Cocktail: Hot Butternut Rum

Butternut squash soup would make an elegant first course to a more formal Thanksgiving dinner. I prefer to serve my dinner family style, and I never serve soup at Thanksgiving, but I love butternut squash and I wanted to come up with a way to use it as an introduction to the bigger meal. So I thought using it in a cocktail could be interesting.

Recipes for butternut squash soup sometimes call for chipotle peppers (the canned chipotles in adobo) and ginger, which I thought would be interesting in a drink. For the chipotle, I use a few squirts of Tabasco's Chipotle Pepper Sauce, which has a nice smokiness and is not overwhelmingly hot.

To get butternut squash flavor in a liquid form, I used the technique from local bartender Todd Thrasher of PX in Alexandria, Va., to make "Butternut Squash Base," the strained liquid from pureed roasted butternut squash. Thrasher uses it in his drink Butter 'Nut' Craig, which sounds good. I roasted a medium-sized butternut squash, which, after pureeing and straining, yielded about a cup of liquid, enough for 6 to 8 drinks.

This is nothing like Hot Buttered Rum, but the play on the classic holiday cocktail's name fits this drink perfectly.

Hot Butternut Rum

1 oz. Butternut squash base, see recipe below
1 1/2 oz. dark rum, such as Flor de Caña
1/2 oz. Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
2 squirts of smoked chipotle hot sauce, such as Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce

Combine squash base, rum, ginger liqueur and hot sauce in shaker with ice. Shake until cold. Strain into rocks glass with ice.

Butternut Squash Base
Adapted from Butternut Squash Base by Todd Thrasher

1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
Olive oil
2 tbsp. light brown sugar
Salt
1/4 cup simple syrup, see note below

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Put cut squash in a 9 X 13 roasting pan, cut side up. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. brown sugar and salt. Roast until the squash is sufficiently softened to be easily pierced by a fork, about 40-60 minutes (roasting time may vary; Thrasher's original recipe called for 30 minutes of roasting, but my squash was still pretty hard after only 30 minutes). Allow to cool slightly, then scoop the squash pulp out and transfer it to a food processor. Add the simple syrup and the remaining tbsp. of brown sugar and process into a puree. Place a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl. Transfer the pureed mixture to the strainer and press through. Discard the remaining solids.

Note: to make simple syrup, combine equal parts sugar and water and either microwave in a glass bowl or heat on the stove in small saucepan until boiling. Allow to cool.

Food (Section) Fight!: Week 44

Food (Section) Fight! is my weekly look at The Washington Post's Food section and The New York Times' Dining section with my verdict on which section had the better content for the week.


New York Times

1) “Stuffing, Set Free From Turkey,” by Julia Moskin. Stuffing is a delicious and versatile food, and I’m a big fan. I plan to feature two versions for my Thanksgiving coverage this year. It’s often my favorite part of the holiday meal. Moskin does a nice job detailing the history of the dish and how it used to be standard fare for many home cooks, but has lately been relegated almost exclusively to Thanksgiving. I particularly liked that her article mentioned the late film producer Ismael Merchant (of Merchant-Ivory fame), who was apparently a big fan of stuffing. She even shared his recipe for Spicy Lemon-Ginger Bread Stuffing.

2) “Sandy Offers Lessons to Restaurateurs,” by Glenn Collins. Last week, I gave the Times credit for putting out a great section the day after the hurricane. This week, the hurricane is all over the section. Collins’ article takes a look at how last week’s disaster is pushing restaurants to rethink disaster planning, install drainage devices and perhaps even alter their architecture to move basement kitchen and refrigeration space upstairs.

3) “Why Downtown Needs Diners Now,” Restaurants column by Pete Wells. No review this week, as Wells states it would be unfair to judge a restaurant under the irregular operating conditions of the past week. Fair enough. Instead, Wells has written an essay on how hard hurricane Sandy has been on many of Downtown’s small restaurants. It reads at times like a love letter: “Nowhere in the United States is so much culinary tradition and innovation crammed into so few square miles as in the southern end of Manhattan.” Championing restaurants in this manner may seem an unusual for a food critic, but when you consider it is his role to steer us eaters to where he thinks we should spend our time and dollars, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to make such a plea. I’ve certainly had my share of memorable meals below 23rd Street.

