Musing on Thanksgiving Meals

My sister's feast with family, 2010

As an aside, it has been slow going, as it usually is when returning from a trip. I always have a hard time getting back into my routine, meaning things I normally get to are left for last - like this blog. That does not mean I have not been cooking! At present I have enough new things made to write for days. However, with Thanksgiving looming on the near horizon, some time has been spent pinpointing the recipes I want to make for this holiday. To change a recipe I love? Or not? Just an adjustment?

Our feast with friends, 2011

I never stray too far from my usual. All the things I grew up eating, like roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes and cranberries are always on my menu. However, aside from the fact that I am making the same foods, none of my recipes are even comparable to what my Mom made.

I loved Thanksgiving at my Mom's table. She stuffed her bird, back before all the dire warnings of illness due to stuffing cooked wrongly, and I loved that stuffing best. It was made with a cubed loaf of bread, fried bacon, onion fried in the rendered grease, parsley, eggs and milk. Over the years things changed. As I learned more about cooking, I added things I thought would taste good. Making Mom's stuffing recipe, it seemed natural to add in some apple, some grated nuts, reduce some of the grease, try to approximate the flavors of stuffing in the bird - without stuffing the bird!  My stuffing recipe morphed over the years to become Better than Mom's Stuffing. This year it is morphing again, but I will get to that after the fact. My ideas at this point are to proceed as usual, but substitute cornbread for part of the bread in the recipe, and to add in a jar of whole chestnuts. 

Better than Mom's Stuffing

She made mashed potatoes with butter and milk, salt and pepper. Her sweet potatoes were canned, partially drained and cooked down with some butter and brown sugar as a glaze. Her gravy was delicious, though I cannot say how she made it. Cranberries were from a can and most usually the "jellied" variety, served sliced. Did you know that there exists a silver cranberry server? Actually, it seems that in Victorian times this piece was to serve tomatoes, but there is nothing like re-purposing, right?

Tomato or Cranberry Server

I do not stuff my turkey any longer; have not for many years. I often rub some mixture under the skin for flavor, like my Herbed Butter for Turkey or Chicken. In many prior years, I just stuck sprigs of fresh rosemary & thyme, with some onion wedges and garlic cloves under the skin. 

I cook 2 or 3 parsnips with my potatoes and then rice them, adding cream cheese or goat cheese and chopped scallions or chives. I make a Sweet Potato Casserole I have been making since the early 1980s. My stock is made using extraneous bits and pieces of the turkey (gizzards, neck, wingtips, extraneous fat chunks) and is used as the basis for my gravy. The pan drippings get added to the stock later on, before making the gravy.

Cranberry Orange Relish

I make my own Cranberry Orange Relish. My recipe for many, many years is a variation on many out there using orange juice as the cooking liquid. This year I am changing that recipe again. I had a bottle of Ruby Port open since using some to make the Fall Fruit Compote to accompany Pheasant Alfredo. I wanted to use some of this Port as a part of the cooking liquid for the fresh cranberries, along with orange juice. My thought was to first cook the Port down to about half the amount, to concentrate the flavors and lend sweetness. An alternative I would like to try some day is using pomegranate juice instead of the Port for this recipe. I imagine it will give great flavors also, and I would recommend it for those of you who do not use wine at all.

Yesterday was the day for this experiment. I have never, ever put spices into my cranberry sauce, but this year I did add in a small Cassia cinnamon stick, plus a little cheesecloth bag of ½ teaspoon each cardamom seeds and allspice berries. The smell in the kitchen was just heavenly while the wine cooked down!

A cup of Port  |  cooking Port with spices  | peeled sections of orange rind  |  orange sliced julienne style

I still used orange juice for the rest of the liquid, but used less sugar, overall. I added in a cup of dried cherries, for that flavor element. Along with orange zest, I also added lime zest and grated fresh ginger. I took plenty of photos while making it, but did not display the finished product  to get great photos. Those will be added in later on. Meanwhile, this is my Cran-Cherry Relish with Ruby Port:

Relish Cooked to Jam Consistency

Cran-Cherry Relish with Ruby Port

Makes about 4 cups

1 cup Ruby Port
½ teaspoon whole allspice berries
½ teaspoon whole cardamom seeds
1 stick (4-inches) cassia cinnamon stick

12 ounces fresh cranberries (about 3 cups)
1 cup dried cherries
1¼ cup orange juice
3 parings of fresh orange zest, about 1 x 3-inches each
1¼ cup granulated sugar
zest of one lime or lemon
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

In a 4 - 6 quart saucepan, bring the port to a boil. Wrap the allspice berries and cardamom seeds in a piece of cheesecloth and add them to the pot with the cassia cinnamon stick. Boil the mixture on medium for about 8 to 10 minutes, or until it has reduced to half. If the prep is not yet done, remove the pan from the heat until it is all done.

