Not Your Traditional Thanksgiving

When I was a little girl, my desire was for my family to celebrate, as all American families did, the traditional holiday of Thanksgiving. I didn't know my family wasn't American, not really. We didn't have loads of relatives to celebrate with, we ate with our hands and by the way, we didn't eat meat on Thursdays.

Last night my dad told me how I really wanted a turkey for Thanksgiving when I was old enough to know what you were supposed to eat. And yet there were only three of us to feed on this holiday, when we didn't have other families to join us and even if we did, they were other Indian families with no interest in turkey or mashed potatoes that weren't burnt yellow with turmeric. So he brought home a chicken. Was I fooled, I asked. Of course I was! My little unsophisticated palate didn't know any better.

Over the years, our Thanksgiving celebrations evolved. Some years we did actually have turkey (I checked the label), one year there was ham. Eventually we switched to celebrating on Friday at a friend's place so we could have the meatiest of meals, and Thanksgiving Thursday became either a non-event or a time for me to join other friends for a meal.

The last three or four years Thanksgiving has evolved again into a vegetarian feast. Last night, for example, we had butternut squash soup with chopped apples, fettucine alfredo, spinach and pear salad, sweet potato biscuits with honey butter, brussel sprouts, fruit and ice cream. I hardly missed the turkey.

Thanksgiving is actually a holiday made for immigrants, and I love the idea of making it fit my family's immigrant needs. And I'm all for two delicious meals instead of one!

Here's the sweet potato biscuits I made yesterday, which could go with any traditional or untraditional meal. Appropriately, they are from an "American" cookbook, but then what is American other than a blend of a myriad of cultures?



Sweet Potato Biscuits (from Bobby Flay Cooks American)
Makes 12

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
7/8 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mashed cooked sweet potato (about 1)
1 tablespoon honey

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or use a nonstick baking mat. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles rolled oats.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the buttermilk, sweet potatoes and honey. Stir vigorously until the dough forms a ball. Knead lightly for about 30 seconds, until the dough just begins to look smooth.

On a floured surface, pat the dough out 3/4-inch thick into a 7 by 8 inch rectangle. Either cut into 2 inch rounds with a biscuit cutter or slice into 12 squares (which eliminates the need to reroll all scraps into another biscuit). Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.

Serve with honey butter: Mix four tablespoons of softened butter with two tablespoons of honey, or more to taste.

Potstuck

About ten years ago, my roommates and I were involved in a cooking extravaganza. Every dinner we made, every party we threw, was an elaborate array of dishes, around which we arranged to invite and impress our nine friends. Let's be honest, the parties were for us, not for them.

At random moments, I'll remember something ridiculous we cooked. Ridiculous because it was incredibly complex for a party full of 22 year olds who would be happy with a keg and a bag of Ruffles. Deep fried ravioli, grilled pineapple soaked in rum, a fruit salad in a watermelon half, marbled cheesecake squares (yes that does mean making two types of cheesecake batter), and who could forget our "authentic" Chinese New Year meal?

Using a fabulous cookbook called the China Moon Cookbook which taught us how to make our own hot chili oil, we slaved over egg rolls and hot and sour soup. But the best thing about learning to make Chinese food was finding out how easy it was to make our own potstickers.


Potstickers or dumplings or gyoza - whatever you want to call them - are the most pleasing little packaged food. With a lovely, chewy wontonny wrapper and a gingery garlic filling, a potsticker is hardly any more trouble than mixing up a batch of meatballs. Pork is a popular filling, but I'm a fan of ground chicken too. The best part of potstickers is how easy it is to cook them, but you have to do it the right way or they will be potstuck.

Lemongrass Chicken Potstickers (Food and Wine)

Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken
1 cup finely shredded napa cabbage
1/4 chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons finely grated lemongrass
2 tablespoons snipped chives
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 minced garlic clove
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon kosher salt
wonton wrappers
peanut oil

Mix all ingredients, kneading into the ground chicken. Fill a small bowl with water. Wet your finger and rub it around the edges of the wonton wrapper. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of the wrapper. Lift the sides and press together. I keep it simple by making triangles but you can also crimp the edges or something fancier. It can take some time to fill all the wontons, but just plop yourself in front of the tv while you do it.

When your potstickers are ready, heat two tablespoons of peanut oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Fill the pan with potstickers with their pleated edges up and cook until the bottoms are lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water and cover, reducing heat to medium. Finish the potstickers by steaming them in the pan for five minutes until filling is cooked through and water has evaporated. Uncover and brown the bottoms another 1 minute. Transfer to plate and repeat with any remaining potstickers.

You can also freeze extra potstickers. Placed them on a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet that fits in the freezer. Freeze separately, then put in a zip lock bag and store in the freezer for up to 1 month. Cook the same way from frozen.

Meeting a New Friend

Every day I have the choice to try a new recipe or make something I know is going to be good, that I've perfected, and that leaves me satiated. This is a surprisingly difficult choice for me. I like everything I eat to be a good, valuable consumption of calories. Otherwise I'm just crabby.

But I have a definite preference towards variety. I get three cooking magazines, have around twenty cookbooks, and search the internet constantly for recipes. But it's only worth it if I occasionally find a recipe that is worth making over and over again.

Kind of a conundrum isn't it?

Because there are recipes full of high hopes and disappointments. There are recipes that are so much work that I'll never bother with them again. There are recipes that are good but forgettable. And there are recipes that are one ingredient away from being something I already have a great recipe for. After all, how could those cooking magazines really print so many brand new recipes every month?

When I do find something new that is good, it's like meeting a new friend. You thought you had all the friends you needed in your life, and then you meet someone else who makes you laugh really hard and just gets you. One of my best friends I've known all my life, another I met barely three years ago. It's like that with best recipes too.

So here's my latest find. I just made it last night, and it has two components that taste pretty good by themselves but together they are outstanding. They are a pop of flavor in your mouth, a wake up call that reminds how many good things and people there are in life that are yet to be discovered.

Wild Mushroom Cakes with Avocado Pesto (modified from Bon Appetit)
4 servings

These cakes make a nice light appetizer, though I ate six little ones as my entire meal.

Mushroom Cakes
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 8-ounce packages sliced button mushrooms
2 large portabello mushrooms, gills scraped out and sliced
8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

Avocado Pesto
2 large avocados coarsely mashed
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil

Make pesto: Add avocado, Parmesan, cilantro, and lime juice to a food processor. Process to blend. With machine running, gradually add 1/4 cup oil through feed tube. Transfer to bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.




Melt butter with oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add all mushrooms and saute until browned and edges begin to crisp, stirring often, about 14 minutes. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Transfer mixture to processor and allow to cool five minutes. Add eggs, Parmesan, herbs, salt, and pepper to processor. Using on/off turns, process until mushrooms are coarsely chopped. Transfer to large bowl. Mix in 1/2 cup panko.




Divide mushroom mixture into 8 equal portions. Form each into a 3/4 inch thick cake. Spread additional panko out on plate. Coat cakes with panko. Melt butter with 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium heat. Working in 2 batches, add mushroom cakes. Cook until browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

Serve mushroom cakes with avocado pesto.