Thanksgiving pt 3: dessert!

Dessert! Both of these turned out well, but the cheesecake was definitely the star. It was super creamy but not falling-apart, perfect level of spice, and the best part for me was the topping: super boozy bourbon whipped cream and tart fruit. The decorating scheme, which I did with raspberries, sugared cranberries, and flecks of cranberry chutney, was ripped off from here : http://zoebakes.com/?p=1217, and though not quite as beautiful, I thought it still looked very nice. I expected the raw cranberries to be painfully tart, but they're actually delicious! I definitely plan to buy a bag to snack on in the upcoming week. The pecan pie was made in hopes of replicating Pawley's Pie, a delicious melty, chocolatey, nutty mess served with vanilla ice cream at Pawley's Deli in South Carolina where my family visits every year... alas, our pie was good, but no where near Pawley's level. I think a lot of the problem was that there wasn't enough pie to fill the crust, so if you make it, make double filling - I also might recommend mixing the chocolate chips right in with the nut filling instead of piling them all on top.


Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

10 graham crackers, broken into pieces
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp each ginger, cloves, and cinnamon (adjust to taste)
6 tbs unsalted butter, melted

1 c sugar
1 tsp each ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon (adjust to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
1 can pumpkin
1 1/2 lb creamcheese (we used about 2/3 creamcheese and 1/2 drained ricotta, which worked great)
1 tbs vanilla
1 tbs lemon juice
5 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup heavy cream

Make the crust: Preheat to 325. Smash up the graham crackers (or food process them) into small crumbs, and then mix them with the sugar and spices. Melt the butter and mix it in. Press your crust into a springform pan, using a flat-bottomed cup to get it really flat - you can do just the bottom (the crust will be really thick) or go up the sides. Bake the crust for about 15 minutes, until it starts to color. Take it out and cool it while you make the filling.

If you're using ricotta, drain it by lining a colander with paper towels or cheesecloth, plopping in the ricotta, and letting it sit (you can push in it a little with more paper towels if you'd like). Dry out your pumpkin by spreading it out on a triple layer of paper towels and pressing it with more paper towels.

Beat your creamcheese (and optional ricotta) to soften it up, then beat in the sugar in three parts, mixing well after each one. Add the pumpkin, vanilla, and lemon, and beat more. Then add the eggs in two additions. Finally, add the cream, beat one last time, and scrape the bowl to make sure it's all mixed.

Wrap your springform pan TIGHTLY and THOROUGHLY with tin foil (not over the top, just the bottom and sides. You're going to put it in a water bath, so this is to keep the water from sneaking in the cracks and soaking your crust. Ours got a little wet, and it wasn't the end of the world, but it could have been crispier. Bring a pot of water to boil. Set the springform in a roasting pan and pour in the filling, then set it in the oven. Pour your boiling water in the roasting pan (careful not to get it in the cheesecake!). Bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours - the edges should look set but the center should still be wobbly. Take it out of the water bath and cool to room temp, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

For the topping, whip some cream and then fold in some vanilla and bourbon (I like it without additional sugar to contrast the pie, but if you have a sweet tooth, toss in some sugar). Top with raspberries and sugared cranberries (which you can make by rolling cranberries in egg whites, then in sugar, then letting them dry).


Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving pt 2: the special stuff

These are basically our only recipes that didn't come from Cooks Illustrated. The gallette is from Smitten Kitchen (an awesome food blog). Gabe and I made it last winter and loved it. This year we added craisins, which were perfect in it, and next time I think we will add some chopped walnuts. The best part about it is the crust, which is like the best pie crust you've ever had in terms of crispy flaky butteriness, only savory and with a nice tang to it from the sour cream and lemon juice. it would make an awesome shell for any sort of savory gallete or tart (or even something sweet). Sadly, we failed to get a good picture of it before everyone gobbled it up - I took a quick shaky shot of the last piece.

The chutney is made up after reading a bunch of recipes. Gabe was very apprehensive, particularly because of the jalapeno. he insister we buy the gelatinous canned stuff. but i think it turned out awesome and will be eating it with a spoon throughout the week.



