Wild rice, almond stuffing / dressing

Ingredients

* 1 cup dried cherries (about 4 ounces)
* 2/3 cup tawny or ruby port
* 2 cups (11 ounces) wild rice, rinsed
* 2 tablespoons butter (plus 3 tablespoons butter if making ahead)
* 3 medium celery ribs, finely chopped, plus 1/3 cup finely chopped celery leaves
* 1/2 cup minced shallots
* 1 cup (4 ounces) toasted slivered almonds
* 4 teaspoons chopped fresh sage or 2 teaspoons dried
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper
* 1/4 cup homemade turkey stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth

Directions

In a small bowl, mix the dried cherries and port and let stand while preparing the stuffing.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the wild rice and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the wild rice is tender and most of the grains have burst, 45 to 60 minutes. Drain well and rinse under cold running water. Place the rice in a large bowl.

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the chopped celery and cook until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add the shallots and celery leaves and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the cherries and their soaking liquid. Boil until the port has almost completely evaporated, about 3 minutes. Stir the mixture into the wild rice, along with the almonds, sage, salt and pepper. (The stuffing can be prepared up to 1 day ahead, stored in self-sealing plastic bags and refrigerated. To reheat the stuffing, melt 3 tablespoons unsalted butter over medium heat in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Add the stuffing and cook, stirring often, until warmed.

Use to stuff the turkey. Place any remaining dressing in a buttered baking dish, cool, cover, and refrigerate. To reheat, drizzle with about 1/4 cup broth and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Broiled Polenta Sticks

SERVES6 (AS PART OF MAIN COURSE)
ACTIVE TIME:30 MIN START TO FINISH:1 HR

6 1/2 cups cold water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups yellow cornmeal (not stone-ground)
2 teaspoons olive oil plus additional for brushing
1/2 oz finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1/3 cup)
Brush a 13- by 9-inch baking pan with water.

Combine 6 1/2 cups cold water with salt and cornmeal in a 5-quart heavy pot and bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking. Reduce heat to moderately low and cook, stirring constantly with a long-handled wooden spoon, until polenta begins to pull away from side of pot, 20 to 25 minutes. Pour polenta into baking pan, spreading evenly with a dampened heatproof rubber spatula. Cool in pan on a rack until polenta is lukewarm and set, about 20 minutes.

Brush a baking sheet with olive oil and invert baking pan with polenta onto sheet to unmold.

Preheat broiler.

Brush polenta with 2 teaspoons oil and sprinkle with cheese. Broil about 4 inches from heat until pale golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Cool 5 minutes, then cut into 3- by 1 1/2-inch sticks.

COOKS’ NOTE: Polenta can be cooked and unmolded 1 day ahead. Chill on oiled baking sheet, surface covered with lightly oiled parchment (oiled side down), then tightly covered with plastic wrap. Bring to room temperature before brushing with oil, sprinkling with cheese, and broiling.

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2004/11/polentasticks

Moscatel Glazed Parsnips

SERVES8
ACTIVE TIME:20 MIN START TO FINISH:40 MI

1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 lb parsnips, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick sticks
1/4 cup Moscatel vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water

Heat sugar in center of a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it starts to melt. Cook, tilting skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until golden brown. Stir in butter, then add parsnips and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add vinegar, water, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.
Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until parsnips are just tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove lid and simmer, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to a glaze and parsnips are caramelized, about 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
COOKS’ NOTE: Parsnips can be cut 1 day ahead and chilled

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2008/11/moscatel-glazed-parsnips

Five Spice Turkey

(from Gourmet Magazine)

yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings

active time: 2 hr

total time: 7 1/4 hr (includes making stuffing, stock and roasting turkey)

Brine:

Stir together 8 quarts water with 2 cups kosher salt in a 5-gallon bucket lined with a large heavy-duty plastic garbage bag and soak your raw turkey, covered and chilled, 10 hours.

