Thanksgiving is a funny holiday. It's a weird mix of frenzy and sloth, gratitude and greed. What should be a fun and peaceful time spent with relatives and friends is often preceded by the chaos of having too much to do and too little time in which to do it.
If you are the person responsible for cooking the Thanksgiving meal, you know that Extreme Grocery Shopping is the hallmark of the holiday. Simply getting your groceries home can be the stuff of nightmares if you live in a crowded city or suburb. Cooking the meal is a cakewalk by comparison.
Every year as I approach the local Whole Foods in the days running up to Thanksgiving, I see couples in the parking lot dividing their lists in two, synchronizing their watches, and saying things like, "Commencing operations at Oh Seven Hundred! We reconnoiter in Spices and Baking Needs! Go! Go! Go!"
Here is my shopping stress management suggestion: buy as many of the non-perishable ingredients as you can by Tuesday morning. That way all you'll have to get on Wednesday night are the turkey, salad greens, and other fresh ingredients. When supermarket aisles are crowded to a near standstill, buying 10 ingredients rather than 20 will cut your shopping time by more than half -- and may qualify you for the express checkout lane.
As far as Thanksgiving dishes go, I recently had an excellent Buddhist-style wheat gluten-based "meat analogue" version of chicken at my friend Kama's house. It didn't exactly taste like chicken (odd, since just about everything in the edible universe is reputed to), but it did taste like turkey, and the texture wasn't bad. She told me that it was VegFarm, which I then googled, but most of the websites came up in Chinese, so I couldn't find out much about it.
I went to Super 88, the big Asian market in Allston, Mass., to learn more. I finally found the VegFarm aisle, where they had several styles of fake fish and poultry, but not the whole fake chicken Kama had served. They had little chunks of soy-based "salty chicken," but no wheat-gluten "chicken."
Since it might be hard to find a VegFarm "roast" (unless you can read Chinese and live near a well-stocked Asian market), I can recommend the usual turkey substitutes.
A friend of mine who's highly allergic to mushrooms wants me to remind people that some poultry substitutes are made from fungus, aka mycoprotein (like Quorn). If you're serving it you should ask if anyone's allergic to mushrooms, since you can't tell it's the main ingredient from the look, smell, or taste.
If you are cooking for vegetarians on Thanksgiving, consider serving something that isn't related to turkey or the traditional Thanksgiving meal. How about a wild mushroom consomme followed by butternut squash ravioli in a béchamel sauce? Ready-made ravioli is available in the freezer sections of health food stores. If you've never made béchamel sauce before, you might want to make it once before Thanksgiving for practice, but it's pretty easy to do. There are many recipes available on the web.
There are already more turkey, dressing, and gravy recipes out there than anyone could cook in a lifetime, so I won't give you one of those. But readers did ask for substitutes for pumpkin pie. Here are recipes for a deep, dark gingerbread, given to me by my friend Paul Hollings (it's great on its own or accompanied by sauteed peaches and whipped cream), and my Great Aunt Karlie's Sweet Potato Pudding, which is actually a side dish but sweet enough to be eaten as a dessert.
I'm still working on a pie that contains apples and dried fruits, trying to make it taste good without tasting like mincemeat or fruitcake. I'll have that for you later this week.
Lots of my friends complain they never have a chance to cook a turkey themselves, since they always spend T-day at a relative's house. If that's something you want to do, buy a turkey the day after Thanksgiving (they're usually on sale!) and invite your friends over for a "Friend Thanksgiving" later in the weekend.
After all, it's nice to have a chance to express our gratitude for our friends.
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Great Aunt Karlie's Sweet Potato Pudding
Like many family recipes, this was written by my great aunt using somewhat inexact quantities and instructions. For example, her recipe said to use one large can and one small can of mashed sweet potatoes. I generally use one 28 oz can and one smaller can (they range in size from 14 to 16 ounces), because those are the sizes available these days (and they work in the recipe), but who knows if that's what she originally intended? This year when I looked for organic sweet potatoes I found they only had small cans, so I just bought three of them, which works out to approximately the same amount, i.e. about 42 ounces.
