Thanksgiving Dressings and Stuffings – Photo Gallery | SAVEUR.
You’ve got your turkey, your side dishes, your mashed potatoes, and your dessert, but don’t foget about the stuffing. Whether you call it stuffing or dressing, for me it is one of the best tasting parts of the meal that you just can’t do without. Saveur gives you 15 great stuffing/dressing ideas and recipes right here so you can go however you like. Check it out!
I still have some side dishes that I made recently that would be great for your Thanksgiving table. I made both of these recently for Michelle’s birthday dinner and both were very simple to do. I think you want to try to keep the side dishes as easy as you can and even make them ahead of time if at all possible to save yourself some time on Thanksgiving when you are focused on family and the turkey. You can always simply re-heat your sides in the oven while the turkey is resting. This can give you more than enough time to get your sides heated properly and get everything on the table while it is hot. The first one for today is a very easy recipe for some maple glazed carrots.
Maple Glazed Carrots
12 medium carrots, with the greens attached
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup water
Salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Trim off all but 2 inches of the green tops of the carrots. Put the carrots, butter, sugar, water and salt to taste in a large skillet. Cover the skillet and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Maintain the boiling until nearly all the liquid evaporates, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Uncover the skillet and add the maple syrup. Cook, shaking the skillet over the heat frequently, until the carrots have obtained a nice glaze on them, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve.
You could certainly leave out the maple syrup and still get something of a glaze on the carrots using this method and they would be good, but I think the maple syrup adds a really nice flavor to the carrots. You could also substitute honey for the maple syrup and get a nice glaze from that as well. Since this recipe was so easy, I did not need to make it ahead of time and simply made these on the stove top while the turkey was resting.
The second recipe is one I picked up from the cooking blog A Wee Bit of Cooking. It is a Finnish dish that is often used for the holidays called Lanttulaatikko. This is a turnip casserole that makes use of rutabaga, or yellow turnip. We have often eaten rutabaga on Thanksgiving in my family. It has a very distinct flavor to it and some people are put off by the aroma it can give off, but I love the flavor that you get from it. I often make it during the year, simply mashing it up, but this recipe adds a little bit more and is just as easy.
Lanttulaatikko (Turnip Casserole)
1 large rutabaga or yellow turnip
2/3 cup cream
1 egg
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Peel the turnip and cut it into 1/2-inch chunks. In a medium saucepan, place the turnip and cover with salted water. Bring the turnips to a boil and boil until they are completely tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the turnips.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the turnips well with a potato masher and then run them through a potato ricer. Combine the cream, butter, honey, nutmeg and egg and mix until blended. Add the mixture to the mashed turnips and mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the turnip mixture to a small casserole dish and smooth the top with a fork or spatula and dot with the butter. Bake in the 350 degree oven for 40 minutes until golden and crisp on the top. Serve.
Since the turnip can take a long time to soften and get tender and then to bake, I made this dish the day before our meal and simply re-heated it in the oven while the turkey rested. You get the flavor of the turnips along with the honey and nutmeg and it is a simple, sweet flavor. I would make this any time of year as a side dish for poultry or beef.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for even more recipes. There’s still time before Thanksgiving and I still have recipes to share. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
30 Super-Simple Thanksgiving Sides – Photo Gallery | SAVEUR.
You need lots of options when it comes to the side dishes for your Thanksgiving meal, so here are another 30 recipes that are very easy and simple to make from Saveur Magazine. They cover all kinds of vegetables and potato dishes so you can liven up your menu with little effort. Check it out!
There seems to be an endless supply of Thanksgiving side dish possibilities. There are so many great Fall vegetables that you can use in so many different ways that the combinations you can come up with can help you to tailor your meal to fit whatever likes you may have or whoever may be coming over for dinner on that day. In my trail run dinner that I made for Michelle’s birthday, I made a lot of side dishes this year so I could try different things. One of her absolute favorites is one that often gets overlooked on the dinner table – creamed pearl onions. I actually got this very simple recipe from chef Thomas Keller and with just a few ingredients, you can have this dish made easily.
