Two of my favorite Autumn Ingredients
Cornucopia translates into “Horn of Plenty” and this is a good description for my collection of recipes for side dishes for this season. Today I’ll share a couple more of my favorites.
Before I continue on with some recipes for my favorite vegetable side dishes for Thanksgiving, a word of note about Thursday’s recipe for Wild Rice. When working with a main ingredient such as wild rice, as with pasta, you are beginning with something that is essentially bland and needs significant embellishment. While Wild Rice does have an inherent flavor that is somewhat nutty and earthy, suffice it to say you probably would avoid eating it alone. So, in crafting recipes incorporating it, you need to think complementary flavors – and this can take a lot of them. I just bring this up because you might want to try a variety of iterations on this recipe, using fruits, vegetables, herbs, stocks, and even wines or fortified wines such as port or sherry, the latter of which I mentioned yesterday. A few other items which can be considered to be incorporated are:
greens, sweet potato chunks (add cooked at end when you are going to put this in to re-heat), butternut squash, pineapple, mango, asparagus, green beans, basically any dried fruits, roasted shallots (whole or halved if large), cippolini onions, roasted garlic, etc. etc. So, as the weeks go by toward Christmas and New Year’s, try some variations of the recipe from yesterday.
Last year I made this FOUR ONION GRATIN from Bon Appetit 10/91, instead of regular creamed onions. This is a decadent dish and you can’t have a lot of it, well, unless you have an extra big tummy or are foregoing a lot of other side dishes. But, it is worth trying, even if you don’t have it for Thanksgiving. It would be perfect with a Roast Tenderloin of Beef or Leg of Lamb when the other sides won’t overshadow it.
FOUR ONION GRATIN – adapted from Bon Appetit 10/91
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter
6 Leeks, white and pale green parts only, sliced
2 large onions, cut into eighths
8 shallots, halved
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 10 oz. bags frozen baby onions, thawed and drained
2 cups whipping cream
2 tblsp butter
2 tblsp bread crumbs
2 tblsp chopped fresh parsley
1 cup grated gruyere
1/4 – 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 – 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Melt butter in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add leeks, large onions, shallots and garlic and saute until all are tender, about 20 minutes. Add baby onions, nutmeg, salt and pepper and cook 10 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. Mix in 2 cups whipping cream. Boil until cream is thickened to sauce consistency, about 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature in a large bowl. When mixture is cool, mix in gruyere.
Transfer vegetable-cream mixture to a 6 cup shallow baking dish. Preheat oven to 425F.
In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add breadcrumbs and parsley and cook until the breadcrumbs are just slightly browned. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over onion mixture. Bake until breadcrumbs are golden brown and onion mixture bubbles, about 20-30 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley.
This recipe can be made one day in advance. Cover and refrigerate before placing breadcrumbs on top. Return mixture to room temperature before baking.
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And, here is another great vegetable side-dish that is a great change up from the typical mashed potatoes:
SHERRIED SWEET POTATOES WITH APPLES – adapted from Gourmet 11/90
3 large sweet potatoes, cut into large pieces
3 Granny Smith apples
4 tblsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup medium-dry sherry
In a large saucepan combine sweet potatoes with enough cold water to cover by 1″. Boil until just tender, about 35 minutes. Drain and cool until they can be handled. Can be prepared in advance to this point and kept chilled, overnight. Peel, cut lengthwise into sixths, and cut lengths crosswise into 1/2″ pieces.
Peel, core and cut apples lengthwise into sixths, and cut crosswise into 1/2″ pieces.
In a large, heavy skillet, cook apples in the butter over moderate heat, stirring for 3 minutes or until softened. Stir in the lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, thyme and half of the sherry. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Taste mixture and see if you want the balance of the sherry. If yes, add and cook for an additional three minutes. Note: I have found that, depending on the particular sherry you are using, it can overwhelm this dish. So, add whatever quantity you like.)
Add the sweet potatoes and cook the mixture, stirring gently and trying not to break up the sweet potatoes for 2 minutes, until well combined and heated through. Transfer to a heated serving dish and serve at once.
Consider these…….. more to come……….