Episode 12: Thanksgiving, Part 1: Sage Wisdom (with Demi Adejuyigbe)
According to our callers, a big part of Thanksgiving seems to be making food for your loved ones that you only kind of like yourself. But can we make these dishes a little better for the people cooking them?! We’re gonna try. Plus, Demi Adejuyigbe (@electrolemon), tells about his quarantine baking adventures. For a transcript of this episode, click here.
Food ideas discussed in this episode:
Less gross green bean casserole
Trim fresh green beans, then lightly blanch them and set them aside. Make a very thin bechamel sauce using flour and butter to make a roux, then adding milk until it is a little thinner than normal. Saute chopped button mushrooms. Caramelize some onions. Add the mushrooms and onions to the bechamel along with your choice of soy sauce, black pepper, or herbs. Fried shallot rings can make a crunchy topping. Bake. Here’s a great looking recipe, if you need more guidance.
Cranberry sauce
Samin’s two cranberry sauce recipes are here.
Faux canned cranberry sauce
Make one of the recipes above, but with a little more sugar, and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into a clean can and chill in the fridge. Or, melt canned cranberry sauce in a pot. Add the juice of half an orange, a bay leaf, and a few strips of orange peel. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add additional spices if desired (a cardamom pod, juniper berries, cinnamon stick, cayenne, or dried chipotles.) Pour back into the can and chill.
Sweet potatoes with brown sugar topping
Cut sweet potatoes into coins that are three quarters of an inch thick. Coat with coconut oil and roast, flipping halfway through so they brown on both sides. For a sweet topping, mix some brown sugar and butter, sprinkle that on top, and then quickly broil it.
Mashed sweet potatoes with maple syrup
Cook sweet potatoes until soft. Mash with butter and add maple syrup to taste. Cinnamon or chili optional.
Hasselback sweet potatoes
Peel raw sweet potatoes and place it on the cutting board. Brace it with two chopsticks or pencils, one on either side. Cut down across the width of the potato, as if you’re going to cut the potato into quarter-inch coins, but stopping when the knife reaches the pencils so the potato remains joined together just at the bottom. Place the potatoes into a baking dish. Prepare whatever kind of butter you like - sage butter, maple butter, brown sugar butter, spiced butter. Put some in every crevice of the potatoes (you can also melt it and pour it into the crevices). Roast. This recipe from Betty Crocker actually looks awesome. So does this one from Campbell’s (though I think you could skip the branded ingredients in both!).
Pumpkin ravioli
Here’s Samin’s guide to making your own pasta. Here’s a beautiful looking recipe for pumpkin ravioli. Here’s a super simple version using canned puree and wonton wrappers! Here’s an explainer on brown butter (hint--throw some sage in the pan as the butter browns to perfume it). And here are some amaretti cookies, which you can crumble and sprinkle on top.
Pumpkin lasagna
Here’s Samin’s recipe for butternut squash lasagna (here’s the pasta guide again, for reference). Here’s another great looking one. And yet another — this one is from one of Samin’s mentors and favorite chefs, David Tanis. You can always gussy up some canned pumpkin puree if you’re not up to roasting and making your own!
Roasted squash with stuffing
Use a small, flavorful squash, like a kabocha or a kuri. Core and de-seed. Make a flavorful stuffing, and soak it in veggie stock to prevent drying. Roast, basting frequently with brown butter.
Samin’s Blog Post on Thanksgiving Timing
Here you go!
Buttermilk turkey three ways
With a turkey breast
And here’s a video of Samin explaining the whole thing
Demi’s Googled Pumpkin Pie
Here it is.
Sour Cream and Onion Biscuits
For Hrishi to try (this is Samin typing, obviously, and this recipe looks amazing, but reads more like a scone than a biscuit to me--nothing wrong with that! Just setting expectations!). Here is Samin’s recipe, which she convinced a lovely young baker to share with her. To sour cream and onion-ify it (like, really make it taste like potato chips in the best possible way), you could add 1 teaspoon dried parsley, 1 teaspoon dried dill, 1 tablespoon dried chives, 2 tablespoons onion powder, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, and if you are up for it, ½ teaspoon MSG powder to the flour mixture.
Illustration by Mamie Rheingold