Butternut Squash Gallette
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 1/4 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
8 tbs unsalted butter, frozen and cut into chunks
1/4 c sour cream
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup ice water

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into small cubes
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs butter
1 large onion, diced
1/2 tsp salt
pinch sugar
cayenne and black pepper to taste
3/4 c fontina cheese
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh sage OR 1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 c craisins

For the dough: combine the flour and salt. Cut in the cold butter until it forms a large meal: you can use a pastry cutter, a fork, your fingers (just work fast so you don't melt the butter, or a food processor (pulse until it looks right - do not just leave it on or it will turn into paste). Make a well in the middle of your flour-butter, and in it mix the sour cream, lemon juice, and ice water. mix this gradually into the flour with your fingertips, just like making pasta. As it comes together, remove the large clumps and push them into a pile, until the whole thing is incorporated - you might need to add a little more water, but it should be quite dry. knead your little mountain on a floured surface just until it holds together, form into a ball, and then flatten into a disk (you know it's good if you can see little flecks of butter throughout, which will make it awesomely flaky when baked). wrap this in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour or up to two days.

For the filling: Preheat to 375. Toss your squash with the oil and cook it in a roasting pan until tender, about 20 - 30 minutes. Meanwhile, carmelize the onions: Sautee them on low heat with the butter, salt, and sugar until they are totally soft, brown, sweet, and delicious. If you're using dried sage, toss it in at this point and cook a minute longer until fragrant. Mix the onions with the squash, add the fontina and craisins, and season with pepper, cayenne, and more salt to taste. Raise the oven heat to 400.

Roll our your dough on a floured surface until it's a foot in diameter. Spread the filling on it, leaving a 2" border around the sides. Fold up the sides, pleating as you go (the center of the filling should not be covered). Bake until the pastry is golden and you can't stand to wait anymore, about 30 - 40 minutes. Sprinkle a few more craisins on top to decorate.



Spicy cranberry chutney with pears
Makes about 2 cups

3/4 c water
1 c sugar
2 tbs ginger, minced
1/2 large green jalapeno, minced (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp each cinnamon and cloves
1/4 tsp salt
seeds from about 15 cardamom pods, crushed
2 ripe but firm pears, peeled and cut into small chunks

Bring the water, sugar, ginger, jalapeno, spices, and salt to boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the cranberries and pears (add pears a few minutes before the cranberries if they're more on the firm side than the ripe side) and cook, stirring, until the cranberries have burst and the sauce has thickened to your liking. Adjust the spices to taste, and partially puree, if desired. Should keep in the fridge, tightly covered, for at least a week.

Thanksgiving pt 1: The basics

Our menu:

Turkey parts (preparation handled by non-veggie friends)
Buttermilk mashed potatoes
Curried coconut mashed sweet potatoes
Butternut squash gallette
Oven-baked stuffing
Brussels sprouts with mustard butter
Green beans with lemon butter
Buttermilk biscuits
Cranberry, pear, and ginger chutney

Pumpkin bourbon cheesecake
Chocolate chip pecan pie

Stuffing sadly not pictured because Aaron Todd ate two servings when everyone was only allowed one :(

Buttermilk mashed potatoes
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated; serves 4 as a side

2 lb yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
4 tbs unsalted butter
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Put the potatoes in a big pot and cover by an inch with cold water. Bring to boil and cool until very soft but not yet disintegrating. Mash them with a potato masher (anything harsher risks gluey potatoes). Melt the butter, cool it a little, and then stir in the buttermilk. Pour this over the potatoes and stir it in. finish with salt and pepper to taste.


Curried coconut mashed sweet potatoes
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated; serves 4 as a side

1 tbs minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp curry powder, more or less to taste
1/4 cup coconut milk
4 tbs unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 tbs heavy cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8" thick slices

Sautee the ginger and garlic in a little oil until fragrant but not at all browned. stir in the curry powder and cook a minute longer. stir in the coconut milk, and if you're picky (or bad at mincing finely) puree this in your food processor to make it totally smooth. set aside. put your potatoes, sugar, salt, cream, and butter in a pot, cover, and heat on medium. Cook about 20 minutes, until the potatoes fall apart when you poke em with a fork. Mash it all together, then stir in the coconut mixture. Adjust to taste with more salt, pepper, sugar, coconut, and curry powder.

