friday recipe blogging

It being the Friday before Turkey Day, I thought I'd share some of the foolproof recipes I've come across in my decade-plus of being the co-creator (along with my wonderfully talented mother-in-law) of our annual Thanksgiving feast. Feel free to share your favorites in comments.

This sounds ridiculously simple, but it's delicious:

GREEN BEANS WITH HAZELNUTS AND LEMON
Serves 8.

1½ lb. green beans, trimmed
1-2 T olive oil
1½ t freshly grated lemon zest or to taste
1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted until golden and chopped fine

In a kettle of boiling salted water cook beans until just tender, 3 to 8 minutes. Drain beans in a colander and in a large bowl toss while still hot with oil, zest, nuts, and salt and pepper to taste.

Beans may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Reheat beans, preferably in a microwave.

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This one is time consuming, but worth every minute, especially if you're tired of the same old Anglo bird:

TURKEY MOLÉ

9 dried peppers: 3 each of mild, medium and spicy, preferably red
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup almonds or walnuts (shelled)
2 cloves garlic
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup peeled and seeded tomatoes
1/2 cup raisins
1 corn tortilla
1/2 teaspoon salt (kosher if possible)
1/2 inch stick cinnamon
12 cloves
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
1 teaspoon anise seed
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
12 to 14 lb. Turkey

For Molé sauce:

Rinse peppers and heat in chicken broth until softened. Once softened, remove seed and grind in blender. Add almonds or walnuts (shelled), garlic, chopped onions, tomatoes, raisins, and corn tortilla. Blend until finely chopped. Set aside.

Combine salt, stick cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, and anise seed. Put mixture into a dry frying pan and roast over medium heat until mixture begins to smoke (approximately 5 minutes). Remove from heat and spoon mixture into a coffee mill.

Grind it until it becomes a powder. Add powder to ingredients in blender and grind. (The end result should be a little wetter than concrete mix--nice and thick).

Pour contents of blender into a big pot and add unsweetened chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted. Cook for thirty minutes on a low temperature and set aside.

For Turkey:

Heat oven to 550°F (yes, you read that right). Rinse turkey well, pat dry, and rub inside and out with olive oil and kosher salt.

Sprinkle 2 or more cloves of finely chopped garlic with kosher salt and rub inside of turkey (can also add a chopped onion or a lemon).

Roast for 1 hour, 15 minutes. DO NOT STUFF--the turkey won't cook properly. Use internal meat thermometer and cook until thigh temperature is 160°F. Remove from oven at 160°F -- it will continue cooking for another 20 minutes to an internal temperature of 170°F. (Do not cook to 180°F - it will be overdone.)

Remove turkey from oven. Spoon sauce over turkey and let it cool down. Carve and serve. Be sure to save some sauce to use at the table.

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And, for a great way to end the meal:

PUMPKIN CREME BRULEE
Serves 6.

¾ cup canned pumpkin
2¼ cup whipping cream
1 vanilla bean, split in half
7 egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar -- divided
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger

In a heavy saucepan over medium temperature, heat the pumpkin puree, cream and vanilla bean halves to a boil and set aside. Place the egg yolks and ½ cup of the sugar in a medium stainless steel bowl (or the top of a double boiler) and place the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. Whisk constantly until the mixture forms a ribbon when you lift the whisk, about 6 or 8 minutes. Be careful not to scramble the egg mixture.

Slowly whisk in hot pumpkin mixture to the egg mixture and stirring frequently, cook over medium heat until the mixture has the consistency of softly whipped cream, 40 to 50 minutes. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger and mix well.

Pour into 6 custard cups and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, sprinkle each custard with 4 teaspoons sugar and place under a preheated broiler for 2 or 3 minutes or until sugar is browned. Serve immediately.