The thing my family always thought was hysterical is that my great aunt wrote the word "good" before the word "bourbon" -- and she underlined it three times.
This is a sweet and gloppy dish, best eaten and served with a spoon. If you want to put some cinnamon-dusted biscuits on top rather than the marshmallows, you'll have a nice cobbler. In the past I have made it with a meringue topping instead of marshmallows for vegetarian friends. (Marshmallows contain gelatin, whereas meringue contains egg whites but no gelatin.) Like the marshmallows, you add the meringue topping at the very end.
If you have access to black walnuts, they really do make a difference to the taste of the pudding, although it's good without them too, and pecans make a nice substitute. I order black walnuts off the web since they are hard to get around here. You definitely want to buy them already shelled since it's nearly impossible to shell them yourself.
Okay, here's the recipe:
- Butter baking dish.
- Drain and mash 1 large and 1 small can of sweet potatoes (approx. 42 oz. total).
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter.
- Add 1 egg.
- Add 1/4 pint of thick cream (1/4 pint = 1/2 cup).
- Beat thoroughly until creamy.
- Add 1/2 cup of good bourbon.
- Add 1 cup of black walnuts.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon salt.
- Bake slowly until it starts to bubble.
- Top with marshmallows and brown.
You may notice that no capacity is given for the baking dish, and no temperature for the oven, and no estimate of the time it will take to cook, and no number of servings (about 8-10 people, but you can give guests more or less-- it's good, but rich, and a little goes a long way).
Here's what I do: use a regular dutch oven, casserole, or soufflé dish, cook it at about 350 degrees, begin looking in after 30 minutes but expect it to take about 40-45 before it bubbles, and then brown the marshmallows for a minute or two.
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Hollings Family Gingerbread
This is a recipe given to me by my friend Paul Hollings. He got it from his mother Jennifer, who learned it from her mother. I am grateful Paul was willing to share it. I have added a recipe for sauteed peaches to serve alongside it, but that's just for fun, as it is perfectly delicious on its own.
11 oz. butter (2 3/4 sticks)
5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
28 ounces molasses (not blackstrap)
2 3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
6 eggs
2 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
7 oz. milk
1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
- Cream the butter.
- Add sugar and beat well.
- Add half the flour and all the molasses, ginger, and beaten eggs.
- Mix thoroughly.
- In a separate container, warm the milk and add the baking soda to the milk.
- Stir the milk/soda mix into the batter alternately with the remaining flour.
- Grease and flour the sides of an 8 quart ovenproof pot (I use Farberware) or a 17 x 11 lasagna pan. Butter the bottom and sides.Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom and place it there. (My mother's recipe says you could butter and flour the bottom, but I always use parchment paper to be safe -- you don't want it sticking.)
- Pour the batter into your container.
- Bake at 300 degrees for 90-120 minutes (or longer). The center may collapse, which is a good thing.
- When a knife inserted into center comes out clean, turn out onto a rack and let cool.
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Sauteed Peaches in a bit of Bourbon Sauce
(Makes enough to serve as a sauce and accompaniment for the gingerbread)
2 tablespoons butter
1 can of sliced peaches (approximately 14 oz.), drained
1 tablespoon maple syrup
two pinches cinnamon
2 tablespoons good bourbon
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a skillet. Don't let it burn.
- Drain the canned peaches and add them to the skillet.
- Cook the peaches until they are warmed through. They don't have to brown, but it's okay if they do.
- Once the peaches are warmed through, take the pan off the flame.
- Add the maple syrup and stir it in so it's thoroughly distributed.
- Add the two pinches of cinnamon. Stir.
- Away from any other burners with flames going, add the bourbon. If the pan is still hot it will make a mist, which is the alcohol rising up in the steam. This mist is flammable for a few seconds, so be really careful.
- Stir until all is well mixed.
- Serve alongside the gingerbread.
