Ideas for getting big Thanksgiving flavors in smaller, easier dishes
If you’re used to cooking a large Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings, chances are this year may look a bit different — but that doesn’t mean your meal can’t be just as delicious.
“I do think that we have to make it a little more accessible and casual and less grandiose to fit the world we’re living in right now,” said Dawn Hunt, owner of the Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem. “For me, what actually stands out in my memory are the smaller intimate gatherings, and if Covid has taught us anything it’s how important it is to slow down a little bit and reconnect with our families, and maybe just give ourselves a break.”
From smaller entrees and appetizers to soups, salads, sandwiches and light brunch options, local chefs and cooking instructors give some suggestions that will work for a smaller gathering this Thanksgiving while still allowing those familiar holiday flavors to come through.
Tips for your bird
As an alternative to a full-sized turkey, which can often be up to 15 to 20 pounds, bone-in or boneless turkey breasts, or even roast chicken breasts or small Cornish game hens, can all be good options to serve tables of smaller groups.
“A whole turkey is a huge meal if you’re only talking about a small gathering, so you’re not going to go through all of those extremes of deep-frying it or smoking it. You can keep it simple,” said chef and cooking instructor Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis.
Bone-in turkey breasts, as well as “hotel-style” turkey breasts, which come with the bird’s wings and usually its neck and back, are usually much smaller in size — around 6 to 7 pounds.
After letting the bird stand at room temperature for an hour to an hour and a half, Barbour said, she likes to add a mixture of butter, salt, pepper and chopped parsley and thyme to be placed under its skin. You can do this by carefully separating the skin from the meat over the breast without tearing it. A turkey or chicken’s pan drippings can also make a flavorful base for gravy.
Merrimack chef Oonagh Williams, also a cooking instructor and the owner of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh, said she has prepared turkey thighs in a slow cooker, to be used in smaller items like crepes, curries or soups. She also likes to stuff tenderloins from boneless turkey breasts, with a mixture of herbs, Craisins, bacon, onions and finely chopped apples, served cold with a salad or reheated with gravy the day after you cook them.
Perhaps an even easier option could be to transform your Thanksgiving feast into a grilled cheese. Hunt said a freshly cooked sandwich with sliced turkey, stuffing, bacon, crispy fried onions, baby spinach, Swiss cheese, her rosemary olive oil and a homemade cranberry Dijon sauce offers a delicious balance of flavor. The cranberry Dijon sauce, served on the side, features a simple mixture of Dijon or brown mustard, cranberry sauce, honey and mayonnaise.
Sides, soups and salads
Over the last several weeks, through her online recipe blog and virtual classes via Zoom and Facebook Live, Barbour has shared several easy ways you can prepare your favorite Thanksgiving sides. One recipe features smashed fingerling potatoes, simply cooked in the oven for about 25 minutes and plated with garlic, bacon, rosemary and chopped parsley. As a low-carb replacement for potatoes, you can also make mashed cauliflower.
She’s also done a roasted winter squash, cut into small slices or cubes, with a Greek yogurt herb sauce made up of ground coriander and cumin, chopped mint leaves, parsley, lemon juice and honey. Butternut squash works great, or you can use delicata to save time on peeling.
Soups and salads with fall flavors can also be simple options to pivot your Thanksgiving meal this year if you’re serving a smaller group. Michelle Thornton, director of marketing and business development at LaBelle Winery in Amherst, recommends a butternut squash soup with diced apples and ground nutmeg and cinnamon, cooked in either a vegetable or chicken broth and LaBelle’s dry apple wine, and garnished with sour cream and caramelized apple slices.
To go with her grilled cheese and cranberry Dijon sauce, Hunt said she’ll be making a spicy pumpkin chowder using an unsweetened pumpkin puree prepared with bacon, veggies and ground chipotle pepper to give it a kick. She’s also done an autumn salad with apples, candied pecans, greens, radishes, goat cheese and a rosemary maple vinaigrette dressing made from New Hampshire maple syrup.
Easy sweet treats
Beyond baking a full pie, there are all kinds of simple ways to recreate some of your favorite sweets and treats. An apple and Craisin bread pudding, for example, served with a maple bourbon butter sauce, is an option Williams said can be great for a Thanksgiving Day brunch. Naturally sweet apple varieties, like Gala, Fuji or Braeburn, work best when peeled and sliced into very small pieces, like shredded cheese. Plain bagels or a challah bread are best for cooking, as a softer white bread would make it too mushy, she said.