Creamed Pearl Onions
2 cups peeled pearl onions
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon minced chives
Combine the pearl onions, chicken stock, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer the mixture until all the liquid has evaporated and the onions are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the heavy cream and cook until the cream has thickened. Stir in the chives and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste before serving.
It is very easy to make and you can do this while your turkey is resting so you can get it ready easily or you can even make it the day before and just lightly simmer it on the stove to heat it through. You get a nice, thick creamy sauce with the great flavor of the pearl onions. If you can get frozen pearl onions, you can save yourself the aggravation of having to peel the onions yourself. I couldn’t find any frozen onions, so I did buy the fresh ones, but there is an easy way to peel them. Simply place the onions in two cups of boiling water for 2 or three minutes. Remove the onions to an ice water bath or cold water bath to cool them off when you strain them off the stove. Once they are cool enough to the touch, simply cut off the root end of the onion and give the onion a gentle squeeze and it will pop right out of the skin. It still takes some time to do all of them, but it is a lot easier than trying to peel the paper off of all those tiny onions.
I also made a simple Brussels sprouts recipe. Even though sprouts may get a bad rap, we love them in our house and they make a great Fall or holiday side dish. And nothing seems to be better than some roasted Brussels sprouts with a little bit of bacon to add some flavor. This quick recipe is from chef Marcus Samuelsson.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Maple Bacon
1 pound Brussels sprouts, bottom trimmed and cut in half lengthwise
1 ounce maple syrup
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 ounce olive oil
4 ounces bacon, cut into quarters in strips
Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the Brussels sprouts in the olive oil, salt, peppers and smoked paprika.Place the Brussels sprouts on a baking sheet and roast until they are browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.
In a medium skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon until it is crispy, about 5 minutes. Drain the bacon of the fat and toss it with the maple syrup and the roasted Brussels sprouts. Finish the dish with a pat of butter over the top or just serve immediately.
Again, you can roast the Brussels sprouts a day ahead of time, like I did, and while the turkey rests before carving simply place them in the oven to warm them through with any other side dishes you are also warming to save yourself some time. The maple flavor along with the smokiness of the bacon and the paprika make this a fantastic side dish. If you want to try to keep it lighter and vegetarian, you can simply omit the bacon and roast the Brussels sprouts alone on a baking sheet or even in a cast iron pan and make them that way.
Unfortunately, I had so many side dishes when I made everything that there were a few things I forgot to take pictures of in all the rush to get things on the table. Sorry about that, but the pearl onions and Brussels sprouts got away from me. I do have pictures of the next 2 sides I will be posting tomorrow though.
That’s all I have for today. Keep checking back for some more holiday recipes and ideas. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
One of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal has always been the stuffing. Even the famous Stove Stop stuffing has its place, but if you have a little bit of time and want something that tastes a whole lot better, then take the effort to make the stuffing yourself. it is not as tough as you think it may be to make one and you can even do it a day ahead of time and just warm it up in the oven to save yourself some time. There are a lot of recipes out there for stuffing and have a few favorites of my own, but I tried a new one this weekend when I made roast turkey for Michelle’s birthday. Like the turkey, this one also came from Saveur Magazine and is for a very simple apple, sage and sausage stuffing.
Apple, Sage and Sausage Stuffing
8 tablespoons butter
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 pork sausages, casings removed
3 apples, peeled and chopped
1 loaf white bread, crust cut off, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and toasted (about 8 cups)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage
2 cups chicken stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery and the onion, Cook until the vegetables are soft, about 15 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, using a wooden spoon to break the sausage into small pieces, until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the apples and continue cooking until the apples are soft, about 5 to 7 minutes more. Stir in the bread crumbs and the sage; add the chicken stock and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Stuff the stuffing into the turkey cavity, if you wish and roast the turkey according to plans or instructions. Take the remaining stuffing and place it in a baking dish and bake until it is golden on top, about 20 to 25 minutes.
