Saturday, November 15, 2014

An All American Thanksgiving: New World Foods

Thanksgiving is America's take on a traditional harvest festival. That's why the menu feels inflexible: gotta serve turkey and hold your beef. But the menu can be exciting, flexible and all American if you include these authentic all-stars: foods native to the Americas.

Turkey (wild turkeys are native. I suppose you could say the manufactured, insipid Butterball now is also)

Lobster:  Okay, here's a chance to get away from turkey and still stay all American. Have it your way.
Bison/Buffalo: Well, you know that old cowboy lament: O give me a home where the buffalo roam....
so you would not be apostate serving this in lieu of turkey. Or you could just get ground meat, and in honor of all the Chinese who built the crosscountry railway tracks, put it in dumplings

Smoked Trout: makes a great appetizer.
Salt Cod: The United States of America is the end product of the race to conquer the cod market and monopolize salt cod. So it's in our DNA. It's also in many very yummy European recipes, my current favorite being France's brandade: a casserole of salt cod and, ta da, potatoes--a gift from South America. This is such a perfect stomach and heart warming first course, here's the recipe I use:

BRANDADE

Serves 8-10 as a first course

1 lb skinless, boneless salt cod
1c milk
1 thyme sprig or 1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
5-6 peppercorns
1/2 tsp ground allspice or 2 allspice berries
2 whole cloves
1 lb boiling potatoes, cut in 1” cubes
6 lg garlic cloves, peeled
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3-1/2 c olive oil
Pinch cayenne or red pepper flakes (1/4 tsp if you like this tangy)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 c crème fraiche plus another 3 tbsp
3 tbsp butter
1/2 c bread crumbs (coarse is preferred but fine works)

Rinse salt cod carefully, rubbing off any noticeable salt. Soak in a large bowl of water at least 8 hours, changing the water every four hours or leaving it overnight.  Drain and rinse again when ready to use.

In a medium/lg saucepan, heat milk with 1 c water. Add salt cod, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, allspice and cloves. As soon as the pot wants to boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook until the fish falls apart and flakes, about 15-20 minutes. Remove fish from the pot.

While the cod is cooking, put cut potatoes in another pot with a good pinch of salt and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Add the garlic cloves.  As soon as the potatoes are soft enough to mash, remove from heat and drain. Keep both the garlic and cooking liquid; you’ll need them.

Put the garlic in a small saucepan and crush or smash it lightly. Add the olive oil and over medium heat, warm the garlic. Don’t fry, just warm it.

In a large mixing bowl combine the cooked potatoes and flaked salt cod. Use a potato masher to blend them. Drizzle in the warm garlic and oil and keep mashing toward the look of mashed potatoes. Add the cayenne, nutmeg and lemon zest, thoroughly blending. Stir in 1/2 c crème fraiche and mash to blend.
Now using an immersion blender or hand mixer or your masher, add about 1/2 cup potato cooking liquid to thin the brandade into a soft mash. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to your taste. 

Grease a shallow 1 qt baking dish or pie plate with 1 tbsp butter. Fill the dish with the brandade, leveling it with a spatula. At this point, you can refrigerate the mix overnight if you need to.

Heat oven to 400º. Bring the brandade to room temperature if you refrigerated it. Paint the top with those 3 tbsp crème fraiche and sprinkle on the breadcrumbs. Dot the surface with bits of the remaining 2 tbsp butter. Bake until golden on top and bubbling around the edges, about 20 minutes.

Serve immediately with toast.


Cranberries: add dried ones to wild rice or kale salad or cornbread stuffing or use fresh in a chutney.
Wild blueberries (the little ones): make a chutney (see How to Fix a Leek... book) or pie

Cornmeal: great cornbread or cornbread stuffing, cornmeal pancakes (arepas recipe in Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking) maybe topped with avocado and salsa (both come from all American ingredients). or with creme fraiche from Vermont and smoked salmon from the Atlantic or Pacific. And then of course there's Indian Pudding, probably the most perfect dessert for the day: cornmeal and molasses glorified in this photo into the shape of a cake, about to be iced with whipped cream.
Recipe in Veggiyana, The Dharma of Cooking.


Squash: this means pumpkins too of course because all winter squash comes from the Americas. So indulge in squash soup or roasted squash glazed with maple syrup, another American native. Stuff large squashes with spicy chili since peppers and beans are all American too. Make squash or pumpkin pie, or check out the post before this for more exotic dishes.

Potatoes: These were the brainchildren of the Inca in South America. If you don't want them on the main plate mashed, baked, stuffed or roasted, think about a first course of lobster/potato salad with a red bell and smokey poblano pepper, both\ central American natives.

Beans: except for the fava and chickpea, beans come from the Americas. Pinto, kidney and black beans are especially tasty in cornbread stuffing or a chili stuffing for squash. Black bean soup is a great meal opener. I happen to love buttery cranberry beans, sometimes cooked with lots of garlic, tomato (another American native) and sage or rosemary.  And then, of course, there's succotash: lima beans with corn, that can be very tasty when you toss in a smidgen of chorizo or bacon, and a bit of hot pepper. I've got lots of deliciously easy bean recipes in Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking if you need one.

Wild Rice: This grain, which has no relation to other rice and is especially nutritious, is native to specific lakes of Northern Minnesota.  It's fabulous as a salad with cranberries, mandarins, kale and pecans (from the South). It's fabulous mixed with white rice and vegetables as turkey stuffing. It's nutty flavor and texture is simply great plain too.

Chocolate: Now we get to the good stuff! Viva Mexico that gave us cacao. Molé your turkey if you don't want chocolate pudding or cake for dessert.
Vanilla: the original came from Mexico too, from the pod of a particular climbing orchid, so feel free to use it anyway you can.

 





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