4) “The Wine List Comes With a Friend, Not a Foe,” The Pour column by Eric Asimov. This week, Asimov focuses on the role of the sommelier, the restaurant wine steward who is supposed to help diners find a match for their food and their wallet. This is great story about how many people feel intimidated by sommliers but shouldn’t be; they are there to help you. He offers useful tips for how to make the most of the relationship.

5) “Making Sure Kale Gets a Raw Deal,” A Good Appetite column by Melissa Clark. Kale salad has been a hot trend of late, one I jumped on early this year and then again more recently. Clark uses Kale in place of parsley to make Kale Tabbouleh, a great idea for the hardy greens.

Washington Post

1) “Complement or insult?” by Victorino Matus. For people, like me, who like to think about food in interesting ways, this article is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy reading about. Matus dissects the old adage about steak sauce: that it’s there to cover up bad cuts and isn’t needed for good ones. Of course, this isn’t universally accepted, as he writes about good steak restaurants that have added sauces to please consumers’ demand for them. And maybe that’s not a bad thing, as he writes about the “delicious” steak sauce from Craft by Tom Colicchio—one of three big name chefs interviewed for the article who also contributed their sauce recipes, including Colicchio’s Craft Steak Sauce and Michel Richard’s Green Peppercorn Sauce. I don’t remember seeing Matus’s byline in the Post before, but I hope to see more from him. [And speaking of Tom Colicchio, new Top Chef season starts tonight on Bravo. Yay!]

2) “The best lessons in cocktails come from papa,” Spirits column by Jason Wilson. The creativity continues with Wilson’s spirits column, which this week looks at the drinks written about in the novels of Ernest Hemingway, the subject of a new book “To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion” by D.C.-based author Philip Greene. I like that the accompanying cocktail recipe for “A Farewell to Hemingway” finds a use for kirschwasser other than cheese fondue.

3) “The foods trucks with a built-in audience,” by Amanda Abrams. There’s a fleet of mobile food trucks now serving D.C.’s daytime downtown crowd (count me among their well-fed fans), but there’s another division of that industry that gets little attention: the fleet of mobile caterers that serve construction workers. Abrams does a great job writing about how competitive it is to serve that niche.

4) “A room full of drawing boards to go back to,” First Bite column by Tom Sietsema. A recent weekend I walked by the about-to-open Logan Circle restaurant Drawing Board and thought it looked like a place I might want to try. After reading this week’s First Bite, I’m having second thoughts. Sietsema was entirely unimpressed by their burger (which is probably what I’d order) and finds the bartenders’ skills to be subpar (they apparently couldn’t mix a gimlet, a rather basic choice). Thanks for the heads up, Tom.

5) “Ginger-Glazed Baby-Cut Carrots with Cranberries,” Nourish recipe by Stephanie Witt Sedgwick. The Post will begin its two-part Thanksgiving coverage next week, but this Nourish recipe might be considered a preview. I happen to really like ginger-glazed carrots as a Thanksgiving side (I’ll be sharing my recipe soon). The notion to dried cranberries into the dish is a great idea.

Verdict

The Washington Post. It’s a tough call this week, as I found a lot of good stories in both sections to enjoy. Credit Matus’ steak sauce story as the tie-breaker, since it was my single favorite food story of the week.

Score

The Washington Post: 23
The New York Times: 20

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Making cranberry sauce from scratch is so simple, I wonder why I bought the canned product for so many years. As a child, my grandmother made a wonderful homemade thanksgiving dinner, but even she poured her cranberry sauce from the can (very carefully actually, so that the ribbed lines from the side of the can were intact). This recipe from America's Test Kitchen is very easy, fast (like 20 minutes tops) and so much tastier.

