THANKSGIVING EXPERIMENTS
Jenn de la Vega and her glorious turkey.
When November rolls around, I start to dream up everything I’m going to make for the Thanksgiving season. I say “season” because for me it’s not just the big meal, I get really excited about all the leftovers. What other time of the year do I get to experiment with such a large amount of food? It’s an exercise in creativity and zero-waste, coming up with all of the ways to use every last bite. I’ve been making Thanksgiving dinners for over 10 years now, here is a snapshot of the last five. Hopefully, they’ll inspire you to shake up your menu.
Cemita Poblana from Cemitas Victoria, Mexico City.
2018
Last year, I did something I never thought I would do on Thanksgiving. I went on vacation. And since making leftover sandwiches is one of my favorite things to do for the holiday, I went straight for one of the biggest sandwiches I could find, the cemita poblana from Cemitas Victoria in Mexico City. It’s piled high with fried chicken cutlets, avocado, Oaxacan cheese, papalo and sweet chipotles.
Cheez-It Popcorn Turkey.
The Cool Ranch turkey!
2017
I brought a cool-ranch turkey to dinner in Bed Stuy. I slathered a tarragon ranch compound butter (which was fortified with buttermilk powder) under the skin. I based the spice blend on Abby Reisner’s dry mix.
Turkey salad with mustard and parsley
Green beans with shallots and dukkah
Clockwise from top: cranberry butter, ramp butter and ham butter.
2016
Armed with pecan wood and a smoker, I went for pastrami turkey breast. This was the first year that I cooked the turkey in different parts because my smoker wasn’t very big and there were a lot of people who wanted turkey legs. Plus, it cooks faster. Why settle for just two legs when you can buy extra and make a cthulhu turkey?
Pastrami'd veggie proteins
Green beans with hazelnut and shallot petals
Carrot, nuoc mam cham, dukkah
Mashed potato and celery root
Smoked ham hock gravy
Cranberry sauce with tangerine and pecan bitters (recipe below)
Eggnog ice cream with marshmallow creme
Cranberry sauce with tangerine and pecan bitters.
CRANBERRY SAUCE WITH TANGERINE AND PECAN BITTERS
1 bag of fresh cranberries
2 tangerines
1/4 cup honey
Two dashes of nut bitters*
Pinch of salt
Wash the cranberries thoroughly. They float! Make sure you jostle them around. Add the honey, tangerine juice and zest to a small sauce pan on low heat. Whisk to combine. Place the berries in the pan and turn the heat up to medium. The cranberries will quietly pop over the next 5 minutes. Stir to scrape the bottom and make sure none of the sauce burns. Turn the heat down to low and continue cooking until all the berries are popped and have liquified. When the sauce is done, turn off the heat and let cool for a couple minutes before adding the bitters and salt. You can make this up to three days before Thanksgiving!
Don’t be afraid to switch it up too!
Instead of honey, try maple syrup or sugar.
Replace the tangerine with any citrus fruit you want.
Try another type of bitters.
*The story behind the pecan bitters is that I got it from my dear friend Lauren Nischan, who I bunked with at Eat Retreat in Wisconsin. She made 20+ bottles of homemade bitters and taught us how to mix and match them. At the end of camp, she really didn't want to lug the bottles home, so I took the pecan!
Salt and Pepper dry-fried turkey.
2015
I was dreaming of deep-frying the turkey leftovers, so I thought I’d brine the original turkey in paprika buttermilk. For dinner, I basted it in a rich butter broth made with chorizo, bone marrow and sherry.
This was also the year I bought a larger-than-usual turkey (15 pounds!) so I’d have a ton to experiment with over the weekend.
Pulled turkey paksiw (Pulled turkey is easy to make the next day. All you need to do is shred all the meat and simmer it in a bit of gravy and brown sugar. You can also ~trust me~ and use mang tomas a Filipino brown sugar liver sauce. Serve on potato rolls with pickles.)
Gnocchi en brodo di tacchino, “gnocchi in turkey broth”
Baked sweet potatoes with sage, Maldon salt and butter
The turkey with the herbs in its hoo-hah.
2014
I looked to Dan Barber’s juniper brined turkey recipe for inspiration and added whole sage leaves under the skin. This was an aromatic bird with bouquets of thyme and rosemary sticking out of its hoo-hah.
Deep fried turkey wings
Shredded parsnip, potato and leek latkes
Old Fashioned buttercream balls
Oysters with jalapeño mignonette
Reverse martinis
Mashed potato croquettes.
2013
It wasn’t my first Thanksgiving away from home, but I was desperately trying to break away from the traditional kosher salt brine. I roasted fennel and apple in the same pan and hadn’t yet discovered the trick of separating the skin. It was a little dry, but hey, nothing a lot of gravy can’t fix.
Spicy macadamia nut soup, made from leftover Thanksgiving gravy
Mashed potato croquettes with smoked gouda and dijon
Pot roast biscuit with garlic mayo and grainy jalapeño mustard
Turkey club sandwiches
Turkey sausage gravy and biscuits
This year, I’m thinking mole turkey and wrapping up leftovers in enchiladas. What about you? We’d love to hear what you’re cooking up on Twitter and Insta (@putaeggonit, of course!).
Here at Egg, we love leftovers. Browse a bunch of ideas for your scraps.
Need help getting organized? I have a spreadsheet for that.