Whipped Cream
(Makes enough to serve with the gingerbread)
1/2 pint chilled heavy cream (1 cup)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon liquor (ginger, orange, hazelnut or almond) or more to taste
The key to good whipped cream is to make sure it's not sweeter than the dessert you're serving with it.
- Make sure to use chilled cream and, if possible, chilled beaters and a chilled bowl.
- Stir the sugar and liquor into the cream and whip until it's the texture you like, somewhere on the foamy-to-stiff continuum.
- Gloop on peaches and gingerbread.
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Comments
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KathyF Posted 10:24 pm
19 Nov 2006
I am skipping T-Day altogether this year, as the rest of the country refuses to celebrate it with me. I'm off for Cornwall, where I'll probably be having a pasty. Stuffed with Quorn.
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caniscandida Posted 1:51 am
20 Nov 2006
KathyF, yes indeed, the rejection of faux meat on aesthetic grounds makes perfect sense. I would not at all mind trying Tofurkey and Quorn, but it hardly seems like there is an urgent and difficult problem that only they can solve. Are they really helpful for those new vegetarians, recently weaned from meat, who still miss the taste of meat?
On a technical matter: Mushrooms, and other fungi, are of course not vegetables. In fact, they are more closely related to us, than they are to, say, soybeans. That is, fungi and animals have a common ancestor that appeared more recently in the course of evolution than the common ancestor of either of those groups and plants. One may wonder, therefore, if any vegans are squeamish about eating them ...
Thanksgiving in the Castle of Tintagel! How romantic! How surreal! I once spent Thanksgiving in Sorrento, overlooking the Bay of Naples. Needless to say, food is not a problem in those parts; I forget what I ate, but I am positive it was not turkey.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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anthony11 Posted 3:34 am
20 Nov 2006
o It contains chicken ova, so it's really no different from tradtional meat as far as animals go.
o The fungus they use in can be allergenic.
o It tastes, as Cartman would say, like ass.
I suggest a Tofurky or -- better yet -- an UnTurkey instead. They taste better and no male chicks are macerated alive to make them.
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Pandu Posted 3:49 am
20 Nov 2006
We buy a Tofurkey every year, but I don't eat much of it because it just feels like too much protein for me. I don't think of it as a meat substitute because I don't think of meat as food. Maybe I buy it because there's nothing like a 'mock turkey' to mock the holiday.
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mihan Posted 3:56 am
20 Nov 2006
Many thanks. Those peaches sound like a good thing to make next summer and put in the freezer for the winter. Oh... ! ripe peaches and bourbon. !
For t-day this year, I and some friends are doing a vegetarian middle-eastern feast. That's right, no pretense of bird anywhere. It will be delightful. We're calling it "T-day" (short for "tahini-day," of course).
My favorite way of doing sweet potatoes is as follows: Cut 'em up. Put 'em in a pan, sprinkling with hot red pepper flakes. Pour a can of coconut milk on top. Cover with foil and bake. It's delicious, easy, unusual, and vegan, though delicious with roast bird (think squash curry).
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Roz Cummins Posted 8:37 am
20 Nov 2006
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TubbyC Posted 5:41 pm
20 Nov 2006
What about my favourite, a good old fashioned nut roast? Can't beat it.
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Roz Cummins Posted 11:09 am
21 Nov 2006
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willa Posted 12:46 pm
21 Nov 2006
I know they're not vegan, but a little egg white is orders of magnitude better than a lot of dead chicken. Yes, the male chicks die horrible, horrible deaths, which is horrible, but for each Quorn pattie you are eating a small fraction of an egg, which in turn is a small fraction of the lifetime output of one chicken, and that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make because I'd go stark raving mad and go out and buy the biggest, juiciest steak I could find if I had to go vegan for more than a couple of days.
Not flattering, but true.