Nicki Leavitt, owner and executive chef of the Purple Finch Cafe in Bedford, said pumpkin puree parfaits are also fun and easy to prepare, as either a snack or a quick breakfast.
“You can use a blend of organic pumpkin puree and some Yoplait yogurt … and then add cinnamon, nutmeg or maybe some fresh fruit at the base,” she said. “We bake our own pumpkin bread in house and dice that up and put it in the glass. … If you have a sweet tooth you can add whipped cream or caramel sauce.”
Hunt said you can easily make your own honey butter from brown sugar, cinnamon and unfiltered honey, which serves as a great complement for several types of fall-inspired baked goods, like pumpkin bread. She’s also baked apple muffins to go with it.
Barbour has baked apple Dutch baby pancakes in a cast iron skillet, featuring apples cooked in brown sugar and butter and a crepe batter poured on top.
“It’s basically like a big pancake you cook in the oven that rises like a souffle,” she said.
Decadent drinks
If you need to take the edge off this Thanksgiving from what has been a tough year — let’s face it, most of us do — you can incorporate some fall flavors into your cocktails.
Barbour, for instance, has a whiskey cranberry sour recipe that uses her own “cran-raspberry sauce,” or a homemade sweet sauce made from fresh cranberries or frozen raspberries. The recipe works just as well with regular raspberry sauce or your favorite brand of fruit jam.
LaBelle Winery, according to Thornton, is holding its annual “Cranberry Wine Week” now through Nov. 25, during which its cranberry wine and several other cranberry-flavored items are available for sale. The wine works great in several types of cocktails, including a cranberry cosmopolitan, which features triple sec liqueur, fresh lime juice, sugar and a lime wedge garnish. The mulled apple wine, with the winery’s dry apple wine, brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg and an orange garnish, is another seasonal favorite.
Spicy pumpkin chowder
From the kitchen of Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem (cucinaaurora.com)
6 slices bacon
2 tablespoons Cucina Aurora Savory Sage olive oil
½ yellow onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
3 fresh sage leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried sage)
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
8 ounces frozen corn
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 15-ounce cans pumpkin puree, unsweetened
½ teaspoon ground chipotle pepper (or sweet paprika for less heat)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup half-and-half .
Heat a large soup pot over medium heat. Chop three
slices of bacon into small pieces and cook in the pot until crispy. Add olive oil, onions, celery, carrots and garlic, cooking until onions are tender (about five minutes). Add sage, potatoes, broth and corn. Stir with a wooden spoon to remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat to simmer until potatoes have become tender but not mushy (about 30 to 40 minutes). Meanwhile, cook remaining strips of bacon until crispy and set aside. In a small saucepan, mix pumpkin, chipotle pepper, salt and pepper until heated through. Add pumpkin mixture to the soup and heat through for about a minute, stirring while simmering. Add half-and-half and stir until well-incorporated and heated through. Serve immediately, topped with crispy bacon and sour cream if desired.
Smashed potatoes with garlic and bacon
From the kitchen of Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis (thecreativefeast.com)
2 pounds fingerling potatoes (or other small potatoes)
4 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
¼ pound thick-cut bacon, diced (or diced pancetta)
½ cup parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Drizzle a rimmed baking sheet with two tablespoons of olive oil. Place the potatoes onto the baking sheet and shake the pan to coat the potatoes on both sides with oil. Season with the salt and pepper. Place the pan into the oven and cook for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.
While the potatoes are cooking, heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add one tablespoon of olive oil and the bacon. Cook until the bacon begins to brown. Add the sliced garlic and cook for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside. When the potatoes are fork tender, remove the pan from the oven. Gently press down on each potato to “smash” it and flatten a bit. Be careful not to flatten too much, or else the potatoes will break apart and lose their shape. Warm the bacon and garlic on the stove. Add the potatoes in a single layer. Turn the potatoes over to coat both sides with the garlic and bacon. Place the potatoes onto a warmed platter. Continue with the remaining potatoes and place onto the platter. Drizzle any remaining garlic and bacon onto the potatoes and sprinkle with parsley. Serve hot.
