I have not had a Thanksgiving dinner in Paris yet. When I lived in NYC and came to Paris to avoid family, we could have a lovely meal but the idea of Thanksgiving was far from our minds. Last year was my first living here and I just ignored the holiday. This year I was planning to do the same, but my friend Christine was coming to dinner on the day and Helmut said, "well, if it is Thanksgiving, why don't we do Thanksgiving?" Well, hmm... ah... uhmm... I guess why not?
Well, one reason of course is the Turkey. The bird is not eaten in Europe often, and we would have had to order it. Since we decided to do this the day before, I just don't think that is happening. Also, the meal would be a bit incomprehensible to a Frenchman. While theater, as we know it in NYC, is not really part of the culture here, dinner has taken its place. There are different "acts" (entrée, plat, fromage, dessert) and it is the entertainment for the evening. The free-for-all that is the American Thanksgiving would be hard for them to understand. And I get it: you spend 2 hours making the perfect potato gratin and it shares the limelight with canned cranberry sauce AND some overcooked vegetables, AND some store-bought, mass produced rolls AND...? No, no, no.
So here was my dilemma: stripping Thanksgiving down to its essentials and make each one from scratch. My distillation may surprise you. My number one item is the stuffing/dressing. You may think I would have said turkey, but I don't think so. I think the point of all the travelling around the country on this day is to get the dressing your mother made. Not the warm family feeling, not the turkey (dry old bird), nope. Its all about the dressing. The second would be the pie, whatever one you like, but definitely the pie. I think everything else is secondary. Sure, high up on the list is cranberry sauce, and potatoes always are there (although why exactly since there is the dressing) and of course you need gravy, but with just those 2 essential menu items I think I have the holiday covered. menu-wise On top of that, dressing and pie are exotic in Paris, so I have that on my side.
So, my final menu is as follows:
May I make a case for the Duck breast. It has so many advantages over turkey. It is a fowl and goes so well with the cranberry sauce. It is ready in 20 minutes. Out of the fridge, score the skin, render the fat, cook for 5 minutes and you are done. No oven. Compare that with the turkey's oven hogging cooking time. Luckily the cranberry sauce was going to be easy. I had purchased 2 packages when I was in NYC last November and froze them, thank god for that. Grab an orange (the zest here, the juice is not that important), lots of sugar a pinch of salt and you are done.
For the dressing I use a recipe from The Best Recipes cookbook highly modified. Actually, that book is my bible and I highly recommend it to everyone. I like fruit in my dressing and I added apples. And nuts. And prunes (don't knock it until you try it). It is not at all like my mother's. My mother was a fantastic baker and taught me to make all my baked goods from scratch (bless you, mom). Unfortunately, she was a lousy cook, which got me to start cooking myself. I remember one day I asked her what was for dinner and she was planning to make one of my least favorite dishes (a dreadful affair with ground meat, stewed tomatoes and not much else). I pleaded with her not to do it. She said, memorably, "Well, if you don't want that, then YOU make dinner." She didn't need to ask me twice and off I went to the cookbooks to find anything else to make. Needless to say, I am not trying to reproduce my mother's dressing recipe.
For some, the pie would have been the Mount Everest item, but I make a mean pie from scratch and it is delicious. The biggest problem item here is how do you make gravy without the bird? The Best Recipes cookbook to the rescue. Their recipe for the gravy takes the discardable turkey bits (neck, gizzard, tail) and roast them with carrots, celery, onions for an hour. I used chicken parts instead and it was just fine. You then add stock, scape the pan, move the whole affair to a pot, add 3 cups of wine and 2 cups of water and reduce it for an hour and a half. When that's done, strain the solids out, in another pan make a roue (equal parts butter/fat and flour), cook it for a few minutes, then add the liquid you created. Done. I recommend it, since you can do it the day before and just reheat, as opposed to that hectic moment at the end of prep time.
