Southwestern Cornbread Stuffing

 I change up our Thanksgiving menu quite a bit every year. Sometimes old favorites aren't included to make way for something new. Generally this is okay, although I think Thanksgiving just wouldn't be right in our house without cornbread stuffing.

Usually, I make a version adapted from my mom's recipe, a fairly traditional mix of cornbread, onion, sausage, sage and dried cranberries. This year, I wanted to switch it up a bit and turned to Southwestern flavors to put a new spin on the stuffing. This recipe nicely melds those flavors into a traditional Thanksgiving dish.

I used a special cornbread for this, made with agave nectar and shredded jack cheese. Oregano, coriander, red pepper, pumpkin seeds, chorizo and chipotle peppers are other unexpected but not unwelcome ingredients. This stuffing is a bit spicy, which is refreshing I think, given that Thanksgiving fare rarely has any heat. If that's a turnoff to your guests though, adjust the use of chipotle accordingly.

Southwestern Cornbread Stuffing

2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt, to taste
1 sweet onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
8 oz. precooked chorizo sausage, cut into pieces no larger than 1/2 inch (may substitute crumbled uncooked sausage--sauté in frying pan first until browned then set aside on paper towels and proceed with the recipe)
3-4 tbsp. chopped fresh sage
2 chipotles in adobo chili peppers, minced
1 loaf of cornbread from the recipe below, cut into bread cubes about 1/2-inch across
1/4 cup toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan or sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion, season with salt and sauté until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add bell pepper and garlic and season with oregano, cumin and coriander. Continue sautéing until vegetables are fragrant and softened. Set aside to cool a bit.

3. In a large bowl, combine the cooked vegetables with the cooked sausage, sage, chipotles, corn bread, pepitas and chicken broth. Stir until well combined then transfer to a 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.

Southwestern Cornbread

Note: If making this to serve as sliced corn bread rather than as a stuffing ingredient, I'd add a little heat with some chopped green chilis. A couple tablespoons of sautéed minced onion would be good in the batter too.

1 cup fine cornmeal
1 cup unbleached all-purposed flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups milk (I used nonfat)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup agave nectar
4 oz. monterey jack cheese, shredded
2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together milk, egg and agave nectar. Pour wet ingredients into mixed dry ingredients, add cheese and stir until ingredients are just moistened.

4. When oven is hot, put an 8 x 8 inch baking dish in the oven. Remove after a couple minutes when it's hot and add the butter, put back in the oven and let it melt (be careful not to let it burn, as butter will scorch at this temperature).

5. Remove hot pan with melted butter from oven and pour batter into pan. Bake for about 30 minutes until top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool a bit and serve warm or allow it to cool completely if using for stuffing above.

Simple Cornbread

Today's Southwestern Cornbread Stuffing uses a custom cornbread with Southwestern flavors. For something more traditional, I also wanted to share this recipe, which I first made last year as “Corny Corn Bread."

It takes Mark Bittman's simple corn bread recipe and amps up the corn flavor with a little ground freeze-dried corn. It's perfect corn bread for stuffing or by itself a Thanksgiving side.

I discovered freeze-dried corn when making Momofuku Milk Bar's recipe for Corn Cookies. It's available online from Amazon. You may also be able to find it in stores like Whole Foods.

Corny Cornbread
Adapted from Cornbread by Mark Bittman

1/2 cup ground freeze-dried corn
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup corn meal (finely ground)
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. sugar
1 large egg
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Separately, combine egg and buttermilk, add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

3. When oven is hot, put an 8 x 8 inch baking dish in the oven. Remove after a couple minutes when when the baking dish hot and add the butter, put back in the oven and let it melt (be careful not to let it burn, as butter will scorch at this temperature).

4. Remove hot pan with melted butter from oven and pour batter into pan. Bake for about 30 minutes until top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool a bit, but serve warm.

The Feed: November 6, 2013

The Feed is my weekly round up of interesting food-related stories from newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites.

