Thanksgiving 2011
Butter restaurant chef and Next Iron Chef competitor, Alex Guarnaschelli was on Good Day New York this morning doing a few vegetable recipes. In the same vein as the Brussels sprout salad I talked about yesterday, she made a cole slaw with purple cabbage and Brussels sprouts. She likes to consider the leftovers when she plans dishes and she said this is a wonderful addition to turkey sandwiches.
I don’t think cole slaw is strange for Thanksgiving, because my mother always used to say that you needed - forgive me - a gassy vegetable on the table. For years, I served braised red cabbage and apples and then I made room for other things. I like this idea.
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Thanksgiving Update...
I planned to make my Sour Cream Apple Pie crust (and freeze it) and I realized didn’t have any apple juice. So out came my trusty (and so basic) juicer and I made the most delicious Granny Smith apple juice for the pastry.
Honestly, I’ve made this crust DOZENS of times and it’s never been so good. It tastes like apple-y sugar cookie dough.
I’m also making 2 pecan pies – they freeze beautifully. Plus the filling is a cinch and I feel more secure with an extra pie in the house. I used this pastry recipe for the first time. Fantastic! I haven’t baked it yet, but it looked fine and rolled out SO easily (right after I made it, not chilled).
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A pastry rolling-out note: I really believe one of the big reasons that people buy ready prepared pie crusts is because they hate to wrestle with rolling out cold dough. I haven’t done that for YEARS!
As soon as the dough is made (making it in a food processor keeps it cooler) I roll it out. I used to use two sheets of plastic wrap. Now I use Silpat on the bottom and plastic wrap on the top. (I hate baking on Silpat, but I like it for rolling out dough.)
After it's rolled out, I fit it into the pie dish, configure the edges however they’re going to be, cover it with plastic wrap and freeze the whole thing. I take the crust out of the freezer as I’m making the filling and that’s enough time for it to thaw.
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Recipes in this post:
- Alex Guarnaschelli’s Purple Cabbage And Shaved Brussels Sprout Cole Slaw
- Brussels Sprouts Salad a la M. Wells
- The Silver Palate's Sour Cream Apple Pie
- Good Housekeeping’s Pastry for 9-Inch Pie
- My Mother’s Best Ever Pecan Pie
I must try that pie crust. I am in a pie mood these days.
ReplyDeleteI just can't get excited about Brussels sprouts. I can say that I made a good honest effort with them, but they still do nothing for me.
Yes! I love that tip on the pie crust!!! That's the WORST part for me.
ReplyDeleteHow do you make the edges look so good? Any tips there? I get so frustrated with it I end up using the back end of a fork to seal. Yours look so pretty!
Hahaha. Gassy vegetable. There's no need for a gassy vegetable! Who wants to smell that on Thanksgiving?
ReplyDeleteRach,
ReplyDeleteTry it, you'll like it. Brussels sprouts are not my most favorites, but they're nice for a change.
Sheila,
Go make some pie, now!
For the edges, I press the inside of the crust with my index finger, while I use my thumb and index finger on the outside to make a "v" type shape. Does that make sense?
Em,
It's true. Ask any "Old Wife" you know. Nothing actually happens at the table. It has to do with what happens hours later. I can't believe I just said that.