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Jimtown Store's Carrie Brown shares Thanksgiving side-dish secrets
Jimtown proprietor Carrie Brown and chef Peter Brown.
CHARLIE GESELLPublished: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, November 15, 2010 at 3:26 p.m.
Thanksgiving is the apex of autumn, when the bitter, cold wind of early winter presses against the sweet, slanted sunlight of late summer.
In the vineyards of Sonoma County, the colorful grapevines are already on their way back down to an earthy shade of brown, along with the fig trees and the fennel fronds.
While the encroaching cold and dark whets our appetite for homey, old-fashioned dishes, we also crave a taste of decadence and one last fling with Mother Nature before she goes underground for the winter.
The Thanksgiving side dishes created by Jimtown Store founder Carrie Brown provide a good balance for the season. From Brussels Sprouts with Bacon to Cranberry Relish with Walnuts and Grappa, the sides sate our craving for both comfort and luxury.
“It's a holiday menu,” Brown said,“so I think you can be a little extravagant with the bacon and the nuts.”
Sure, you could substitute blue cheese for the bacon in the bitter greens salad. Or you could leave out the almonds in her Cornbread and Sausage Dressing.
But what's the point? After all, you're not just commemorating a meal cooked by buckle-shoed Pilgrims. You're celebrating the local bounty of organic vegetables and fruit, fresh nuts and natural meats.
Every year, Jimtown Store and its head chef, Peter Brown, (not related to Carrie), provide harried home cooks with an extra pair of hands in the kitchen, offering an array of dips and nibbles, soups and salads, side dishes and pies “to go,” all made from scratch and with an adventurous twist.
This year, Brown is also sharing her secrets for farm-to-table cooking during Thanksgiving cooking classes that highlight the savory side dishes.
While a big, beautifully bronzed turkey is the most iconic component of the meal — the Norman Rockwell ingredient, if you will — it's the rest of the food on the plate that makes the feast taste really festive.
“I like to say that the turkey is kind of the excuse for the rest of it,” Brown said. “It's the foil, if you will. That nice protein is plain, and when you mix a bite of it in, it tastes really good.”
The problem with cooking turkey is that it's nearly impossible to get the dark meat in the legs cooked to perfection without drying out the exposed breast meat.
There are various methods of combating that problem - cooking the legs separately, cooking the bird upside down and brining the bird to enhance the breasts' moisture content.
By soaking the turkey in brine ahead of time, the meat gains flavor and saltiness. It also plumps with water so that it's still juicy after cooking.
This year, the Jimtown kitchen crew is going to use a brine made with Nana Mae's Organic Apple Cider from Sebastopol.
“The brine always has sugar in it, so the cider will be the sweet component,” Brown explained.
The savory part of the brine includes salt, orange peel, cinnamon, allspice, bay leaf, onions, whole garlic, plus fresh thyme, sage and rosemary from the garden.
Before the meal, Brown said, it's important to provide a few appetizers for famished guests, but try not to kill them with kindness.
Brown likes to serve warm, cornmeal empanadas stuffed with fresh pumpkin puree, a nod to her childhood spent in South America. And maybe a few crudités.
“My grandmothers did the celery and the olives on a pretty little plate and not much more,” she said. “You could have a little fennel and carrot.”
As a festive touch, Brown always serves sparkling wine to her guests before they sit down to the Thanksgiving meal. And she often serves a dry rosé with the turkey plate, which pairs well with its array of flavors.
She usually starts with a plated course: a simple salad dressed with extra virgin olive oil, parsley, lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper.
“Just serve a small salad, because the plate that follows is so large,” she advised.
If the Dungeness crab has arrived, you could serve that with some slices of avocado on a bed of frisee. Or you could serve some bitter radicchio and watercress, dressed up with bacon, spiced pistachios and pomegranate seeds.
Alongside the turkey, Brown likes to serve a traditional giblet gravy made from the pan drippings and a pot of turkey broth simmering on the stove.
“We always stuff some aromatics in the cavity,” she explained. “And we roast the turkey on a bed of chunky mirepoix: onions cut in half, hunks of carrots and celery stalks ... in place of the rack.”
Brown likes to make her own skillet cornbread for the dressing served alongside the turkey. You can make it the day before to save time.
