Hey guys.
Turkey normally steals the spotlight at Thanksgiving
but we can probably all admit that there's a side dish or two with a special place in our hearts:
mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole -
This week, we're taking all these normally supporting players, and giving them the starring roles they deserve.
Let's get down to basics.
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Alright guys, so let's start with mashed po-tah-toes.
Traditionally, the script reads for us to mash them with a po-tah-to masher and mix them with butter.
But we're going to flip the po-tah-to script
-and I'm sorry, that's the last time I'll say that-
by sous-viding the potatoes in their own private butter bath.
Don't you wish that you could say the same about yourself?
So into a vacuum seal bag goes 3 large russet potatoes,
1½ sticks of butter, salt, white pepper, and 1 entire cup of heavy cream.
This is Thanksgiving, folks. This is the one time it's socially acceptable to eat like this.
So being very careful, we are vacuum sealing all these fats and starches together into one beautiful mass
and dropping into a 194° F sous-vide,
the temperature of which you might need to maintain using a clean kitchen towel
as a sort of sous-vide swaddling cloth.
Then, 30 to 40 minutes later, we are now removing our very tender potatoes,
which we should be able to crush effortlessly using our glove-ed fingers,
and pouring through a fine mesh sieve.
Might have to crush these up a little bit into manageable pieces before pressing them through,
creating a potato mash that is very fine indeed
that we want to whisk minimally, just enough to incorporate the butter,
because we don't want to build up any gluten.
Into a serving bowl they go, smoothed out
and served with the headline that mashed potatoes will never be the same
because, from this day forth, they shall be known as pomme purée.
But what about yams?
You know, that part of your Thanksgiving dinner that's actually dessert?
Well, while we are going to prepare these a little bit more traditionally,
with 1½ sticks of butter, ½ cup of brown sugar, ½ cup of raw or demerara sugar,
and a solid tablespoon of cinnamon,
and maybe a teaspoon and a half of freshly grated nutmeg,
we're going to dress it up in some new and exciting ways.
Into a generously buttered casserole go 3 peeled and sliced yams,
a generous pinch of kosher salt, and our sugar-butter mixture.
It would probably be easier to mix this up in a bowl beforehand,
but it's Thanksgiving, we're trying to cut down on dishes, right?
So once we've given that a little mix, we're covering and baking
at 375° F for about 30 minutes
and then we're gonna give them a good mix and return them to the oven, uncovered,
for another 15 to 20 minutes.
During which time I'm going to pour some boiling whiskey over some craisins
and let them soak until the sweet potatoes emerge from the oven
at which point we're going to top them with some ricotta cheese,
a healthy serving of our whiskey-soaked craisins, and some toasted pecans.
And if you wanna go really crazy, how about a nice healthy drizzle of honey?
Now take a look at that and tell me that you'd rather have the stuff with marshmallows on it.
I mean, I would totally eat the stuff with marshmallows on it,
but variety is the spice of Thanksgiving.
Alright, now that I've officially gone off the rails
let's make some green bean casserole.
We're gonna start by making homemade french fried onions
by cutting two large onions in half, slicing them thinly on a mandolin,
and dousing them in about a cup of buttermilk.
We're gonna let those soak for about 15 minutes
before draining and coating in all-purpose flour.
Once those are evenly coated and the excess flour has been shaken off via sieve,
we're bringing these bad boys over to a relatively tepid bath of 300° F vegetable oil.
These onions have a lot of moisture in them and they're going to cook very quickly,
so a lower temperature deep fry is preferable.
We're letting these go for about 7 to 9 minutes, until they are gorgeously golden brown,
crisp, and a hell of a lot better than anything you're ever going to get out of a can.
We're going to lightly season them with kosher salt,
and try not to eat all of them before they end up on our casserole,
but, admittedly, this is a challenge.
Next up we gotta make some gourmet cream of mushroom soup.
We're starting by stemming, crushing, and finely chopping
8 oz. of cremini mushrooms.
Once we've got everybody stemmed, squashed, and sliced,
we're bringing the whole party over to an awaiting high-walled sautée pan
with about 3 Tablespoons of butter a-bubblin'.
We're then gonna sautée the whole affair together with a generous pinch of salt.
That's gonna help draw the moisture out of the mushrooms.
Once all this moisture is evaporated,
we're going to add 1 heaping Tablespoon of flour.
We're gonna sautée this together with the mushrooms and the butter,
forming a rudimentary roux, for about 1 minute
before adding 2 cloves of crushed garlic, sautéeing for another 30 seconds,
and then deglazing with a little bit of cognac, flambéing if desired -
Oh God! Make sure you take out the wooden spoon!
Wooden spoon in the pot, get it out of there!
Little known fact: wood is flammable.
We're then going to add about a cup and a half of chicken stock and 1 cup of heavy cream
mixing together, bringing to a simmer, adding a little dash of soy sauce -
a trick courtesy of J. Kenji López-Alt -
and simmering until dark, thick, rich, and the best cream of mushroom soup you've ever had.
Then we're going to prep our green beans by cutting off the stems
and slicing into 1-inch pieces
which we are going to parboil for about 2 minutes
until bright green and then shock in an ice bath.
These are going to be baked, but not long enough to cook them through.
So once we've drained them, we're mixing them together with our cream of mushroom soup
and maybe half of our french fried onions.
I wish you could smell this but, well, YouTube technology is just not there yet.
Once combined, we're pouring into a generously buttered casserole,
covering and baking at 350° F for 15 to 20 minutes,
or until *bubbly.*
We shall then uncover, sprinkle on the remainder of our french fried onions
and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until *browned* and bubbly.
You know, the two greatest words in the English language?
Now for this one, I don't have the patience to do a traditional tracking shot,
I gotta dig in right now.
It's one of those few things in life that it's absolutely worth it to burn your mouth on.
This is my absolute favorite Thanksgiving side.
It's also my dad's favorite. He just got out of surgery,
and I'm super excited to go home and make it for him and all the other people that I love.
Because that's what Thanksgiving ... sides are really all about: love.
For your dad, for yourself, or for your camera crew.
So, from me and mine to you and yours, happy holidays.
I will see you next week when I will be making turkey and pumpkin pie from "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving."
And buttered toast and popcorn and pretzels and jelly beans and ice cream sundaes, I guess.
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