You can't find this in a can...

A huge event is happening next week. And no, I’m not talking about Thanksgiving. I’m talking about the first time that Betsy and I host our very own Thanksgiving! It’s a big deal because it plants us firmly in the you’re-all-grown-up world.

As you might imagine, I’m taking the whole thing a bit seriously even though, in actuality, we are only hosting three people. It’s still a big deal though! A big enough deal that I ordered a 20 pound turkey.

What? Four pounds per person? Betsy thought that was a bit ambitious, but let me just say: “Mother, if you’re reading this, BRING TUPPERWARE.”

On the subject of Thanksgiving, it’s been my experience though that while a poorly cooked bird can sometimes ruin the meal, really delicious side dishes can 100% make the meal very memorable. So I want to devote this week on Macheesmo to those side dishes.

I’m starting with one of the most abused side dishes in Thanksgiving history: Cranberry sauce. I’ll just be blunt. If you’re going to spend all day making a huge feast of a meal, put down the can opener and make some real cranberry sauce. You can even do it in advance. It’s stuff like this though that will stand out on the table.

Roasted Cranberry Sauce

Yield: 3 Cups

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh cranberries
1 Cup sugar
3 Tablespoons neutral oil
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
1 Teaspoon fresh sage, minced
1/4 Cup Triple Sec
3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 Cup currants (you could sub raisins, but chop them roughly so they aren't so big)
Pinch of salt

Pecans:
1 Cup pecans, roughly chopped
1/4 Cup Triple Sec
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons water
1/4 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme, minced

Directions:

1) Mix sugar, cranberries, herbs, and oil in a large bowl and then spread out on a heavy baking sheet.

2) Roast at 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes until the cranberries are deflated and most of the liquid is cooked out. Stir once, half way through.

3) Meanwhile, combine Triple Sec, apple cider vinegar, and currants in a pot over medium-low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes while the cranberries roast to let currants soak up liquid.

4) When cranberries are done, add them to pot with currants and stir well to combine.

5) Let this mixture chill until cold. It's best to make it the day before.

6) For the pecans, add sugar, triple sec, and vinegar in a small pan and bring to a simmer. Cook until sugar is dissolved and mixture is thick, a few minutes.

7) Add chopped pecans and stir so they are coated. Then pour pecans onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

8) Roast at 425 degrees until pecans are lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.

9) Let cool and then break up the pecans.

10) Serve cranberries with pecans on top.

Pretty heavily adapted from a Bon Appétit recipe.

Roasting the cranberries

Roasting the cranberries really intensifies their flavor but also mellows out the bitterness a bit. The sugar helps with that also. It looks like a lot of sugar, but you’ll lose some of it in the roasting pan. Also, who cares? It’s Thanksgiving. Just go with it.

Remember, cranberries are tart things.

It shouldn’t surprise you to see the Thanksgiving trio of herbs in this dish. You’ll need them for both the cranberries and the pecans and probably for every other dish you make for Thanksgiving.

Herbage.

Stir the cranberries, sugar, oil, and herbs in a big bowl and then lay them out on a large baking sheet.

Ready to go.

Bake these at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. After 10 minutes, take the cranberries out and stir them well. Push them toward the center of the pan.

Meanwhile, you’ll need some of these guys (NOT PICTURED: apple cider vinegar).

Plus apple cider vinegar!

The original recipe called for red wine, but I wanted an orange flavor, hence triple sec. The problem that I quickly realized was the Triple Sec is really sweet and I worried that my final sauce would be way too sweet. So I added some apple cider vinegar to the mix and it worked like a charm.

Mix the triple sec, currants, and vinegar in a medium sauce pan over medium heat until it simmers. Simmer it so the currants absorb a lot of the flavors. Simmer for about 10 minutes while your cranberries roast.

Keep a close eye on the cranberries so they don’t burn. You might have some burned syrupy sauce around the edges of the baking pan, which is fine. Just don’t use that.

Your cranberries are done when they are mostly deflated and a lot of the liquid is cooked off. This is about perfect. I didn’t use any of the blackish sauce around the edges.

Smellin' good.

Move the cranberries to the pot with the currants and simmer for another minute. Add a pinch of salt and combine well.

Let this cool completely before serving. This means that it’s probably best to make the day before which is nice anyway.