Oven-baked stuffing
From Cooks Illustrated; makes 10 tiny, not nearly enough for stuffing-lovers servings

1 lb French bread
8 tbs unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced
4 ribs celery, diced
1/2 tsp each dried thyme, marjoram, and sage
1/2 c minced fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups veggie stock
3 large eggs, lightly beaten


Dry the bread by cutting it into 1/2" slices two nights before you want to make the stuffing and setting the slices out on a baking sheet. The next night, cut the slices into cubes and dry them out again. If you don't have time to do this, you can also dry the bread by slicing it and putting it in a very low-heat oven until it gets brittle but not yet browned.

Melt the butter over medium in a big deep pan and add the onions and celery. Sautee until they get translucent, then add the spices, salt, and pepper. Mix this with all the other ingredients and put then in a butter baking dish. Cover with foil and bake in a 400 oven about 25 minutes. Take off the foil and cook longer until it gets really crispy and wonderful on top.

Arm yourself to defend your share of delicious stuffing against hungry guests.

Brussels sprouts with mustard butter
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated; serves 2 if they like them

1 lb brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
4 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs dijon mustard
1 tsp dried tarragon
a dollop of honey (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Put the sprouts in a pan with 1/2 cup water and bring to boil. Cover and simmer about 8 minutes, until the sprouts are tender but not falling-apart soft.

Melt the butter in a wide deep pan and then stir in the mustard, tarragon, honey, and salt and pepper. Cook for about a minute. Add the sprouts and sautee until they are very soft and have soaked up some of that awesome sauce. Adjust the seasoning.

Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 10

Two Awesome Cupcakes

Some classmates came over the other night to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which I have seen a thousand times and still cry over, like, throughout the whole movie) and Gabe promised them cupcakes, so cupcakes we made. They both turned out super awesome. The chocolate ones were like perfect, store-bought cupcake consistency, with a nice tang from the sour cream. I accidentally put almond extract in the frosting for them instead of vanilla, and it turned out great - it's amazing how almond flavor can make anything taste light and airy even when it has approximately 1,000 calories per three-bite serving. The coconut-expresso ones were pretty much the best flavor combination ever (spurring a fit of joyous latte making), but I messed up the texture by trying to make the batter in the food processor with the metal blade (foolish! I have already ruined mashed potatoes once this way, I should have learned my lesson!). Somehow this made them dense and eggy, sort of like a madeline, instead of cakey and fluffy. They also all had weird hollow dents in the bottom? Anyway they still tasted awesome and I finally learned how to make what the recipe calls "swiss meringue buttercream," i.e. the smooth, buttery, fancy icing you see on professional cakes that gets firm when it's cooled so you can decorate all pretty.

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Almond-Chocolate Buttercream
From cakeonthebrain.blogspot.com; Makes 12

8 tbs unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 c good-quality cocoa
3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c sour cream

Preheat to 350. Line your muffin pan. Melt together the butter, cocoa, and chocolate on a double boiler (a bowl placed over a pot of simmering water, not touching the water). When fully mixed, place the bowl in the fridge to cool it a few minutes.

Whisk together the dry ingredients.

Beat together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Whisk in the chocolate mixture. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the sour cream, starting and ending with dry.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin tins. Bake about 20 minutes, until a fork comes out clean.

Coconut-Coffee Cupcakes with Peanutbutter Buttercream
Makes 12

3/4 c sugar
6 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 c coconut milk
1/4 c milk
4 tsp instant coffee or expresso powder

Preheat to 350 and line your muffin pan. Heat up the milks together and stir in the coffee powder, then set aside to cool.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla. Alternately beat in the dry ingredients and the milk, starting and ending with the dry. Divide the batter evenly between your 12 tins and bake for about 20 minutes, until a fork comes out clean. Top with peanutbutter buttercream (recipe below).



Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
Makes enough for 12 cupcakes

2 egg whites
6 tbs sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
10 tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla

A tip: We tried to make this by hand with a whisk because we have no egg beater. This was very stupid. We got stiff peaks after 20 minutes of beating with very sore arms, but then when we added the butter it totally separated and was gross and curdled-looking. three pulses in the food processor and it was perfectly smooth. So: an egg beater is probably best, but you could probably do the whole recipe in a food processor with a beating attachment (NOT metal blade).

Combine the sugar, egg whites, molasses, and cream of tartar in a big mixing bowl. Bring a pot of water to simmer and place your mixing bowl over it - the bottom should not touch the water. Beat the mixture until it's frothy and very warm to the touch, but not so much that the egg starts to cook. Remove from the heat and beat for a very long time, until the mixture holds stiff marshmallow-y peeks.