I personally did not put any stuffing in the turkey. I have never been a big fan of stuffing that way and it makes the turkey have to cook even longer and the turkey does not always roast evenly with the stuffing inside it. If you are going to stuff the bird, you want to make sure that any stuffing you use is cooked already. If you want to make this stuffing ahead of time, instead of putting it right into the oven after mixing everything in, place the stuffing in a baking dish, cover it with foil and refrigerate it until the next day. Then, when you take the turkey out to rest, you can place it in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes to cook and heat up. You’ll want to take the aluminum foil off the dish so the bread crumbs crisp up nicely. You may also need to add a little bit of moisture back into the stuffing because the bread will have absorbed a lot of it. I did not add any in and the stuffing tasted just fine, but it depends on how you like it. I loved the mix of the apples and sausage with the bread and the sage added just the right touch to the dish. I think it would be really good if you used a challah bread with this stuffing as well.
That’s all I have for today. Keep checking back for some more recipes that will be great for Thanksgiving. There’s lots more to come. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I make burgers about once a week, usually on Wednesday nights/ Wednesday is our busy day around here so it is a fast and easy meal that we all seem to like, but I have to admit that it can get a little boring after having it every week. I went looking for some ways to shake burger night up a little bit and then I came across this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis of the Food Network for some Gourmet Diner Burgers with some extra fixings.
Gourmet Diner Burgers
Zucchini Pickles:
1 pound zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch thick rounds
3 sprigs fresh oregano
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
Parmesan Frico:
1 cup coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Roasted Garlic Mayo:
1 garlic bulb
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup mayonnaise
6 cloves roasted garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley
1 teaspoon freshly chopped oregano
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Burger Patties:
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 pound ground lamb
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
Burgers:
6 hamburger rolls, halved
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Roasted Garlic Mayo
6 Burger Patties
12 zucchini pickle slices
6 Parmesan Frico rounds
6 slices bacon
1 onion, diced and sautéed
For the pickles: Place the zucchini slices and oregano in a large jar or heat-safe container. Heat the apple cider vinegar, sugar, peppercorns, salt, fennel seed, red pepper flakes and bay leaf in a medium saucepan, stirring until the sugar and salt have dissolved, about 2 minutes. Pour the pickling liquid and spices into the jar over the zucchini slices. Let the mixture cool completely, uncovered. Cover and place the container in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours and store for up to 6 weeks.
For the Parmesan frico: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the Parmesan cheese, flour and pepper together in a large bowl, making sure the flour is evenly distributed throughout the cheese. Arrange mounds of 2 tablespoons of the cheese about 4 inches apart on the baking sheet and flatten each mound slightly with a spatula to form a 3-inch round. Bake the frico in the oven until they are golden brown, about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking process. Cool the frico on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then gently transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the Roasted garlic mayonnaise: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the garlic bulb in half cross wise and place the halves on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle each side with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Fold up the foil around the garlic halves and then seal the foil into an airtight package. Roast the garlic until it is golden and soft, about 1 hour.
Stir together the mayonnaise, roasted garlic cloves, lemon juice, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper until well blended.
For the patties: In a large bowl, combine the beef, lamb, salt and pepper. Form the mixture into six 4-inch diameter patties, each about 1/2-inch thick. Drizzle the patties with olive oil. Place a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Grill the patties until they are cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Allow the patties to rest for 5 minutes.
To assemble the burgers: Drizzle the cut side of the hamburger rolls with olive oil and lightly toast on the grill pan, about 1 to 2 minutes. Spread the garlic mayo over the bottom halves of the rolls. Place the burger patties on the rolls and top each patty with 4 pickle slices, 1 frico round, the sautéed onions and a slice of bacon.