For glazed turkey

• 1/2 cup plum jam (preferably damson plum) or red currant jelly (6 oz)
• 2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
• 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 (12- to 14-lb) turkey (preferably kosher), any feathers and quills removed with tweezers or needlenose pliers, and neck and giblets (excluding liver) reserved for making stock
• 5 to 7 cups spinach, bacon, and cashew stuffing (see stuffed onions )
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted

For plum gravy

• Pan juices from roast turkey
• About 3 1/2 cups turkey giblet stock
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1/4 cup plum jam (preferably damson plum) or red currant jelly (3 oz)
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• Special equipment: 2 small metal skewers or wooden toothpicks; kitchen string; an instant-read thermometer

Preparation

Make glaze and roast turkey:
Preheat oven to 425°F.

Simmer jam, five-spice powder, peppercorns, water, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan, stirring, until jam is melted, about 3 minutes. Pour glaze through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl, pressing on and discarding solids, then cool.

Rinse turkey inside and out and pat dry. Season inside and out with remaining teaspoon salt. Loosely fill large body cavity (and neck cavity if desired) with stuffing and tie drumsticks together with string. Fold neck skin under body and secure with skewers, then tuck wings under.

Put turkey on a rack set in a large flameproof roasting pan and roast in middle of oven 30 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.

Brush melted butter over turkey and roast, basting every 30 minutes (add a little water to pan if juices get too dark), 1 1/2 hours.

Brush turkey with plum glaze and continue to roast until thermometer inserted in center of body cavity (stuffing) registers 165°F (fleshy part of thigh will be about 180°F; do not touch bone), 1 to 1 3/4 hours more. If glaze starts browning too much, tent turkey with foil. (Total roasting time: 3 to 3 3/4 hours.) Transfer turkey to a platter (do not clean roasting pan), then remove skewers and discard string. Transfer stuffing from cavity to a serving dish and keep warm, covered. Let turkey stand 30 minutes.

Make gravy while turkey stands:
Transfer pan juices to a 2-quart glass measure, then skim fat, reserving 3 tablespoons of it. Add enough turkey stock to pan juices to total 4 1/2 cups. Straddle roasting pan across 2 burners, then add wine and deglaze pan by boiling over moderately high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add stock mixture and jam and boil, stirring, until jam is melted. Pour through fine-mesh sieve into glass measure.

Whisk together reserved fat and flour in a large heavy saucepan (it will be about the thickness of peanut butter) and cook roux over moderately low heat, stirring, 3 minutes. Add hot stock mixture in a fast stream, whisking constantly to prevent lumps, and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in turkey juices accumulated on platter and simmer 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve turkey with gravy.

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
• 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
• Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:
MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

NOTES:
1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin spice may be substituted for the cinnamon, ginger and cloves; however, the taste will be slightly different. Do not freeze, as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.

FOR 2 SHALLOW PIES: substitute two 9-inch (2-cup volume) pie shells. Bake in preheated 425° F. oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F.; bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until pies test done.

Corn Pudding

Corn Pudding

INGREDIENTS

• 5 eggs
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn
• 2 (14.75 ounce) cans cream-style corn

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
2. In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add melted butter, sugar, and milk. Whisk in cornstarch. Stir in corn and creamed corn. Blend well. Pour mixture into prepared casserole dish.
3. Bake for 1 hour.

Gougeres

Gougeres

5T butter
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh blk pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1C flour
1C grated gruyere cheese
5 Lg. eggs, room temp (very important)

Preheat 425. Add butter, s&p, nutmeg and 1 cup water to med. saucepan & boil over med.high heat. When butter melts, reduce to low. Add flour all at once & cook over low heat, beating w/ wooden spoon -1 min. or until mix pulls away from sides of pan. Remove from heat.

Add cheese to pan and beat in w/ a wooden spoon until well mixed. Add 4 of the eggs, one at a time, beating each egg into the batter until thoroughly absorbed. Continue beating mix until it is smooth, shiny & firm.

Drop batter in small spoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet to form the gougeres. Beat remaining egg w/ 1/2 T water and brush the tops w/ the egg wash.

Bake in upper third of oven for 15-20 mins. or until golden & doubled in size. Remove from oven serve hot or all to cool to room temp.

Makes 3 dozen.