Grated lime zest, grated fresh ginger | dried cherries,
all added to the reduced Port and cooked to perfection

If the rest of the ingredients are prepped and ready, add all of them in now. Stir together and return the mixture to boil. Almost immediately, the cranberries will begin to pop. I like to mash them against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon, freeing the insides. This helps thicken the mixture. After about 8 to 10 minutes at a gentle boil, the mixture should have thickened appreciably, to a jam consistency. Remove from heat, cool. Pour into a container, cover and refrigerate. The relish will keep at least 2 weeks well covered in the refrigerator. A great Do-Ahead dish for a busy time!

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Great Side Dish for Wild Fowl

Our dear friend Rich left this morning. He was here for 10 days to get in some pheasant hunting. On his second day out with another hunter here, Rich brought home 3 pheasants, and my last two blog posts were of the recipes I used for these birds. Yesterday Rich went out again, coming back with 2 more pheasants, but these he brined to take home with him. We so enjoy having Rich here to visit, but all visits come to an end, no matter how wonderful.

Fall Fruit Compote

When thinking up recipes for the last birds, Rich's idea is always to brine them first, then possibly follow the brining with another soak of some kind. Last year he soaked the pheasant pieces in buttermilk all day following the brine. This year, one of the birds was used after just having been brined, while the second spent time in a wine marinade. No matter how one treats these wild birds, they are rather dry. Luckily I like the drier meat, though my husband is less keen on it, in general. To me, the breast portion of these wild birds tastes like dry dark meat. I don't care for the dark meat of turkey or chicken, because it is generally fatty and moist. Somehow, the flavor and fattiness are objectionable to me. Others just love it. For me, dry pheasant breast meat makes a darker meat palatable. 


No matter how you choose to go about preparing a wild bird, there will come the need for a side dish or other condiment to pair with it. While marinating the second half of the birds in wine, I originally had in mind to bake the bird in a wine sauce with a lot of dried fruits. Since that just wasn't coming together in my mind, Rich suggested making the fruits as a side dish. Aha! 

Dried Mission Figs from www.Nuts.com

Last year I had so many apples to freeze, I eventually went to dehydration instead of just freezing. Since I have all these dehydrated apple slices, I have looked for uses for the dried fruit. I had added some of them to the wine marinade for the birds, but wanted to use some in the final dish - which now switched to a side dish. Dried fruit retains a lot of sweetness. In thinking about cranberry relish to go with a roast turkey, and gauging the sweetness factor there, I opted to use Port as the main cooking liquid for the dried fruit. 

The Port Dilemma

Fresh Quinces

We like Port wine on occasion, so I have various types in our wine cellar. We have some 10-year-old late bottled ports, some Warre's Otima Tawny Port, some Ruby Ports, some Warre's Warrior and Fonseca Bin 27s, as well as a few vintage ports. Looking at the attributes of each type, I certainly didn't want to use a pricy vintage port to cook dried fruit. I also thought that Tawny would not give the rich color I wanted, plus it is less sweet than some of the red ports. Still, some of the fruits were very dark, like the figs and prunes (excuse me - ahem - "dried plums!"), so did I want a really dark wine like the Warre's Warrior or Fonseca Bin 27? Probably not, so ultimately I chose the Ruby Port. Ruby Port is exactly as it sounds: ruby red colored. It is quite sweet and pretty to look at, but generally less viscous than a deep red port. It is enjoyable to drink, in the manner of a more simple-to-enjoy dessert quaff. 

My Quince Still life

For other liquids I used some dry red wine and some water. Sweetener? I chose honey. Spices? That took some thought. I didn't want to use all the regular sweet spices, though cinnamon was still in the running. I left out cloves or allspice. I did use a half teaspoon of black peppercorns. Since I use only Tellicherry peppercorns, their fruity scent would help perfume the compote yet add a little bite. I meant to put them into a tea ball to easily pick out later, but just that fast I dropped them into the pot - oops! We had to fish them out later. Last minute I added one whole (small) star anise. Orange was another flavor I wanted to incorporate, but not to make any statement of its own. To this end, using a peeler, I peeled off a long strip of orange peel while leaving the white pith behind; removing the peel from the compote later is a snap. Another option would have been to either grate the rind or chop the peeled section and leave it in the mixture.

