16 November 2009

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

As you know, Thanksgiving is just over a week away and if you are anything like me, you will be scrambling to get the house cleaned and trying to put together a menu. So, with this in mind, over the next week or so, I will dust-off some of my old Thanksgiving Day recipes and share them with you. Although I can't help you with the cleaning, maybe I can help you with the menu.

So, to start things off, I have included a few items that I make every year. These two items need to be made several days in advance, so I usually start the Crème Fraîche (for use in an apple pie) on Sunday and the compound butter (for use in the turkey) on Monday.


Crème Fraîche:

Things you'll need:

Heavy Cream...1 cup
Butter Milk...1 Tbsp
jar w/lid...1


Putting it together...

  • pour heavy cream into jar

  • add buttermilk

  • mix well

  • put lid on jar and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours, then refrigerate

  • can be stored for up to a week

  • Any left-over Crème Fraîche can be used as a very rich sour cream.



    Compound Butter:


    Things you'll need:

    Butter...1 lb. (4 sticks) unsalted, please
    Fresh Sage...1 Tbsp
    Fresh Rosemary...1 Tbsp
    Fresh Thyme...1 Tbsp
    Olive Oil...1Tbsp

    These three (sage, rosemary, and thyme) are also referred to as a Poultry Mix. All measurements are considered a baseline; if you prefer a stronger flavor, you can increase the amount of herbs or reduce the amount for a milder flavor. If you cannot find fresh herbs and need to use dried herbs, you will need to reduce the baseline measurements by 1/2, as the dried herbs have a more concentrated flavor.


    Putting it together...

  • Place butter on counter to soften

  • Take the herbs (try to avoid including the stems) and chop them very fine or, if you have a food processor, place them in there and pulse until finely chopped.

  • Next take your softened butter and place in your food processor

  • Add a small amount of olive oil (1Tbls)


    • If you do not have a food processor (like me), place butter and herbs in a bowl and mix with a hand-mixer until well combined.


  • Pulse until well combined

  • Take plastic wrap and place on the counter

  • empty butter onto the plastic wrap

  • fold the wrap over the butter

  • Using the edge of a cookie tray or other straight object, press it against the butter and tightly form into a log about 1-inch in diameter (the plastic wrap acts as a mold)

  • careful not to get the plastic wrap under the butter, roll-up and twist both ends

  • place butter in refrigerator

2 comments:

  1. Gotta love a recipe that has Heavy cream as the first ingredient! I'm not really sure what to do with both of these things but I'm hoping you have other recipes later so I'll figure it out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BeadedTail: Oh, this stuff is really good! I'll be sharing the recipes that these little goodies go in.

    ReplyDelete

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