Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thanksgiving Recipes

Just for the heck of it, I made a fully gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner a couple years ago. No guest had any food sensitivities and all thought it was a little odd I made this meal for them. It was purely for myself – proving it could be done and be incredibly edible.
Of course I can’t find all the recipes therefore I probably didn’t write them down while I made them. I remember soup, stuffing, gravy, a massive juniper berry, anise seed, peppercorn, marjoram and thyme encrusted turkey, cranberry sauce, apricot cherry salad dressing with brussel sprout salad, I am sure plenty of greens, mashed potatoes, gluten-free biscuits and gluten-free agave-sweetened pumpkin pie and apple pie and crusts.

Here are a couple ideas from the dinner

Ezekiel Bread Stuffing
13 slices of bread, cubed (cubes easiest when frozen)
Toast on baking pan
Saute for 10 minutes:
Minced
1 small onion
1 carrott
3 garlic cloves
1 -2 cups celeriac
Mix sauted veggies with toasted cubed bread with powdered 2 T. each marjoram and thyme (I pulverize fresh or dried whole leaves in a food processor).Add 3-4 cups stock and 4 eggs. Pour into covered casserole and bake 45 min at 375 degrees

Gravy
Turkey wing tips and neck and drippings
Potato and/or tapioca starch
4 cups stock
Splash of cream or soy cream
I sauté the wing tips and neck of turkey with 4 cups of stock (can be store bought or home-made), bring to boil uncovered. Allow to simmer with cover for 1 hour, then add to pan with turkey drippings, add potato starch or tapioca starch until it begins to thicken over low heat and a splash of cream or soy creamer.

For a vegetarian version use the Imagine brand vegetable stock or non-chicken stock, a few dollops of miso or a few squirts of Braggs amino acids.

Chestnut Mushroom Soup

Roasting and peeling chestnuts yourself is time intensive; anything you can make from absolute scratch tastes so much better than canned or preserved chestnuts. I don’t have an ideal way to roast and peel chestnuts nor do I recall the actual soup that I made for Thanksgiving last year but here’s an idea of what I did.

1 ¼ lb chestnuts – roasted and peeled
1 small onion
½ lb celeriac or parsley root
¼ - ½ lb crimini and shiitake mushrooms
6 cups stock
1 cup or more milk alternative
olive oil

Peel 1 ¼ lb chestnuts and cook in saucepan with about 6 cups stock. Chestnuts will fall apart if they didn't while attempting to peel them. Peel about ½ lb celeriac or parsley root. Chop root along with a small onion and a 1/4 to ½ lb crimini and shiitake mushrooms and sauté all in butter/oil. Add to chestnuts and cook for 20 minutes. Puree in processor til smooth adding milk alternative to thin it out.
I am sure I added some fresh herbs to the finished product as well.

Chestnut roasting and peeling – slit the shells on the domes face with a sharp knife. Place in baking dish with some water and roast in 475 degree oven for 8 minutes. Peel while still hot. I remove one nut at a time and keep the others in the oven. Makes for some burned fingers but it gets the job done. The pesky inner skin is difficult to remove and hot water will usually be of assistance.