CNN Eatocracy: “Perfect your crumb pie crust,” by America’s Test Kitchen.
If you’ll be trying your hand a crumb pie crust this holiday season, this America’s Test Kitchen piece for Eatocracy is a great first-stop for tips to make sure it’s a success. One big question in crumb crusts—to prebake or not to prebake. ATK goes for the former, which it says helps make the crust cohesive. Seen at top is a photo of a pie with a cookie crumb crust I'll be sharing later this month.

Serious Eats: “How to Make the Norwegian Wood From Clyde Common at Home,” by Lizz Schumer.
Challenged to come up with a cocktail using aquavit, the Scandinavian spirit spiced with caraway and dill, Clyde Common bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler created the Norwegian Wood, which sounds like an incredibly good cocktail. He blends the aquavit with applejack, yellow chartreuse, sweet vermouth and angostura bitters. Schumer describes the drink as being like “licking a tree branch that has a little sap dripping off the end.” Sounds exactly like the kind of cocktail I’m into these days. I’ve never met the man, but this is yet another example of why Morgenthaler is my favorite bartender.

Washington Post: “Buck’s Fishing & Camping in Chevy Chase still charms at age 10,” by Tom Sietsema.
Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema has had his hands full with reviewing new restaurants lately, given the shocking number that have opened in the area this year, especially around 14th Street. So it’s nice to see him positively re-review an old favorite this week, Buck’s Fishing & Camping, which just happens to be one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants. I’ll admit, I haven’t yet gotten to sample the work of the restaurant’s new chef, James Rexroad (when I reviewed the restaurant last year, Vickie Reh was still at the helm). This is a good reminder that we need to schedule a visit soon!

New York Times: “Holidays Holding Hands: When Thanksgiving and Hanukkah Collide,” by David Firestone and Susan Brenna.
This year, for the first time in 125 years, Thanksgiving coincides with the first day of Hanukkah, opening up some intriguing food possibilities for tables where both holidays will be celebrated, like Sweet and Sour Braised Brisket With Cranberries and Pomegranate. Writers Firestone and Brenna turned to talented food writer Melissa Clark for help in crafting recipes to honor both traditions at their family’s meal.

Eater DC: “Green Hat Gin Guys Explain Why Gin is Number One,” by George Perkins.
On the occasion of its 1-year anniversary, Columbia Distillers, DC’s first legal distillery in a decade and makers of Green Hat gin, are nicely profiled by Eater DC. Since releasing their iconic first product, they’ve already diversified with spring and fall versions of gin. Rye whiskeys might be on the way soon too. Green Hat gin is great in refreshing, herbal cocktails, like the Nice Rickey, Lady Lawyer and Sara.

NPR: “A Spice Buyer On Why Pepper Is Dirty, And How It Gets Clean,” by Nancy Shute.
Bad news for cooks with an exotic bent: The Food & Drug Administration found that 12 percent of spices imported into the U.S. are contaminated by things like insects and pathogens. NPR spoke with McCormick & Company representative Al Goetze about the issue and what McCormick is doing about it.

Business Insider: “This Map Shows The Most Popular Pizza Topping In Every State,” by Ashley Lutz and Mike Nudelman.
It’s known that pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping in the United States. Now this survey of pizza retailers broken down by state shows that it is also the most popular topping in each state. Talk about cornering the market. Sausage ranks #2 nationally, followed by mushrooms, onions and peppers (man, I could really use a slice with all that right now).

Wheat Berry Salad with Butternut Squash, Hazelnuts and Sage

This is another side dish I'm excited about this year. There are a lot of refined grains in Thanksgiving meals: the pie crusts, the stuffing cubes, the gravy thickener. Whole grains don't frequently factor in. A good side dish salad like this is the perfect opportunity to introduce some, providing chewy texture and (don't tell) something healthy.

Last year, I made a Roasted Parsnip and Quinoa Salad, this year I turned to wheat berries for my whole-grain side. If the cooking time of wheat berries turns you off, you could use a quicker-cooking grain, such as farro.