The Saga of Soto: An Epic Tale of an Epic Meal

I've always a bit of an old school purist when it comes to sashimi. I like it in good ol' fashioned Edo style with no fancy sauces, emulsions or flavored oils obscuring the clean taste of good fish. I think "inventive" rolls filled with jerk chicken, mango, cream cheese, mayonnaise, or sriracha are a bastardization of maki. And I've long thought that add-ins hide rather than highlight. My dinner at Soto last Friday made me rethink each one of these beliefs. Sotohiro Kosugi's inventions are bold and delicate all at once, perfectly balanced creations that treat good fish with the respect it is due.

We started with Live Fluke Usuzukuri, described as thinly sliced Long Island live fluke with lime and sea salt, and a touch of yuzu zest. In less restrained hands, this dish would have been just another tired faux ceviche, as similar dishes all over Manhattan are. But here, the preparation was not only aesthetically stunning, plated like a lovely flower with pink and white petals of fish so thinly sliced as to be translucent, but also an absolute delight of subtlety. Ordinarily, fluke is not strong-tasting and lime and yuzu are. Here, however, the lime and yuzu zest were so understated that they somehow managed to bring the taste of fluke to the fore. The light sprinkling of sea salt added a satisfying textural contrast.

For the second and third courses, we had Chyutoro Tar Tare (chopped fatty tuna with avocado coulis, garnished with caviar and chive, served in sesame ponzu sauce) and Aji Tataki (chopped horse mackerel with myoga ginger shoots, shiso, and chives), brought out in close succession. The chyutoro tar tare was as decadently creamy as pudding and the fish was still, to my surprise, pretty good despite all the potential masking flavors. The caviar served in the dish (and in many other dishes on the menu: caviar is, like uni, a bit of a leitmotif of the restaurant) was a really mild, deep charcoal gray variety from, I think Kosugi-san said, domestically produced osetra, not too salty and not too fishy. The highlight of the aji tataki for me was not the fish -- though it was good -- but the discreetly gingery flavor of the myoga. I do not think I have had it at any other NYC restaurant, though aji nigiri served with a bit of finely grated ginger for garnish is common at many restaurants.

The next course was the Geoduck Clam Salad (ginger marinated tender part of giant clam, japanese, cucumber, spicy radish sprouts, mizuna). This was a very nice refresher course, with the crispy textures and spicy, green flavors calling our taste buds back to work from the happy somnolence they could have slipped into after the intense workout from prior courses. I didn’t get a good enough taste of the dark gray geoduck (I think this is the part in the shell, not the long, phallic thing that extends from the shell) to report on it, unfortunately. It was chewy—and then it was gone down the Gulliver. I only came out with one piece of it in the mad scramble. :)
I should note, by the way, that though we ordered a mish mash of different items, the restaurant decided when to bring out each dish. Clearly, some intelligent thought (not at all associated with my dining companions or me) went into serving the mild fluke, first, and then the profoundly rich tar tare and slightly stronger flavored aji, followed by the palate cleansing greens. The order and timing were well thought out.

We had a moment to rest and enjoy our libations before the wait staff brought out our Live Lobster Sashimi (live Maine lobster marinated with truffle soy sauce, served under yuzu kimizu and osetra). The texture of the lobster was quite unharmed from marination and the kimizu was lightly flavored enough that one could actually taste the subtle sweetness of lobster, underneath.
I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel at this point, but the dining companion who took charge of the ordering had called for two “omakase” courses, as well, for the four of us to share. This was not a true omakase, but rather a set of eight pieces of nigiri that were brought, all at once to our table.

As an aside, our table was interestingly placed to the right of the chef – both part of the sushi bar, and separate from it. This is a good set up for shy / uncivilized Americans (like me) who don’t always entirely feel comfortable chatting it up with the chef and yet want to bask in his glow a bit. :) You have the benefit of your table companions’ company and are able to speak with the chef, as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. In this case, I really do wish I’d been able to speak with Kosugi san a little bit more, since he seemed like a very nice human being and very knowledgeable (not at all like the dour, severe persona that Bruni typecast him to be).