There is some prep work ahead of time that you can do for these if you want the zucchini pickles, and they do taste good, but if you don’t want to put the time into them you can just use regular store-bought pickles instead. Sean and Michelle absolutely loved the Parmesan frico and thought it was great with the burgers and without them. I think it would make a nice appetizer or side for a lot of other meals. As for the burgers themselves, I really liked the flavor and texture you get from having the beef mixed with the lamb. The burgers had a nice, unique flavor and I made some extra and froze them so we can have them again another night. I served the burgers with some homemade potato salad, which is always a favorite around here.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I have been gathering lots of Thanksgiving sides and ideas to make, so keep watching for them. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Since I won’t be cooking the actual Thanksgiving meal myself this year, I thought I would get the month started early and try to make a bunch of Thanksgiving side dishes all month long so you have some new things to choose and try for your Thanksgiving meal this year. I recently made two side dishes that would be perfect to use for Thanksgiving. The first is a very simple baked ginger sweet potatoes dish that I got from Chow.com. it is very simple to make, with a wonderful glaze that adds some great flavor to the potatoes.
Baked Ginger Sweet Potatoes
3/4 cup apricot preserves
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (from 1 medium orange)
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 pounds medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
Heat the oven to 425 degrees and arrange an oven rack in the middle position of the oven.
Place the apricot preserves, orange juice, butter, ginger and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and cook until the butter and the preserves are melted and smooth, about 6 minutes.
Place the sweet potatoes in a large bowl and drizzle them with about 1/3 of the apricot mixture, and, using your hands, toss the potatoes to coat them well with the mixture. Shingle the slices in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the baking dish from the oven and remove the aluminum foil. Drizzle the potatoes with another 1/3 of the apricot mixture and bake the potatoes uncovered for 10 minutes. Drizzle the potatoes again with the remaining 1/3 of the apricot mixture and bake uncovered until the sweet potatoes are tender and the glaze has thickened, about 10 minutes more. Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving.
The sweetness of the potatoes is enhanced even more by the apricot preserves and orange juice and the ginger adds a nice little bite of spice to the dish. It’s a great tasting dish that goes well not just with your Thanksgiving meal but with any weeknight meal of something like chicken or pork chops.
The second side dish I had made recently is another orange vegetable that is perfect for your Thanksgiving table. It is a very simple mashed butternut squash recipe that I got from Cook’s Country that has a great earthy flavor thanks to the spices it uses in the recipe.
Mashed Butternut Squash
4 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
2 apples, peeled and shredded (about 2 cups)
1 onion, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons maple syrup
Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the squash, vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper in a bowl. Spread the squash out evenly on the prepared baking sheet. Roast the squash until it is tender and starting to brown, about 40 to 50 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the roasting process.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add the apples, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and cook, covered, until the apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Uncover the pot and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples and onion are golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes longer. Add the garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and cayenne pepper and cook until the mixture is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, cover and set the pot aside while the squash finishes roasting.
Add the roasted squash and maple syrup to the Dutch oven with the apple mixture. Mash the mixture with a potato masher until it is mostly smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
The mashed squash has great consistency and flavor and will go well with your turkey and other side dishes if you want to make something a little bit different. The apples really help to add some great depth of flavor to the dish and the maple syrup just gives it a final touch that we all really enjoyed. I actually served this with the slow cooker pepper pork chops I made the other night and the whole meal was fantastic.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I have lots more ideas for your Thanksgiving side dishes, a good turkey recipe, a wonderful lemon cake I making for Michelle’s birthday, a great burger recipe we tried yesterday, some simple battered shrimp and a whole lot more. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I still had some pizza dough leftover from what I made recently and decided to put it to use last night. I had made a pot of turkey chili, one of Michelle’s favorites but one of Sean’s least favorites. Michelle and I both like it but Sean is not a big fan and was looking for something else to eat. I decided to make use of some leftover items such as the pizza dough and sausage and make a stromboli. I have made one before using Scott Conant’s recipe and it was very good, but I decided to try something a little different this time and gave this one from Emeril Lagasse a shot.