Despite wheat berries seeming like non-traditional Thanksgiving fare, the roasted butternut squash, fresh sage and dried cranberries give this dish a lot of traditional holiday flavor. This tastes great leftover too.

Wheat Berry Salad with Butternut Squash, Hazelnuts and Sage

1 lb. butternut squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Salt, to taste
1/2 cup wheat berries, rinsed
1/4 cup hazelnuts
1 sweet onion, diced
3 tbsp. chopped fresh sage
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 carrot, shredded
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 475 F. Toss butternut squash with 1 tbsp. olive oil and a pinch of salt and spread in an even layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes, stir squash and roast an additional 15 to 20 minutes until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

2. Combine 1 3/4 cups water, wheat berries and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 1 hour until the grains are tender. Drain excess water and set wheat berries aside to cool.

3. Heat a small frying pan over medium-low heat. Add hazelnuts and toast until fragrant, about 10 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally. Set a clean kitchen towel on a work surface. Transfer the nuts to the towel. Fold the towel over the nuts and rub vigorously between the two layers of towel to remove the nuts' skins. Coarsely chop the nuts.

4. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped sage and cook another 5 minutes until the onion is quite soft and lightly browned and the sage is very fragrant. Set aside to cool.

4. In a large bowl, combine the squash, wheat berries, nuts, dried cranberries and shredded carrots. Whisk together the remaining 2 tbsp. of olive oil and lemon juice with freshly ground pepper. Pour dressing over salad ingredients and toss to combine.

Baked Apples with Fennel and Onion

Apples are a Thanksgiving fixture, but except for an occasional stuffing appearance, they don't generally take the stage until the final course.

It's a shame, since apples are such a wonderful fruit, coming in a range of flavors and textures. Sure, they're perfect for dessert, but they play well in savory dishes too. In this recipe, which I found on the Food Network, they pair nicely with the distinctive taste of fennel.

Coring the apples is easy if you have an apple corer--tricker if, like me, you don't, but not impossible. Here's how I did it: using a sharp paring knife, carefully line the knife up to make a vertical cut between the apple flesh and the central core with the seeds, then slice down, making about a 1-inch cut. Repeat around each side of the apple core until you've made a roughly 1-inch square cut through the apple for removing the core (refer to the photo above).

A firm apple that holds its shape while baking works best in this recipe. I chose gala, which worked great.

Baked Apples with Fennel and Onion
Adapted from Baked Apples with Fennel and Onion from Food Network Magazine

4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp. fennel seeds
2 tsp. sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 sweet onion, cut into slices 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick
4 cored firm apples, such as gala
1 fennel bulb, cored and quartered

1. Preheat oven to 245 F.

2. In a small bowl, combine butter with fennel seeds, sugar, salt and pepper. Grease a 9 X 9 baking dish with some of the mixture. Place four onion slices in the bottom of the baking dish. Coat the inside and outside of the cored apples with the butter mixture and place on top of the onion slices. Place the quartered fennel slices between the apples. Bake until the apples are soft, about an hour.

Ready, Set, Cook! Thanksgiving 2013

Get your knives sharpened, the silver polished and the whisks and roasting pans ready. Thanksgiving is almost here!

The most culinary of holidays is 27 days away--the latest that Thanksgiving can be. That means more time for talking about favorite Thanksgiving recipes. This year, I've prepared a range of dishes suitable for the novice and more advanced cook: simple favorites, updated classics and dishes with flavors from Asia and the Southwest. Plus new spins on pumpkin and apple pie.