But back to the food: Given previous reviews of the sushi and sashimi on this board, I was prepared to be unimpressed. Perhaps in part because I went in with low expectations, I came out quite happy. The rice is not as good as it is at Yasuda, but overall, the fish was about on par with what I have had at Ushi Wakamaru. (One night, I will have to do a side by side comparison.) Some items were much, much better than I’ve had anywhere in the city. We had traditional-styled nigiri of Columbian toro, Spanish toro, aji, fluke, hamachi, uni, and I think striped jack and scallop. The Columbian toro was tough and stringy in comparison to the Spanish toro (as rich and buttery as they get, as good as Yasuda’s), but I think it was in part there for contrast. The other real standouts were the scallop (also wonderful and sweet) and the uni. I really have not had uni like this, before. Perhaps in part because it is still in season, now, and because it is a Soto specialty, the uni was undeniably astonishing – almost desserty for its richness and sweetness, with not a hint of the off flavor that turned me off to it at even very good sushi restaurants in the past. Eating this uni was almost a transformative experience: I understood for the first time in my life exactly why uni fiends rave about the stuff. It also made me wish I’d done what Kobetobiko did: circled the uni items on the menu and ordered them all.

Along with the nigiri, we also had a tar tare tuna roll (spicy tuna tar tare with asian pear, cucumber, avocado, sesame, pine nuts, scallion wrapped in white kelp). I was stuffed by this point, and the fact that the roll still managed to taste delicious (despite my aversion to spicy fusion rolls and all those adulterating ingredients) is a testament to the thought that went into combining the flavors in this way. The pine nuts were a clever touch, no flavor was too dominant, and the variegated white and green of the kelp was almost too beautiful to eat. I didn’t detect anything off in the fish that would mark it as having been made out of grade B leftovers.

After some time – more than three hours after the start of our meal – we somehow managed to work down strawberry, green tea, red bean and mango mochi ice creams (1/4 of a piece for each person, each piece thoughtfully halved for each couple) before waddling out the door. The mochi was beautiful: soft, tender, and obviously freshly made, unlike the tough, long-frozen shells slapped onto ice cream you find almost everywhere else.

I wanted to wait a bit after my meal before writing a review because I was afraid I’d be intemperate in my praise or addled by the copious amounts of sake we put down that night. But after some sober thought I really think I can say that based on this first experience, Soto is now on the list of my favorite restaurants in NYC. I don’t know if anyone else will see the parallels, but it really does remind me in a strange way of WD 50, another favorite restaurant of mine, though the cuisines are obviously quite different. There is the same attention to detail, to textural combinations, and to interesting flavor combinations. There is the same attention to presentation, the same sense of adventure in approach. A few paychecks from now, I will certainly have to come back and check out the 1/4 of the menu I didn't get to this time around.

Halibut or Mahi Mahi Baked in Fresh Green Salsa

35 min 15 min prep SERVES 6 (Change Servings)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup tomatillos , coarsly chopped (green tomatos)
1/2 cup onions , coarsley chopped
2 poblano peppers , coarsly chopped (or sub in jalepeno for less heat)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro , packed coarsly chopped, plus 2 TBSP leaves for garnish
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup sour cream , divided (I used Light Sour Cream)
kosher salt
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 3/4 lbs halibut or salmon fillets or mahi mahi (about 1 inch thick)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. In a large frying pan, melt butter over high heat. Stir in flour, remove from heat, and mix to form a smooth paste.

Scrape flour paste into a blender. Add tomatillas, onion, chiles, chopped cilantro, chicken broth, and 1/2 cup sour cream. Puree in blender. Pour green sauce back into frying pan; add salt and lime juice to taste and bring to a boil.

Rinse fish, pat dry with paper towels, cut into 6 equal pieces, and season with salt. Set pieces slightly apart in an 8 by 12 in baking dish.

Pour evenly over fish.

Bake fish until it flakes but still looks moist in the center of the thickest part (cut to test), 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve up fish and spoon sauce over portions. Top off with small spoonfuls of remaining sour cream, and sprinkle with cilantro leaves.