A Belated Thanksgiving Post

Well I can't say that I haven't have time, and I can't say that I have nothing to say. All I can say is that I am finally around to uploading some details of the large thanksgiving meal we had last week. I think possibly it was the size of the task at hand, with three starters, fourteen different main dishes and three desserts. Even so, there was not a lot of preparitory work to do in the days leading up to thanksgiving, mainly making both turkey and vegetable stock.

So, to start we had a duo of soups: a butternut squash soup with sage, and a cream of asparagus soup with fresh thyme. We served these with delicious little cheese biscuits Robin made, and a selection of local Indiana cheeses we bought from the local cheese shop on Main street (yes Main Street is the main street through Lafayette). We also enjoyed a rather nice mulled cider while people were milling around (for those outside the US, cider refers usually to unfilted apple juice, where as hard cider is alcoholic).

The main meal was made up of the following dishes:

Roast organic turkey with an orange, ginger & sage glaze
Vegeloaf with roasted red pepper sauce
Cranberry apple and maple sauce
Pomegranate gravy
Country bread, italian sausage and sage dressing
Potato, spinach and gruyere gratin
Stuffed sweet potatoes with pecan and marshmallow streusel
Green beans with olives, lemon and toasted almonds
Brussel sprouts in brown butter with pancetta
Honey glazed radishes
Maple roasted parsnips
Baked carrots with cumin & thyme
Skillet cornbread with pancetta and poblanos
Honey saffron loaf

Dessert involved two dishes of my own making and one of Noami's creations from Mexico:
Pumpkin custard profiteroles with glazed maple pecans
Angel food cake with and orange and orange blossom water syrup
Pineapple upside-down cake (volteado de piña)

I will slowly post them over the following days along with pictures, but to get us started, the starters!

Butternut squash soup with sage

1 butternut squash, cubed
2 tbsp butter
1 white onion, chopped
1 stalk sage, leaves removed and chopped, stalk retained
1 cup vegetable stock (home made preferably)
1 cup whole milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Simply steam the cubes of squash until very tender. Mash with a fork and place in a sieve over a bowl and leave for about an hour. Sweat the onion in the butter with a pinch of salt and the sage stalk (not the leaves) until softened. Add the squash and stock and simmer for 10 mins. Add the milk, simmer for a further 2 mins then process in either a blender or food processor. Put back into a saucepan and add sliced sage, and salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Cream of asparagus soup

Bunch of asparagus, wshed and chopped into inch pieces
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
1 cup vegetable stock (preferably home made)
3 springs thyme
1/2 cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Sweat the onion in the butter with a pinch of salt until softened (3 mins). Add the asparagus and cook for a further 2 mins. Add the vegetable stock and two stalks of thyme and simmer until the asparagus is tender. Process in a blender or food processor (removing the stalks of thyme) and place back in the saucepan. Add the cream, the leaves from the final stalk of sage and salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm until ready to serve.