Beat together half of the butter and 1/3 of the meringue mixture. Add in the rest of the meringue a dollop at a time, beating after each addition. Then start beating the rest of the butter in a tablespoon at a time. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.

For peanutbutter frosting: Beat in 4 tbs of peanutbutter.

For chocolate-almond frosting: Beat in 2 tbs cocoa powder and 1 tsp almond extract. For extra chocolatelyness, make a little bit of ganache by heating up a very small amount of cream, pouring it over a few oz of chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth, and refrigerating until it heats up. beat this into the meringue.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Savory Brown Butter

We just couldn't stand for all of our Halloween pumpkin to go to waste, so at about 2 AM Halloween night, after everyone had gone home (except Will, who had a busted ankle from kicking a pile of leaves), we drunkenly hacked up our pumpkins and tossed them in plastic bags, filling up an entire shelf of the fridge. The next day I peeled and roasted them and made enough pumpkin puree for about 10,000 ravioli. The sad thing is that pumpkin puree isn't really that good on it's own (or at least not pumpkin puree made from big, possibly-not-fit-for-consumption Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins). It's kind of like mild acorn squash flavor, only without all the delicious. Definitely not good enough to make a soup out of on its own, but suitable for being mixed into more complex foods. And so we made ravioli.


Ravioli are probably the food with the highest work-to-output ratio that I have ever made. Especially with pumpkin ravioli, if you count the step of making amaretti exclusively to crush them up and mix into the filling. But oh lord are they delicious. Probably the least annoying way to do this is to choose a day when you have nothing better to do and spend four hours with friends forming a ravioli assembly line, make hundreds of them, and then freeze them so you don't have to make fresh ravioli again for another year.

Pumpkin Ravioli

pumpkin puree
crushed amaretti cookie
breadcrumbs
parmesan cheese
egg
salt and pepper

Kali Dal

This is one of those extremely easy (start it cooking in the morning, eat it at dinner) and delicious dishes that I could probably make and eat every day. Lentils has been a life-saver for me protein-wise (along with edamame) as a vegetarian who is not so fond of kidney beans or"tofurkey," and this is definitely my favorite dal so far. The only drawback to this recipe is the enormous amount of butter and cream, which honestly probably aren't necessary. We reduced the butter by a few tablespoons from the original recipe, and abstained from the cream in all but the first serving. Still, I reccommend making this for someone sick/down on their luck and going with full butter and cream to better convey your love and sympathy.

This dal is good with rice or naan and a dry vegetable (we usually do roasted cauliflower).


Kali Dal

1 cup dried kali gram (black lentils)
4 cups of water or vegetable broth or mixed
1 cup onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons ginger root, minced
1 small green chili, minced (optional, only if you want it to have some kick)
3/4 cup fresh tomatoes or 1/2 cup canned tomatoes, chopped
6 tablespoons butter or ghee
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon ground coriander
salt to taste

4 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
1 cup onions, finely chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream or yogurt (optional)
1/4 cup coriander leaves, chopped

Note: this recipe ideally takes 6ish hours to cook. If you're pressed for time, you can soak the beans for about an hour and then cook them on medium instead of low for about 2 hours. You really can't make it in less than 3.

Rinse your gram under cold water until it runs clear. Put them in a pot with the water/broth and bring it to a boil. Turn it off, cover it, and let the gram soak for about 2 hours.

Optional step: brown your butter to make it more ghee-like/nutty/fragrant/delicious: melt it in a pan and stir it on medium for a few minutes, scraping the bottom to kick up any burning milk fats. when it starts to smell awesome and is a nice deep brown, take it off immediately to prevent it from burning.

Add everything in the first list of ingredients to the pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Simmer with the lid slightly ajar for about 4 hours. If feasible, stir the beans gently every half hour, or at least once during the cooking process. Half-puree the dal by running half of it through the food processor or by immersion-blending it until you get a pleasing consistency. Taste it and adjust the spices/salt.

Prepare the tarka: Heat the ghee or oil over medium-high heat in a small skillet. When it is very hot, add the cumin seeds. When they start to pop (this should be very soon), add the onions and cook until they get brown and crispy.

Put the dal in a bowl and pour a little cream or yogurt over it. Top with the tarka and the chopped coriander. Enjoy!