This stuff is really good though.

Yum.

Making the Pecans

Texture is very important on a dish like this and as is, the cranberry sauce is kinda of mushy. Adding some roasted, candied pecans to the mix gives it a fantastic crunchy topping. It brings the dish from good to great. You could leave out the pecans though if you don’t have time.

To make them, combine the sugar, triple sec, and apple cider vinegar in a small pan and bring to simmer. Simmer until thick (a few minutes), then add the herbs and pecans. Stir well to coat the pecans with the syrup mixture and lay them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

More roasting...

Bake these guys at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes or until they are lightly browned.

Let them cool for a minute and then break them up into small pieces.

You could make a huge serving of these and have them around as a snack also. They’re awesome to munch on.

Lightly candied.

When you’re ready to serve it, just sprinkle the pecans on the cranberry and you’re all set.

Maybe the best cranberry sauce I've had.

I know that cranberry sauce seems like a small part of the meal, but trust me. If you take the time to make something like this, people will remember it.

Really good!

You guys pulled a trick on me! When I posted last week’s poll on rhubarb, nobody even mentioned that it would be absolutely impossible to find rhubarb in June! After going to a few different stores and checking in at a farmer’s market, I learned that the rhubarb season is approximately 10 seconds long.

So you see, it’s impossible to make the dish that I wanted to make as an appetizer. But I got as close as humanly possible.

It turns out that for this specific recipe you can sub apples for rhubarb, leave everything else the same, and it’s very delicious. So if you happen to have rhubarb, go for it. If you don’t, you can use a few apples!

Chutney on Toast

Yield: 15 pieces.

Prep Time: 15 minutes + cool time

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup red wine vinegar
1/4 Cup orange juice
1/4 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced (OR 2 1/2 Cups chopped rhubarb)
1/4 Cup dried currants
2 scallions minced (not the green parts)
Baguette, sliced and toasted
5-6 ounces blue cheese

Directions:

1) Combine 1st five ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until the sugar melts, about 2 minutes.

2) Peel, core, and chop your apples (or rhubarb) and add them to the chutney. Stir everything together and cook over low-medium heat until the apples are soft, about 5 minutes.

3) Add currants and chopped scallions to the chutney at the very end.

4) Cool the chutney for at least an hour and serve on toasts with blue cheese.

Making the Chutney

In terms of chutney making, this is actually a really easy one. Some chutneys require lots of cooking time, but this one is just a few minutes of chopping and cooking. Really easy to throw together!

Basic stuff!

Start by combining the first five ingredients in the list in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir it until the sugar melts. Should just take a minute or two.

While you’re waiting for that to happen (or before you start it if you’re a slow-poke), peel, core and chop your apples. Rhubarb would be even easier prep I guess.

Not exactly rhubarb...

Next, just add all your apples into your sugar mixture. The apples won’t be covered by the mixture, but give them a good stir. As they heat up, they’ll cook down and also give off some of their own liquid.

Don't worry about the liquid covering...

Meanwhile, get these bonus ingredients ready. These just add a nice punch of flavor and texture to the finished chutney. You could use raisins if you don’t have any currants, but if you do, give them a quick chop first.

You could use raisins also...

Add your currants and chopped scallions to the chutney along with a pinch of salt and let it simmer for maybe 5 minutes until the apples are soft. Mine was a bit liquidy, but that’s just fine.

Yum.

Cooling it down

The original recipe said to cool the chutney for at least an hour before using it, but I was hungry so I just stuck mine in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Mine was still warm to the touch when I ate it which I thought was kind of nice. If you let it cool all the way down it’ll obviously get thicker but you’ll have to WAIT!

The Toasts

You could serve this with any number of crackers or toasts. You want something pretty sturdy though. The chutney is pretty thick and with the cheese added in, I recommend just making some thick toasts using a baguette.

Slice them on a diagonal like so…

Sliced bread!

That allows for maximum surface area! Cook these at 400 degrees on a baking sheet for about 5 minutes until they are nice and toasty.

Perfect toasting.

Also, get your blue cheese ready. If you can, try to hunt out a creamier blue cheese. You want one that’s kind of spreadable. Don’t buy the blue cheese crumbles that are pre-crumbled and try to spread it on a toast. Just get a small block of the stuff.