All that was left was to determine which fruits to use. The main idea was to use dried fruits, but there were two exceptions. I really wanted quince, if there were any available. Quince is a tart fruit that looks somewhat like a misshapen yellow apple. It needs to be cooked to make it edible. Quince has even more pectin than apples, and makes a wonderful jam. I felt they would also lend great flavor as well as thickening power to this compote. I was very glad to find that quinces were available. The other fruit not already dried were fresh cranberries, another great Fall flavor. Other fruits that were handy were dried cherries, apricots, figs and plums. With this in mind, here is what I did:

Fall Fruit Compote

Fall Fruit Compote

Makes about 6 or more servings

1½ cups Ruby Port
1 cup dry red wine 
½ cup water
½ cup honey
1 (4-inch) cassia cinnamon stick
1 whole star anise, optional 
½ teaspoon whole peppercorns, preferably Tellicherry
1 orange
2 quince
¾ cup (.75 ounce) dried apple slices  
½ cup (3 ounces) dried apricots, halved or quartered 
½ cup (3 ounces) dried plums (prunes), halved 
½ cup (3 ounces) dried Mission figs, halved 
½ cup (2 ounces) dried tart cherries
boiling water
¾ cup (2.5 ounces) whole fresh cranberries

fresh Cranberries

In a large saucepan, combine the first 4 ingredients. If desired, set the cinnamon stick, star anise and peppercorns in a piece of cheesecloth for ease of removal later, then add this to the pan. Peel a strip or two of orange peel, avoiding the white pith. Add to the pan, along with the juice squeezed from the orange. Peel, quarter and core the quince and slice them as with apples; add to the pan. Bring the mixture in the pan to boil, then set the temperature to just maintain a low boil. Reduce the liquid in the pan by about ⅓, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, set the dried apple slices, apricots, prunes, figs and cherries in a large measuring cup or medium bowl. Add boiling water to just not quite cover the fruit and allow the fruit to plump, covered, while the liquid in the saucepan is reducing.

Once the wine mixture is reduced, add in the dried fruits along with the soaking water and the fresh cranberries. Cook this mixture at a low boil for another 20 to 25 minutes, until reduced and slightly thickened. Remove the spices before serving.

This compote was absolutely perfect with the decadently rich Pheasant Alfredo. It had enough flavor and just enough "bite" to cut through the fattiness of the sauce and make a wonderful counterpoint to the flavors. I cannot recommend this mixture highly enough, and plan to make it again soon, possibly for Thanksgiving, to taste with turkey or chicken. 

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Port and Chocolate Salami

With the big wine tasting event just one week away, I am now going into high gear with finalizing the 6 appetizer dishes being created to pair with 6 specific wines - none of which I have tried except for the Warre's Warrior Port. I did this same thing last year, going in essentially blind, except for my knowledge of what the different varietals are like, and my trusty Wine and Food Pairing sheets. I knew I wanted to use chocolate, and walnuts help tone down sweetness as well as tart dried fruit like cherries. While port is a sweet wine, no wine can pair with anything too sweet. Nuts are a great accompaniment, as are many cheeses.

Fonseca Bin 27 Port and Warre's Otima Tawny

Port is a confusing wine, to those who do not know too much about wines. And if you are unfamiliar with port, though you love other wines, this will apply here also. Port is a fortified, sweet wine that originally came only from in and around Oporto (a port - as in, on the water, for shipping - town), in Portugal. Now, "port " wines are being made in Australia, South Africa, the US and many other places, and often from many grapes never used in Oporto. A fortified wine has had brandy added to the partially fermented wine to stop the fermentation process before it ferments out all the grapes' sugar. This makes port a dessert wine, which can be one of exceptional sweetness and depth. The very best port wines are vintage wines. A "Vintage" is only declared in years that the port growers (in Portugal) decide that the grape crop is worthy of making the greatest wine. Many factors come into play, but weather is the most overriding factor in wine-making everywhere. If the weather doesn't cooperate, the wines may come out just so-so; not the result vintners look for!

Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Port

To make recognizing a true Vintage Port even more confusing, and I speak from my experience while still learning, is that some ports are labeled "Late-Bottled Vintage", for example. The word Vintage in there is confusing; is it a vintage or not? Not. Or a label that states "20-year old" - does that mean it is a vintage that was aged? Nope. Or another is having a year on the bottle that gives you the year the company was founded - but it is a year, right? No, not vintage. Then again, even among vintage ports, there are some few that are "declared vintage", but from a year that is not a declared vintage! What?! Well, these are found on occasion when a particular port grower has a certain small plot of land with a particular name all its own. Possibly that year was not the overall best for port growers all around Oporto, but that one little vineyard had optimal growing weather. There are little micro-climates possible in many vineyards. So for example, the very first Vintage Port I bought, before I was as familiar with this phenomenon, was a Fonseca "Guimaraens", 1967. Fonseca, along with many other wonderful Port wine growers, have certain little vineyards such as this. For these small vineyard selections, they may declare a vintage year, even though the rest of the Port growers do not see the crop as good enough. It turned out that my first purchase was a truly wonderful vintage. Beginner's luck. 

