My Plate or Yours?

Ghosts at My Table

We meant to go to Florida for Thanksgiving this year but stuff came up. Had to go to Savannah on business last weekend and then some paperwork needed to be dealt with here and then… I don’t know, four days in a car with two dogs to spend three days in Apalachicola didn’t seem like the best of deals. We will take them for three weeks over Christmas instead.

Anyway, the upshot was that we were here in Bloomington without plans. I got busy figuring out a last minute menu and managed to luck into a Red Bourbon turkey from Matt and Mandy at Schacht Fleece Farm (thanks, Sarah, for letting me have one of yours!)  By the time a friend realized we would be here and invited us for dinner, I had amassed too much food to cook, so we decided to have dinner on our own.

Well, we cooked a feast, of course. I am constitutionally incapable of cooking only enough food; it is always too much.  And it had been a while since I cooked holiday fare and I was itching to make the old favorites, and experiment with a few new ideas. So, anyway, I got cooking early this morning and kept on going and going….

But here’s the weird thing. Maybe I just have an eerie relationship with past and present right now due to finally having had the time this last week to read the final Harry Potter book (seems like the dead don’t really stay dead very well in the wizarding world) but all day my mind has been inhabited with the ghosts of Thanksgivings past. It’s been a long while since this day hasn’t been so full of making new memories that I had time to slow down and enjoy the old ones.

And my, but we’ve had some marvelous Thanksgivings. Thanksgivings with family – parents and kids and grandkids -- and some with good, good old friends. Many in this old house, a couple in Florida, even some in other countries. As I cooked though the morning, and as we got the food on the table (and ate til we could hardly breathe), Jer and I reminisced and laughed and remembered. It may have been just the two of us this year, but the table was crowded and we were content.

Still had way too much food, though. Too bad ghosts can’t eat!

And here’s the dinner report:

The heritage turkey was extraordinary! Small, for just us two, but perfect. We used a Weber Grill recipe, of all things – brined it overnight in apple juice, salt, and herbs. Roasted it on the grill, breast down in broth for an hour then right side up for an hour. Kept the white meat amazingly juicy and the broth made the best gravy I have ever had in my life – rich and appley (I added some cider), with a slight hint of smokiness from the applewood on the grill. Sensational.

And all the sides were delish too. Roasted root veg (carrots, parsnips and rutabaga) with a splash of sherry vinegar; roasted Brussels sprouts with applewood smoked bacon and an apple cider glaze; candied sweets; mashed potatoes; bread dressing; cranberry chutney; and Gujerati-style green beans with garlic and black mustard seed. Dessert? You’re kidding, right?

Oh, yeah, and Jer baked a loaf of bread from this recipe in Wednesday's NYT.  Pretty amazing -- it has the no-knead loaf beat all to hell for convenience, and it tastes great too.  Thanks to Kelley at the Almost Sustainable Kitchen for the heads up on it.

Amazing Soup

A couple of weeks ago several student members of Slow Food Bloomington got together to work on chartering an IU chapter of Slow Food on Campus. As the faculty sponsor, I got to tag along, which was a good thing because they met over a terrific potluck supper at one of the student's apartments.  Among the treats on offer (with almost everything made from local ingredients) were samosas, hummus, red beans and rice, roast beef, and one of the best soups I've had in memory!  I was so hooked on Sarah Almuhairi's Curried Butternut Squash Soup that I begged for the recipe and permission to share. Both were granted.  I made the soup for dinner last night, and am finishing it off, cold, with a splash of cider vinegar, for breakfast this morning, even as I type this.  It's a complex and mysterious combination of sweet, tart and spice, and it's just fabulous. 

A couple of thoughts about this soup.  First, it calls for grains of paradise, a peppery/cardamommy spice that I had never used before (and in fact had only heard of in the last month or so.)  I liked it so well I left the grains in the pepper mill with my regular peppercorns for a nice twist of spice. It's worth getting if you don't have any.  Second, Sarah suggests heat-lovers add some chipotles in adobo to the soup.  I am and I did and it was great, but I think it might have overwhelmed the intricate and delicious play of apple and squash with the curry flavors.  Another time, I'll ratchet it back. And finally, it was the perfect soup to make with the contents of this week's CSA box, full of butternut squash and apples.  And there is enough left over that I can make this soup again for Thanksgiving. My taste buds will be singing all week long!

Enough of me -- here's Sarah's recipe. 

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium butternut squash (3-4 lbs), peeled, seeded, and cut into ½ inch cubes

3-4 tart baking apples, such as winesap, Granny Smith, or Jonathan, peeled, cored, and cut into ½ inch cubes

1 large onion, peeled, halved, and finely diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 tablespoon garam masala

½ teaspoon ground grains of paradise

about 4 cups rich chicken or vegetable stock

To taste:

Apple cider vinegar (1 tsp – 1 tbsp)

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Lemon juice (optional – depends on how tart your apples are)

Heat oil and butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onions and a pinch of salt and cook until soft, translucent and starting to take on color (about 10 minutes). Add garlic and chopped herbs and sauté for 2 minutes. Add apples, squash, garam masala, and grains of paradise, and stir to combine. Cover with stock, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a rapid simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes, or until squash and apples are meltingly soft.