Grateful grilled cheese sandwiches with cranberry Dijon sauce
From the kitchen of Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem (cucinaaurora.com)
Sliced turkey (leftover from Thanksgiving or cooked fresh)
1 cup crispy fried onions
6 to 8 strips crisp bacon
6 to 8 slices Swiss cheese
1 to cups stuffing (cooked to package instructions or leftover)
1 cup fresh baby spinach
4 to 6 slices sourdough bread (or gluten-free bread)
2 tablespoons Cucina Aurora rosemary olive oil
For the cranberry Dijon sauce:
2 tablespoons Dijon or brown mustard
2 tablespoons cranberry sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon mayonnaise
Make the cranberry Dijon sauce by placing the Dijon mustard, cranberry sauce, honey and mayonnaise in a small bowl and stirring until combined. Set aside. Warm a
large skillet or griddle pan on medium-heat for about two minutes. Brush four slices of bread with rosemary olive oil on just one side of the slice. Place bread oil side down on the hot pan. On each slice of bread, lay ½ slices of cheese. On two slices of bread, layer bacon, then spinach, then turkey. On the other two slices, layer a bit of the stuffing and the fried onions. When the bread starts to toast and the cheese starts to melt, build the sandwiches by carefully flipping one slice of bread onto the other. Grill on each side of the sandwich until both sides are light brown and the sandwich is warmed through. Repeat with remaining bread and ingredients to make as many sandwiches as desired. Serve warm with cranberry Dijon on the side.
Autumn mini quiche
From the kitchen of Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem (cucinaaurora.com)
8 to 16 slices deli ham
6 to 8 eggs (use 2 less than your muffin tin has cups)
¼ cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 large tart apple, grated
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
Line each muffin cup with one to two slices of ham. Set aside. In a large bowl, gently beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Gently fold in grated apple and cheese. Ladle the egg mixture into muffin cups and fill each only halfway. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the egg has set in the middle and the tops have browned slightly. Serve warm or cold, or freeze in an airtight container for up to two months. To reheat, place on a microwave safe dish and heat for 30 seconds.
Cranberry-orange vienna French toast
From the kitchen of Nicki Leavitt of the Purple Finch Cafe in Bedford (purplefinchcafe.com)
1 loaf cranberry-orange tea bread (available at the Purple Finch Cafe’s takeout area)
2 eggs
⅔ cup milk
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ zested orange
Salt to taste
Make a French toast batter by beating together egg, milk,
salt, spices, orange zest and vanilla. Set aside. Cut the cranberry-orange tea bread into 1-inch thick slices, yielding approximately eight slices (10, including bread ends). Collect your favorite ingredients to top your French toast with (suggested toppings include whipped cream, caramel sauce, Craisins and powdered sugar). Heat a lightly oiled griddle or skillet over medium-high heat. Dunk each slice of bread in egg mixture, soaking both sides. Place in the pan and cook on both sides until golden. Add your collected toppings and serve.
Whiskey cranberry sour cocktail
From the kitchen of Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis (thecreativefeast.com); recipe makes one 5-ounce cocktail
¾ ounce maple syrup
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce leftover “cran-raspberry sauce”
3 ounces whiskey of choice (Jack Daniel’s works well)
2 dashes Angostura bitters (optional)
Ice cubes for mixing and serving
Optional additions:
¼ cup seltzer water
1 egg white
For the “cran-raspberry” sauce (makes about three cups)
1 12-ounce package fresh cranberries
½ cup sugar
1 cup water
1 12-ounce packages frozen raspberries
To make the cran-raspberry sauce, combine water, sugar and cranberries in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat. Cool the cranberries to room temperature. After the cranberries have cooled, gently stir in the raspberries.
In a cocktail shaker filled with five ice cubes, combine together the maple syrup, lemon juice, cran-raspberry sauce, whiskey and bitters (if using). Fill a seven-ounce glass with ice. Cover your shaker and shake your cocktail for 30 seconds. Pour into your glass of ice. Top with the seltzer, if using, and give it a stir. Serve immediately. (If using egg white, put in a shaker with all the ingredients and the ice. Leave the seltzer out).
Featured photo: Smashed potatoes with garlic and bacon. Photo courtesy of Liz Barbour of The Creative Feast in Hollis.
