I really like cooking Thanksgiving, and I really don’t like driving anywhere on Thanksgiving or the day before. I try not to be too obnoxious about this in planning with family or friends but given my druthers, I generally want to host. (And I know nobody likes driving on Thanksgiving or the day before.) So sometimes everybody just does their own thing (and we’re all spread out over the whole country anyway), and that’s this year. There’s time enough in between now and Christmas for get-togethers, too.
Our friends who join us most years handle the pies and desserts, which is fine with me. So what I have to think about is everything else.
Turkey. I haven’t wet-brined in years because I think it diffuses the taste of the bird and it’s an enormous hassle anyway. I hadn’t seen anyone else really comment on that until J. Kenji Lopez-Alt published his recipe for a dry-brined spatchcocked turkey with a mayo-based rub on it. I feel vindicated, so I’m going to make his recipe instead, despite some suspicion of the mayo basting. He never fails me, though sometimes his zealotry about cooking by his lab-tested-techniques-not-the-old-way doesn’t work as well as he thinks it does.
Mashed potatoes. This is pretty well mandatory as one of my co-diners absolutely demands them. Nothing complicated here—the usual whole milk and butter mixed in with a few chives. I sometimes put roasted garlic in them but I think I won’t this year.
Ombre gratin. Another NYT recipe that caught my eye—a different way to get the root vegetables out there. I’ll skip the potato in them, though. I wonder almost if a layer of roasted garlic would improve this recipe…
After that point, I have some choices to make. Often I’ll serve a cabbage dish of some kind, some kind of brussel sprouts, and a green salad. I generally don’t do cranberries (but if I do, I usually make a kind of cranberry chutney with orange zest and a few chopped chilis). I keep thinking of making a whole Thanksgiving meal that’s built around South Asian flavors but not this year. (Once I’ve committed to at least two preps that don’t fit that profile, I generally won’t go that way.)
I hate to make a pure NYT-derived meal, but Ottolenghi’s recipe for brussel sprouts with cinnamon-butter yogurt and chestnuts really grabbed me, so I think that’s the way to go.
Since I’m now wholly in the tank for the NYT app, I’ll finish out with Melissa Clark’s roasted cabbage with Parmesan, walnuts and anchovies, I think. I’ve had some good experiences high-temperature roasting of cabbage recently, and I think the flavors here go well with the rest of the meal. (The chestnuts and walnuts are maybe a bit of an overlap? I will think on it.)
I might also blacken a few tomatoes and serve those with mint, olive oil, za’atar and some balsamic vinegar.
The main thing I’m not doing is stuffing. I never actually stuff the inside of a turkey, but there is a bread-cube, sausage and chicken liver stuffing I’ve used some years that I am not going to make this time around. Though I do have some mushrooms, so I might do a simple mushroom saute and leave it at that. I’ve pickled mushrooms before for a Thanksgiving but I’m not wild about the preparations I’ve used.
All delightful, though I like cornbread dressing. Southerner here. Have a great holiday!
Wow!