I love blue cheese so much. If, for some reason, you don’t like blue cheese, you could use goat cheese I think but it wouldn’t be as good.

My favorite cheese.

You want a good-sized schmear of cheese on each toast.

And yes, schmear is a technical term. It means this much:

A schmear.

When adding the chutney to the toasts, use a spoon and try to drain off any extra liquid so you just get the apples and other non-liquid stuff. If you get too much liquid it’ll just make your toasts soggy and, dude, nobody likes soggy toasts.

Respect the ring!

The apples were sweet and spicy and the blue cheese is creamy and delicious.

I honestly think I could’ve eaten 20 of these in one sitting. This would be an awesome dish as an appetizer for a dinner party!

For this version, I threw in shredded coconut, walnuts, and currants. All of these worked wonderfully in banana bread.

Ok. This was good.

In my opinion, one of the most important things about banana bread (besides having really ripe bananas) is to make sure you address texture along with taste. The bananas have good flavor, but your bread will be kind of mushy if you don’t add in some nice textures. The currants in this recipe give some chewiness to the bread and the walnuts give a bit of crunch.

Honestly, it’s a pretty fantastic loaf.

Currant and Walnut Banana Bread

Yield: 1 loaf.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

8 Tablespoons butter, softened, plus a bit extra for the pan
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
1 Teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
3/4 Cups sugar
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, all mashed up
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 Cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/3 Cup shredded coconuts
1/3 Cup currants (all of these last three ingredients can be easily substituted with any dried fruit or nuts)

Directions:

1) Get all the dry ingredients mixed up (flours, salt, baking powder, sugar).

2) Mush up the bananas.

3) Get the other dry ingredients ready (coconut, currants, and walnuts).

4) In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using a hand mixer, food processor, or even a whisk.

5) After a few minutes, the butter/sugar mixture should be nice and light. Then beat in one egg at a time and all the banana mush.

6) Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and combine them well.

7) Stir in the goodies.

8) Pour this batter into a standard 9 X 5 inch loaf pan that has been coated with butter and lightly floured.

9) Bake for 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees. A toothpick inserted in the very center should come out pretty clean.

10) Once it’s done baking, cool for about 5 minutes, then remove it from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack. It needs to at least cool for 30 minutes. Slice it up!

Adapted from How to Cook Everything.

For the visually inclined:

The whole wheat flour is seriously key.

Mixing the dry ingredients

This is a really easy batter to pull together actually, but the first step is getting all your dry ingredients mixed up. I think the whole wheat flour is a great addition to this recipe. If gives the final product an almost nutty flavor. It’s good stuff.

The dry stuff.

Then mush up your bananas. You don’t need to make them smooth. In fact, I like a bit of texture, but just kind of mush them together.

The riper the better!

Then I like to get my other dry ingredients ready. For me that meant my coconut, currants, and walnuts. If you so choose, take artsy photos of these things.

Artsy photo alert!

Making the wet batter

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using a hand mixer, food processor, or even a whisk. After a few minutes, the butter/sugar mixture should be nice and light. Then beat in one egg at a time and all your banana mush.

The wet stuff.

Finishing the batter

Mix your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and combine them well. They should come together really easily. I like to do 1/2 of my dry ingredients, then combine that, then the final 1/2 of the dry ingredients.

Once it is all combined you can stir in your goodies.

Flavor and texture is important here.

Pour this batter into a standard 9 X 5 inch loaf pan that has been coated with butter and lightly floured. The batter should be pretty loose and should smooth out evenly.

Don't forget to butter and flour this bad boy.

Baking the loaf

Bake this guy for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees. My loaf definitely needed all 60 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the very center should come out pretty clean.

Once it’s done baking, the loaf needs to cool for about 5 minutes, then you can remove it from the pan and let it cool completely on a wire rack. It needs to at least cool for 30 minutes.

Oh hell yea.

Then you can slice it up! It’s a really moist loaf which means that it stores really well. If you wrap this in foil it will keep for about 5 days without a problem.

Stores nicely.

If you are a beginner baker, I’m telling you to try this recipe. It has a ton of leeway to it. The bananas give a lot of moisture so it’s really hard to overcook and the batter is really easy to pull together.

If you’re looking for a solid, easy baking recipe, this is about as good as it gets.

Give it a shot!

