Sure t’ing. Here you go.
Ingredients:
1 pound white onions
3/4 cup sugar
Dash of nutmeg
1 stick butter
Water
Cooking 'em up:
Heat oven to 350°F. Peel onions and place in pot with enough water to cover. Bring to boil and simmer until onions are soft. Drain onions and place in a buttered casserole. Sprinkle with sugar and nutmeg to taste. Using the stick of butter, place a pat on each onion. Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and slightly brown.
My sister and brother-in-law are hosting this year. He has a distinct preference for Out of the Box (as opposed to homemade) so it will probably be pretty grim, except for the cranberry sauce, which we all prefer homemade. I mean, I don’t get box mashed potatoes, I really don’t, but I also believe in Shut Up and Smile Politely when you’re a guest and they’re really excited about hosting. Plus, my sister works 70+ hours a week and none of us can stand Xmas/Thanksgiving food as endless leftovers anyway, so in a way the box thing is probably for the best.
Anyway, my dad already took me aside and asked me to cook some appetizers. So I’ll be making crab cakes and shrimp lettuce wraps.
Hey, for those of us who aren’t from Canadia* and have never heard of these, could you post a typical recipe? I’d love to try one.
Thanks!
overlyverbose, would you and your mom be willing to share that recipe? i’d love to try that. it sounds completely awesome.
Thanks! I returned to this thread just hoping you’d posted the recipe. It sounds divine, and I will try it out on my family when I do the traditional New Year’s Day turkey feast.
Sure, here ya go. Keep in mind that these pies are subtly flavored - you want the ginger/nutmeg/etc to come through, so don’t overwhelm it with salt and stronger flavors. And don’t serve it with ketchup (which I’ve seen done! What a waste!)
For 1 pie:
1 pound ground meat (pork & beef mixed. If you have venison, throw some of that in, too. Or if you have leftover pork rillettes, that works too. Basically, you want MEAT)
3 medium potatoes, peeled& diced very small. About 11 oz.
1 leek, white and light green parts, washed & sliced.
Butter. The more the better.
1 T. chopped sage
1 t. chopped fresh rosemary
1 t. fresh ginger, grated
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 t. fresh savory, chopped
1/2 teaspoon each allspice, ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg
salt& pepper
Beef stock or water. Or veal stock. About 2 cups.
Dough for a covered pie - buy it, or see below for my recipe
Add butter to a big pot at low temperature. Allow to melt, add the leeks. Cover & cook for 10 min or so until they’re soft, stirring occasionally. Don’t let 'em burn.
Add everything else into the pot, add water/stock to cover, cook about 1 hour. It’s done when the potatoes break down and the meat to be cooked through. You want it to be the same texture as meat loaf, but wetter. Keep tasting it and adjust spices as necessary.
At this point, if you deem it good and correct, throw in a tablespoon or so of brandy or cognac.
I put it in the fridge overnight at this point, it always seems better if it sits for a while.
Put in pie shell, cover with the other bit of pie dough, crimp edges, bake ~ 350 for an hour, 1.5 hours for frozen
Crust for one pie. This is a weirdo pie crust recipe, but it’s good!
2 c flour
1 t. baking powder
6 T. fat - I use lard, but crisco/butter/bacon fat will do
1 egg beaten
1/3 cup cold milk
Beat the egg and the cold milk together in a small bowl.
Put flour and baking powder in the food processor, blend. Add the fat in small chunks, pulse to blend. Add the liquid in a stream while the processor is running. Mix until it just comes together.
Divide into two equal balls, cover in plastic, put in fridge for at least an hour or overnight.
Roll out, make pie per normal pie instructions.
Sorry it took me a while to respond - I had a stomach virus yesterday. Totally miserable. Anyway, here it is:
1.5 pound beef tenderloin
1 cup mushrooms (I use baby bellas)
4 cloves garlic or 1/4 cup chopped shallots (I like garlic better)
1/4 cup red wine
1 10-oz bag frozen spinach, thawed & squeezed
1/2-3/4 cup blue cheese
2 tbsp butter
salt & pepper to taste
Butterfly the tenderloin & pound with a mallet until it’s 3/4 inch thick. Lightly salt & pepper the outside. Melt the butter in a pan, add chopped garlic & sautee for a minute or two, then put in the mushrooms & cook until they begin to release their juices. Deglaze the pan with the wine toward the end. Add in the spinach, mix well, then take off the heat, mix in the blue cheese. Spread the spinach & blue cheese mixture in the middle of the tenderloin, then roll, jelly-roll style, and secure with soaked skewers or butcher string/twine.
