Tag Archive for 'meal'

Mediterranean Spiced Thanksgiving Dinner

Published
by
marc
on November 2, 2008
in Dinner, Dinner party, Mediterranaen, Party, Poultry and Roast
. 19 Comments

After 30 plus Thanksgivings, I’ve gotten a little bored with the usual “Thanksgiving = turkey + stuffing + mashed potatoes + gravy + cranberry sauce” formula. Still, it’s a meal that I look forward to for 11 months out of the year (I spend December in recovery) and doing away with the traditional items and fixin’s just doesn’t seem right.

Sure, I’ve tried stuffing sage leaves under the turkey skin and adding apple cider to the gravy, but there’s only so many variations you can do on the traditional themes. This year, my family is flying out from Cali to have Thanksgiving in NYC (thanks guys!), so I decided to see if I could do something radically different while still retaining that “Thanksgiving” feel to the food.

While I tossed around a bunch of ideas, including a 9 course Kaiseki turkey dinner, I decided to go with a middle east themed Thanksgiving. This was partly influenced by the discovery of the most awesome spice shop in the East Village called Dual Specialty Products. It sells every spice you could possibly imagine, and lots that you’ve never heard of, by the pound (yes you read that right). I picked up 1/4 lb of sumac and 1/4 lb of garam masala for a couple bucks each. They also have fresh curry leaves and naga jolokia peppers. Yes capsaicin-heads, that’s naga jolokia as in over 1 million Scoville units, kick-your-ass then light a pile of thermite under it naga jolokia.

Anyway, back on topic, last night, I ran my first rehearsal of this theme using a chicken. In a word, it was good… really good (I know… that’s two words, but cut me some slack). Different, but not so different that it would have been unrecognizable as a Thanksgiving dinner. If you didn’t smell or taste it, you might even think it was ordinary.

The cinnamon harissa rub I made for the chicken is going on my list of favorite marinades. It’s pleasantly spicy, with great aromas coming from the cinnamon, garlic and cumin and it has just a hint of tang from the sumac. Put simply, this spice mixture would make boot leather taste good (though you might need to do something about the texture).

I’m not much of brussel sprout fan, but shredded, then caramelized with shallots and pomegranate molasses, this will make a believer out of even the biggest skeptic. Pomegranate molasses is a thick sweet and tart syrup made by boiling down pomegranate juice. You can get it in bottles at Middle Eastern groceries, or if you have the time I suppose you could make it yourself.

I’m not really sure why no-ones thought of adding tahini to mashed potatoes before (well a quick google shows that they have, but have you ever heard of it?). The flavours and textures compliment each other very well and you end up with a rich, creamy, nutty mashed potato without adding any butter or cream. I forgot to do it before I took the photos, but if you sprinkle a little sumac on top, it adds some color and just a bit of tang to brighten things up.

Last, but not least, the stuffing. Stuffing and I have a love hate relationship. I love it when it’s been stuffed inside a bird and is saturated with flavorful juices as the whole thing roasts. I hate it when it’s been cooked outside the bird and is dry, chewy, and flavorless. I used to always opt for the stuffing route (after all the method is the namesake), but with food safety concerns these day’s the fine folks at the FDA (a.k.a. ruiners off all good food) tell us that we’re not supposed to stuff poultry unless we’re willing to cook the bird until it’s a giant ball of jerky. The answer? Use a semi-stale firm bread (instead of crunchy wonderbread croutons that came out of the bag) and lots of chicken stock.

For this stuffing I used a multi-grain bread to which I added dried cherries, celery, shallots and Merguez sausage to. It strikes a great balance between savoury, spicy and sweet and the inside is soft and moist while the top layer comes out nice and crisp.

Since I was only cooking for 2, I skipped the cranberry sauce, sweet potato’s, pumpkin and apple pies, but I have big plans for those. I hope these recipes inspire you to create your own unique takes on holiday classics:-)
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Shabu Shabu Salad

Published
by
marc
on June 4, 2008
in Fusion, Japanese, Summer and Vegetable
. 8 Comments

When in need of a quick simple meal I often turn to Japanese food for inspiration. While some preparation and presentations can be extremely time-consuming, at it’s core, Japanese food is about simplicity.

Shabu Shabu is typically considered a winter dish because it involves cooking paper thin slices of meat and vegetables in dashi at your table. The name is derived from the sound chopsticks make as you swish your meat around in the boiling stock to cook it. After a brief dip in the water, the meat is typically dipped in either a sesame sauce or ponzu (citrus and soy sauce).

This summer salad is a lighter take on Shabu Shabu requiring minimal cooking (thus minimal heat) while providing a well balanced meal that will sate your hunger and keep it at bay for a few hours longer than a bunch of lettuce would.

Dressed in a yuzu soy sauce dressing, the crispy batons of daikon radish add some body to the salad while the flash cooked pork gives it both flavour and protein. The best part is that it takes almost no-time to prepare and won’t turn your kitchen into a sweltering sauna in the middle of summer.

for pork
a pot of dashi (since you’ll toss this out I usually cheat and use the powdered kind)
very thin slices of pork (think deli meat thickness)

for dressing
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs yuzu juice (or lemon juice)
1 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 tsp sugar

for salad
2″ length of daikon radish peeled
couple handfuls of mixed baby greens or lettuce (I used arugola and mizuna)
cherry tomatoes

If you have a Japanese grocery nearby you should be able to get nicely marbled meat pre-cut into thin slices, but if you don’t you could have your butcher do it for you. If you have a sharp knife and better knife skills than I, you could do this yourself in theory, but you’ll want to partially freeze the meat I should warn you that it’s very hard to get thin uniform slices.

Cut the daikon lengthwise into thin batons, using a mandoline speeds this up. Soak them in a large bowl of ice cold water for about 10-15 minutes to take the “bite” off and bring out the sweetness.

Bring the dashi to a boil and using chopsticks or tongs, swish one or two slices of meat around at a time for a few seconds. Because it’s pork you need to cook it all the way through, but it should just barely be cooked. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain and cool too room temperature.

Whisk all the dressing ingredients together. Transfer the pork to a bowl and pour about half the dressing over the meat and stir to combine. Drain the daikon and toss with some of the dressing. Toss the greens with some dressing and then assemble your salad.

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