Saturday, November 29, 2008

Cooking for Thanksgiving : Part 1

The Swiss still aren't advanced enough to have Thanksgiving Thursday off, so we're doing it on Sunday instead. Here's the status of preparations so far (otherwise I'll definitely forget something in the forecast chaos tomorrow):

Apero stuff:

  1. two types of prepared olives: greek olives with harissa and mixed olives with fresh herbs
  2. pickled zucchini (from the store, I cheat)
  3. mushrooms with garlic, bacon, sherry, rosemary, and thyme
  4. one salsa with garlic and piri piri peppers cooked until golden in olive oil, then emulsified with crushed tomatoes, salt, sweet paprika, a pinch of sugar, and sherry vinegar.
  5. one salsa with garlic pasted with salt, piquillo peppers, apple juice, parsley, liebstoeckel (lovage), olive oil, salt, hot paprika, sweet paprika, and crushed tomatoes.
  6. two kinds of self-roasted almonds: salt, cumin, hot paprika; salt and raclette spices
  7. salted peanuts tossed in a pan with honey and a bit of cayenne (this is a new one that seems quite promising)
  8. an homage (of sorts) to my grandmother: pimientos and cheese made with diced Tilsiter cheese, chopped piquillos, mayo, a dash of tabasco, and a splash of cider vinegar.
Main course stuff:
  1. The bread for the stuffing (Ruchbrot) is diced and air drying. The stock (chicken stock, celery, onion, dried porcini, sage, liebstoeckel (lovage), parsley, bay leaf) is made and in the fridge
  2. The pumpkin soup: potimarron, chicken stock, leek, carrots, cardamom, ground ginger, white pepper. It's made and waiting. Maybe this will get some cream tomorrow, maybe not.
  3. Oven roasted green beans, following the Cooks Illustrated technique.
Final preparations to come tomorrow...

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