Preheat the oven 375. You can baste the tenderloin with a little olive oil if you like, then roast it on a roasting rack in the oven for 30-40 minutes until desired doneness. Slice & enjoy. My mom usually serves this with a port wine mushroom sauce.
Breakfast at home, then whatever’s open after the three movies we plan to see. (we have no family in Chicago so we don’t do Christmas)
I’m smoking a turkey. It’s being brined right now in:
2 quarts apple juice
1 pound dark brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
Mix these and boil for one minute, then cool and add the rest of the ingredients.
3 quarts cold water
3 quartered oranges
4 ounces fresh ginger, thinly sliced
15 whole cloves
6 bay leaves
6 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
24 hour brining, then hot roasted in my Weber Smokey Mountain at 325 deg F with a couple chunks of cherry wood. I’m making a pair of 14 pound birds so my daughter can bring one home with her.
I finally got my MIL to finalize what’s what - we’re going to their house Chrsms. Day and it looks so far like it’ll just be the four of us - so since there’s probably not enough of us to polish off another turkey, we’re having one of those spiral-sliced bone-in hams (yummm!) and she’s making scalloped potatoes and the rolls* so we’re supposed to bring the green/veg side. Not really sure yet what that’ll be. Salad? Green beans? Maybe a cold quinoa salad?
Seriously, people. She makes 'em = omnomnomnom. We make 'em = meh. Okay. Edible, but nothing all that great. I swear I’m going to put a webcam on her the next time she makes them so we can see the difference. Maybe it’s the pan she uses?
Well I’m supposed to be cooking a turkey, but I forgot to get it out of the freezer so we may be having stuffing, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole with leftover ham from last night.
Those pies sound awesome.
I don’t know about Christmas yet, but Christmas Eve was:
Standing Rib Roast (Prime Rib of Beef), Kielbasa(homemade), sauerkraut, baked potatoes, broccoli with cheese sauce, trans-fat-free crescent rolls.
The Trans Fat really does make a difference in flaky baked goods; the trans-fat-free ones have an entirely different texture that doesn’t really compare to regular ones.
Tonight is a huge 10-lb. snapper chermoula, with rice pilaf and some kind of broccoli thing my SIL is currently putting together.
Tomorrow is a Georgian roast pork shoulder recipe, marinated overnight in a spice rub with TONS of garlic, and served with a pomegranate/cilantro sauce. (More or less this recipe.) I’ve never tried it before, but it looks yummy. I think we’ll have roast root vegetables with it, probably more rice, and maybe some braised mustard and collard greens. And I’m hoping to get my BIL to make one of his fabulous apple pies.
Our oven doesn’t work, and we don’t have any family, so we will probably walk to China House for some pork fried rice.
My sister and I are in charge of Christmas this year, since my mom has to work. Between us, we are making: Ham, coleslaw, applesauce, cranberries, potato casserole, brussel sprouts, eggnog panna cotta, cheesecake, and mince pie.
(First time I ever made applesauce- prepared this morning- and it is so, so delicious. Too bad it is so labor intensive or I would make it all the time.)
We’ve just had our Christmas lunch here in Australia - we went retro since it was just Boy From Mars, Baby From Mars and me and we couldn’t be bothered with the full trad deal.
Will Studd’s Baked Clarines camembert with toasted french bread and apples, and a kilo of BBQed fresh prawns with Delia Smith’s prawn cocktail sauce for dipping with some green beans. Hazelnut and chocolate gelato and homemade panforte to finish. I’m full now…
We’re having cornish hens, scalloped pineapple, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce and for dessert, Turtle brownies and maybe sugar cookies, there are three of us, I must be insane.
That cheese recipe looks amazing.
My turducken has been in the oven all night at 250. I’m up now to take the foil off of it and let it brown up for an hour. Then I can take it out of the oven, and go back to bed for a couple of hours before our girls get us up at 7AM for gift opening.
I picked up the last few groceries I needed yesterday to complete our feast, which will take me just an hour or two to pull together.
Hot pot - no one in my immediate family can really cook, but this is relatively simple to prep. Just buy shabu shabu cut meat, salmon pieces, tofu, octopus, fish balls, daikon, taro, greens, and cut them into bite size pieces. Prep the hot pot, pour in the soup base, and then dip all the pieces to cook and eat at the table. I like to use dipping sauces of sesame, raw egg (not gonna do this in the U.S., though) and sha-cha.