Kitchen Happenings: Giving Thanks

So I have a tradition. I don't go home for Thanksgiving. Home's a little far away. And I'm lazy. Instead, I sleep in, cook all day while watching football, and eat way too much. And then the day after, I do the same thing, minus the cooking part. Back when the entire posse was around, we'd spend the Saturday before Thanksgiving doing some volunteer work, and then have a big Thanksgiving dinner at my place. I'd have leftovers all week, and wouldn't want to do another turkey on Thanksgiving, so I normally don't do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Instead I normally go with a standing rib roast, and build from there. This year, I didn't have a posse around, so no early Thanksgiving dinner, but I stuck with my personal tradition, anyway.

It was pretty sweet. I made a nice warm vichyssoise the day before, so that made for a great opener. Simple as can be. Chicken stock, cooked leeks, potatoes, salt, pepper, all simmering in a pot. When everything's cooked down, you take the ol' boat motor for a ride, and puree everything. Finish with milk or cream, maybe a little garnish, and life's good.

I did go with something new, olive oil poached shrimp and scallops. Incredibly simple. Warm up a bunch of olive oil, and add some aromatics (garlic, sage, rosemary, and parsley, since that's what I had on hand). Cool the oil down to about 130, and add the seafood, and put the whole thing on the stove, over warm. Let it go until the seafood's cooked. You get this really nice, tender seafood that has a gentle flavor. You may need to add a touch of salt to the scallops, but the shrimp should be great as is. Very nice opener.

While this was happening, I busted out an old standby that I hadn't made in a couple years, a potato/apple cheddar gratin. Basically, scalloped potatoes, only with layers of apple in there. A little sweet and a little sour work nicely with the cheddar and potatoes, and makes for something that takes classic comfort food, and makes it just a little different, and darned good. This isn't the simplest dish, because you have to make a bechamel, and then thinly slice a bunch of potatoes and apples, but it isn't rocket science. And it's well worth the time. And if you make a big batch of bechamel, you can make baked mac 'n cheese the next day! The biggest thing is to have a big baking tray under your casserole dish, to catch the sauce that boils over in the oven. That saves you from cleaning up a mess.

After that, I made the classic rib roast, and had carrots and sweet potatoes below to cook in the drippings. Great stuff. I did try a new technique that I read about for the roast. Normally, I prefer to sear, and then go at 300 to finish. Instead, this time I roasted at 550 for 35 minutes, and then turning the oven down to 200 for the next 1:25. The meat turned out great, very rare, almost black and blue, but that's what I'm into :-) If I was having guests, I'd probably bump it up to 250 to finish, to get to a more medium-rare. But it was just me, so I went caveman style on this one. The problem was that the root veggies that were in contact with the pan ended up getting burned because of the time at 550. This technique is much easier than searing, so the trade off may be worth it. Unfortunately, nothing else can really be done with the oven during this time, so you'd have to make sides elsewhere, which isn't that big of a deal.

All of this stuff was pretty standard fare for me, so while it was tasty, it wasn't all that exciting to me. What turned out to be exciting was a little additional side that is going to become standard fare in my kitchen. Popovers (or mini Yorkshire puddings, if you like) from a muffin tin. They have popover tins, but I don't know what else you do with them, and the muffin tins work just fine. Easy to make the batter. Equal parts milk and flour (by volume), with 1 egg for each cup of milk/flour. Seasonings to taste. Add a little less flour for a lighter popover. Add everything to the blender, and blend. While the blender's still on, add the flour. You've got batter in seconds. Do this about an hour before your roast is coming out, and let the batter rest. Take the roast out to rest, and fire the oven back up to 425. Spoon a little bit (maybe 1-2 tsp) of the drippings into each slot in the muffin tin, and put the tin into the oven (you want the tin to be hot). After about 2 minutes, take the tin out, and fill each slot about 2/3 of the way with your batter, and put it back into the oven. Let it go at 425 for 12 minutes, and then reduce the head to 375 for about another 20 minutes. Brush with a little butter (or more of the drippings!), and you're in business.

The funny part was that I was doing a good job of portion control earlier. Instead of devouring the entire rib roast (which I've been known to do), I only punished half of it (though in fairness, it was a 3.25 lb. roast), and was good with the other sides. However, I definitely ate an entire tray (only 6, though) of the popovers. They're like those Pillsbury crescent rolls - just addicting. It struck me that the popovers were a lot like the muffins over at Milo's, so I think that I'll be playing around to see if I can duplicate what they're doing. I'm guessing a little more flour in the batter, and I'll be close.

In any case, I definitely ate well yesterday (and with the leftovers today). However, I think that I do want to roast a bird (probably a chicken, though), and make some stuffing, potatoes, and corn casserole, and drowh it all in gravy at some point soon to make up for my lost Thanksgiving. But I think that I'll be making popovers anyway, because they're too good to skip out on.

-foodgeek