THIS THANKSGIVING MENU

 Cocktail            (Whisky) Sidecar, with spiced cranberries

Traditional Sidecar uses brandy or cognac, with equal portions triple sec and fresh-squeezed lemon juice. I am adding the homemade candied cranberries in the flute glass to “fill” the spirit. Whisky (Scottish): Royal Salute, 21 years; Triple Sec (Orange): Italian Luxardo.

Appetizer        Smoked tuna canapé

The layers are the following: fig crackers, the tuna (from Nordic Preserves at Essex Market), and crème fraîche on top, seeded with pomegranate and chives.   

Salad                                                       

                 French beans, cranberry beans and tarragon “English” salad

“English” denotes rawness and simplicity – meaning: “undressed”; no vinaigrette necessary. Simply cook the legumes and serve room temperature with tarragon leaves, shallots, salt and pepper, squeezing over some lemon juice, a little oil – and grating in the mix the best mild, semi-hard farm cheese you can find. I’m using Zamorano, a Spanish sheep’s milk cheese from Castilla-Leon. 

                                                        

                 Roasted butternut squash, red onions and chestnuts salad

I’m going traditional, and this is served warm. The squash and onions are grilled separately, and before serving, I will be chopping chestnuts and sage leaves together – then mixing them in sweet wine vinaigrette to dress over the salad.

Main Dish

                    Brussels sprouts and dried porcini risotto

This is a vegan dish. All the reserved liquid from the legumes will be used to cook the rice, plus water and olive oil only. I will garnish the dish with fresh thyme.

                                                                              

                         Whole leg of lamb tagine

Tagine is a Moroccan-style of braising using dried fruits and whole spices, traditionally in a clay pot. My version will be cooked in a Dutch oven, and inescapable with the slow cooking of the lamb are the fruits of the following trees: pear, apple, kumquat; roots from parsnip and carrot; dried apricot and dried pitted prunes; raw cashew nuts; and a herbarium of whole spices! I’m not cooking “the bird” this season because I want my dish to dance, to be sexy – and why I’m going for the “belly” (lamb). Meat source: Dellapietra’s in Brooklyn Heights.

Dessert                                                                          

                       Soaked walnut cookie pumpkin tiramisu

I am purchasing the cookies from Veniero’s Pasticceria in the E. Village (and soaking them in almond milk), yet I’m making the pumpkin cream from scratch.  It is Thanksgiving, after all.  

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MANHATTAN NIGHT

SOUR-CILANTRO "FISH" RICE SOUP and Grilled Switzerland Gruyere and Mozzarella Cheese

First, how to achieve the sourness cum complex:

I. Heat *spices in medium pot over lowest heat - no oil - until spices are partially toasted and very aromatic (stir and/or shake pot while charring; add a dab of butter to sizzle).

*fresh lemon grass stems (scored like the whites of leeks)
  ditto peeled ginger 
  ditto stems of cilantro (all three fresh spices must be the same size - 1.5inch)
  sprinklings of: coriander seeds 
                            caraway seeds
                            cloves (1 or 2)
                            chili pepper flakes
                            bay leaf (1 or 2)
  When partial toasting is achieved, add water half way of pot, then drop:   
   dried Philippine **kamias, also known as Bilimbi, or in English - cucumber tree or tree sorrel fruit (10-12 pieces)
  then, grate fresh nutmeg
   and a couple of pinches of rock salt and fresh cracked pepper 
Increase heat to medium low, simmer/steep for 30 minutes, adjust to taste. Keep warm.


**Bilimbi or scientifically known as Averrhoa Bilimbi have dozens of native names. It is widely called as cucumber tree or tree sorrel in English but the tree itself is native to most tropical countries. Filipinos generally called it "kamias" and it is a widely known tree that can be found in most house backyards. Bilimbi is a fruit-bearing tree from the genus averrhoa plant family, a close relative of carambola. Bilimbi fruit are used in many medicinal purposes because of its high acidic properties. It is also used as a sweetener for various local and international cuisines such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Argentina and many others.


II. Cook rice separately in rice cooker using 1/2 cup brown, 1/2 cup whole wheat berries to 3 cups water. I added some lemon grass and two stems of rosemary herbs - just the stems, pull out needles.


III. Prepare garnish: 1/2 tsp "fish" sauce, 1/2 tsp olive oil infused with garlic and chili oil, a pinch of dried chives, and fresh cracked  

To serve: In a white bistro bowl, ladle a big dollop of rice (no stems, please) and then strain sour soup over the rice, to fill bowl two-thirds up, and add the garnish.

FOR THE GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH:
Simply - 
Slice up cheeses and layer on olive bread (from Breads Bakery), dash salt, pepper, sweet Hungarian paprika over - then close up the sandwich, press with palm, spread a little butter on top, dash pepper again and a little more pap. Toast and melt cheese in panini grill. 

Serve alongside sour soup - and take in the night view!  

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FUTURE

Future, take a step where I can see you
Standing by a mincing board,
The education of chopping flavors

Hands-on now you learn from pirates
To steady a knife, to steady yourself
You are food

Fly to Bali for a fish head
Present its eyes and uni
With carved rabe stems and aflame wine

Survive the black ship taking you
Win hats, fool the rowdy
You can cook

They will take you for many years,
Captive Kitchen,
Until your salad days

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Cilantro, Roasted Seaweed Mediterranean Fried Rice

My technique to must-eat-now dinner (having quickly prepped the ingredients chopped into uniformity - ribbons of the seaweed, the mortadella, the leftover falafel balls and rings of pitted Sicilians) is to oil the pan (half sesame and half olive) all at once with the aforementioned garnish, and powdering over the spices (sweet paprika and nutmeg) while heating in medium low. Mix well until sizzling; then add/fold in the precooked rice (brown and farro pearls). 

Create a hole - a caldera - through the rice, and break two brown eggs in it, topping with  mucho chopped cilantro, and salt, pepper, chili flakes. Turn flame to lowest. Sam Sifton or Mark Bittman can show you how to whisk-cook the eggs while fried ricing (check out their video blog/column in the Times), but if you trust me as learned from them, what you do is: stir the caldera like a witch until the eggs curdle - then gradually gather in the volcano rice - and flatten it "geologically" to achieve a flowering meadow! Then eat and run - ala Julie Andrews singing "The hills are alive..."

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Chickpeas, Butter Sicilian Olives, German Blue, Dry Salami Panini

For the bread, use a TriBeCa bakery baguette, and slice an eight-incher from the end. Open up the sandwich in half and stick in a four-layer, in ascending order: salami, olives (cut up as ringlets), the garbanzos and the cheese. Salt, pepper, chili flakes and oil - then put the top down, wrap sandwich in parchment, and crunch up in a panini press until the "blues" melt.

Serve with a grapefruit-Campari granita! (Go get one at Bushwick, Brooklyn's Arancini Bar on Flusing and Evergreen Avenues.) 

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