So you may wonder how it came off. Well, I had made the pie on another occasion and people liked it. A bit exotic but, come on, it's dessert: sweet, fruit, good. Duck breast, potatoes and green beans are known items so no issue there. The exotic bits all came off. The dressing I expected some to ignore it (sacrilege!) and I would have understood, but no, it was savoured as Americans do and the two sauces (gravy and cranberry) were both enjoyed and raved about. I got emails from both guests complimenting me on the meal, so not bad. Perhaps my guests will now spend the third Thursday of November traveling to the states in search of my dressing.
So here was my dilemma: stripping Thanksgiving down to its essentials and make each one from scratch. My distillation may surprise you. My number one item is the stuffing/dressing. You may think I would have said turkey, but I don't think so. I think the point of all the travelling around the country on this day is to get the dressing your mother made. Not the warm family feeling, not the turkey (dry old bird), nope. Its all about the dressing. The second would be the pie, whatever one you like, but definitely the pie. I think everything else is secondary. Sure, high up on the list is cranberry sauce, and potatoes always are there (although why exactly since there is the dressing) and of course you need gravy, but with just those 2 essential menu items I think I have the holiday covered. menu-wise On top of that, dressing and pie are exotic in Paris, so I have that on my side.
So, my final menu is as follows:
- Dressing
- Apple pie
- Cranberry sauce
- Duck breast (I am not against poultry and you need something at the centre of this meal)
- Mashed potatoes (beccause... you have to)
- Gravy (you know, because the dressing)
- Green beans (the fiber)
May I make a case for the Duck breast. It has so many advantages over turkey. It is a fowl and goes so well with the cranberry sauce. It is ready in 20 minutes. Out of the fridge, score the skin, render the fat, cook for 5 minutes and you are done. No oven. Compare that with the turkey's oven hogging cooking time. Luckily the cranberry sauce was going to be easy. I had purchased 2 packages when I was in NYC last November and froze them, thank god for that. Grab an orange (the zest here, the juice is not that important), lots of sugar a pinch of salt and you are done.
For the dressing I use a recipe from The Best Recipes cookbook highly modified. Actually, that book is my bible and I highly recommend it to everyone. I like fruit in my dressing and I added apples. And nuts. And prunes (don't knock it until you try it). It is not at all like my mother's. My mother was a fantastic baker and taught me to make all my baked goods from scratch (bless you, mom). Unfortunately, she was a lousy cook, which got me to start cooking myself. I remember one day I asked her what was for dinner and she was planning to make one of my least favorite dishes (a dreadful affair with ground meat, stewed tomatoes and not much else). I pleaded with her not to do it. She said, memorably, "Well, if you don't want that, then YOU make dinner." She didn't need to ask me twice and off I went to the cookbooks to find anything else to make. Needless to say, I am not trying to reproduce my mother's dressing recipe.
For some, the pie would have been the Mount Everest item, but I make a mean pie from scratch and it is delicious. The biggest problem item here is how do you make gravy without the bird? The Best Recipes cookbook to the rescue. Their recipe for the gravy takes the discardable turkey bits (neck, gizzard, tail) and roast them with carrots, celery, onions for an hour. I used chicken parts instead and it was just fine. You then add stock, scape the pan, move the whole affair to a pot, add 3 cups of wine and 2 cups of water and reduce it for an hour and a half. When that's done, strain the solids out, in another pan make a roue (equal parts butter/fat and flour), cook it for a few minutes, then add the liquid you created. Done. I recommend it, since you can do it the day before and just reheat, as opposed to that hectic moment at the end of prep time.
So you may wonder how it came off. Well, I had made the pie on another occasion and people liked it. A bit exotic but, come on, it's dessert: sweet, fruit, good. Duck breast, potatoes and green beans are known items so no issue there. The exotic bits all came off. The dressing I expected some to ignore it (sacrilege!) and I would have understood, but no, it was savoured as Americans do and the two sauces (gravy and cranberry) were both enjoyed and raved about. I got emails from both guests complimenting me on the meal, so not bad. Perhaps my guests will now spend the third Thursday of November traveling to the states in search of my dressing.
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