What's Fresh - Thanksgiving Accompaniments

If you have been reading along you know that last week the column covered tips to successfully producing a moist turkey and the week prior it was about how to select a turkey. This week the topic is what you can to serve with the Thanksgiving turkey.

Gravy is mandatory, but everything else is up for grabs. We are going to leave stuffing and cranberry sauce up to other people, try looking at Kiri Tannenbaum’s recent article to get some ideas and direction – there is also a classic cornbread and sausage stuffing from Charlie Palmer in the article. Below, we are going to delve into a few of our family’s favorite side dishes, roasted brussel sprouts, zucchini gratin, and pan-roasted corn. Sure corn and zucchini are out of season, but it is about pleasing others in this case so let’s jump right in.

Gravy:
One of the keys to good gravy is thinking ahead. That means having some homemade chicken stock on hand or making sure your grocery list has chicken broth on it. If you use store bought try low sodium for better results.

The core of your gravy will be made from the drippings that collect in the pan while the turkey cooks in the oven – watch out if you have brined the bird they may be salty. These drippings need to be flavored and protected. To accomplish that we suggest putting a mirepoix (a 2:1:1 mix of onion:carrot:celery), thyme and a bay leaf under the roasting rack and make sure you add some liquid (water, stock, apple cider) to protect against burning.

Once the turkey is finished cooking strain the liquid from the bottom of the pan discarding the vegetables but leaving a bit of the fat and crispy cooked bits clinging to the bottom of the roasting pan. Place the pan over two burners turned to medium heat. If you want to ramp up the flavor, you can add more mirepoix, shallots and herbs to the pan and soften them before proceeding.

Sprinkle in an equal (eyeball the volume) amount of flour to the fat remaining in the pan. You should use no less than 2 tablespoons of flour; if you need to get more fat into the equation go ahead and add butter. Whisk the flour and fat together and cook, while whisking regularly and scraping up the bits from the bottom of the ban, until the mixture (essentially a roux) starts to turns tan then a light brown. At this point add back your strained turkey drippings and enough stock to produce about 25% over the total amount of gravy you need for dinner service. Incorporate with the whisk and pour into a small saucepan for reduction (25% or until thickened to your liking) and holding for service. Adjust salt and pepper levels just before serving.

Brussel Sprouts:
Preheat a cookie sheet or roasting pan in your oven at 375 degrees with enough neutral oil to coat the bottom thinly. Peel until the rough and damaged outer layers reveal a clean and tight mini-cabbage. Slice of the bottom of sprout off, halve each and salt generously. Place cut side down in the hot pan and roast until golden brown. Flip over and roast until soft and brown all over.

Variations:
- Add some chopped shallots to the pan during last 5-7 minutes of cooking
- Render some bacon, use the fat as the cooking medium and add in crisp lardoons when serving
- Chopped toasted pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup are a nice addition

Zucchini Gratin - to make approximately 1 lasagna sized pan
1) Slice 8 large green zucchini into 1/4 inch slices
2) Over medium-high heat sauté in a high walled pot (big Le Creuset) in 2 batches in 2 tablespoons oil each time until halfway cooked. Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg to each batch.
3) After they are both done add 3 tablespoons butter to the pan and sauté 2 finely chopped shallots. Once they start to get brown add in 2 tablespoon of flour, stir around in the butter (add a bit more butter if necessary so that the fat and flour are at a 1:1 ratio) and sauté till the flour in the mixture turns a light brown - just looking to cook the raw taste out of the flour.
4) Add in 2 cups cream or whole milk. Stir with a whisk to incorporate the flour/shallots and the liquid. Reduce by 1/3.
5) Add back in the half-cooked zucchini and toss to coat.
6) Put half the zucchini into the lasagna pan, add in a layer of grated Gruyere cheese (approx 1 cup), then top with the remaining zucchini, and more grated cheese
7) Push the mixture down into the pan do that it is rather flat, but not too compressed.
8) Sprinkle generously with breadcrumbs, dot the top with a bit of butter, and bake covered for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
9) After 20 minutes check how you are doing. If the mixture looks too moist uncover and bake until golden brown. If not too moist, bake another 10 minutes covered and then uncovered until golden brown.

Pan Roasted Corn:
Get the best quality frozen corn possible - try a Whole Foods or Fairway.

Have the following out and ready before proceeding
Regular vegetable oil
One bag of Corn, lightly rinsed (any ice crystals washed off) and dried with paper towel.
Sea Salt - generous amount
Pepper mill - to light taste
Peppers – finely chopped jalapeno, aleppo and ancho chile powder are good choices
Some washed fresh thyme
Butter
1 large or 2 small finely chopped shallots

Preheat the largest sauté pan you have screaming hot.

Add in enough regular oil to thinly coat pan, and add the enough corn to just cover the bottom of the pan in one layer. Turn the heat to a 7-8 level from a screaming 10 and leave corn alone for a minute.

While it browns sprinkle in the salt, black pepper, peppers, thyme and dot with some butter around the pan. Cook for 2 more minutes toss and let cook undisturbed again for 2 minutes. Make some space in one section of the pan, add in another tablespoon of butter and sauté shallots till softened and translucent. Stir pan one more time to mix together, take off the heat, and add in 1 teaspoon of rice wine vinegar. When a bit cooler fold in any of the mix-ins from below.

Optional mix-ins
- Oven dried tomato cut into concassee
- Oil crisped ham - too bad good American ham is so hard to come by - you can go to 14th Street Balducci's if you are feeling it – good substitutes are lardons or ground and spiced pork
- Tarragon or parsley
- Drizzle of maple syrup
- Sliced and sautéed celery