To get started, let's revisit some favorites from last year:

• Roasted Brined Turkey Breast - After brining last year's turkey with a mix of vegetables, herbs and spices adapted from a Bon Appétit recipe, it's hard to not want to always make turkey this way, since it was so good. But brining requires quite a bit advance preparation, so this year I'll share a non-brined but still delicious simple recipe for roasted turkey breast.
• Roasted Parsnip and Quinoa Salad with Pistachios, Dried Cranberries and Lemon-Shallot Vinaigrette - This original recipe pairs grain-of-the-moment, quinoa, with an under-appreciated root vegetable. I have another great grain salad this year.
• Green Beans with Bacon, Blue Cheese, Pecans and Dried Cranberries - Greens beans with blue cheese, bacon and nuts are a classic Thanksgiving combination that I've made many times throughout the years. This year I tackle another green bean classic: the green bean casserole, but updated with fresher, more vibrant ingredients.
• Honey-Ginger Glazed Carrots - Carrots add a swath of color to the Thanksgiving table, especially if you use multiple colors, as in this recipe.
• Apple, Manchego and Pecan Salad - Inspired by a dish from Jaleo, this simple salad adds a light pit stop to the often heavy Thanksgiving fare.
• Cranberry Sauce - It's so easy to open a can, but it's really not difficult to make your own, and the results are undeniably better.
• Apple Pie with Vodka Crust - This dish, using America's Test Kitchen's ingenious technique for perfectly flaky crust, is one of my site's all-time most popular dishes, even garnering a mention from The New York Times. This year, I'll be sharing an original apple pie that melds the flavors of apple pie with the custardy technique of pumpkin pie.
• Thanksgiving Leftovers Pizza - Sandwiches are the easy go-to way to repurpose leftovers, but here I use them instead as pizza toppings.

You can see all of last year's recipes here.

Roasted Turkey Breast with Herb Butter

Last year, I brined my turkey for the first time and it was a revelation in flavor. However, that requires a lot of advance preparation: assembling the brine, brining the turkey (an overnight exercise) and (possibly) air-chilling the turkey for several hours in the fridge before finally popping it in the hot oven.

This recipe is much simpler and still delivers excellent results. I usually make turkey breast for Thanksgiving because I don't have the volume of guests to justify a full bird. There are advantages to roasting a breast: it's smaller size means less cooking time (usually done in 2 hours or less), and less time in the oven also means there's less chance the turkey meat overcook and dry out.

After carefully loosening the skin from the flesh, spread a mix of butter and herbs under the turkey's skin.

Yes, brining is the best method to fully season the turkey meat. But a good spread of herbs with butter and a little salt will also provide good flavor. Here, I've used my fingers to carefully loosen the skin from the meat and inserted an herbal compound butter between those layers. In addition to seasoning the turkey, the butter also bastes the skin from the inside, promoting crisping.

Notice that the pop-out thermometer hasn't popped, yet measurements with my thermometers indicated the turkey was done (which it was--don't trust those pop-out things).

Apart from dealing with the herb butter, this dish is so easy. No stuffing. No basting. No tent covering. And the results are tasty and juicy. To make sure the turkey is done, I use a thermometer inserted in the turkey while it roasts, and then when I pull it out, I "spot check" with an instant-read thermometer. Don't rely on the little pop-out thingy. I've seen them pop well before the turkey is done and had nicely roasted birds where they don't pop at all.

Roasted Turkey Breast with Herb Butter

Bone-in turkey breast, any size (they are generally 4 to 8 lbs.)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
1 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1 tbsp. chopped fresh sage
Salt or seasoned salt, to taste
1 tbsp. olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.

2. Combine the butter with the chopped herbs and season with salt. Set the turkey on a work space and pat it dry with paper towels. On the narrower end (i.e. not the neck end), using your fingers, carefully loosen the skin. You should be able to slide your fingers all the way up the breast on both side to create open pockets under the skin. Use a spoon to fill both these pockets with the herb butter. Brush the outside of the turkey breast with olive oil and season with salt or seasoned salt. Place turkey, breast up, on a v-rack inside a roasting pan.

3. Lower oven temperature to 350 F and put the turkey in the oven. Roast the turkey until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F (roasting time will vary depending on the breast weight, but plan for it to take about 2 hours--generally 20 minutes per pound). Remove turkey from oven and allow to rest 15 minutes before carving. Reserve the pan drippings to make gravy.