Update: A very astute reader brought it to my attention that I say walnuts, but their are pecans in the photos! I have nothing to say on this except… oops. :) You could use either!

But I put together some kitchen courage this week and gave some currant scones a shot. Were they the best scones I’ve ever had? Heck no. But they were pretty darn good.

I think I have conquered my fear.

An army of scones.

I’ll be honest, one of the reasons I wanted to make these scones is because I have about two pounds of currants left over from this deal.

I mean why does a store only sell these small little jewels in the jumbo variety? What am I going to do with all of these?!

The star of the show.

Enough complaining though. I wanted to use some of them and the scones were a perfect opportunity.

Currant Scones

Yield: 16-20 scones

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

3.5 Cups all-purpose flour
3/4 Cups sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
1 3/4 sticks cold unsalted butter
3/4 Cups milk
3 large eggs, beaten
1 Cup dried currants

Directions:

1) Whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.

2) Cut up the butter into pieces.

3) Work the cubed butter into the flour mixture like you would a pie crust. You could use a mixer for this but I prefer my hands or a dough tool for cutting in butter.

4) Mix the milk and eggs separately and add those to the large bowl.

5) Drop onto an ungreased baking sheet using about 1/4 Cup for each scone.

6) Bake at 375 for about 15 – 17 minutes.

7) Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before biting into them.

Making the batter

Pulling this batter together is pretty easy actually. Just whisk together your flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.

Then cut up your butter into pieces. And let’s face it, while the currants are good, the butter is where it is at for a good scone. There are some purists out there that will say that you need lard to make a fantastic scone and I’m not sure I can disagree with that, but I didn’t have any lard around so I used the butter and it worked great.

Ok. The real star of the show.

Once your butter is cubed you need to work it into the flour mixture like you would a pie crust. You could use a mixer for this but I prefer my hands or a dough tool for cutting in butter. If you just use your fingers though, you can get a good final result. You want tiny balls of butter mixed throughout the flour mixture. Balls a bit smaller than a pea.

Then mix your milk and eggs together separately and add those to the party. It will be a really thick, sticky batter.

It should almost be like cookie batter.

I made my scones kind of free form and I like them like that. I dropped mine using about 1/4 Cup for each scone. It was approximated though which is fine. Your scones will not all be the same size. It’s cool. You should end up with 16-20 scones on your ungreased baking sheet.

A spoonful of scone...

Pop these in the oven at 375 for about 15 – 17 minutes. Mine were perfect at 16 minutes. Watch them closely near the end. You don’t want to burn the bottoms. They should be lightly tan on top and golden brown on the bottom. They cook surprisingly fast.

Be careful with these guys.

Cool them on a wire rack for a few minutes before biting into them. They are the best the day of and I think the deteriorate pretty quickly after that. I had one on day two and it wasn’t even close to as good as the first day (although still pretty decent).

This was the interior of one of these guys.

Nice.

I think I was able to conquer my fear of scones with this recipe. It was pretty simple and only took about 40 minutes start to finish. I actually made this batch before work one day and brought in fresh, warm scones for my coworkers.

The consensus was that these were very tasty.

The idea behind this dish, as far as I can tell, is that the chicken roasts at a high temperature to develop a crispy skin while still be very moist on the inside. The bread salad absorbs all of the drippings from the chicken so each bite is succulent and wonderful. This was my final full chicken:

The chicken and the salad.

Ok. I think it is important to note that I’m sure I didn’t do everything perfectly right and I’m sure if Judy made this for you it would be 100 times better than my version, but it was still one of the best roasted chicken dishes I’ve ever had and definitely the best I’ve ever made.

Zuni Roasted Chicken with Bread Salad

The bird:
- 1 small chicken, 2.75-3.5 pounds
- 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, marjoram, rosemary or sage (I went with sage.)
- Salt and Pepper

The salad:
- 8 ounces slightly stale, chewy bread (not sourdough). I bought a loaf of bread at Whole Foods and let it sit out for 2 days.
- 6 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons Champagne or white wine vinegar
- 1 Tablespoons dried currants (I just threw in a handful because I like them)
- Red wine vinegar (to soak the currants in)
- 2 Tablespoons pine nuts (again, I did a rough handful.)
- 3 garlic cloves, slivered
- 1/4 Cup scallions, slivered
- 2 Tablespoons chicken stock (if you don’t have fresh, just use lightly salted water which is what I did. Worked great.)
- A few handfuls of greens. I used frisée and found it to be too bitter. I would try arugula next time.