Remove soup from heat. Using an immersion blender, blend soup to a smooth puree. Alternatively, you could transfer soup to a food processor or blender in batches. Before serving, add cider vinegar and, if using, lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking (depending on what stock you use, you might need to add up to a teaspoon of salt).

Sarah's Notes:

One of my favorite garnishes for this soup is a dollop of strained Greek-style yoghurt mixed with shredded cucumber, topped with copious amounts of fresh ground pepper. However, sour cream and chopped parsley would also be good, as would any kind of homemade crouton or crostini.

There are as many garam masala recipes as there are North Indian cooks. The garam masala I use is the prepackaged, preground blend from Sahara Mart and is a little bit spicy. I am a spice fiend, and if I'm just making this for myself and the boyfriend will also add ½ tsp of either canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce or dried ground chipotle chili powder. It gives a really nice smoky bite to the soup (if you like your soup to bite back!)

 

 

Like a Kid in a Candy Shop

 

Ever since I read here about the opening of Goose the Market in Indianapolis I have been itching to get there and last night we finally managed it. Easy to find on the corner of 25^th and Delaware, the Goose is a gem of a place, stocked by owners Chris and Mollie with delicacies like these:

• Local meats. They carry lamb from Viking in Morristown, pork and poultry from Gunthorp Farm in La Grange, and beef from the Sennett Cattle Company in Waynetown.

• Cured meats. Clearly Chris’s love, there are house-cured bacons, sausages and other treats (including lamb bacon, and even some prosciutto in the works), and imported varieties as well. We brought home some Toscano Salami and some amazing La Quercia Rosso – an “American prosciutto” from Iowa!! Pretty fabulous stuff.

• Cheeses. They carry a small, but ever-changing array that includes the best of Capriole and Traders Point, but also some treats from farther afield.  We tried the Garrotxa – a sensational dry Spanish goat- and also spied my favorite Taleggio in the case.

• Prepared foods. These vary too – last night Chris had a calamari salad, smoked trout, roasted cauliflower with truffle oil, and cured olives.

• Produce. It’s winter, of course, so don't look for any out-of-season tomatoes and eggplants  here. Instead the bins are full of sweet potatoes, quinces, persimmons, squash, potatoes, onions, and other good things.

• Dairy and eggs – Traders Point yogurt, milk; Stout’s Melody Acres eggs.

• Fish – not in stock, but you can special order by Thursday evening for fresh delivery on      Fridays.

• And more. The downstairs is full of wines, beers, and dry goods. Didn’t have time to look too closely since we had arrived shortly before closing, but I made a quick tour and snagged a jar of Duke’s Mayonnaise. Can’t wait to go back and browse.

Opening a store like Goose the market has been my dream for a very long time. I’ve gotten so interested in meat curing after my efforts at bacon making this summer that I am thinking of going to the Iowa Meat Lab to learn more. And I’ve always wanted a little shop to sell the food finds of my travels. Not sure such a place is ever going to be in my future, but I am going to enjoy this one vicariously for now.

Goose the Market

2503 N. Delaware St.

Indianapolis, IN 46205

317-924-4944

www.goosethemarket.com

 

Cravings

I can’t get Lebanese food off my mind. Maybe it was the visit to London last weekend that included TWO visits to the excellent Ishbilia in Kensington), maybe it’s the genes, maybe it’s that Lebanese food is delicious and we can’t get the real deal here in Bloomington. Whatever.

I have a friend and fellow food writer who’s got the same yearning for grape leaves and kibbeh, and we’ve been planning a communal feast for a while now – somewhere off in the distant when-we’re-not-so-busy future. But I came home from London hungry, and we’ve set a date for early December and invited enough friends to fill a long table for ten.

But what to cook?

Friday morning we sat down with every Middle Eastern cookbook we own (there were more than 20 on the table, including the one from my grandmother’s Syrian Orthodox Church in LA, circa 1969) and began to plan. We are “just” going to do a mezze, lots of small dishes, but by the time we got done listing the must-haves (classics like hummus, tabouleh, kibbeh, labneh), some favorites from other Middle Eastern cuisines (Imam Biyaldi!), and a few things we were seduced into trying (like the gorgeous eggplant slices with yogurt, tahini and pomegranate from Arabesque) the list, like all good mezze lists, grew long.

Currently it looks something like this:

Olives

Feta

Pickled turnips

Bread and zaatar

Grilled Haloumi

Bread

Hummus with fried lamb

Muhummara

Smoked eggplant salad

Labneh

Toom

Tabouleh

Stuffed grape leaves

Imam biyaldi

Eggplant slices with yogurt, tahini and pomegranate

Mujadara

Kibbeh nayye

Ful medames

Fatoosh

Falafel

Fried kibbeh

Potato kibbeh

Baked kibbeh

Grilled chicken with sumac

Pomegranate sorbet

Maamoul

The prep has begun with mail order purchases of cheese, olives and chilies, and the ordering of lamb. Tomorrow I will get the pickled turnips underway. Presumably I will eat other things between now and Dec. 1, but my dreams are running to zaatar over pumpkin pie spice just now.

Stay tuned.