PORTLAND, Maine — Restaurant chefs turn out fancy fare day in and out. At Thanksgiving, time off for most, they retreat to the classics and unwind with family at the Thanksgiving table.
We asked a few top toques for their favorite side dishes, desserts and the best use of leftovers. From cranberry sauce to yucca stuffing to savory hand pies, Portland chefs put a spin on tradition on the most edible day of the year.
For Sur Lie executive chef Emil Rivera, nothing touches his mother’s yucca stuffing.
This Puerto Rican side dish recalls island fiestas when the Maine transplant was growing up.
“She boils the root and uses garlic, onion, olive oil, parsley and cilantro,” said Rivera, who moved to Maine a few month ago, and will spend the holiday with his in-laws in Brunswick.
“It’s awesome. She makes this mash and puts it in the oven. A couple years ago I had a big party and asked her to mail it to me. It was killer,” he said with a sparkle in his eye.
One taste of the dish widely consumed in the Caribbean, “brings me home instantly,” Rivera said.
In South Portland, James Plunkett of Little Bigs bakery created the Bird in Hand pastry as a tasty foil for leftovers. “Anytime you put turkey gravy in a squeeze bottle, it’s a good day,” he said.
“Part of what is so great is you’re using leftovers. So the ingredients will change with everybody’s meal,” he said.
Think of traditional trimmings baked into a hand pie and you’ve got portable fuel for a post-Turkey Day hike. “This is inspired by the season and a sandwich I had in Nantucket from a Portuguese bakery,” Plunkett said. “It’s truly terrific.”
For something truly different, bust out a gastrique this year to impress the family.
David Turin of David’s Restaurant turns cranberries and apples into a silky sauce, which he drizzles on duck sliders and foie gras at his eponymous restaurants. It gives poultry a wakeup call. “It’s a nice replacement for cranberry relish. It’s far more interesting, though its sweet and acidity points are similar in a much more refined way,” Turin said.
But don’t bypass the gravy. “Blend them together on your slice of turkey and it’s fantastic,” he suggests.
Shannon Bard of Zapoteca lays off the bold spices and reaches for a down home dish: corn bread stuffing, which she made on her grandmother’s farm in Oklahoma growing up. “I would walk into my mama’s kitchen and she would have pans and pans of corn bread that she made the night before that we would crumble and add spice to to make the perfect dressing,” recalled Bard. “It was always a treat.”
Decades later she carries on that tradition with her kids every year. In the spirit of competition, the frequent Food Network contestant pits hers against her husband’s traditional stuffing and lets guests (and the empty bowl) determine which rocked hardest.
No matter what is laid down on your table this year, give thanks for the superstar in your kitchen.
“Not everyone is a professional cook. Someone is cooking for you,” Rivera said. “Be grateful, food is humbling and brings us together.”
David Turin’s Cranberry-Apple Gastrique
serves12
2 cups Apple cider vinegar
1½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
¾ cup dried cranberries
1 cup Minced Granny Smith apple
Combine vinegar, sugar, salt pepper and thyme in a wide sauce pan and bring to boil.
Simmer until vinegar mixture begins to thicken.
When liquid is of a syrup consistency of about that of maple syrup, add the apples and the dried cranberries.
Return pot to a simmer and then cook for 2 minutes.
Remove gastrique from pot and let cool to room temperature. Remove thyme sprigs and discard.
Cranberry-apple gastrique should be served at room temperature or slightly warm, but will be too thick to enjoy when it is very cold.
Little Bigs’ Bird in Hand pastry
yield varies
Sliced, chunks of white and dark turkey meat
Prepared mashed potatoes
Prepared stuffing
Green beans
Prepared gravy
Dried cranberries or cranberry sauce
Roll the pizza dough out into a circle that is roughly a 1/4″ thick. On the bottom half of the circle, layer the ingredients.
Start with the mashed potatoes first, and be careful to keep everything inside the dough circle.
Place the turkey down, place a few cranberries, green beans and the gravy on top of the potatoes. Then a layer of stuffing.
Sandwich the turkey in between the potatoes and stuffing to keep it moist.
Fold the top of the dough over the layered fillings, and do a pie style crimp to seal it. Use a bench scraper to pick it and transfer it to a baking pan, lined with parchment paper.
Allow pastry to sit at room temp (20 to 30 minutes). Keep covered to allow the dough to proof a little.
Then, fire it at 375 degrees, until nice and golden brown. Allow to cool slightly, and voila!