Cranberry Sauce

Adapted from Cranberry-Orange Sauce, America's Test Kitchen's The New Best Recipe 

¾ cup water

1 cup sugar

¼ tsp. salt

1 12 oz bag of cranberries picked over (discard any bruised, bloated or soft berries)

1 tbsp. orange or lemon zest

2 tbsp. orange-flavored brandy liqueur (such as Grand Marnier)

Boil water, sugar, orange zest and salt in medium saucepan over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in cranberries, return to boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until saucy, slightly thickened and about 2/3 of the berries have popped open, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl, stir in orange liqueur, cool to room temperature and serve. 

Green Beans with Bacon, Blue Cheese, Pecans and Dried Cranberries

This is my favorite way to serve green beans at Thanksgiving and I've been making it for years. Green beans and bacon are a natural pair, and the coating of melted blue cheese works well with both. This year I experimented with dried cranberries, which adds a nice sweet dimension. Certainly, omit any of those ingredients if you are vegetarian, nut-allergic or (oddly) opposed to blue cheese.

Sautéed Green Beans with Bacon, Blue Cheese, Pecans and Dried Cranberries 

Salt
1 lb. green beans, ends trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/3 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
4 thick-cuts stripes of bacon
2 oz. blue cheese (such as stilton)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
Fresh-ground black pepper

1. Heat a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the green beans about 2 minutes. Drain the beans and then put them in a bowl of ice water to quickly cool.

2. While the water boils, heat a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Toast the pecans a bit until fragrant. Remove from pan. Increase heat to medium. Fry bacon until bright red and crispy. Remove from pan and chop into bits about 1/2-inch wide. Drain off all but about 2 tbsp. bacon fat from pan. Drain green beans and sauté in pan about 2-3 minutes. Add the blue cheese and stir to combine as cheese melts. Stir in the pecans and dried cranberries. Season with fresh-ground black pepper.

[Note: outside of Thanksgiving, this makes a great dinner entree if served over couscous. I suggest cooking the couscous in chicken broth flavored with garlic, curry powder, cumin and seasoned salt.]

Oregon Stuffing

Stuffing, technically dressing if you bake it outside the bird, is Thanksgiving’s most versatile dish. At its core, stuffing is mostly bread with vegetables, liquid, herbs and seasoning. Welcome additions may include dried or fresh fruit, mushrooms, meat and nuts. The possible variations are seemingly endless. This website can help you come up with your own recipe.

A good way to create an original stuffing recipe is to select flavors around a theme. In this variation, I pay homage to my home state of Oregon, incorporating a mix of ingredients the state is known for.

For the bread, I went with sourdough, which, for whatever reason, always tastes better when I buy it on the West Coast (San Francisco is particularly known for it, but Portland bakeries make it well too).

The bread cubes should be baked at a low temperature: you want to dry them out, not toast them.

No self-respecting Oregonian uses the highfalutin term “hazelnuts” to refer to filberts, which I used to collect from my grandmother’s filbert orchard as a kid.

When I think of Oregon berries, blueberries immediately come to mind, which my mother buys by the flat from a small farm along the highway to the coast. Since fresh blueberries are not in season this time of year, I used the dried variety.

Sage, tarragon and flat-leaf parsley provide a balance of herbal flavors.

 Apples, of course, grow all over, but the northwest is the largest growing region in the country (60 percent of apples grown in the U.S. come from Washington state). They are also common in Oregon; as a child, my backyard had several varieties of apple trees. Since apples are perfect for Thanksgiving, I added one to this dish, cooked along with the onion and celery.

I’ll admit, there’s nothing particularly “Oregon” about bacon, but I added it anyway because it’s really good. I suppose I could argue that I first ate bacon in Oregon, so that’s why it’s included (but that would be true of just about anything).

Use a very large bowl to combine the ingredients without spilling.

For liquid, I knew I had to include some Oregon craft brewery beer. Although I love the state's hoppy IPAs, I was concerned they might overpower the dish, so I opted for Widmer’s Drifter Pale Ale, which has some hop flavor, but is less assertive.

