Posted on 11/19/2021 7:03:20 AM PST by Kaslin
The latest episode of “Coffee & Cochon” offers recipes for side dishes that will take your Thanksgiving spread to the next level.
Whether baked, fried, or smoked, there is the turkey, the traditional center of the universe for the Thanksgiving meal. Ask anyone what his favorite part of Thanksgiving lunch, dinner, or both is and he’ll likely have a different answer, though.
Because on Thanksgiving, the side items are the true indulgences. You need some protein 365 days a year. Same on sleep, even if you don’t achieve it via tryptophan.
But one thing you don’t need on the regular is sweet potatoes so decadent they could serve as dessert, mashed potatoes so rich you might need to eat while wearing a blood pressure cuff, or a time-consuming two-step dressing, even if it is a springboard for the rest of your plate.
You may not need any of them, which is all the more reason to enjoy all of them on Thanksgiving, particularly in our land of plenty, inflation notwithstanding.
These recipes require varying levels of skill, patience, and belief in yourself, but they’re all eminently doable. One of the many beauties of Thanksgiving is that it’s not a day that requires perfection, just an exceedingly high level of satiety.
So, pick up the required ingredients, grab a candy thermometer, and throw on your apron. No matter who you spend the day with, the resulting meal will get at least nine thumbs up, even if you only follow our advice in the abstract sense.
To get us started, we all know sweet potatoes. Some of us, though, know yams. But do you know the difference, other than the fact that basically all recipes don’t really care which you use?
That’s because most likely they’re the same thing, unless you’re shopping for some heirloom breed at the farmers market. Moreover, this recipe likely calls for sweet potatoes even though it says yams, being that the recipe is from New Orleans and, as the article linked in the previous sentence shows, Louisiana was instrumental in blurring the distinction.
Either way, this is like having your dessert with your meal, before you have your proper dessert following the meal. Seemingly complicated, it’s really not. Just follow the instructions and you’ll be fine.
But what if you want regular mashed potatoes instead of sweet potatoes? To that, Brad and I would say, “Why not both?” and point you to this recipe his family reserves for turkey day. Yes, that’s more informational than a simple recipe, but now you know why potatoes have become the staple they are. To that, Brad and I would say, “You’re welcome.”
But what about dressing? Or is it stuffing? The short answer is, yes, probably.
Whether you cook it inside the bird, as in stuffing, or separately, as in dressing, it’s a crucial component of the meal. It can be simple, it can be complex. It can be made of sourdough or a French loaf or cornbread. It can be vegetarian or vegetarian-ish. The important thing is that it’s there, serving as one of the cornerstones to a feast fit for the heirs of a people who risked it all so that we might enjoy it.
As this is a heritage meal, if not one that was wholly served at the first Thanksgiving, I’m going into the vault and releasing my Granny McCoy’s recipe for dressing. Treat the privilege of getting your hands on this with the respect it deserves.
Cornbread for dressing:
1 ¾ cup regular cornmeal
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
4 eggs
6 Tbsp shortening
about 1 ½ cups milk
Mix dry ingredients and add wet. Bake in 9 x 13 pan at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Dressing:
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
8 cups cornbread crumbs
2 cups bread crumbs
2 tsp sage (or to taste)
2 tsp poultry seasoning
black pepper to taste
about 1 quart chicken broth (or turkey) with 6 bouillon cubes dissolved in broth
Cook onion and celery in a little oil until done.
Add remaining ingredients except for broth.
Add broth to make a loose but not runny mixture.
Bake at 350 for an hour.
Trust us, you’re going to enjoy it. Don’t be daunted by the fact that it’s a two-stage recipe, just as there is no reason to be daunted by the candy thermometer required for the yams—that is, sweet potatoes. Cornbread didn’t become a staple because it’s complicated.
It’s the rest of the meal that offers the opportunity for complication, in the meal timing sense. Because this ain’t a meat and two. It’s not even a meat and three. It’s a meat and so much more.
For these sides are but a start. You’ll also need cranberry sauce, whether canned or homemade. You’ll need some rolls. You can add some deviled eggs and pickles to take it up a notch. And don’t forget about dessert, although that course should involve at least one pie offering. This is the day to go big, although likely while also going home.