Helpful Equipment:
- Cast Iron Skillet

According to Judy, there are three tips to making sure this chicken is wonderful:

1) Start with a small bird. Anything over 3.5 pounds will take too long to cook all the way through. Too much moisture will be lost.
2) Pre-seasoning. Salt the bird at least a day (I did two days) before you intend to cook it.
3) Cook it at a very high heat. Pretty much as hot as your oven will get.

When you get your bird, insert your sprigs of herbs under the skin around the breast and thigh. Just work a small opening between the flesh and skin and make a little cavity. Don’t worry about getting it perfect. Then rub salt and pepper all over the bird. Probably about a Tablespoon of salt per pound. Be sure to salt the meatier sections more.

Salted, saged, and ready for a rest.

This bird should go back in the fridge for a few days to rest. When you pull it out to cook, it will look really different. The skin will be taunt around the bird and all the salt will be absorbed into the meat.

Meanwhile, cut your bread into large hunks and sprinkle it with a bit of olive oil. Broil these guys for a few minutes until they are crispy. I cut off about half of the crusts on my bread before broiling and if there are any super-charred pieces, snap them off also.

Some parts crunchy. Some parts very crunchy.

Now it is time to start the chicken. There are a bunch of ways you could cook this bird. In a roasting pan or a cast iron skillet are the easiest. I used a cast iron skillet. Preheat your oven to 450-500 degrees and get your skillet very hot. No need to truss the bird, but tuck the wings behind the neck.

Put your chicken breast-side up on the skillet and in the oven. It will SIZZLE.

Now would be a good time to turn on your vent.

This should cook for about 30 minutes. If at 20 minutes, the skin isn’t blistering, raise the heat a bit. If you see any charred bits, lower it a bit.

Meanwhile you can prep the following pieces of the salad:

The makings of a beautiful salad.

From the top left and clockwise: Soak the currants in the red wine vinegar for a few minutes; Drizzle the olive oil into the white wine vinegar and whisk until it forms a vinaigrette. Should be pretty quick; Toast the pine nuts in a pan or in the oven next to the chicken for just a few minutes. Watch it, they can go from perfect to burned in about 15 seconds; and warm the scallions and garlic slivers in a Tablespoon of oil. They shouldn’t brown, but just get soft.

Once all that is done, it will probably be time to take your chicken out and flip it!

This is the halfway point, pre-flip.

Next, tear your bread pieces into large, uneven chunks and add most of your vinaigrette. Toss and taste. Toss and taste. The bread will be dressed unevenly and that is cool. It will work out in the end. You can also toss in your currants, pine nuts, scallions, and garlic.

The bread salad minus the greens.

The real key with this bread salad is tasting chunks of the bread to make sure it is salty enough and seasoned enough. Adjust with more vinaigrette or salt and pepper.

After 15 or 20 minutes more in the oven, take the bird out and flip it one more time. So it finishes breast side up!

Then cook for another 5 or 10 minutes. Total roasting time is around one hour for a 3 pound bird. This is the final product!

BOOM.

This guy will need to rest for at least 10 minutes before you can cut it. Meanwhile, take the drippings that are left in the pan and drizzle a few tablespoons of them over the bread salad. Lots of flavor there.

Then you can chop up your chicken. It should pretty much fall apart.

Save the bones for stock or Judy will yell at you!

When you pull your chicken out, transfer your salad to a dish that is oven safe, and stick it in the oven. Turn off the oven. This will warm the salad just enough.

Pull it out after your chicken is chopped, toss with your greens, and then nestle your chicken pieces in the bread salad. DEVOUR!

Seriously amazing.

It may seem like a lot of steps, but it really isn’t that hard. I liked the bread salad a lot although I would choose a different green next time. Betsy didn’t like the salad that much. Hands down, the chicken was amazing though. If anything, definitely try the chicken. It is fantastic and simple.

Also, pick up a copy of the Zuni Cookbook or ask for it for your birthday or something. It is a veritable bible.

I’m of course, not the first food blogger to write about this recipe. Two of my favorite posts on the topic can be found at Smitten Kitchen and Not Quite Nigella.