This stuffing smelled so good when it came out of the oven, with the savory aromas of the beer and sage being most prominent. The blueberries added a light sweet note and the bacon gave it a nice smoky richness. If you're looking for a reason to eat stuffing year-round, this recipe makes a good argument for it.

Oregon Stuffing

Makes about 8 servings

8 cups 1/2-inch sourdough bread cubes (can leave the crust on)

1/2 cup hazelnuts filberts

4 thick bacon strips (about 6 oz.)

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 yellow onion, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 tart apple (such as Granny Smith), peeled, cored and diced

2 tbsp. chopped fresh sage

2 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tbsp. chopped fresh tarragon

1/3 cup dried blueberries

Seasoned salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

1 cup medium-bodied Oregon beer, not too hoppy (such as Widmer pale ale)

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Seasoned salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

Olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Spread the bread cubes evenly on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and set on the counter to cool and continuing drying out. Increase oven temperature to 350 F.

2. Heat a medium frying pan over medium-low heat. Toast the filberts until they are fragrant and starting to brown. Remove nuts from pan, pour onto a kitchen towel, fold towel over nuts and rub to remove skins. (note: because the skins won’t come off of all the nuts, I usually toast about twice as much as I need and save the nuts with the skins for another use, such as snacking.)

3. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook the bacon until browned and crisp. Remove from pan and chop into bits. Remove residual bacon fat from pan. Melt butter in the pan. Add onion, celery and apple, and sauté until softened, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, combine dried bread cubes, filberts, onions, celery, apples, herbs, blueberries, seasoned salt and pepper. Pour beaten eggs, beer and chicken broth over mixture. Stir to evenly coat all ingredients. Transfer to a lightly oiled 9 X 13 baking dish. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes until the mixture is cooked through (internal temperature of 165 F) and lightly browned on top.

Thanksgiving 2012

“COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!”

That's the sound of approximately 46 million roosters cheering that their lives will be spared, at least for one day, as Americans set aside their favorite poultry and instead reach for a slice of turkey.

Thanksgiving is so synonymous with turkey that the holiday has earned the nickname “Turkey Day.” And rightfully so--a beautifully roasted turkey is the perfect centerpiece for a grand meal of sweet, savory, hot and cold dishes that traditionally includes potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberries and green beans, but is certainly open to a lot of creativity. Thanksgiving dinner can be delicious whether its a simple meal or a complicated showcase.

For the home cook, Thanksgiving is the pinnacle. The day you want everything to work just right: to impress, delight and satisfy.

This is my 13th year making Thanksgiving dinner. Over the years I've perfected traditional favorites while indulging in a bit of experimentation. The maple-bacon ice cream was a welcome accompaniment to pumpkin pie; my attempt to “deconstruct” a green bean casserole wasn't such a hit.

For the next 3 weeks, Cook In / Dine Out will focus almost exclusively on Thanksgiving dishes, presenting a mix of the old and the new, to include drinks, appetizers, salads, sides (including vegetarian options) and of course, the turkey. Some of these are new recipes, others are ones I've made for years. All I think are quite delicious, and I hope you enjoy them too.

Old Tom's New Twist

I recently read someone predict that if Aperol was the new ginger liqueur, then Cynar would soon be the new Aperol. The Italian “digestif aperitif,” pronounced “CHEE-nar,” is sweet, low alcohol and, although it's made from artichokes, it doesn't really taste like them, at least not in a pungent, unwelcome way. It's definitely bitter, like other popular Italian amari, but sweet too.

I recently picked up my first bottle of Cynar, intent on seeing what it's like and what I could pair it with. Orange seems to be a common choice, as well as gin. The Heirloom recipe in Jim Meehan's PDT Cocktail Book intrigued me, pairing Cynar with the sweet Old Tom-style gin and lime juice. Since I was in the mood for gin & tonic, I adapted the drink into something like an Italian G&T.

Old Tom's New Twist


1 1/2 oz. Old Tom gin (Hayman's)
1/2 oz. Cynar
1/4 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
2 oz. tonic water (Fever Tree)

Add gin, Cynar, Chartreuse and lime juice to a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into rocks glass with ice. Top with tonic water.