“We make it in the cast-iron skillet,” she said. “It makes a great, sturdy bread for working up the dressing.”
This year, she's going to add sage to the dressing, along with some sun-dried cherries and toasted almonds.
“I like the texture in there of the super-toasted nuts,” she said. “I've always used pine nuts ... but they cost a bloody fortune.”
Years ago, Brown started making a cranberry relish with grappa, an Italian eau de vie distilled from the leftover grape skins and seeds in the grape press. She adds toasted walnuts to the fresh cranberries.
For the all-important vegetables sides, Jimtown offers Cider-Mashed Sweet Potatoes (also made with Nana Mae's Organic Apple Cider) along with the traditional Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
And for a splash of color and flavor on the plate, they usually saute some Brussels Sprouts with Bacon.
“Peter does those in the skillet until they kind of fall apart,” she said. “But they keep their pretty color.”
And for dessert, there's always plenty of Pumpkin Pie, made from scratch with heirloom pumpkins like the Amish Pie pumpkin or the Cinderella pumpkin.
It's important to process the pumpkin correctly, to get rid of the sinewy fibers and the water.
“Once I've roasted and pureed it in the food processor, I put it through a sieve and drain it overnight,” she said. “And sometimes I cheat by adding some butternut squash.”
Of course, the best part about Thanksgiving is the leftover plate the next day. Brown likes to have pumpkin pie for breakfast — “no whipped cream, just a little sliver.”
For lunch or dinner, she warm ups a small plate of potatoes and gravy and turkey and dressing.
“That's almost the best plate of all,” she said.
Cider Brined Turkey wtih Giblet Gravy
[RECIPE_00]1
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees.
Remove the turkey from the brine and allow to drain, patting dry inside and out with paper towels. Allow the turkey to come to room temperature before preparing to roast.
Place the cut vegetables in a roasting pan large enough to accommodate the turkey. Strew the whole herb sprigs over the vegetables and place the turkey on top of the vegetable bed.
Set the roaster in the oven. Roast the turkey for 30 minutes. Set aside 4 cups of the turkey broth for use in the gravy. Baste the turkey with about ¾ cup at a time with the remaining broth. Continue to roast the turkey, basting every 20 minutes with broth and then with any pan juices that accumulate until the turkey is browned, and cooked through while remaining juicy, for a total roasting time of 3 hours. An instant-read thermometer, inserted into the thigh at its thickest, should register 180 degrees. Transfer the turkey to a cutting board and tent it with foil.
Set the pan across 2 burners and adjust the heat to medium. Add the reserved turkey broth to the pan and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve any browned deposits from the bottom of the roasting pan. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Strain the liquid and discard the solids. Degrease the liquid.
In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the 4 tablespoons of butter. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly without browning, for about 5 minutes. Gradually whisk in the strained liquid, about ¼ cup at a time, always whisking until smooth before adding the next ¼ cup, until fully incorporated. Stir in the giblets. Simmer 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.
Carve the turkey and serve, accompanied by the gravy.
Turkey Broth
Makes about 9 cups
Giblets, including the neck but excluding the liver, from the turkey
In a large pot, combine the giblets, onion, celery, carrots, bay leaf, peppercorns, and water. Set over medium heat and bring to a simmer, skimming any foam that forms. Partially cover, lower the heat, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 hours.
Strain the broth, reserving the heart and gizzard, but discarding the remaining solids. The broth can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool completely, cover, and refrigerate.
Apple Cider Brine
Makes 8 quarts for a 10-16 pound turkey
In a medium sauce pot over high heat, toast the allspice berries and the peppercorns until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add one quart of the cider, the salt, brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, onions, and garlic and bring to a boil. As soon as the mixture boils, cover and remove from the heat. Cool completely to room temperature.
Line a container large enough to comfortably hold your turkey with a large plastic bag; an extra large Ziploc or heavy duty trash bag works well for this. Place the turkey, giblets removed and reserved, in the bag, and put the whole container into the refrigerator.
Combine the cooled cider mixture with the remaining cider, water, and ice to complete the brine.
Pour over the turkey and seal the bag, checking to make sure the brine covers the turkey. Brine overnight for 8-12 hours.