Then, aside from these red vintage ports, there are ports known as Ruby and Tawny. When you have the great vintage ports that need to be cellared for 20 years before they become palatable, Ruby Port is a nice change, meant to be drunk young. It can be pure plonk. Or it can be really very good. It has a lovely color, giving it the name Ruby. Tawny port is red port which has been left in a barrel over very long periods of time. Red wine, as it oxidizes with age, becomes lighter, more brick colored, and if very old, a lighter tawny color. In a barrel, with the amount of air that is available, the wine oxidizes more rapidly. Tawny ports can also be really lovely wines, slightly less sweet than some of the great vintage wines.

Warre's Otima Tawny Port left; Fonseca Bin 27 Port right

And then there are the red port wines that are called port, that don't fit into any of these categories, such as two of my most favorites, Fonseca Bin 27 or Warre's Warrior. These two are about the closest to what a vintage style will be like, but at a far more reasonable price. They are great to have on hand, because they are always good. I will be serving the Warre's Warrior for the wine tasting event. All this info, and there are so many other styles of Port to choose from!



In the past, I have made a recipe I found in an ad in the Food and Wine Magazine, to pair with port. Essentially, a chocolate candy with walnuts and dried cherries, it is a very good pairing, and easy to make. It is what I had planned to serve with the port wine tasting. And then I was online, looking for something else entirely, as usual, and came across a recipe for Chocolate Salami. I now see there are so many variations out there, but I went forging ahead on my own.

Chocolate Salami served with Port

First off, it is the cutest idea ever. This is a dessert, "sausage" only in the sense that it rather looks like a nice cry-cured sausage, but made with wafer cookies, cocoa, dulce de leche , dried fruits and nuts. 

Using the recipe I found as a baseline concept, but changed the ingredients to fit my need. I wanted to have a dessert that was not too sweet, so the sheer amount of condensed milk and dulce de leche seemed excessive. I decided to use only dulce de leche and skip the condensed milk. The cookies called for were "biscuit cookies". Vanilla Wafers can be a little more sweet than I wanted, so I found some called Leibniz Wafers and they are perfect in this recipe. Vanilla Wafers could be used. I wanted dried fruits in it, and used dried cherries and blueberries, along with walnuts, for their bitterness factor. I used a whole teaspoon of Kosher salt per recipe I made, balancing out the sweet with enough salt to give it character. When I finished making it, I tasted a little bit with a Fonseca Port I had opened on the counter and OMG! What a most heavenly-perfect match. 

Chocolate "Salami"

So, after finishing the recipes for the event, here is what I did:

Chocolate Salami

3 slices per serving = about 24 slices depending on thickness of slices

1¾ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
⅓ cup dulce de leche
7 ounces wafer cookies, such as Leibniz 
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
⅔ cup walnuts, broken
⅓ cup dried cherries
⅓ cup dried blueberries
confectioners' sugar for dusting

With a mixer, first beat together the butter and cocoa until very creamy. Add the dulce de leche to combine.

Formed and saved in paper towel tube

In a large bowl, crush the wafer cookies to medium-small bits. They do not need to be completely pulverized. Add the salt, walnuts and dried fruits. Make a well and scrape in the cocoa mixture. First using a spoon or spatula, begin to combine the ingredients, then switch to hands when the mixture gets too stiff to stir. Squeeze the ingredients together until the cocoa mixture is completely combined. Turn out onto a surface and divide into two equal parts. Begin rolling one section into a log. This will take a bit of patience, as with all the nuts and fruits, the mixture wants to break apart. Eventually it will come together, making a very dense log. Make the log as smooth as possible, rolling it out to about the size of a paper towel center roll. (If you have a couple of empty paper towel rolls handy, they are great for storing the logs until they get solid enough on their own.) Repeat this with the second part of the mixture, making two logs. Roll the logs in confectioners' sugar to coat, then wrap the logs in plastic wrap or waxed paper, twisting the ends. Slide the logs into paper towel rolls if available. Another alternative is using a baguette pan. The rounded forms help the logs to stay round while chilling. Set the logs into the refrigerator to chill completely before serving.

To serve, slice the logs with a very sharp knife in about ¼ inch thick slices. The amount of slices per log will depend on the thickness of the log and the length, and how thick the slice. 


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.