Radicchio & pomegranate salad

This salad played the role of both salad and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving this year. The dressing would be cloying on a lettuce salad, but is just right with the bitter radicchio. I've also done something similar with kale instead of endive, and that worked great too.

Place in a serving bowl:

1 head radicchio, thinly sliced

4 endives, leaves torn off

2 carrots, thinly sliced

seeds of 1 pomegranate

generous amount of pistachios

Mix together to make a dressing:

4 T walnut oil

2 T pomegranate molasses

2 T balsamic vinegar

2 T honey

salt & pepper

Toss the salad with the dressing (you'll probably want most of the dressing, but you may not want it all).

Mushroom impossible wellington

Vegetarian Thanksgiving main-dish success! Making all the components took a bit of time on Wednesday, but actually getting it in the oven on Thursday was painless. 

I'm so out of practice at this whole blogging thing that I didn't take good notes as I was going. So, this will be some rather vague hints, which you can take in any direction you like. If it helps, this is what the different filling components looked like:

The different filling components, from outside to inside:

• 2 portabellos, thinly sliced. Sear until juices are cooked off.
• 3 onions, thinly sliced. Caramelize in olive oil; season with salt, pepper, and a generous amount of fresh herbs (rosemary, marjoram, sage); deglaze with apple cider vinegar. After cooking down, this made a bit less than 1 pint. Half went into the impossible filling, and the other half was its own filling layer.
• 1 lb crimini mushrooms (minced) + 1/2 lb oyster mushrooms (roughly torn). Cook in butter until juices are cooked off; season with salt, pepper, and truffle oil; deglaze with balsamic. After cooking down, this made a bit more than 1 pint.
• 1 pack (12 oz) impossible ground beef, with the following kneaded in by hand: half the caramelized onions, 6 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 T mustard, pumpkin seeds (roughly chopped, perhaps 1/4 c - 1/2 c?). Mold into a cylinder that's as long as you want the final wellington to be, and sear until browned on all sides (similar to making one huge kofta).

To assemble the fillings: Lay out a big piece of plastic wrap (I overlapped two pieces to get it wide enough). Space out the portabello slices to cover a rectangular area that's as wide as your impossible log, and a bit longer than the diameter of the log. Spread the remaining half of the caramelized onions over the portabellos, then spread the other mushrooms over the onions. Place the impossible log on the end of the rectangle, and use the plastic wrap to roll it up into a log.

Before and after rolling:

I did all that on Wednesday afternoon, and put the plastic-wrapped filling log in the fridge overnight.

For the crust, I used the rough puff from Bon Appetit. I made a full recipe (2 lb) on Wednesday, wrapped it in plastic, and put in the fridge overnight. On Thursday, I sliced off used half of it (1 lb) for the wellington. The other half is in the freezer for another adventure soon, maybe apple turnovers?

To assemble and bake: Preheat the oven to 425F. Roll out the crust to a rectangle ~2 inches larger in both dimensions than the filling rectangle was. Beat an egg with a splash of milk, and brush a bit on 3 edges of the rectangle. Unwrap the filling log from its plastic, and carefully transfer onto the un-egged edge of the crust (I did this by rolling it off from the plastic, since the outer layers were falling off a bit). Roll the log up in the crust, and tightly seal the 3 egged edges. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush with more egg wash, and gently score the surface in a diamond pattern with a long knife. Bake for 30 min at 425F, then turn down to 375F and bake for another 20 min until it's beginning to be golden brown even in the cuts. (I turned down the heat in order to get the pie baking too—if you don't have other oven needs, it might brown even better if you keep the temperature higher.)

Bourbon chocolate pecan pie

Laura's Thanksgiving classic, in the original hand-written:

 

And written out for easier searching:

pie crust (eg 1/2 recipe from here)

3/4 c light corn syrup

1 c brown sugar

1/4 c melted butter

3 eggs

3 T bourbon

1.5 t vanilla

1/4 t salt

1 1/4 c pecans (halves & pieces)

2/3 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Make the crust and put in a pie pan. Combine everything except the nuts and chocolate, and beat until well blended. Sprinkle all the chocolate chips and 1/2 c of the nuts (ideally the smaller pieces) over the bottom of the crust. Pour in the filling, then sprinkle with the remaining nuts on top (ideally the halves & larger pieces). Bake for 45 min until softly set in the center. Cool, and serve with whipped cream.

Kofta

Based on David Lebovitz, based on Tartine All Day. Beyond Meat ground beef is seriously good in this. Ground lamb is great too, and presumably other animal-based ground meats would also be good. But if you want to surprise and impress a carnivore with plant-based meat, I'd recommend this highly.

1/4 c bulgur

1 lb Beyond Meat ground beef (or animal-based ground meat substitute)

1 shallot (or 1/2 red onion), grated or minced

1/4 c - 1/2 c assorted chopped herbs (parsley, mint, etc)

1 t baharat (or ras al hanout)

1 t cumin

1 t salt

1 t harissa

a few grounds of pepper

Put the bulgur in 1c pyrex. Cover with boiling water (up to around the 1/2 c mark) and let sit while you chop the herbs & etc.

Combine everything else in a medium bowl and add in the bulgur. Squish together with your hands until homogenous. Form into ~15 palm-sized egg-shaped balls.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium. Place in as many kofta as will comfortably fit in your pan, and fry on each side for a couple min until browned (I rotate mine twice, browning on 3 sides). Fry remaining batches.