This moist and fluffy dressing is our idea of a perfectly balanced Thanksgiving side dish - it's a little sweet, a touch salty, a bit tart, very savory and fragrant with cornmeal and sage,” Brown writes. “Baking this in a separate dish, instead of in the bird, alleviates bacterial contamination worries and allows for more accurate timing of the turkey. “
Cornbread and Sausage
Dressing with Almonds
and Dried Cherries
Makes 8 servings
[RECIPE_00]½
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees. In a shallow metal pan, like a cake tin, toast the almonds, stirring them once or twice, until they are crisp and golden-brown inside, about 7-10 minutes. Remove immediately from the hot pan and cool to room temperature. Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Butter a 2-quart baking dish.
Crumble the sausage into a medium skillet and set over moderately high heat. Cook, breaking up the lumps of sausage with a spoon, until it is lightly browned and has rendered its fat, 10 to 12 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to paper towels to drain.
In a medium skillet over low heat, melt the butter. Add the onion, celery, and garlic and cook uncovered, stirring once or twice, until soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in the sage, thyme, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and ½ teaspoon of the pepper and continue to cook for 3 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine the crumbled cornbread, sausage, the onion mixture, the almonds and the cherries. Add the stock and stir until evenly moistened. Adjust the seasoning.
Spoon the stuffing into the dish and cover. (The recipe can be prepared to this point up to 1 day ahead. Refrigerate, letting it come almost to room temperature before proceeding.) Bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake until the stuffing is hot and steaming and the top is lightly browned, another 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.
Skillet Baked Cornbread
Makes 9 servings
Preheat an oven to 375 degrees. Place a medium (10½-inch) cast-iron skillet into the oven to preheat.
Sift the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt into a medium sized mixing bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and ¼ cup of the oil.
Remove the skillet from the oven and coat with the remaining two tablespoons of oil.
Whisk the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined into a smooth batter. Pour batter into the hot skillet, spreading it quickly to the edges of the pan and return to the oven.
Bake for 16-18 minutes, until the cornbread has browned nicely and just set, the center should spring back when gently touched.
Cranberry-Walnut Relish with Grappa
Makes 4 cups
1½
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
Spread the walnuts in a single layer in a shallow metal pan and toast, stirring once, until crisp and lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool and coarsely chop.
In a medium, nonreactive pan, combine the water and sugar and orange juice. Set over medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the cranberries and simmer uncovered, stirring once or twice, until about half of the cranberries have burst, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a heatproof container. Stir in the walnuts, zest, grappa, and salt. Cool to room temperature.
The relish can be used immediately or covered and refrigerated for up to 1 week. (You may reserve the walnuts and add them just before serving.)
Note: If grappa seems an unlikely choice for an all-American holiday like Thanksgiving, try using good bourbon instead.
Bitter Greens and
Bacon Salad with
Spiced Pistachios and
Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Makes 6 to 8 servings
¼
Cut the bacon slices crosswise into ¼-inch wide strips. Scatter the strips in a skillet and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp and brown, 8 to 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain.
Remove any brown outer leaves from the heads of radicchio. Core the radicchio and halve it vertically. Cut each half crosswise into ½-inch ribbons.
Cut the ends off the endive and cut crosswise into ½ pieces. Remove the thickest stems from the watercress and separate into bite-size sprigs.
In a large bowl, lightly salt and pepper the bitter greens. Toss with about ½ cup of the vinaigrette. Divide the greens among salad plates. Scatter the bacon and pistachios over the salads, dividing them evenly and using them all. Drizzle the salad with additional dressing if desired, garnish with pomegranate seeds, and serve immediately.
Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Makes 1 cup dressing
¼
In a bowl, whisk together the vinegar, pomegranate juice, shallot, and mustard. Gradually whisk in the olive oil and the extra-virgin olive oil. Adjust the seasoning.
Use immediately or store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Return to cool room temperature and shake or re-whisk before using.
Note: You can easily use freshly squeezed in season, or substitute unsweetened bottled pomegranate juice.
Spiced Pistachios
Makes about ½ cup
1
In a small skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the pistachios and toss to coat. Stir in the sugar and cayenne and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the salt and a generous grinding of pepper.
Spread the nuts on a parchment paper lined plate and cool to room temperature; break apart if necessary before using.
You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com
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