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caniscandida Posted 2:53 pm
21 Nov 2006
You know, though, sentimental Indian-loving old Yankee that I am, I still feel there should be something obviously Native American at Thanksgiving. Which is why I would prefer Mexican cuisine to Middle Eastern on this occasion.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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willa Posted 11:33 pm
21 Nov 2006
To me, "normal" Thanksgiving food is "normal" because it's what's in season and what I, at least, crave in early-winterish weather. Root vegetables, gravy, pie, etc, seem totally normal to me, not special things you only make once a year. I didn't buy a single thing this morning that I won't buy again next week or the week after. SO I have to assume that the people who are suddenly buying all this stuff are usually eating with zero regard to what's in season, and most likely are not cooking much if at all, if their Thanksgiving food needs cause the population of the grocery store, and specifically the produce aisle, to more than double all of a sudden. It's just depressing, you know?
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mihan Posted 11:59 pm
21 Nov 2006
That made me laugh out loud: funny because true! I volunteer at a food coop, and Thansgiving week is always insane, so we always wonder that.
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kmp Posted 12:15 am
22 Nov 2006
Although, as I say that, maybe I should leave out the cooking part. At yoga class last night, half the people were talking about how they ordered up the entire Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, gravy, trimmings, pie) prepared from Stop & Shop. For $69. I just don't understand what is fun about that.
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willa Posted 12:54 am
22 Nov 2006
Oh, and right at the entrance there was an enormous tower of jars of "gravy". People, seriously? It takes ten minutes to make fresh gravy using soy sauce, veggie bouillon, and cornstarch!
Sigh.
So it's not a writeoff for the prepared-foods business, really. It's just that people want things that are not only prepared, but specifically prepared to seem somehow homemade. How very 1950s.
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kmp Posted 1:06 am
22 Nov 2006
Somehow, I prefer it when people admit that it is much easier (and/or more preferable) for them to simply buy a pumkin pie at the store/bakery to those people who buy a pre-cooked pie shell, prepared canned pumpkin pie filling and Cool Whip, and call it "homemade pie."
However, I'm being annoyingly snotty since pretty much my entire Thanksgiving meal will be made by someone else (the lovely folks at the Pinkham Notch AMC lodge) and I will be hiking tomorrow, not slaving over a bird.
Kaela
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willa Posted 1:17 am
22 Nov 2006
When I first lived with my fiance, he was astonished to find out what fresh produce looked and tasted like. He didn't know that cherries had pits! That totally blew me away. He's totally reformed now, which means when we see his family we have to suppress snickers when they "cook". These are people who buy canned potatoes--I shit you not. What would make someone decide to can a potato, or a pumpkin for that matter, I have no idea--the whole point of these foods is that they store well in their natural state. I wouldn't be surprised if his father and stepmother don't own a vegetable peeler.
Then again, I'm guessing the vast majority of American households are in the same boat, judging by how difficult a time I'm having finding a decent-quality replacement for my vegetable peeler, which has finally gone unusably dull after two generations of use. It seems that they no longer make plain old, simple, non-tarted-up vegetable peelers that are also made of decent, decently sharp steel. You can buy the expensive "ergonomic" ones that won't peel anything but a carrot, because their protrusions hit the side of any non-carrot-shaped vegetable, or you can by the $3 supermarket ones that will peel any vegetable you want--once, and then they'yre dull (and un-sharpenable).
Oy, I have such a hard life!
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David Roberts Posted 2:07 am
22 Nov 2006
My family's plan for tomorrow:
Get up. Remain in pajamas.
...
Eat.
...
Bed.
Woo hoo!
www.grist.org
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kmp Posted 2:49 am
22 Nov 2006
I think it's that I just truly enjoy cooking - not that I don't take advantage of convenience foods (there are frozen Amy's pizza in my freezer as well, and I practically live on Trader Joe's Butternut Squash soup) and not that it can't be stressful, but I usually look at preparing a big meal as a social event, sort of a "the journey is as much fun as the destination" mindset. It's sad to me that the art of putting together a great meal, and enjoying the making of it as much as the eating of it, seems to be becoming a lost art.
All that being said, I hope you enjoy your organic, pajama-clad Feastival; and you'll have all the more time to play hide-and-seek and airplane with that 1 year old.
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Roz Cummins Posted 4:40 am
03 Dec 2006
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