DSS - Thanksgiving - Day 6

Still have some of that wonderful turkey left so I decided to whip up some enchiladas. After some consultation with my culinary godmother, I went with Diana Kennedy's Enchiladas Sencillas recipe and just added my leftover turkey to the filling of onions and cheese.

Enchiladas Sencillas

Serves 6.

Sour Cream:
1/2 pint heavy cream
2 tablespoons buttermilk

Enchiladas:
1/2 cup peanut oil
12 freshly made corn tortillas
2 onions, finely chopped
1 cup grated Chihuahua cheese

Tomato Sauce:
1 pound tomatoes (broiled until blackened on the outside)
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 fresh serrano chiles
2 tablespoons peanut or safflower oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sour Cream: Mix together heavy cream and buttermilk to make sour cream; set mixture in warm place until it is set, (about 6 hours).

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Blend tomatoes, blackened skin, core, and all, garlic and peppers. Heat the oil and fry the sauce for about 5 minutes, or until it has reduced and thickened. Add the salt; set aside to cool a little. Stir in sour cream and heat through gently. Don't let it boil or it will curdle!

Enchiladas: Heat the oil and fry the tortillas one by one, without letting them become crisp. Dip the tortillas into the warm tomato sauce to lightly cover them. Fill with the onions and cheese. Roll the filled tortillas up loosely and set them side by side in an ovenproof dish. Cover the enchiladas with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with cheese and onion. Heat in the oven for no more than 10 minutes.
Serve immediately.

I like this recipe a lot because you're making a very rustic and smoky tomato sauce. It packs a lot of flavor for such a simple preparation. However next time, I will go with store bought sour cream. 6 hours is a long time to wait for sour cream. One last addition is the addition of a little cilantro to the filling. It tastes wonderful. The turkey soaks up that spicy, smoky tomato sauce and the cheese takes just a bit of the heat off the peppers to give you a nicely balanced, simple dish.
Heritage Turkey, the bird that just keeps on giving.

DSS - Thanksgiving - Day 5

Leftovers. No Thanksgiving holiday is complete until you start trying to figure out what to do with all that turkey you roasted. The choices of leftover turkey dishes are endless. Turkey tetrazzini, turkey pot pie, hot turkey sandwiches, turkey a la king and turkey with rice. For my first leftover dish I decided to try making a Hot Brown.
The history of the Hot Brown is found in the past of the Brown Hotel in Louisville Kentucky. Like all great food legends, this one was born from an effort to please the desires of it's customers. Back in the '20's the Brown would sponsor a dinner dance. Those of you well versed in night life activities know that after a hard night of dancing and imbibing, sustenance is needed to recharge or recover from said activities. Apparently the Brown's patrons grew tired of the ham and eggs the kitchen offered up so Chef Fred Schmidt came up with a hot open faced turkey sandwich they called the Hot Brown. (You can find the history and recipe here) It was a huge hit and another legendary American food dish was born. To build your own Hot Brown you start with a couple of slices of Texas Toast with the crusts cut off. You're going to need that thickness from Texas Toast because it's got to hold up to your sauce. Add a layer of turkey on top of your toast, slice a couple of tomatoes and set them off to the side of your bread. Next you need to make your Mornay sauce. A Mornay is simply a Béchamel sauce to which you add grated cheese. When I went to check out the Google Images for a Hot Brown, it looks like more often than not, cheddar or American cheese is used but I'm following the hotel's recipe which calls for Pecorino Romano cheese. I did deviate from the recipe by using half heavy cream and half whole milk for the sauce. One quart of heavy cream is a whole lot of fat for one serving of sandwich. Once your sauce is bubbly and hot and all your cheese has melted into the sauce, you liberally smother your toast and turkey. Add one last sprinkling of cheese on top of your sandwich and pop it under the broiler. Once it's warm and your cheese has melted, take it out, sprinkle the top with paprika and parsley and add your crossed slices of bacon and serve while still bubbling.

I won't kid you, this is a heart attack on a plate. I only used half the amount of sauce and that was still plenty. Still it tastes fantastic and the flavors are so divergent from your just finished Thanksgiving Day meals that you won't feel like you're eating leftover turkey yet again. However those of you on Lipitor or Crestor, perhaps you should give this sandwich a pass. It's that decadent.

