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Giving Thanks

Despite Missy B pointing out to me on a daily basis once I mentioned Thanksgiving that we are not American, I decided to go ahead with a bit of a celebration anyway. It was a great excuse to have friends over, try out some new recipes and generally have a lot of fun.

I just about managed to get the feast (not the actual one pictured above) ready by the time my guests arrived, even though I was somewhat slowed down by slipping over in a tragi-comic episode that resulted in my cracking my head on a door frame. I had a thumping headache and a comedy bump on the head, but the show must go on. According to my brothers, I talked nonsense for most of the following weekend. I doubt that’s true.

I have a beautiful cookbook by Martin Wishart that I drool over regularly but have only used a couple of times. I’m a bit nervous about taking this gorgeous volume into the kitchen – it came from the local Oxfam shop, accompanied by a printout showing the eye-watering prices it can go for on the likes of Ebay – so I’m slightly scared of splashing something on it. But I’ve read Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (excellent book, by the way), so I took the plunge and made a variation on Martin’s chicken with tarragon and brioche stuffing. After consulting the good folk of the Hampstead Butcher, I asked them to spatchcock two chickens and loosen the skin a bit so I could poke lashings of stuffing under the skin. Frankly, I think once a year is quite enough for turkey.

The stuffing was awesome (obviously, I defrosted a brioche loaf I had made earlier). It really made the chicken tender and moist – the roast got an unequivocal thumbs up from Missy B, who is very particular about her chicken. Somewhat squeamish though I am, I think I need to do a butchery course – it’s not really right to ask guests to carve, but Mr R stepped up to the platter, literally, and did the honours. And thank you to Jane, who swept in and sorted out the gravy for me, while I tried to multi-task on finishing touches with my slightly addled head.

I consulted my distant cousin Mary in Canada about traditional dishes I could serve and she proposed a recipe for sweet potato with a crispy pecan topping. I have to be honest: diners’ feelings were mixed – it was good, but no one asked for the recipe… I think the sweet/savoury is a little unusual for our palates. What was really delicious was the green bean casserole. I looked at a few ideas for this and ended up choosing a recipe from the fantastic Smitten Kitchen blog. You can make the casserole by chucking in a tin of mushroom soup with the beans, but I went the Smitten way and made the mushroom sauce from scratch – it was lovely and definitely worth the effort. Even Jenny, who has a fairly strong dislike of funghi, enjoyed these. I spotted her going back for more several times and I happen to know she had mushrooms on toast for her breakfast a couple of days later, so she is definitely facing her fears. I did cheat on the fried onions though, and bought a tub of ready made ones. These are dangerous. It would be quite possible to find you have wolfed the lot before your casserole has made it anywhere near the oven. We also had  gratin potatoes, which apparently is one traditional US way of getting the carbs in.

I did these my favourite Richard Olney style – why mess about with something that works every time? For four to six people:

1 garlic clove, cut in half
15g butter
1 kg waxy potatoes, thinly sliced
salt and pepper
450ml milk
200ml double cream

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

Rub the inside of an ovenproof dish with the cut garlic. When that’s dry, smear the dish generously with the butter. Arrange the potatoes in the dish in rows, overlapping the slices. Add a little salt to each layer. Make sure you leave room for the liquids, so don’t overfill the dish with potatoes.

The quantities for the liquids are approximate – you don’t want your gratin overflowing all over the oven. Pour the milk into the dish until the potatoes are about half covered. Add the cream until the potatoes are just covered. Richard would have you add more butter on top, but I never do and no one has complained so far.

Put the dish into the preheated oven, on a baking tray if you think there’s a risk of spillage. After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 180°C/gas mark 4. Bake for a further 45 minutes.

And hurrah for the first sprouts of the year – done the Nigella way, lightly blanched in boiling water, then fried up with pancetta, chestnuts and marsala, very, very delicious.

We had a tasty and completely unnecessary cheese board. Canadian Mary was adamant that there must be pumpkin pie. I revisited a tried and tested Vincent Price recipe for this – we were all full by that stage, but everyone managed a sliver. I think the consensus was that none of us was overly excited by the prospect but all pleasantly surprised.

There was a fairly heated debate about music, a little light dancing and then we thanked each other nicely and I sent my lovely guests on their way. It was a highly entertaining evening – it’s a fun tradition and I see no reason not to adopt the bits of Americana that I like.