Tart cherry pie

For years, Laura has been talking about the sour cherries from the tree in her yard growing up, and the pie that her mom would make with them. But we'd never found sour cherries around here—until Yasai had some this week! They were labeled "tart" instead of "sour", and that was accurate (not too sour and not too sweet). So of course Laura called her mom and got the OG recipe. Pretty proud that the resulting pie lived up to Laura's memory! Also including Laura's classic pie crust recipe here, in an appropriate amount for a 9" double-crust pie.

filling:
4 c (or more) sour cherries, pitted (turns out metal straws work quite well as cherry pitters!)
2 T tapioca starch (presumably cornstarch or other thickeners would work too)
3/4 c sugar (up to 1.5 c for tarter cherries, down to 1/2 c for sweeter cherries)
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 t salt

pie crust:
2 c flour
1 t salt
scant 3/4 c shortening
4-5 T ice water + vodka


Preheat the oven to 425F. Pit the cherries and mix all the filling ingredients together, and set aside while you make the crust.

Prep for the crust: Mix the flour and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, put some water, a glug or two of vodka, and a couple ice cubes. Prep the area where you're going to roll out the pie crust.

Now it's time to get your hands dirty! Cut the shortening into pieces and drop into the flour. Rub the shortening into the flour until it's flaky and crumbly. Add 4 T of the ice water/vodka, and gently mix in with your fingers to moisten; add another tablespoon if needed. Press the dough together to form a ball, and divide the dough in half to form two balls.

On your prepped surface, roll out the first ball of dough and transfer to the pie pan. Fill with the filling. Roll out the second ball of dough, cut into strips, and weave the strips into a lattice on top of the filling. Press the edges of the lattice into the lower crust, and form an even edge around the crust (I didn't have quite enough crust to form a nice crimp or anything).

Bake at 425F for 20 min. Cover the edge with foil, turn the heat down to 350F, and bake for another 20 min until nicely browned and bubbling. Let cool for a bit before eating with ice cream and/or whipped cream.

Lockdown bread for lunch

I made this on one of the first lockdown days, and I’ve made it every few days since then. Almost exactly the King Arthur recipe.

Things I love about it:

• Taste and crumb have been great when I overproofed it, when I put the formed loaf in the fridge overnight, and when I made it on the schedule shown here.
• It uses sourdough starter but also uses yeast, so it’s delicious but also speedy. Wake up at a reasonable time and have fresh bread for lunch.
• Besides what you’re feeding the starter, it’s all whole-grain flours, which have been more in-stock in my local stores and also help keep it feeling like healthy-times. 
• Oh and it’s also just a really versatile loaf-pan bread for sandwiches, toast, just some butter, etc.

255 g warm water (a bit more than a cup)
1 t yeast
2 T honey
2 T butter
340 g whole wheat flour (3 c)
227 g happy sourdough starter
1/4 c semolina
1/4 c wheat germ
1/4 c cornmeal
1 t salt
1/3 c assorted seeds/oats

8:05 am: Put a large bowl on a kitchen scale. Add the water and sprinkle on the yeast, and wait a couple min to hydrate. In the meantime, microwave together the honey and butter.

8:10 am: Add all the ingredients to the bowl except the oats/seeds. Stir until it comes together, but don’t knead yet—wait a 10-20 min to hydrate.

8:30 am: Knead in the bowl for 5-7 min. Cover the bowl with a shower cap and let rise until doubled (60-90 min).

10 am: Butter a loaf pan, and put the seeds/oats on a wide plate. Deflate the dough and gather into a log as long as the loaf pan. Roll the dough in the seeds/oats to cover the outside, then place into the loaf pan. Cover with the shower cap and let rise for another 60-90 min. (If this stage is taking an inconvenient amount of time, you can wrap the loaf pan in a plastic bag and stick in the fridge for at least 8 hr.)

11 am: Start the oven preheating to 350F.

11:15 am: The bread will be risen above the edge of the pan. Put in the oven and bake for 45 min. It will get golden brown but not dark, with little or no oven spring.

Noon: You have bread! You should wait at least a few min to let it cool before slicing though.

Pineapple fried rice

Coronavirus quarantine -> restarting the blog!!

This made one very full wok, about 6 servings. I’m clearly out of practice with blogging since I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but here’s a shot of the mise en place:

1 red onion
1 large jalepeno
2in piece ginger
1 bell pepper, or a few multicolored baby bell peppers
2 carrots
2-3c green beans
2-3c diced pineapple (half a large pineapple)
1c cashews
1c diced smoked tofu (or more if you have it)
3 T soy sauce
2 T fish sauce
juice of 1 lime
2 eggs, beaten
4c cooked rice
1/2 bunch green onions
1 bunch Thai basil

Prep: Cook the rice. Mince the jalapeño and ginger together. Julienne the onion, bell pepper, and carrots. Trim the green beans and cut in half. Peel and dice the pineapple (or for bonus points, cut the pineapple in half and scoop out the innards leaving two boats intact). Beat the eggs. Slice the green onions and basil.

Heat sesame oil in a wok. Add the onion, then jalapeño and ginger, then carrots, then bell pepper, then green beans, then pineapple, then cashews, then tofu, stir frying for a minute or two between each addition. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, and lime. Cook until all veggies are tender and the liquid is partially reduced. Drizzle the egg over the top and cook without stirring until the egg is set, then stir it in. Stir in the rice, green onions, and basil, along with another glug of sesame oil, and cook until the rice is heated through and ideally browning a bit.

For bonus points, scoop some of the fried rice into the pineapple boats and bake. We were tired after a nice long hike so we didn’t do the bonus version this time ;)

Serve with sriracha to taste.