KARMIC KITCHEN 2009 THANKS - BACONIZATION

DSS - Thanksgiving - Day 4

When it comes to Thanksgiving Turkey do you like your breading in or out of the Bird?
	I'm totally into stuffing my bird full of goodness, no bacteria scares me.
	Are you crazy, I'd rather be safe than sorry and give my family stovetop stuffing.
	I just order a double meat pizza and call it good.
pollcode.com free polls

DSS - Thanksgiving - Day 3

Working the day after Thanksgiving is not the happiest time for some of us. Especially if you're one of those Black Friday shopping enthusiasts. I am not. I'm more than happy to avoid that crazy madness. But if I have to work, I at least want my co-workers and I to have some tasty food to knosh on while we're hard at it.My free range, heritage turkey was incredibly delicious. I brined the bird the night before resulting in a juicy, tender and flavorful turkey. The dark meat on the legs wasn't dried out and tough, the breast meat was so good it almost converted me from a dark meat fan to a white meat fan. I can't wait to use the leftovers in some other dishes...dishes that won't need a lot of ingredients masking the dry breast meat. My union carpenters also gave it the Hearty Men Seal of Approval. One more note on cooking the turkey, I followed a method from the folks at Cook's Illustrated which calls for cooking it at high heat and flipping the bird every 15 minutes 4 times. I would happily do all of these tricks and methods again to reproduce that succulent goodness.My Wild Rice Pilaf with Cranberries and Pecans wasn't nearly as popular as the mashed potatoes. I knew that was going to happen but being the good sports that my co-workers are, they at least tried it. It helps when you train them on all the sweet goody experiments that they trust you enough to try something different. I love this dish. It's from Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving issue of her magazine. The only thing I didn't do was add the flat leaf parsley which might have added another layer of flavor but with the toasty pecans and plump, sweet cranberries and golden raisins, I didn't think it needed it. Another great thing about this dish is that if you substitute vegetable stock for the turkey stock I used, you could easily convert this to a wonderful hearty vegetarian side dish. Plus it's so easy to make and store ahead of time. This one goes into my side dish rotation.Cranberries are one of the few truly seasonal fruits. You can only get fresh ones now and happily for me now is the time to enjoy my favorite cranberry recipe, Cranberry Sauce with Port and Tangerines from Epicurious. If you like your cranberries jellied and decorated with can ridge indentations, this is probably not the recipe for you. Tart cranberries dancing in ruby port with a hint of sweetness and a brightness provided by the tangerines. I'm mixing into my oatmeal tomorrow morning. Take advantage of the fresh cranberries while you can.The not very fancy but certainly nap inducing lunch spread. Normally if I'm having Thanksgiving with my family back east, my mother would have added a side dish of sauerkraut. A throwback to my German immigrant heritage. She also makes a light lunch Oyster Stew and pops a few plump Chesapeake Bay oysters into the turkey stuffing.Since I was doing all the savory dishes, my co-worker Tina, came through with two apple crumb pies. Thanks Tina, pie for everyone!

Karmic Kitchen 2009 Thanks - Thankful that I have a job and can work on Black Friday during one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression.

We're thankful you have a job too because dog food's not cheap! Can we have some turkey?

DSS - Thanksgiving - Day 2

So pretty.

My stock pot was hopping all day.

Hmmmm cranberries.

Martha's Wild Rice and Fruit side.

Day Two Dishes:
Turkey
Stuffing & Dressing
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Cranberry Relish
Wild Rice & Fruit
Two Huge Pots of Turkey Stock

Dirty Dishes Left to Clean Status:
Not bad.

Karmic Kitchen 2009 Thanks - The day is done and everything that was planned was accomplished.

DSS - Thanksgiving - Day 1

(Is she making the world's largest baked potato for Thanksgiving dinner???)

Houston, the bird has landed.


Karmic Kitchen 2009 Thanks
I am thankful that Fed Ex saw fit to finally deliver my turkey...only a day late.

Dim Sum Sunday - Thanksgiving

Don't forget this Thursday to Sunday is our Thanksgiving Dim Sum Sunday. Show us your favs, the dish you always refuse to eat, or even the one dish there's never enough of. Share your goodness with us. Extra credit to anyone who tries their hand at a Tubaconducken. Just make sure you stock up on bacon first.

Dim Sum Sunday - Thanksgiving

Since November brings my favorite foodie holiday of the year I've decided that we'll do one Dim Sum Sunday for the month. Show us your Thanksgiving Day artistry, tell us what you're thankful for, take pictures of mountains of pots, pans and kitchen utensils you use produce your masterpiece meal. Bonus points if you get snapshots of your clean up crew or anyone passed out in a tryptophan induced coma.
International DSSers, don't feel left out, please join us as we celebrate all the things we're thankful for like real mashed potatoes, pecan pie or nabbing the most comfortable spot in the living room to watch the football game. Canadians, I know you have your own Thanksgiving (2nd Monday in October) so show us what your foodie traditions are and let us know if any cheese curds will be used.

I'll be running Dim Sum from Thanksgiving Thursday to Sunday so take your time, have fun and come back and share with the rest of us.