkey-Andouille Gumbo
This is one of those soups that gets better after it sits in the refrigerator for a day. You might consider doing that, which will also reduce the amount of time needed on the stove by about a third.
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
One or two cooked turkey carcasses, with all available scraps
3 quarts chicken stock (or water)
1 Tbs. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. Tabasco
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1 lb. andouille or smoked sausage
2 green onions, chopped
2-3 cups cooked rice
Filé powder (available from stores with New Orleans products)
1. Blend the flour and the oil in a saucepan and make as dark a roux as you can, stirring constantly to avoid burning it. (The higher the heat, the more assiduously you must stir.)
2. When the roux is medium-dark, turn down the heat and add the onion, bell pepper, celery and parsley. Sauté them in the roux until the onions are clear and have begun to brown a little.
3. Add the turkey bones and meat to the pot, along with the chicken stock or water, salt, pepper, Tabasco, bay leaves, and thyme. Bring to a simmer and cook for about an hour.
4. Slice the andouille into one-inch-thick discs. Wrap them in paper towels and microwave them on medium power for about three minutes, to remove excess fat. Add the sausage to the gumbo pot.
5. Lower to a simmer and cook the gumbo for one to two hours. Stir every now and then. Remove the turkey bones, but strip off all the meat and return it to the pot.
6. Add the green onions and simmer for another three or four minutes.
7. Serve over cooked long-grain rice with a pinch or two of filé at the table.
Serves six to ten.
Popovers
Popovers are so wonderful to eat and so simple to make that, if you were the eater, you’d wonder why the baker didn’t make them more often. The answer is that you need a few items that are uncommonly used in baking:
1. A popover tin, which has deeper wells than a muffin tin (although muffin tins can work). This is one of the few utensils in your kitchen that is preferably made with a non-stick coating.
2. Faith, hope and prayer. You have to follow the recipe exactly, and restrain yourself from opening the oven to check the baking progress of the popovers.
3. The ability to get everybody into the kitchen when they’re ready, because they’re at their best right out of the oven and go downhill quickly.
4. The persistence to keep trying this recipe until you finally get it perfect. As you will.
These may sound like great breakfast items, and they are. But they’re also marvelous at the beginning of dinner.
1 cup whole milk
1 generous tablespoon butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
1 prayer of your choice
Preheat the oven with a rack in the center to 450 degrees.
1. Remove and measure all the ingredients about a half-hour before you begin, so they can come to room temperature.
2. While waiting, coat the inside of the tins (one large tin or two small ones) with a thin film of shortening, then dust with flour.
3. Melt the butter. Combine the milk, butter, and flour in a bowl and whisk just until the flour is blended uniformly.
4. Whisk in half the beaten egg, then the other half after the first is blended in completely.
5. Pour the batter into the tins, filling each pocket about two-thirds full. Put the tins in the middle of the oven and set the timer to 17 minutes. Say the prayer.
6. When the timer goes off, lower the heat to 325 degrees and set the timer to 18 minutes. Do not open the oven to check! When the timer goes off again, reset it to two minutes and get everybody into the kitchen.
7. When the timer sounds a third time, open the oven, remove the tins, and poke a slit in the tops of all the popovers. Which, if all went well, popped over. Eat greedily and quickly.
Makes eight to twelve popovers.
Orange Cheesecake
You must make this the night before Thanksgiving. The most time-consuming part of making a cheesecake is cooling it. This must be done slowly and gently, or you’ll have cracks in the top.
Crust:
2 packages (out of the standard three in the standard box) cinnamon graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
4 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 Tbs. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice
Zest (grated peel) of one orange
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
1. Put the cream cheese and the sugar into the bowl of a mixer and blend on medium-slow speed until completely blended and fluffy–about 10 minutes.
2. While that’s going on, make the crust. Grind the graham crackers into small crumbs in a food processor. Add the sugar and the butter and process until the butter has soaked all the crumbs.
3. Line the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Dump the crust mixture in and press a wedge of crumbs into the bottom corner all the way around. Then make a bottom crust, and finally press the remaining crumbs up the sides of the pan. It is not necessary for the crust to come all the way to the top of the pan. Set aside.
4. Add the sour cream to the mixer bowl. With a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl after this and each other ingredient addition throughout the recipe.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, allowing them to blend in completely before adding the next one. (Break each egg into a cup first to make sure it’s okay before you add it.)
6. Add the cream, the vanilla, the juices, and the zest. Mix for another five minutes or so.
7. Pour the filling into the crust. Place the springform pan in a shallow pan (i.e., a pizza pan), and place it in the center of the oven at 275 degrees (no convection). Pour warm water into the bottom pan. Bake for 90 minutes, until you see the cheesecake has just a hint of browning on top.
8. Turn the oven off, but leave the cheesecake inside. After an hour, open the door a crack and let the cheesecake cool in the oven another half-hour. Remove the cheesecake and let it finish cooling on a counter. After another hour, remove the sides of the springform pan and put the cheesecake into the refrigerator. Chill at least three hours before serving.
Makes one ten-inch cheesecake; serves twelve to sixteen.
Apple Pandowdy, Fancy Style
A pandowdy is half apple pie, half apple dumpling. It’s an old recipe, going back to colonial times. This version is gussied up a little at the end by being drizzled with sauce Anglaise–the liquid custard sauce that I find adds a touch of elegance to anything. This is best baked in a glass or ceramic dish,. It prevents bottom heat from overcooking the apples, which lie on the bottom without a layer of crust. I have a glass pie dish that works perfectly, but a shallow glass casserole works too.
4 or 5 Granny Smith apples (or other tart variety)
2 Tbs. cranberry or orange juice
5 Tbs. dark brown sugar
Scant 1 Tbs. cinnamon (to taste)
1/4 tsp. ground mace
1 Tbs. Steen’s cane syrup
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 egg whites
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
Sauce Anglaise:
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup half-and-half
1 vanilla bean
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
1. Coat a nine-inch glass baking dish with a thin film of butter.
2. Peel and core the apples, and cut into dice about 3/4 inch on a side. Place the apples into the baking dish and toss with the cranberry or orange juice to coat. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, mace, and cane syrup, and toss the apples again.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer in a bowl, until the mixture is fluffy and not gritty. Mix in the egg and the egg white until they disappear completely.
4. Add about 1/2 cup of flour and mix in completely. Add about 1/4 cup of milk and mix, and continue alternating flour and milk, with one final addition of flour at the end.
5. With a rubber spatula, spread this batter over the apples, pushing it down to fill the spaces between the apples on top, but not at the bottom.
6. Put the dish into the center of the oven at 350 degrees and bake for 45-50 minutes, until lightly browned. (I recommend using the convection feature of your oven, if you have it.)
7. Let the pandowdy cool for fifteen minutes. Turn it upside down on top of a serving plate, or just set the baking dish out to be scooped from. Spoon warm sauce anglaise over it at the table.
Serves six to eight.
Sauce Anglaise
1. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until uniform in texture but not thickened. Whisk in the sugar until dissolved.
2. Pour the half-and-half into a medium saucepan. Scrape the vanilla bean into the custard sauce and put the pod in too. Heat the half-and-half over medium heat until a little foam appears.
3. Pour the hot half-and-half milk into the egg mixture and whisk to combine completely. Lower the heat and pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
4. Cook the mixture while stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, scraping the bottom, side, and corners of the pan frequently. Keep this up until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat.
5. Add the vanilla. Strain the sauce through a fine, clean sieve into a serving cup. Let it cool slightly.
Makes about 1 1/2 cup of sauce.