Stromboli
1 pizza dough portion from the Food Processor Pizza Dough recipe
1/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, removed from casings and crumbled
1/2 cup sliced onions
1/4 cup thinly sliced red bell peppers
1/4 cup thinly sliced yellow bell peppers
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 pound sliced ham
1/4 pound thinly sliced pepperoni
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon of water
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Oil a large baking sheet or place a baking stone in the oven to heat.
In a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium-high heat until browned and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and drain well on paper towels. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of the fat from the skillet. Add the onions and bell peppers and cook, stirring, until very soft, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and Italian seasoning and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove the skillet from the heat and allow the mixture to cool.
Punch down the dough and on a lightly floured surface roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 10 inches by 14 inches. Spread the cooled sausage mixture across the dough, leaving a 1-inch border on the edges. Overlapping slightly, layer the ham, pepperoni, mozzarella and half of the Parmesan cheese over the top of the sausage mixture. Using a pastry brush, paint the border of 1 long edge with the egg wash. Starting at the opposite long end without the egg wash, roll up the dough into a cylinder, pinching the edges to seal. Place on the prepared baking sheet and allow the dough to rise for 20 minutes.
Brush the top of the stromboli with the egg wash. Bake until nearly golden brown and starting to crisp, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the top of the stromboli with the remaining Parmesan cheese and return it to the oven until the cheese is melted and the dough is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the stromboli to stand for 10 minutes. Slice thickly and serve.
The great thing about stromboli is that you can really put anything inside it. Sean is not a big fan of the peppers, so I left them out and put some extra ham and cheese inside instead. You could just as easily put leftover chicken in there or any other vegetables you may like and have on hand. You can even just do vegetables and cheese if that is what you prefer. I am guessing Sean liked it since he devoured it.
Since I still had a little bit of pizza dough left, I decided to make some small breadsticks with what I had leftover. This is a very simple way to make use of some leftover pizza dough if you happen to have some around.
Homemade Breadsticks
1 portion pizza dough from the Food Processor Pizza Dough recipe
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Place the pizza dough on a lightly floured surface. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Roll the dough into a rectangle and cut the dough into 12 to 15 thin strips. Place the strips on the baking sheet and cover the dough with a towel and allow it to rise for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle the olive oil over the dough to coat the breadsticks. Sprinkle the breadsticks with the Italian seasoning and the Parmesan cheese and bake in the oven until they are golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.
You can use the breadsticks to go along with any type of meal, like spaghetti and meatballs or any other dish that you like. Michelle and I used them with our chili and they were quite tasty. They came out perfectly with just the right amount of seasoning.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes to try. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
I have been doing some special cooking over the last week since we had some family staying with us and a friend over for dinner. I didn’t make anything too fancy, but I did try a few new things. The downside for me about doing cooking like this is that I very often forget to take pictures of what I have made so I don’t have any photos to share of some of the things I have made recently. I did remember to take a couple of pictures of some of the side dishes, so I have those, but I forgot pictures of the main meals themselves so we’ll have to do without photos of them when I post those recipes. Sorry about that. Anyway, one thing I made the last week to go along with the London broil meal we made was Parker House dinner rolls. This is a variation on the original recipe that dates back to the 1800’s from the Parker House Hotel in Boston and from the Fannie Farmer cookbook of that time period. The recipe I used I actually got from Willams-Sonoma and looks more like traditional dinner rolls instead of the half-ovals that the traditional Parker House rolls look like.
Parker House Rolls
1 1/2 cups milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into 8 pieces, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter
4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic flakes
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk and the 8 tablespoons of butter. Heat until the butter is melted, about 7 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool to 105 degrees to 115 degrees. Add the yeast and stir until it is dissolved. Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine the 4 cups of flour, the sugar and the kosher salt and beat on low-speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the cooled milk mixture and knead until the dough forms into a ball, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the mixer bowl, oil the inside of the bowl and return the dough to the bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until it has doubled in volume, about 1 hour. Divide the dough in half.
Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. on a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into a log about 12 inches long. Using a bench scraper, divide each log into 12 equal pieces. Using the cupped palm of your hand, roll and shape each piece into a taut ball.
Arrange the dough balls in the prepared baking pan so there are 4 rows of 6. Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. in a small bowl, mix the sea salt,garlic flakes and sesame seeds.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap from the baking pan. Brush the tops of the rolls with the 2 tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle the tops with the sea salt mixture. Bake the rolls in the oven until the rolls are golden and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a roll registers 190 degrees, about 18 to 20 minutes. Invert the rolls onto a wire rack, then turn them right side up onto another rack. Let the rolls cool slightly before serving.
Wow, these rolls were good and very easy to make. They were the perfect size dinner rolls and came out nice and brown and crunchy on the top and soft and buttery in the middle. Everyone gobbled them up and I only had 3 left after the meal, just enough for Michelle, Sean and I to have for dinner the next day with our meal. The other great thing I noticed about these rolls is that they would be perfect to use as slider rolls for sliders as an appetizer, snack or meal. I will definitely be making these again as they did not take very long to do and you get a good amount out of the recipe, so you can always throw a bunch in the freezer and just re-heat them for your meal as you want them.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I still have the London broil with creamy horseradish sauce, a pan-seared rib eye with red wine sauce, simple sautéed spinach, a wonderful fall vegetable risotto and more. Until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
To go along with the slow-roasted chuck roast dinner I made this past Saturday I chose a couple of new side dishes to give a try. The first comes from the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook and is for a browned and braised cauliflower with garlic, ginger and soy. Cauliflower is in season right now so the price is not bad for a fresh head if you can get one. I like fresh much better than frozen as the frozen seems to get very limp and soggy quickly while if you cook the fresh right it was stay nice and crisp. This is a very easy recipe that only takes a few minutes to put together.
Browned and Braised Cauliflower with Garlic, Ginger and Soy
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 head cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cored and cut into 1-inch florets
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 scallions, minced
Pepper
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add the cauliflower and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is beginning to brown, about 6 to 8 minutes.
Clear the center of the skillet and add the ginger, garlic and sesame oil. Cook, mashing the mixture into the pan, until it is fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir the ginger mixture into the cauliflower and cook for 30 seconds more. Reduce the heat to low and add the water, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sherry. Cover the skillet and cook until the florets are tender but still offer some resistance when they are poked with a paring knife, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the scallions and toss lightly to distribute. Season with pepper to taste and serve.
I really enjoyed the Asian flavor that this dish had. The ginger and soy really come through nicely and the garlic adds just the right touch, making this a great side dish. I would use this side again, perhaps with a chicken dish next time as I think it would lend itself quite nicely to that type of meal.
I also decided to take a shot at making Yorkshire pudding. Now I can remember having this as a kid and it was pretty good, but I had never attempted to make it before myself. I saw various recipes out there to give it a try, but I decided to go with this one from Alton Brown. It seemed the most basic and the one that I could least screw up, so I figured I would give it a shot. The worst that could happen is that I ended up throwing everything away. Thankfully, it all turned okay.
Yorkshire Pudding
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups milk, room temperature
1/4 cup beef drippings, divided
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Leave 2 tablespoons of the beef drippings in the pan and place it in the oven.
Place the flour, salt, eggs, milk and the remaining 2 tablespoons of drippings into the bowl of a food processor or blender and process for 30 seconds. Pour the batter into the hot roasting pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until it is puffed and golden brown. While the pudding is cooking, carve the roast and then serve the pudding with the roast.
For my first try at this, I think it went okay. The taste was there as I remembered it, but it did not puff up nearly as high as I thought it would. Everyone else thought it was okay, but I think I will need to try this one again at some point to try for better results. It could be that my oven temperature is a little off and that made the difference in the height of the puff. Whatever the case, it still turned out okay.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for some more recipes. I still have a sausage in the slow cooker recipe I tried, Michelle’s apple pie that she made this weekend, a new banana bread recipe and a few other things to try out this week. until next time, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
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