That’s because Thanksgiving is about family, although it’s also about the feast, it’s about football, and it’s about enjoying a warm cuppa to keep you awake for the latter after the former. As such, you should enjoy it thusly.
If you have any questions about how best to indulge, feel free to reach out to us. But be warned that we may not answer too promptly if you wait until Thanksgiving Day to contact us. Coffee aside, we’ll either be eating or in food comas at that time.
Bkmrk
Diet status: not looking good for a few weeks.
Take a can of sweet potatoes drained. Mash them up with a little cinnamon and orange juice. Then mold some mashed sweet potato around a marshmallow and roll it in shredded coconut. Place on a no stick cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. So good!
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I usually include all of these in my Thanksgiving menu:
homemade whole-berry cranberry sauce
canned gelatin cranberry sauce
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes (mashed, baked with a little brown sugar, marshmallows on top)
corn
green bean casserole (classic recipe)
bread rolls (Kings Hawaiian)
turkey
stuffing homemade with sage sausage, celery, onions, giblets
gravy
pies (purchased)with some redi-whip
olives, sweet pickles
leaf-shaped butter patties
I think that is all.
You can throw enough nuts and sweets on sweet potatoes to make them edible, IMO
For me a good turkey gravy is the key. I smother everything on my plate with it.
Yams aren’t even close to sweet potatoes.
Expressing my annual disgust with Green Bean casserole which is an abomination upon the Earth from the depths of culinary hell.
Never understood the whining about making Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Oh, the time! Oh, the effort and exhaustion.
Bake your pies and cornbread the day before.
Put the turkey in the oven at 7 am. Get the sides ready and go sit down. They giblet gravy pot is put on the back burner the heat from the oven comes off so doesn’t need to be turned on. Water, giblets and two washed eggs in the shell. Start the rolls dough.
At 10, take the foil off the turkey, get some stock out of it’s pan and mix up the dressing. Go sit down.
At 11, take the bird out of the oven and put the foil back on. Put the sides into the oven. Shape and let the rolls rise. Go sit down.
As the sides come out of the oven, put the rolls in to bake. Go sit down.
At noon, eat.
Friday and Saturday, finish off the leftovers.
Sunday, pick meat off bones and freeze. Boil carcass for broth and pick off another freezer bag of meat.
—”I think that is all.”
Thinking you overlooked potato HEART ATTACK on a plate??
Potatoes, bacon, cheese, sour cream...
I can only sample it once a year, for fear I might OD.
First thing after dinner the guests are given as much as they like for personal consumption later.
I have many loud relatives and might not miss them next year.
The other ting I won't eat are mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows. I don't know where that came from, but I find it off-putting. We do have candied sweet potatoes though. We cut them in chunks and cook them in butter, brown sugar and pecans. The potatoes stay in chunks but are very soft.
I forgot the mass quantities of butter, cream...
So you are trying to kill off the LOUD RELATIVES with the heart attack on a plate? You need to include more BUTTER.
Cranberry Salad
1-1/2 cups cranberries
1 orange w/peel
1 green apple w/peel
grind and mix, add
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
Make two small or 1 large cherry Jello, when semi-firm,
add ground fruit and mix.
Top with whipped cream, or if you want to impress, use
mock Devonshire cream, which is amazingly good:
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, and salt;
stir until well blended. Stir in whipping cream. With an
electric mixer, beat mixture until stiff. Store in refrigerator.
One family recipe that was always a crowd pleaser, is the Asparagus-Egg-Cheese casserole. It is a treat to see kids vying to get more *asparagus*, that many of them normally shun.
6 tbsp butter
3 tbsp chopped green pepper
2 tbsp grated onion
4 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
Saute until tender in top of double boiler, then add flour
and blend. Gradually add milk and cook until smooth and thick.
Add salt and pepper.
3-15 oz drained cans of asparagus
6 sliced hard boiled eggs
American cheese slices
3/4 cup buttered crumbs
Alternate layers of asparagus, egg slices and cheese slices, and
sauce in a large, square baking dish. Top with final layer of
sauce and buttered crumbs.
Bake in 350F oven for 20 minutes.
Nothing the matter with green bean casserole. 😁
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